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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?

#41

Post by gt565k »

vikascoder wrote: post #34

Current working professional and an OMSCS student here. It highly depends on the context. Biggest pros are: 1. This is perhaps the cheapest Computer Science masters in the United States from a premier school. The degree is exactly the same as offered to the residential program and the credits acquired are all legit and transferable to other universities. I had friends who transferred from OMSCS to a regular school an…

> The degree is exactly the same as offered to the residential program and the credits acquired are all legit and transferable to other universities.

This is not entirely true. The online masters does not have all courses available. The on-campus masters has a much larger breadth of courses one can choose from.

All things considered, for $7000, the value is phenomenal.

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

#42

Post by balls187 »

vikascoder wrote: post #34

Current working professional and an OMSCS student here. It highly depends on the context. Biggest pros are: 1. This is perhaps the cheapest Computer Science masters in the United States from a premier school. The degree is exactly the same as offered to the residential program and the credits acquired are all legit and transferable to other universities. I had friends who transferred from OMSCS to a regular school an…

> Cmon guys, a US Masters for 7000 USD?

For US costal software engineers, $7k is relatively inexpensive.

The average monthly income in Brazil is ~$620 a month. The average top end worker is $3500 a month. So $7k would likely be a significant investment for many Brazilians.

https://www.worldcrunch.com/business-finance/in-booming-braz...

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

#43

Post by learc83 »

tnecniv wrote: post #21
pierrebeaucamp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That really depends on the school. There are many schools where you can get an BA in econ without even taking calculus.

I haven't met anyone in the program with an econ degree. Mostly CS, and engineering. And a few with physics or math degrees.

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

#44

Post by orsenthil »

I have been doing this for 2 years now. I enjoy this program. There are many students who are taking Gatech OMSCS and also taken MOOCs from Coursera, Udacity, and EDX. The defining characteristic of good students taking this course is, they are all self-learners, independent, and they want to learn Computer Science without giving up on the current full-time job. I have been keeping notes for the all the subjects that I have taken: http://www.coursedocs.org/gatech/index.html - Have a look at it to get a glimpse of the course work involved.

Cons: I've noticed some students who come to get their MS degree from a reputed institution because it is cheap. Due to coursework pressure, they take short-cuts, like doing group-work, discussing solutions when you are prohibited, plagiarizing in assignments, etc.

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

#46

Post by ll931110 »

davidreiss wrote: post #32

> I believe this program is a good complementary source of knowledge to become a better software developer. That's something you could learn on your own. But your knowledge of "technologies" are more valuable to employers than CS degree - especially if you have work experience. The tech industry isn't like academia ( economics ) where you have to build up credentials. Work on projects that deal with web technologies…

True, but it should not have been mutually exclusive. Getting both the theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge would boost a person's career many folds.

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

#47

Post by throwawayaug15 »

Logging in as a throwaway. The program only costs $5k but it was one of the most expensive things I've done in my life.

Got a job at Google directly because of this program (a few classes like CCA helped a lot with interviews). I'm aware of at least a couple dozen of us from OMS here.

The program cost me dearly. It cost me my relationship with the SO and it cost me my health (staying up late nights, lots of coffee).

* $5k cheap, it's nothing, the real way you pay for it is via your time.

* The teachers like the flexibility as much as we do. Many are top notch. I took two classes from professors that work at Google (Dr. Starner and Dr. Essa), one at Netflix (Dr. Lebanon), and a few others have their own startups.

* One of the classes was taught by Sebastian Thrun, with a TA at Google, but I think that's changed now.

* The lectures are good, but you have infinite ability to subsidize them with Udacity, Coursera etc.

* You learn squat by watching videos. The true learning happens at 2am when you are trying to implement something, and end up tinkering, debugging, etc. That's when things click.

* The hidden gem is Piazza and some of the amazing classmates that help you out. Lots of classmates that work in industry and can explain things a lot better. I.e: Actual data scientists and CTOs of Data Science companies taking the data science class. They were amazing and I owe my degree to them in part.

* Working full time and taking classes is not easy. Consider quitting and doing it peacefully.

* From within Google, I've heard from people that did the Stanford SCPD (I'm considering it) and also OMSCS. Lots of people that say the SCPD program wasn't worth the time and effort. No one yet that's said the same about the GT program.

I've heard from people that have done the program in-person, and they say the online lectures and materials are significantly better.

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

#48

Post by neuromancer2701 »

gt565k wrote: post #41
vikascoder wrote: post #34

Current working professional and an OMSCS student here. It highly depends on the context. Biggest pros are: 1. This is perhaps the cheapest Computer Science masters in the United States from a premier school. The degree is exactly the same as offered to the residential program and the credits acquired are all legit and transferable to other universities. I had friends who transferred from OMSCS to a regular school an…

> The degree is exactly the same as offered to the residential program and the credits acquired are all legit and transferable to other universities. This is not entirely true. The online masters does not have all courses available. The on-campus masters has a much larger breadth of courses one can choose from. All things considered, for $7000, the value is phenomenal.

I am 7/10 through the program right now. I joined the program to get a specialization in Robotics. There is only currently one robotics course(AI for Robotics by Prof Thrun) and supposedly the various robotics professors have been resistant to putting their classes online. I was able to do a Special Projects class this summer with a Professor from GT Lorraine in France. He helped me design and build a outdoor robot, it was pretty awesome. But it is only 3 credit toward the degree.

I think GT is just understanding all the potential they have in this program. There are a lot entrepreneurial resources that are only catering to on campus students and they realizing that the OMSCS students want to take these electives and be apart of these programs.

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

#49

Post by BlackjackCF »

vikascoder wrote: post #34

Current working professional and an OMSCS student here. It highly depends on the context. Biggest pros are: 1. This is perhaps the cheapest Computer Science masters in the United States from a premier school. The degree is exactly the same as offered to the residential program and the credits acquired are all legit and transferable to other universities. I had friends who transferred from OMSCS to a regular school an…

I work full time as a systems engineer and have been a software engineer professionally for the last 3 years. I have a Bachelor's but it's not in anything remotely related to CS. Is it possible to be working full time and doing the OMSCS and succeed?

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

#50

Post by bmay »

BlackjackCF wrote: post #49
vikascoder wrote: post #34

Current working professional and an OMSCS student here. It highly depends on the context. Biggest pros are: 1. This is perhaps the cheapest Computer Science masters in the United States from a premier school. The degree is exactly the same as offered to the residential program and the credits acquired are all legit and transferable to other universities. I had friends who transferred from OMSCS to a regular school an…

I work full time as a systems engineer and have been a software engineer professionally for the last 3 years. I have a Bachelor's but it's not in anything remotely related to CS. Is it possible to be working full time and doing the OMSCS and succeed?

Hopefully, because I'm in a similar situation and starting the program in a week!
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