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I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

miguelrochefort.com

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Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#301

Post by 93po »

leetcrew wrote: post #198
trophycase wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the average household probably also isn't in 240k of debt unless they made very very poor financial choices.

this is correct, the median household has a (positive!) net worth of ~$120k. you have to go down to the tenth percentile and below to find households that actually have negative net worths. https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-net-worth-percentiles/#...

I find it really hard to believe that only the tenth percentile has more student debt than savings. Virtually everyone I know in the 20s, and many in their 30s with advanced degrees, all have more debt than savings.

Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#302

Post by greyhair »

Privacy846 wrote: post #168
abfan1127 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. But I also changed my mentality. We became intentional with our money. Its amazing how you can find money in a budget to put towards debt. Its also how you stay out of debt going forward. You learn to prioritize your spending.

It’s amazing what you can do when you earn way more than the median household.

This is one of the hardest things to explain to people.

Here is a thought experiment. Lets assume that the minimum required to live in a given place is $20K.

So now you have two people, one makes $30K, the other makes $40K. How much more does the second one make compared to the first? Twice as much. At $30K, you have $10K disposable. At $40K, you have $20K disposable. And someone making $60K is making four times the disposable compared to $30K.

Once you get above cost of living, everything gets easier.

Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#303

Post by ghaff »

seiferteric wrote: post #219
read_if_gay_ wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mainly worry about not having a deeper knowledge of algorithms and data structures. Why not just look at these then? As an example you could check out MITs algorithms and DS lectures on Youtube. An entire degree might be a lot of wasted effort.

Some of it is just the unknown unknowns I guess. I can only look at things I think I may not know or know well enough. Whereas a directed course might guide me to what I don't know better. But perhaps you are right, I should probably start there.

What I would probably do is look at MIT's degree requirements for their 6-2 or 6-3 degree (BS for EE and CS--with apparently different emphasis on the EE or the CS). And then look at OpenCourseware for the syllabi. Of course you can look at other schools as well--though I don't know of other resources as comprehensive as OpenCourseware. That should give you a fairly good idea of at least what MIT requires that you may not be familiar with.

MIT is probably also a good start if you an EE given that the degrees are in the same school vs. places where CS is closer to the Math department.

Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#304

Post by ghaff »

caspper69 wrote: post #299
ghaff wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that stood out for me as well was that someone else indicated that, in general, the only requirements were the exams. Most of the engineering classes I took had weekly problem sets that, yes, took at least a solid evening to do. The way my undergraduate did credits was the (theoretical) number of hours a week they took between lectures, lab, recitation, and study/problem sets. Typical classes added up to 12…

My university recommends that you spend 2-3 hours on your own per credit hour of study per week.

That was pretty much my experience at least for lecture-type courses.

Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#305

Post by leetcrew »

93po wrote: post #301
leetcrew wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is correct, the median household has a (positive!) net worth of ~$120k. you have to go down to the tenth percentile and below to find households that actually have negative net worths. https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-net-worth-percentiles/#...

I find it really hard to believe that only the tenth percentile has more student debt than savings. Virtually everyone I know in the 20s, and many in their 30s with advanced degrees, all have more debt than savings.

that shouldn't be too surprising. the lower net worth buckets are made up disproportionately of younger people who a.) are still paying off student loans (if they took them), b.) have yet to reach their life peak income, and c.) haven't had as much time to accumulate savings. if you look at the breakdown by age on the page I linked, you'll see that median net worth increases almost monotonically by age bracket.

you might also consider that there is probably some sampling bias in your social circle. I'd guess it disproportionately consists of people who have advanced degrees, possibly from more expensive schools. as a counter-anecdote, most of my friends got STEM degrees at a state university. the ones who took out loans paid them off completely within two years of graduation.

Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#306

Post by dahart »

brundolf wrote: post #210
pokler wrote: post #24

I think the subheading may be a better title -- 'This is the story of how I prepared for a decade to graduate in 3 months.' This seems feasible only for a specific set of people: those with previous experience & looking specifically for the credential and not so much the learning experience that comes with a traditional 4 year degree. Not to take away from the author's achievement, I just think it would be misleading…

The thing is, 90% of the value of a 4 year degree (at this point) is the credential. I support broad and quality general education, I think it has value, but I don't suggest anyone put themselves deeply in debt for the rest of their lives over it. But to have any shot whatsoever at a decent job? Yeah, maybe. So if you have the opportunity to pay a fraction of the cost for the credential, even if it means teaching you…

> 90% of the value of a 4 year degree (at this point) is the credential.

Why do you say that, and how do you measure value?

I have quite a few lifelong friends from undergrad, people I wouldn't have met or bonded with if I'd done school online. And it's not necessary to know people to get great jobs, but I feel like it helps; 4 of the 6 jobs I've had came about through my undergrad network. One of them, as a founder, was partially funded by a prof. I met as an undergrad. My undergrad department helped my education and career in various ways including giving me a scholarship and RA and TA work, and publishing articles about me after graduating.

I am not an average case, partly because I went to graduate school, but for me it's safe to say the value of the credential part of my undergrad degree is somewhere near zero. Definitely not zero, but I've never needed the credential for anything but passing the checklist of requirements for my first job. The value I got from my time spent in the 4 year degree is almost entirely from the relationships I formed.

Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#307

Post by 908B64B197 »

rsweeney21 wrote: post #117

Requiring a computer science degree to apply for a programming job has always been bizarre to me and this blog post is a great example of why. "The bulk of the effort was memorizing things that I normally would have Googled." And given how memory works, in a few weeks you'll probably have to Google them again. To earn my CS degree I learned a lot of stuff before starting my career that I never used. It would have bee…

> Requiring a computer science degree to apply for a programming job has always been bizarre to me and this blog post is a great example of why.

What folks don't realize is that it's a signal to noise ratio issue [0]. It's not perfect but saves a lot of time down the line.

> "The bulk of the effort was memorizing things that I normally would have Googled."

That's missing the point. A lot of Engineering is being able to spot patterns and know enough about a subject to be able to research it properly and efficiently.

"is this a state machine", "can I represent this as a tree", "is this a regular language or do I need a more sophisticated parser".

[0] https://blog.codinghorror.com/why-cant-programmers-program/

Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#308

Post by pertymcpert »

abfan1127 wrote: post #132
stevewodil wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>by not being an idiot with my money It was also due to the fact that you were making $80k/year ABOVE your living expenses.

Living expenses is a flexible item. You learn to keep your living expenses down.

You're being completely tone deaf to the point that its frustrating to believe that people like you exist.

Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#309

Post by jerry80 »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #2

Author here. I'd be happy to answer your questions.

Congrats on the degree! I took almost exactly the same path as you, and I also finished my WGU degree in 3 months.

I got my BS to meet the admission requirements for GATech's OMSCS program, which I'm doing now. Do you plan to go for a masters next?

Re: I prepared for a decade to graduate in CS in three months

#310

Post by 908B64B197 »

pokler wrote: post #24

I think the subheading may be a better title -- 'This is the story of how I prepared for a decade to graduate in 3 months.' This seems feasible only for a specific set of people: those with previous experience & looking specifically for the credential and not so much the learning experience that comes with a traditional 4 year degree. Not to take away from the author's achievement, I just think it would be misleading…

That tittle would attract less eyeballs.

The author sure didn't take any shortcuts to graduate.

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