I definitely this MS program lacks in the amount of practical courses offered. As other people stated previously, working in the industry is a lot more involved and requires a lot of “hands-on” experience, paid or not. In my opinion, I think the ratio should be about 50:50. Academic classes are there to give you information and allow you to develop your own interests and to figure out what you want to do with your degree. Practical classes are there to train you for how the industry really works.

However, I think the student should have the ability to pick and choose how many academic and practical courses they take because it ultimately depends on where they want to focus their skills once their degree is complete. If they’re more interested in industry, I would say they should take more practical courses. If they are interested in academia, they should have more academic classes with a handful of practical courses.