[Jtsummers]

> Software Engineering, Distributed Systems, OOP, Semantic Web, Web Development, Digital Imaging and Computer Vision…etc.

That's an overly diverse masters degree program. A masters program is typically 4 semesters (in the US) unless you roll straight into it from undergrad (at the same school) where you might reduce it to 2-3 semesters thanks to taking grad courses your senior year. "Fulltime" is 3 courses a semester, so you have time for 12 total courses and that's if you don't do a thesis, which usually takes up most of the last semester. In practice you get 8-10 courses in most CS masters programs and the rest of the time is research/project based.

It is supposed to be an opportunity to focus on one (maybe more, but really best if they're adjacent or can be made to overlap) fields. For example, you can focus on compilers + graphics and develop tools compiling GPU shaders or doing automatic parallelization of algorithms. But it's overbroad if you're also studying OO (what does this mean in grad school?), semantic web, and web development on top of that primary focus area. You're coming out of it as a generalist, and without any opportunity to really focus on anything to develop expertise.

This isn't a fundamental problem of masters degrees, but it is a problem with many schools. If the goal isn't the diploma, you have to be selective in where you choose to go.