Noooooo that's not right. Most programmers do not "just learn on the job," that's hard to take seriously. There might be "that one guy" that did I guess, I don'

Noooooo that's not right. Most programmers do not "just learn on the job," that's hard to take seriously. There might be "that one guy" that did I guess, I don't know, but that's so far from reality. All programmers do not need masters degrees and there are many good programmers that do not have a BS/BA, but most of those, that are not just whipping out JS, are extreme autodidacts and represent a small part of the population. Also an MS in CS is not going to put you 100K in debt, in most cases you will have a tuition waiver and a small stipend in the US (TAship). I think for many an MS in CS would be beneficial but sure it's not necessary .... with more and more JS "monkey" type jobs, it may become an expectation for non Anders Hejlsberg autodidacts that want to make > 100K (though yes this depends on cost of living, but I'm just comparing to your number).