Anecdotal but 2 out of 3 friends that have taken some sort of programming instruction in the last year have had masters degrees that have been useless to their

Anecdotal but 2 out of 3 friends that have taken some sort of programming instruction in the last year have had masters degrees that have been useless to their career (one in teaching, one in business at NYU). So sour grapes might be on the side of the degree holder at realizing some of the OP is partially true.