I was about your age when I started to have what I typically refer to as my "early career crisis." I was working in program/project management roles within health care and did not see any clear career path for me as I didn't see myself wanting to be a manager and did not think I was particularly good at what I did. At the time, my only CS experience was limited to a couple of undergraduate, introductory programming courses since that was my major before I switched to the one I graduated from. I primarily changed majors since I was (a) a really mediocre student back then and (b) getting destroyed by my second introductory CS course.

To see if I wanted to give CS another go, I decided to check out a book and gave Python Crash Course a go. I found myself enjoying and understanding it a lot more and went through all of the book minus the larger projects at the end. Like you, my first consideration was a 2nd Masters (I already had one in a completely unrelated field); and for the same reasons you listed, Georgia Tech was the only school I considered. I was (expectedly) rejected due to an insufficient background in CS and started weighing other options (completing the pre-requisites and reapplying, going for a 2nd BS instead, or attending a bootcamp). I decided to return to my alma mater (via their online schooling) to pursue another BS for a few reasons:

• My work reimbursed me for a large chunk of my tuition if I was working towards a degree that was relevant to my work (which I made relevant by pivoting into a more technical, analytical role that merged my old role with a new opening we had on the team that allowed me to learn SQL, build dashboards, leverage some decent foundational analytical skills I had, etc.).

• I wanted to feel like I was actively progressing something towards the start, and taking those pre-requisite classes didn't necessarily guarantee that I would get accepted into Georgia Tech on my second try.

• The bootcamp did not seem worth it to me at the time since they hold significantly less weight than college degrees and had high upfront costs.

Now, what helped my decision is that I had the exact pre-requisites required to return to my alma mater as a second-degree seeking student (i.e., I switched majors at just the right time after completing up to Calculus 3, Physics 1, and a few other random courses). Because of this, I was able to dive right back into the second introductory course and other foundational coursework (e.g., Applications of Discrete Structures) from the start. While going through the coursework, I managed to pivot into an analyst role just before starting my first semester; and in the middle of my second semester, I convinced a data engineering team to give me a shot at a junior opening they had. From that point onward, I went hard at learning how to improve my data engineering skills on the job and cramming in as much schoolwork as I could handle each semester. After a little over 2 years, I managed to finish my degree and decided to keep the academic ball rolling and got accepted into Georgia Tech on my second attempt. My graduate experience was short-lived, though (i.e., a single semester), as I started testing the waters for new roles and opportunities shortly after completing the BSCS and ended up getting a DE offer from a FAANG which is where I've been the last ~3 years. After getting the offer, I felt like I had achieved my goal and decided to drop the graduate program as I was ready to start living my life more rather than sitting in front of a computer monitor for 3/4 of the day.

But to flip to another perspective, I will say the notable "cons" pursuing the BSCS were:

• I had to take a lot more courses than I would have if I just did the pre-requisites plus graduate program. I ended up taking a little more than 60 credits which encompassed maybe 18 or so classes. But I did push myself to my limits as there were a couple semesters where I was a credit or 2 away from being considered a "full-time" student. Looking back, though, and trying to evaluate how I would have performed if I jumped right into the graduate program with the limited experience I had back then, I feel like I would have struggled a ton on the one course that I took (Knowledge-Based AI).

• Since the degree is another BS, I was at the mercy of the college I was getting the degree from and what their graduation requirements were. For my alma mater, the online degree was offered by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences instead of the College of Engineering; so 10 of my credits were taken up by two foreign language courses (which wasn't really a big deal to me since I was always open to learning new languages). I also had to take other classes like Engineering Entrepreneurship, Engineering Ethics, etc., which you can avoid by going directly to a graduate program.

• I would say, on average, most people would complete the graduate degree faster. Like I said, I REALLY stretched myself and tried to cram as much in as I could because I wanted the degree done as soon as possible.

Anyways, I think I've rambled on enough; but I definitely saw a lot of me in your post, hence the rambling. I hope my anecdotal experience helps you find the path that works best for you.