I appreciate the in-depth and well-rounded response. I think this will help me develop a better short-term plan to supplement my current longer-term plan. Seems I should consider abootcamp instead of a summer course after this Spring semester.

Will bootcamp be valued the same if not looking for a FAANG job?

I'm in Texas so not dead-set on a FAANG intitially. I'd likely need to move to Austin to do so, which isn't out of the cards overall but not as feasible while still in my current career (also own a home). Needless to say, it would take quite a leap of faith to go full-on intobootcamp/relocation mode where a shot at FAANG would be in the cards based on proximity.

Your points about the MS program are well taken and align overall with my motivations for attending the program. While I want to get into SE or Data Science as soon as possible so that I can start gaining some reps & experience with the overall process (engineering, coding, even inter-office/workflow), I really want a solid core of understanding to build on because frankly, my long term vision for role and area of immersion is yet to be solidified.

Coding is certainly the hook that landed me on this path as I've dabbled here and there for most of my life (arduino,raspi, light scripting at work, C++ in high school) but I suspect I'll eventually be after something besides hammering out code for a bank or similar enterprise where I'm just punching time. (Apologies if I'm leaning on a webcliche; still learning about all the different roles and opportunities from the outside-looking-in).

The courses I completed in the Grad program were DS+Algs, DB design, Comp arch & OS, and etc. I enjoyed learning the concepts and ins-and-outs of all, albeit with DB probably lowest on the list. Massively useful obviously, and learning SQL, relational theory, data modeling & normalization was interesting but again I suspect I wouldn't want to work exclusively on the DB side long-term. I did come to see the connection between relational models, set theory, and object-oriented programming so I definitely see the value of having a CS core.

I suppose that's a long winded way of saying I want to program but don't want to purely punch code. Overall, I enjoy writing code & working with algorithms and time seems to melt away when working on programming projects for school (same cannot be said about my current eng career). But, I am also equally drawn to the math and science side of things - both the ML, AI (data science?) side and the "effect the external world" side (robotics?).

For the MS program, I'll be declaring ML specialization but plan to use my electives to take AI, comp vision and other courses that satisfy much of the perception & robotics spec.

In the meantime, my short-term goal isn't necessarily to make more money. It's to cross-over from my current engineering career & industry into the software/tech/data-science realm ASAP.

I have several years as a ChemE under my belt, so as a new entrant I expect to take a pay cut initially anyway. Long-term, I understand I could eventually outpace my current financial path but overall that's not the primary goal or driver when all is said and done.

Hopefully a bootcamp might help with the short-term goal, while I continue the MS for the long-term aspirations.