I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
miguelrochefort.com
I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
1–10 of 387 posts
Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
#2Author here. I'd be happy to answer your questions.
Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
#3Author here. I'd be happy to answer your questions.
why bother getting the degree?
Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
#4Author here. I'd be happy to answer your questions.
It's a very comprehensive and detailed post. Thanks for sharing it.
Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
#5Congratulations. It is somewhat surprising to me how some credits required vastly more effort than others. For example Algorithms 2 is worth as much as "Introduction to IT" - 4 credits each.
Were there other restrictions on which credits you could use? In your opinion is this "fair"?
Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
#6I was initially skeptical, but this looks pretty solid after reading. The author seems to be an absolute beast though, so anyone diving into this should expect to focus and work hard / very consistently.
Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
#7This is interesting to me. I attended a public/state university for 5 semesters studying computer science, and dropped out due to personal matters (while also getting paid employment during the internet boom in a relatively rural part of the United States.) My first paid job didn't pan out, but then I got my first salaried position as a web developer, and I've been employed ever since (though I'm currently furloughed but mostly satisfied to be so because - I can handle it financially, and I have lots of work and projects around the house to keep me busy.)
I've often thought about getting a degree, mostly for some additional pointers on low-level, algorithmic engineering, and for exploring more interesting computer science subjects in greater depth. However, I don't plan on doing full-time development work for a significant period of time going forward, so the investment of money and time at a traditional four-year university doesn't seem worth it to me.
This alternative may or may not pay for itself in compensation, but that isn't why I would pursue it. I'm just interested in the education!
Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
#8Congratulations. It is somewhat surprising to me how some credits required vastly more effort than others. For example Algorithms 2 is worth as much as "Introduction to IT" - 4 credits each. Were there other restrictions on which credits you could use? In your opinion is this "fair"?
This is normal. When I was scheduling classes I would weight them by difficulty and have a cap for total course weight to account for it. Otherwise it's easy to overload on hard courses.
Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
#9Congratulations. It is somewhat surprising to me how some credits required vastly more effort than others. For example Algorithms 2 is worth as much as "Introduction to IT" - 4 credits each. Were there other restrictions on which credits you could use? In your opinion is this "fair"?
Algorithms II is typically a mathematical proof class about algorithms. At my university, it was used as a filter class, and quite demanding. I think it was also 4 credits.
Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months
#10Author here. I'd be happy to answer your questions.
why bother getting the degree?
Not the author, but I will say that in my experience having the paper has helped open a lot of doors, especially early in my career, that I otherwise would have had to push harder to get through. It gives you a bit of default credibility. Perhaps unjustified, that's a matter of opinion, but it's definitely real.