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

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211–220 of 220 posts

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

#211

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…

I used to think Google was nuts in the early days, they really wanted people to have a PhD. Here's how my opinion has evolved based on hiring people for my own company.

It's a workshop analogy. A self taught person (the real projects suggestion above) is sort of like a messy shop where nothing is in its place. A messy shop isn't inherently worse, it is absolutely capable of producing fantastic work.

An educated person is sort of like a neat shop, there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. A neat shop doesn't guarantee that you'll produce fantastic work.

In my experience, while the self taught person can do great work, it frequently takes longer than the person with a formal education. As an example, I had a guy working on a compiler for me (because we really needed another programming language :) One of my other guys said "I think you're gonna need an AST for that" and the compiler guy, self taught, was like "Uh, no, I'm pretty sure I can do it without". That went on for a few months and then he did an AST. I think if he had taken a formal compiler class he would have gone straight to the AST (and one might wonder why I didn't have the guy who had formal education do the compiler; good question, I needed his talents elsewhere).

Anyhoo, not sure I made a compelling argument but I slowly came to value formally trained people like Google does (or did, not sure who they hire these days).

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

#212
post #198

It looks like they require a 4-year bachelor's degree. This seems to exclude european-educated students, as bachelor's are usually only 3-year degrees here. Has anyone had any experience with this?

http://www.grad.gatech.edu/helpdesk/knowledgebase.php?articl...

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

#213

Excellent course. Value for money. I am doing this from India. I don't have words how much thankful I am to the University. CS education made it so affordable by making it cheaper and online MooC. People like me can benefit a lot. I feel proud to be part of Georgia Tech. Course is not an easy one. We need to put full effort. Very practical oriented. I got exposed to many technologies which is very helpful in today's…

Hi I am from India as well. Considering whether to apply or not. Please share your mail ID.

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

#215

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…

Hey, can you tell me the name of the awesome company you work for that is reimbursing your tuition fees, please? I'm not aware of many companies that reimburse you for an MS.

Side note: You've got "its" and "it's" the other way around.

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

#216
post #203
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My OMSCS experience was rewarding, but I think I echo most other commenters when I say it is entirely dependent on how much effort you can put in. Personally, I graduated in May 2017 after 2 years of study (worked full-time during those years), with a decently high GPA and a good understanding of the basics. As my undergraduate degree was in Mechanical Engineering/Math, it was interesting to get more involved with ma…

Do you think it would be possible for an Information Systems major that isn't phenomenal at math to succeed in this program? I took a couple of incredibly basic programming classes, a decent class on web development, and discrete math. However, I didn't do any higher-level programming, calculus, or an algorithms class. I'm not sure if I would be able to jump right in or not.

Graduate level algorithms is a required course. Many of the courses in the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tracks are very math intensive.

"Isn't phenomenal" is hard to qualify. It's kind of relative to what you consider phenomemal.

I've always done well academically relative to my peers. Most of the courses are on some kind of curve. So I've done fine in OMSCS.

I guess what I'm getting at is...if you've done good enough academically in the past and you're willing to apply your full effort, you'll likely do well at OMCS.

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

#217

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…

Hey, can you tell me the name of the awesome company you work for that is reimbursing your tuition fees, please? I'm not aware of many companies that reimburse you for an MS. Side note: You've got "its" and "it's" the other way around.

I've had the opposite experience. Except for very small companies or startups almost every company of size I've worked for or interviewed reimburses for continuing education.

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

#218
Current OMSCS and working professional here. The program is ok and it is what you make of it. The biggest problem actually is that they let in practically anyone now. I know people who have no business being in the program and have honestly ruined the experience for me.

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

#219
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"Many folds" is very unlikely unless you're already grossly underpaid. A small percentage? Maybe. Enough to justify the cost of attendance? Again, maybe if you're going the OMSCS route and you're only out $7k. If you drop $30k on a master's you'll be lucky you make that up even before considering inflation, opportunity cost, etc. I have a BA in Political Science and about a decade as a software developer. The next st…

I'm not talking about pay or salary, just career in general. There are a lot more than money matter here.

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

#220

Current OMSCS and working professional here. The program is ok and it is what you make of it. The biggest problem actually is that they let in practically anyone now. I know people who have no business being in the program and have honestly ruined the experience for me.

Very true. Acceptance rate is well over 50%. Most students in this program are duds. But best ones are as good as in any top program.
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