Master's Degree Curriculum and its Effects on Teaching Opportunities I have been working as a entry-level web developer for approximately a year now.  I am looking to go back to school to get a Master's Degree in hopes that I will be able to teach programming/development at the community college level (which requires a Master's Degree).  I'm not interested in a PhD because I have to work full-time to support my family and I'm not interested in doing research.  I have narrowed down my options to 2 programs:


Brandeis University has a Master's in Software Engineering, which teaches a lot of very specific, high-level courses (primarily Java programming and development).
Boston University Master's in Computer Science - Web Development, teaches a more holistic approach that spans several domains, but doesn't go into as much detail.


Do you find that a particular academic background makes one more marketable for teaching at the community college level?  I feel that having a deep mastery of a specific technology is great, but community college courses generally do not get that deep into the material.  I'm also a little nervous that if I take a more general curriculum that introduces me to many topics, my transcripts may not show that I have a deep enough understanding of a specific subject to teach at the college level.

Does anyone have any recommendations/insights or experiences with this type of career transition?

Thank you and have a great day.
...in hopes that I will be able to teach programming/development at the community college level (which requires a Master's Degree)


While this is technically true for many community colleges, it is also true that with a Master's degree vice a PhD, you will be less competitive for positions, as many PhDs also apply to community colleges.  A friend of mine from graduate school worked successfully as a programmer at Microsoft for 20 years, and when he started looking for teaching positions (with his Master's already) at community colleges, he was told that he would not be competitive for available positions. 

A further caveat: because community colleges generally do not have research requirements for instructors, they tend to rely on teaching experience as much as a particular degree when hiring instructors.  I would suggest that you consider trying to get some computer science teaching experience as well (if you don't have any).  You might want to see if either of the two schools you mentioned will allow you to TA classes -- you may not be able to get paid, but you could do it for free for the experience.

You might also want to consider approaching the graduate school of education at BU (if you attend there) to see about education courses -- they have a number of teaching classes, and taking one of those would also bolster your resume.  You could also see about trying to get adjunct teaching positions at various community colleges -- teaching a one-off class may be possible, and you'd be able to leverage the experience.

Bottom line: unfortunately, there probably isn't a short path to being competitive for teaching positions at community colleges.  If you are going to go down the MS route, your best bet is to do as well as you can in a program, and to try to get some teaching experience under your belt.