81–90 of 128 posts
I did my master's from age 50 to 52. It wasn't a "journey", whatever that means. It was fine, I really enjoyed it. Having 25+ years professional experience was a huge advantage compared to many of the others in the program. The only class that gave me trouble was DS&A, due to a crippling math disability (I love it but it hates me).
What is DS&A?
I did my master's from age 50 to 52. It wasn't a "journey", whatever that means. It was fine, I really enjoyed it. Having 25+ years professional experience was a huge advantage compared to many of the others in the program. The only class that gave me trouble was DS&A, due to a crippling math disability (I love it but it hates me).
What is DS&A?
I went straight to work and didn't get to college until 41/42. I'm working on my undergrad and plan to continue to my masters. I've found it incredibly rewarding for two main reasons. First, since I have a career already, I'm free of the pressure to go to school for career purposes and can focus on something I enjoy, which also provides immense value to what I'm doing every day (I chose philosophy, much more relevant…
Philosophy is essential, how it's taught is unfortunate. In my philosophy class it was almost all about the history of philosophy, not the reasoning behind it. Assignments and tests were all about time periods, the specific names of philosophical ideas, from whom they came from, etc. I'd rather have open ended assignments. Ones that give moral dilemmas, and challenge their solutions. Make me think about something In…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> (I chose philosophy, much more relevant and practical than I think many realize). As others have already asked, could you expand on this? Very interested.
I hear a lot of non-engineers say this. Talking about formal logic, and how philosophy and math were once the same discipline, how math proofs are akin to philosophical arguments etc. I don't think this crowd would get much out of it.
We can't say if any particular approach to life is the best, but we can say that if you change your mind about which approach is best at age 70 you've spent a lot of years setting up for the wrong outcome. It is never to late in theory. But as a practical matter 70 is a bit late to sit down, take a step back, ask why and try to act on it. Better for people to line themselves up with good foundations from their 20s or maybe 30s. It is good to explore the options early, and think a bit about what the word 'option' even means philosophically.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> (I chose philosophy, much more relevant and practical than I think many realize). As others have already asked, could you expand on this? Very interested.
I hear a lot of non-engineers say this. Talking about formal logic, and how philosophy and math were once the same discipline, how math proofs are akin to philosophical arguments etc. I don't think this crowd would get much out of it.
On the other hand, something like:
> Given a one-dimensional invariant subspace, prove that any nonzero vector in that space is an eigenvector and all such eigenvectors have the same eigenvalue.
really forces you to grapple with an entirely different level of abstraction
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> (I chose philosophy, much more relevant and practical than I think many realize). As others have already asked, could you expand on this? Very interested.
I hear a lot of non-engineers say this. Talking about formal logic, and how philosophy and math were once the same discipline, how math proofs are akin to philosophical arguments etc. I don't think this crowd would get much out of it.
Obvious advice from me: if you can afford it and want to go back to school, go for it! I would take some care in choosing a field with good future employment prospects. Good luck.
Also I wouldn't even consider doing it without a proper full-time wage as part of the deal, so you can just concentrate without having to worry about other work etc.
I got a masters in cs at the age of 48 and i would do it again! My rationale was this: I wanted to learn about ML and NLP and was willing to risk a certain amount of money to do it. I figured that if I could increase my earning power enough to repay myself in 5 years, then it would be well worth it (that worked out easily). I don’t think there is any way to dive into theory outside of school. And I think the collabor…
I started an MS in applied math in my very late 30s only having a BS in CS. I did it one class at a time, and it was relatively easy to juggle with work and family. At the time, I was looking at a lot of jobs that required an MS, which was the original motivation for starting it. I ended up not needing it in that way, but it has still been instrumental in my career and I don't regret it. I paid out of pocket and it h…
I am 34 years old and thinking about doing the same. I have an degree in civil engineering but the last couple of years I have a big interest in CS and math. If you wouldn’t mind - could you elaborate how it was instrumental in your career and how long it took?
It took about 3 years to complete the degree.