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Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs?

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Re: Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs?

#51

Post by inpooling »

aplummer wrote: post #11
sorenn111 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Degrees matter in terms of credential signalling. I wish the world were a different way, but degrees are a signal that employers do NOT ignore no matter what the HN crowd says about autodidactic CS learning (even though I agree with them on that). Georgia Tech has a great online Master's program which many of my peers took which I think is more readily accessible.

On the anecdote train I studied fine arts and work as a dev in a FAANG. 5 years practical experience and a few months optimizing for leetcode. Nobody seemed to care about my degree and getting final rounds was easy enough.

Good fore you. Agree that practice is the key to success in programming!

Re: Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs?

#52

Post by rayalez »

jeremy_k wrote: post #34

Check out Oregon State's Postbaccalaureate Computer Science Degree. https://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/online-degrees/undergraduate... Its basically exactly what you want, an online degree geared only for Computer Science classes because you've already completed a Bachelor's. I graduated with my Bachelor's in CS in 2012. Of the curriculum at that time I would say this: The degree gave me a very good foundational underst…

Thank you very much for your reply!

One thing that concerns me - I don't see math courses within this program. I would need to learn calculus, linear algebra, probability/statistics.

Do you know if they offer those courses? Could I take them in addition to the core program, or instead of something like web development?

Re: Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs?

#54

Post by zxcvbn4038 »

rayalez wrote: post #37
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #18

Something you might not have considered is to forego the time and expense of the degree altogether. Particularly in IT most employers don't care if you have a degree or not - the ones that do can always use your existing degree to check the box. If you can pass the interview questions for development or systems engineering then more than likely you'll get hired. You might have to do temp to hire if you don't have a b…

Thank you for your reply, I completely agree that self-education can work great for most purposes. But some Master's programs may require academic credentials. Degrees are also important for gaining work visas in many countries. Finally, I feel like structured and more "formal" education would be very helpful to me when it comes to understanding math and more theoretical concepts of CS. I had no problem learning webd…

That is a valid point. Of course I've met a number of people who came to America and found their degrees were considered useless once they arrived. Luckily IT is mostly immune to that also.

Re: Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs?

#55

Post by holografix »

Although ML and AÍ sound very exciting the reality is that a lot of the quick wins have been largely automated today.

If you want to be ahead of the pack from a ML/AI point of view you need PhD level education. Even to get a good job, PhDs are often a requirement.

Leveraging your experience I’d focus on demonstrable, practical solutions where you tie together multiple different technologies to achieve an outcome.

Show me how you started with a hypothesis then pulled data from multiple disparate sources, combined it and washed it, created synthetic columns and applied a cutting edge technique to get to your outcome.

Be the guy that can use the tool really well. To be the guy that _invents_ the tools you’re looking at 8 years of study.

Re: Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs?

#56

Post by jeremy_k »

rayalez wrote: post #52
jeremy_k wrote: post #34

Check out Oregon State's Postbaccalaureate Computer Science Degree. https://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/online-degrees/undergraduate... Its basically exactly what you want, an online degree geared only for Computer Science classes because you've already completed a Bachelor's. I graduated with my Bachelor's in CS in 2012. Of the curriculum at that time I would say this: The degree gave me a very good foundational underst…

Thank you very much for your reply! One thing that concerns me - I don't see math courses within this program. I would need to learn calculus, linear algebra, probability/statistics. Do you know if they offer those courses? Could I take them in addition to the core program, or instead of something like web development?

https://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/online-degrees/undergraduate...

Scroll to the bottom there and it talks about the math. I took up through Calc 2 in high school so I only needed to complete the discrete math course. But as it mentions, some of the upper division CS classes do require upper division math courses. OSU 100% offers the courses, though I don't know about online.

Re: Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs?

#57

Post by sn9 »

cc9one wrote: post #42
ljm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without putting a downer on the CS degree idea, I’ve been learning a lot myself just by going through the same texts (and a few others). It won’t at all compare and there’s no qualification but things like The Imposter’s Handbook are great to get a basic understanding of things. I’d love to do the CS course myself but £18k’s a substantial investment considering what I’ve managed to earn without the degree.

I have never heard of The Imposter's Handbook. Thank you, this is exactly what I need. Do you have other resource recommendations for self taught programmers?

https://teachyourselfcs.com/

Re: Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs?

#58

Post by latexr »

einpoklum wrote: post #47

> I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. You probably don't. There is much added value in an actual university experience - in a reasonable CS department at a reasonable university at least. > My goal is to switch careers and get into AI and Machine Learning. In that case, getting a B.Sc. may not be the best expenditure of your time. Typically, a B.Sc. in Computer Science is more general and less focused on one sub…

> You probably don't. There is much added value in an actual university experience

OP already has a bachelor’s degree, so they may have already gone through the “university experience”. I agree it’s a valuable experience to have at least once in life, but OP may be older and not have the patience or desire to go through that part again.

Re: Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs?

#60

Post by jki275 »

gitgreen wrote: post #40
jki275 wrote: post #16

You don't absolutely have to have a BSCS to get into the OMSCS. However, without it (or something like it, or equivalent experience) you will be at a major disadvantage and will probably not be successful. So your desire is the correct one. -Regis University has a good BSCS online program. 8 week semesters, relatively inexpensive, ABET accredited. -Regional accreditation and ABET accreditation are the standard for a…

ABET accreditation for Computer Science undergraduate degrees is utterly pointless and should not be used as criteria for selecting a CS undergraduate program. For example. https://cs.stanford.edu/degrees/undergrad/Considering.shtml "Like the CS department, the EE department is no longer ABET accredited. While such accreditation is useful in certain disciplines such as civil engineering, it has no practical significa…

Stanford doesn't really have to worry about accreditations. Their place in the academic world, especially in CS, is well established.
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