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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?

#151

Post by heedlessly »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #26

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 pa…

at my university there actually isn't much of a difference between a master's salaries and bachelors. There's a 10k difference, however, the average undergrad would not get into the master's program. Undergrad gpa is 2.9/4 while the master's program required at least 3.4/4 minimum. I'm sure if you compare the best 25% of undergrad's salaries out of college, then it would be comparable to the average master's student salary.

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

#152

Post by winter_blue »

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…

How much of a time investment is it?

Most graduate CS programs in the US have a lot of programming assignments and projects, and with a full-time tech job, it might be a bit hard to do it while maintaining a work-life balance.

I'd prefer a testing-heavy approach, with written exams, one- or two-hour programming/coding exams (similar to an interview), and in general other low-time-investment ways of verifying you've learned the material.

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

#153

Post by MuffinFlavored »

ordinaryperson wrote: post #26

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 pa…

$170k/yr in what city?

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

#154

Post by OkGoDoIt »

isbellHFh wrote: post #136
jboggan wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Yellow Jacket myself I am somewhat amused that they managed to translate the stress and fatigue of the Georgia Tech experience into the online course. In a perverse way I think that means the program is as valuable as it purports to be.

We worked very hard to make that happen. For my third course, I may create online drown proofing.

Is this really Charles Isbell or someone pretending to be him? Account created within the last hour.

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

#155

Post by tinduck »

OkGoDoIt wrote: post #154
isbellHFh wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We worked very hard to make that happen. For my third course, I may create online drown proofing.

Is this really Charles Isbell or someone pretending to be him? Account created within the last hour.

GT is aware of this thread, and emailed all the students in the program about it about an hour ago.

I would assume it is him. He's very active on the unofficial Google Plus group for the program.

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

#156

Post by obmelvin »

rosstex wrote: post #92
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…

>"This is perhaps the cheapest Computer Science masters in the United States from a premier school." Actually, there are funded ones! Princeton and Cornell both have 2 year thesis-based M.S.E CS programs which are fully funded + stipend. I'm starting Princeton's in the fall. These are small programs though, I believe there's 12 of us incoming.

I don't know why one would even consider a non-funded research based graduate program. Even with my tuition waived and stipend I still almost feel ripped off despite being at a good school (UIUC MS).

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

#157

Post by alangibson »

mukhmustafa wrote: post #95

I joined the program in Fall 2016, and I am half way now. So far, i can say that the program is very useful for workers who are looking for a part-time degree, or for people who can't afford the on-campus program. However, the knowledge you gain and experience you get can't be compared to the on-campus program.

> the knowledge you gain and experience you get can't be compared to the on-campus program.

Can you expand on this? Are you referring to fellowships, internships, networking, etc?

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

#158

Post by isbellHFh »

OkGoDoIt wrote: post #154
isbellHFh wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We worked very hard to make that happen. For my third course, I may create online drown proofing.

Is this really Charles Isbell or someone pretending to be him? Account created within the last hour.

'Tis I.

It gave me an excuse to create an account.

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

#159

Post by isbellHFh »

pc86 wrote: post #90
jinonoel wrote: post #73

Are there any equivalent online PhD programs that are any good?

Does the research and collaboration intensive nature of a doctorate really lend itself to online/distance education?

Unclear, but you might find it interesting to look up the actual residency requirements of various PhD programs you respect.

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

#160

Post by alangibson »

maverick2 wrote: post #109

I am a BA(Business Analyst) with mostly traditional Project Management duties. My bachelors was in CS, and I still love to delve into technical details of a solution. I do some data analytics for my product. But have been interested in more analytics driven roles and eventually find a Product Owner/Manager role. Does anyone have insight if doing Georgia Tech's - Master of Science in Analytics will help me land such r…

I've always known Product Owners and Product Managers to basically be people who got the role because they wanted to be in tech but couldn't/wouldn't write code. IMHO, those are really non-technical roles for which you are probably already overqualified. But in the end, it depends on how the company defines those roles.
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