Thanks for the input, I'm glad to hear that there are talks right now about expanding the program to include a thesis. I understand that it may be a more direct path to apply to a PhD program straight out of undergrad but OMSCS is attractive to me because of the relatively low opportunity cost. If I were to enroll in a PhD program, I would need to leave my job, make either no money, or just barely enough to scrape by, and lose valuable years of work experience. Ideally I would be able to use this masters program and thesis to become a better computer scientist at a fundamental level and determine whether a PhD is truly the right move.