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Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

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Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#151

Post by 10x-dev »

cepher wrote: post #128
10x-dev wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some context: during my part-time masters degree, which took 3 years to complete, I wrote the following from scratch: a MIPS and ARMv4 CPU in FPGA, an emulator for ARMv4, an assembler for it, a compiler for C89, an OS kernel with a shell, a 3d game, and several websites, webapps and mobile apps. A job at Google won't bring you even close to be able to learn all of that on the job. The real world version of most of su…

That sounds like an interesting curriculum. Would you mind sharing what program that was?

I went to Harvard Extension School. At the time, about half the classes were shared with the engineering school's undergrad program and those tended to be the most fun courses with projects that I mentioned previously.

In many classes I chose what project to work on and I chose to push myself to work on difficult projects (e.g. I could have chosen to implement a basic stack machine with a small instruction set, instead I chose to implement an ARM CPU, which lead to many overnighters to meet the deadlines; the 3D game was my choice as well - I could have picked to implement an easy visualization in opengl).

In all honesty some of the intro courses were not worth the price tag, but the advanced ones I'd consider taking again just for fun. If your employer covers the tuition, then I'd say that any course taught by instructors at SEAS (Harvard's engineering school) is absolutely worth taking.

Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#152

Post by barry-cotter »

donatj wrote: post #78

I’m in my mid-30s and have a CompSci Associates from a now defunct for-profit school. At 18, I was very much in a rush just to get into the industry, and this was a path that got me there by 20. While I have a well paying job, part of me always wonders about going back and getting a better degree. I wouldn’t even know where to start. The article gives me a little hope for the idea however.

https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/msc-softwar...

> A typical applicant will have at least two years' experience in a professional environment, and an undergraduate degree in a related subject. However, more extensive experience may compensate for a lack of formal qualifications

Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#153

Post by 908B64B197 »

jackdawed wrote: post #41

I was in the same research lab as the author, but from a different school (BU). When I found out that most of my peers were also doing their master's part time while working, I wished I could do that. But as an international student, there are a lot of restrictions. I had to do it full time (3-4 classes per semester), and I could only work 20 hours part time on campus, usually as a TA and/or research assistant. I did…

> My total cost for 2 years was $117,889.

That's to be expected. These programs are "cash cows". And they send a pretty bad signal [0] [1].

> BU did not have scholarships or aid for international students, because saying you need aid is admitting that you lied on the visa application.

That's also a red flag. Serious programs (that are research focused) are typically need blind when applying; if the lab wants a certain student, it will secure funding for him.

> Similar experience coming from no CS undergrad. There were about 3 good classes that were very valuable, like Algorithms, Cloud Computing, and Embedded Systems.

Interestingly, with these masters, the admission bar is often much lower than the undergrad at the same school, so these are watered down classes.

[0] https://blog.alinelerner.com/how-different-is-a-b-s-in-compu...

[1] https://ozwrites.com/masters/

Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#154

Post by Communitivity »

tombert wrote: post #120
Communitivity wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your brain has slowed down by a factor of at least 2 This is only if you let it. The human brain has something called neuroplasticity. If you exercise your brain, regularly and with variety, you can slow/prevent a degradation of neuroplasticity. Some example activities include doing coding in new programming language, learning a new spoken language, doing sudoku and other puzzles, doing painting if you are right br…

Not a neuroscientist or anything, but I've always made it a point to keep learning. Initially I did it purely for economic reasons, since knowing a lot of random programming languages and frameworks and math can make you fairly valuable employee, which equates to larger paychecks and therefore a happier Tombert. But as I kept learning, I saw that a certain set of people decided that they were just done learning new s…

I had a great boss (a shoutout to Greg and Terry at MCCI), once tell me 'Be the dumbest guy in the room, but also the hardest working guy in the room'. I've tried to live my life in part by that mantra. It doesn't mean be an idiot - it means surround yourself with people smarter in one way or another than you are and learn from them to fast-track your growth.

Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#155

Post by monkeycantype »

wiz21c wrote: post #92
monkeycantype wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve found the exact opposite, age has given me greater focus, at 50 I’ve been able to study while working and raising four kids, I was not capable of the same in my 20s

How was memorizing going ? For me it's real bad. Things just don't stick in my mind (I've never experienced that before).

I have theory on this, I don't think I'm worse at remembering (yet!), I think what matters is the energy you can bring to focusing at the time your absorbing information in the first place. I have to plan to have that energy in advance, doing some exercise the day before so I can sleep, go to bed at 9 pm the night before with one earplug so I can still have an ear out for emergencies but not the snuffles and shuffles of children and pets, get up at five when the house is dark, go outside for a bit - then hit the books uninterrupted in the quiet morning. If I do that, my fifty year old focus is better than I ever had as a 20 year old - but! If I look ahead, at the older generations of my family, I'm confident I've got a good ten years, maybe fifteen, but don't see another 20.

Like many on here, I think I had a high potential - low discipline brain. I was never setting the world on fire, and even if as I age the potential ceiling of my cognitive capacity has come down, it was never an ceiling I was in danger of hitting, and now with a little more willpower I'm getting more out of the (possibly diminishing) total mental horsepower I have, than I ever did as a younger me.

Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#156

Post by hobos_delight »

sdave wrote: post #16

Completed OMSCS in Fall 2020 - while working in a startup & raising young kid. Was brutal, but worth it! Thanks to Georgia Tech. for creating this program!! Program link: https://omscs.gatech.edu

Congrats on the completion! I graduated from this program in May of 2021 after about a 15 year gap from my undergrad, coupled with two young kids, a job change, moving across the world, and military service in the middle of it!

Agree some of it was brutal, but I really enjoyed it all as a whole. The key to me getting through was being disciplined with when I would do the work / watch the lectures. I read the book Deep Work by Cal Newport just as I started the program in 2017 and I think it really helped to set me up for success here.

I'm glad it's done, and I really enjoyed some of the subjects - a couple I didn't get to cover in my undergrad - especially HPC, GA and AOS were my favorites.

Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#157

Post by bambataa »

nicoburns wrote: post #134
lordnacho wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends a bit on your background. It's pretty convenient for me to just have the course available to look at, and since I've been coding for many years it's not terribly time consuming to fill in the gaps. For someone who's never done anything technical it's quite a leap, but not impossible. I can see she's increasing in confidence from learning this type of stuff, which is really positive. If you're doing it to get…

> not Oxbridge, which has its own aura Yes, although they're not particularly well regarded for CS (not bad, just not better than other places). They have a reputation for being overly focussed on theory, and this is also a discipline that other universities do very well.

Where is considered good in the UK for computer science? Imperial?

I really like the look of Oxford’s computer science courses, but that’s partly because of the theoretical/philosophical bent to them.

Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#158

Post by bambataa »

Borrible wrote: post #110
LAC-Tech wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since about two years For about two years. 'Since' is not the same as 'seit' here. (When I learned German native speakers would constantly correct me for using 'für' when I should have used 'seit' so I am repaying the favour)

Which is great by me, because most native English speaker I met didn't bothered to do me that favour. How else can one improve and pay respect to a foreign language? On the other hand, if they did, it would have been a lot of work.

Just since you said you are happy to get English tips, you’d say “didn’t bother” there. The past tense is indicated by the “did” in “didn’t”, and so you don’t add the “-ed” to “bother”.

Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#159

Post by LAC-Tech »

Borrible wrote: post #110
LAC-Tech wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since about two years For about two years. 'Since' is not the same as 'seit' here. (When I learned German native speakers would constantly correct me for using 'für' when I should have used 'seit' so I am repaying the favour)

Which is great by me, because most native English speaker I met didn't bothered to do me that favour. How else can one improve and pay respect to a foreign language? On the other hand, if they did, it would have been a lot of work.

I've said a lot of stuff like "für zwei Jahren" in my time :)

Re: Completing a part-time Master's in computer science while working

#160

Post by bennysomething »

wiz21c wrote: post #91
bennysomething wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like me a bit. I'm 40. I've worked as a programmer for 15 years, but I've always known my lack of maths is holding me back abd adds to my imposter syndrome. I've decided the new programming language I'm learning is, well maths. I'm just working through khan academy. I'll give myself this year's free(ish) time. I've got a family and a job, but I need to feel some sense of progression. I ll see what happens…

I like maths but I'm a CompSci first. Going to full-math mode is not easy after years without practicing. For example, the first 6 months, I spent a lot of time bringing back memories of basic stuff. In my case : probability calculus (the very basic stuff, expecations, conditional probabilities, etc.), Bayes theorem, least square derivations, Lagrangian, linear algebra, simplex method. Be sure to reach a teacher at s…

Thanks, ah I am way behind all of that still...
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