Master’s Degree in Computer Science • Hacker News Board

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#191

Post by bjourne » Fri, May 06, 2022, 1:59 PM UTC

m12k wrote: post #139

I have a master's degree in software engineering. I honestly never felt that the two years to do my master's degree added much on top of my bachelor's degree that I couldn't just as well have learnt in two years of working in the industry instead. To be fair, I think the content of my bachelor's degree was quite good, setting me up with a foundational understanding of algorithmics, program analysis, interpreters, pro…

The major hurdle in a Master's degree is the thesis. Spending half a year writing and defending a scientific work requires and trains skills that are usually not acquired in the industry. Master's degrees that do not require a thesis defense are imo not really "master's" degrees since the student has not demonstrated "mastery" over any particular subject.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#192

Post by fn-mote » Fri, May 06, 2022, 1:59 PM UTC

hardware2win wrote: post #184

eldaisfish wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is dangerously reductive and needlessly pessimistic. The power of a university education is on several levels. One is the community of peers that you are part of. Second is the ability to learn what you need to and to learn what the limits of your knowledge are. Tech changes quickly and no university syllabus will ever be fully up to date. Besides, that is never their goal. Third is to to provide a safe environm…

"Safe environment to fail"? What??? It is incredibly stressful environment cuz if you fail then youll have to spend more time (so less vacations), maybe even pay some $$ or at worst have to take course again

Failure on a single assignment at university will not get you fired. Your team will not blackball you as incompetent. (Well, they might be upset but the next course you will probably be with other people.)

There is time to learn that your habits need to be changed in order to be successful in the long-term.

There is more support for investigating things that you think are worth investigating, and there can be positive reinforcement that some people find meaningful (e.g., repsect for presenting at student conferences) instead of "just" a paycheck.

University certainly provides a way to establish your credibility and build a portfolio that can be broader than $dayjob gives you the opportunity to do.

At the university there is very easy access to people with a very broad skill set. No need to beg HR to allow you to hire an ML specialist... just go down the hall and talk to Professor X.

It's not perfect, and not everyone makes as much of it as they could, but there are big plusses to the university system.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#193

Post by evanprodromou » Fri, May 06, 2022, 2:00 PM UTC

bdastous wrote: post #137

"I don’t have time or energy to study for and take the GRE right now." Good luck with compilers...

Fair enough. I had an older model of the GRE in mind, when there were only 1 or 2 in-person test sessions per year, so taking the GRE in spring 2022 would mean I couldn't start classes until fall 2023.

It looks like the GRE is now available online, 24/7/365, so I could probably study and take it in the next month or two. There were a cluster of Fall 2022 application deadlines at the beginning of May, but if I decide to apply for Spring 2022, a GRE might be worthwhile to give my application package a boost.

Thanks for the note!

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#194

Post by markus_zhang » Fri, May 06, 2022, 2:01 PM UTC

evanprodromou wrote: post #74

markus_zhang wrote: post #19

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/Master/2021-2022/parallel-and-di... This is the ONLY program I'd like to get into because so far it is the only program that I know deals a lot with hardcore malware analysis. There are probably more programs available but I didn't spend much time researching options. Unfortunately this program is NOT online, and I'm not in Europe. ALAS! If anyone knows a similar online program in NA pleas…

Good luck! I saw a few master's programs that had a specialisation or focus on information security, but that might not be hardcore enough for you.

Thanks! There are a lot of security programs but I feel half of them are law programs...

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#195

Post by driscoll42 » Fri, May 06, 2022, 2:03 PM UTC

lumost wrote: post #179

wirthjason wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a more mixed experience with the OMSCS. Overall it's a good program, and if the choice is between Udemy or OMSCS then it wins hands down. For me the central issue is online vs. in-person. Education is an interactive experience, the value of a good professor and classmates is helping to identify issues when you are stuck and nudge you just enough for you to connect the dots. As an undergraduate I liked attendin…

I am also currently in OMSCS. One relatively recent change is that students actively use the slack or discord rooms for the course. I actually found the interactive discussion to be more frequent then my (in-person) undergrad

Agreed, while I completely agree that in person is not the same as virtual, Slack makes it so that it's not as bad and I've made some good connections on slack. I check it every day and very much feel like I'm part of a community.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#196

Post by anonymousDan » Fri, May 06, 2022, 2:03 PM UTC

markus_zhang wrote: post #19

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/Master/2021-2022/parallel-and-di... This is the ONLY program I'd like to get into because so far it is the only program that I know deals a lot with hardcore malware analysis. There are probably more programs available but I didn't spend much time researching options. Unfortunately this program is NOT online, and I'm not in Europe. ALAS! If anyone knows a similar online program in NA pleas…

My advice to you - look at the top tier security conferences (CCS, IEEE S&P, USENIX Security and maybe NDSS). Find malware analysis papers that interest you. Look what universities the authors come from and see if they offer an online program. The university you link to above are research leaders in this area (H. Bos & C. Giuffrida), and in general this will usually be reflected in the quality of teaching available for a particular topic in a given institution.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#197

Post by commandlinefan » Fri, May 06, 2022, 2:03 PM UTC

evanprodromou wrote: post #68

commandlinefan wrote: post #37

> The value of a MSCS for me is that I think it would get me more interesting jobs that pay more. Unfortunately no, not really.

Maybe not more interesting to you, but possibly more interesting to me!

What I mean is the jobs that you can get with a master's degree you can get just as easily with a bachelor's degree. The advanced degree really doesn't make a difference.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#198

Post by driscoll42 » Fri, May 06, 2022, 2:05 PM UTC

1983054104 wrote: post #84

driscoll42 wrote: post #2

I'm personally in the Georgia Tech Online Master's in Computer Science (OMSCS) program right now and can't say enough good things about it. The coursework is rigorous, deep, and varied, you really do learn quite a bit through the program and more than just random learning on your own, you get a degree out of it. Plus you get the opportunity to do some research and publish papers.

I created this account for a specific question because the subject is something I'm thinking of right now. My question is: How much time do you invest every day on this degree? I dropped out of my MS degree 20 years ago and would love to do that again, but I feel like I would only have (at most) 1 hour a day to work on it due to all my work and family commitments. I could squeeze an additional hour at work to learn b…

I'm sad to say that an hour a day is unlikely to let you finish the program productively. You can look at https://omscentral.com/courses for student's estimates of how long they spent per week in courses, but most are over 10 and quite a few 20-30. You can get through it by taking some easier courses, but it is like a second job in many ways.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#199

Post by hacym » Fri, May 06, 2022, 2:09 PM UTC

I graduated in December with my masters from Georgia Tech and I highly recommend it. Great program.

To the commenter who said that a masters won’t help you and is only for entry level positions… that’s simply not true. Many positions have a masters degree as a prerequisite. Having an education is never not a good idea.

Re: Master’s Degree in Computer Science

#200

Post by hn_go_brrrrr » Fri, May 06, 2022, 2:13 PM UTC

bo1024 wrote: post #171

advael wrote: post #147

I view university education as poor-to-useless vocational training for software engineering as well as most if not all careers that aren't explicitly research-focused, and I say that as someone who's gotten a master's degree in computer science, intended to get a PhD, and for the most part didn't for financial reasons. I really enjoy and respect academia, but it exists to train researchers, and the more advanced a de…

I agree with some of the premise —- university education doesn’t focus on preparation for specific vocational skills. But you could say the same about high school. It doesn’t follow that reading writing and algebra are bad vocational investments, in fact the opposite because they support many possible vocations. As a CS professor, my goal is to push students to rewire their brains in ways that are better and more eff…

So teach them the importance of testing, code review, and design documents. As someone who graduated 15 years ago, I feel like the only two truly useful things I got out of my CS degree were 1) lots of practice writing code and 2) my algorithms and data structures class. The latter was useful in exactly the way you hope for, but it was the only such class.