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Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It?

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Re: Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It?

#21

Post by tnecniv »

pierrebeaucamp wrote: post #17
lemonghost wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they admit people without a BS in CS but I think they want to make sure you'll be able to succeed in the program. So it helps to have professional software engineering experience or some other coursework.

From: http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/program-info/admission-criteria > however, work experience will not take the place of an undergraduate degree.

I take that to mean that you need to have a bachelors in something. Econ is a relatively quantitative field, so that with work experience is likely acceptable.

Re: Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It?

#23

Post by fokinsean »

I've been entertaining the idea of going through this course as well. I graduated 2 years ago, BS in CS, and part of me misses being in school. Plus my employer has a decent tuition reimbursement program.

Would anyone who works full time and gone through this program care to share their thoughts?

Edit: Just found this great article from another comment

https://schneems.com/2017/07/26/omscs-omg-is-an-online-maste...

Re: Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It?

#24

Post by forrestbrazeal »

The answer is highly context dependent. If you think the degree will magically open up a lot of job opportunities for you, you might be kidding yourself. However, if you love to learn and don't mind putting in the long hours, it can be rewarding for its own sake.

(Source: current OMSCS student, hopefully graduating in December)

I made an "informed decision tree" awhile back that goes into much more detail about my thought process when signing up for this degree:

https://forrestbrazeal.com/2017/01/03/should-you-get-a-maste...

I also reviewed the OMSCS program in detail here: https://forrestbrazeal.com/2017/05/08/omscs-a-working-profes...

Hope that helps!

Re: Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It?

#25

Post by heymijo »

forrestbrazeal wrote: post #24

The answer is highly context dependent. If you think the degree will magically open up a lot of job opportunities for you, you might be kidding yourself. However, if you love to learn and don't mind putting in the long hours, it can be rewarding for its own sake. (Source: current OMSCS student, hopefully graduating in December) I made an "informed decision tree" awhile back that goes into much more detail about my th…

I'm a sucker for visualizations so that informed decision tree got me. What did you use to make it?

Re: Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It?

#26

Post by ordinaryperson »

At 5K, the price is right (my in-person master's was 22K, although my employers covered most of it) but be aware it's not the missing piece to catapult you into superstar developer earning 170K/year.

Honestly I think your time is better spent working on real projects. In my CS master's program I met many students with no real-world experience. One was a paralegal before school, and after he graduated he became...a paralegal with a CS master's. Experience > degrees, every time.

There's value in the program (algorithms and data structures being the most applicable), but just go in with your eyes open knowing that the degree is not a glass slipper that'll turn you into Cinderella overnight. Too many IMHO falsely believed my program was a jobs program and really struggled to find work in the field.

If you can do it at night while working FT, great but don't take 1-2 years off work. It sounds appealing to be done ASAP but you're unlikely to make up that 60-120K/year in lost wages. Unless you're fabulously wealthy.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It?

#27

Post by arpieb »

growtofill wrote: post #4
mindvirus wrote: post #2

I graduated from the program in December and I found it incredibly rewarding. There are a lot of great classes, and I learned a ton - in particular, the machine learning and reinforcement learning courses were top notch, as we're the systems programming ones. One thing I'd warn though is that you'll get out of the program what you put into it - so it's really up to you to choose classes that will set up your career t…

Have you been working while studying? Could you share how much hours/week have you been committing?

I'm about to start my 5th semester (one more to go after this!) in the OMSCS program while working full time. From my perspective, this totally depends on several factors:

1. Your background. This will seriously affect your time spent in many classes. For example, if you don't know C and take a class that uses it, you're going to spend way more time than someone already comfortable.

2. Level of effort. Most projects have a rubric where you know what to complete for what kind of grade. If you do the least to pass, that's obviously going to take a lot less work than going for the A + extra credit.

3. Interest level. I find myself spending more time (sometimes more than I should) on the classes I really get into than ones I have to take to complete some MSCS specialization requirement.

4. Instructional team. As in traditional programs, some course teams are better organized than others which can impact how much time you have to spend staying on top of material or actually getting ahead.

In the end, it would be good to check out the OMSCS Course Surveys (https://gt-course-surveys.herokuapp.com/#/) to see what people report for weekly hours spent vs the factors above.

Re: Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It?

#29

Post by josep2 »

My background: B.A. In Math and Economics. Been working as a software engineer for 6 years now. I have been in the program for about 1.5 years. I've really enjoyed it and learned a ton. I've also been able to pay the full cost of tuition out of pocket. I agree with others in the thread that it depends on context.

I don't think it will have an immediate impact on my earnings or place in my company, but I think the long term value of having it far exceeds what I'm paying for it.

Re: Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It?

#30

Post by arpieb »

hnrodey wrote: post #5

What are some of the prereq's to be prepared to be successful with completing this degree? Asking as someone who graduated with a CS degree from almost ten years ago (wow, time flies). I've been programming/development pretty much that entire time but I think I have forgot most of the core math and core CS concepts that might be necessary in a CS masters degree. It's hard for me to estimate how much prep I would need…

I had been out of school for 12 years when I started the OMSCS program (and my last degree wasn't in CS), but have also been working in the field for a while. I'd strongly suggest brushing up on:

* Linear algebra, matrix arithmetic, some calculus (you run into differentials occasionally, esp in ML coursework).

* Be comfortable with basic algorithm analysis, namely "Big O" assessment. (There's a course for more in-depth analysis of algorithms should you choose that path...)

* Bone up on Python, Java and C if you're not already proficient. Some classes occasionally use R as well (mostly data science).

* Be comfortable with Git. It's used by almost every class for group work and distribution for codebases. I always see a lot of folks battle with this every semester.

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