The case against CS master’s degrees • Hacker News Board

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#31

Post by itsmemattchung » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:35 PM UTC

f17 wrote: post #28

itsmemattchung wrote: post #16

The author is correct: you do NOT need a (masters) computer science degree to advance your career. I've worked with plenty of stellar principal software engineers — some with Phd degrees in CS, some with no formal education, most in between. And while I am a life long learner and continue to self-teach myself a range of topics that pique my interest, Georgia Tech's OMSCS masters in CS was such a pleasant experience,…

I'm guessing the OP is bashing OMSCS based on Reddit comments from people who tried a course, found it difficult (because, hello, it's actual graduate school at a real university), gave up, and are now spreading negativity on the internets about something they only gave a half-assed try. Sure, there are negatives of learning at-scale. Grades are going to be exam-driven (noisier) because papers/independent projects do…

Great to hear. Which two courses have you taken so far and have you decided on your specialization? I had specialized in computing systems and the courses — especially compilers — was top notch.

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#32

Post by denvercoder904 » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:37 PM UTC

The author of the article should replace software engineer with software developer. Not being a gatekeeper but this is the proper term for the role described in the article.

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#33

Post by kache_ » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:38 PM UTC

t_mann wrote: post #18

Someone without a formal CS education who's selling programming courses telling you that formal CS courses don't necessarily teach you programming (duh). He has a point that if you do a Master's you might be going without the extremely useful basic algorithms and data structures courses, but that is easily avoided by choosing a program that lets you take that. For other topics that aren't strictly programming, eg AI,…

>For other topics that aren't strictly programming, eg AI, ML, game theory, cryptography, quantum computing, probabilistic methods, optimization,... it would take a significant amount of dedication to match the amount of understanding that a rigorous course with problem sets can give you in self study.

You mean, the same amount it would take to do it through a university program? I fundamentally don't believe the material is unavailable. If you've done a CS undergrad at a respectable university, you should have enough instinct to build a curriculum to become well versed in those subjects

I am going through the autodidact process for all of those subjects (except quantum computing) (yes, it's brutal, especially alongside a FT job). But with the amount of MIT open courseware, books, and frankly, just wiki pages available, it's been easier than doing it at the pace of a university course

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#34

Post by xwdv » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:40 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #29

On the Contrary: A Masters Degree is often easier than an undergrad degree. You get a lot more freedom to do whatever the fuck you want. In most Universities, Masters students can teach/do research and get tuition forgiveness. If you want the experience of being in a college campus for a while without the bullshit involved in {undergrad, phd, jobs}, Masters degrees are the perfect middle ground. I did a Masters degre…

This is pretty much the real reason I’d consider pursuing a Masters degree. Being in an academic environment for a while sounds fun, even if the resulting degree is fairly useless or redundant. I’d love a second chance to be exposed to people who could become new friends, while also learning a thing or two maybe.

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#35

Post by dieselgate » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:42 PM UTC

For the most part I agree with the author and have heard similar sentiments from people with an undergrad cs education. I wish people would talk more or elaborate on what it “means” to be “self taught”. To me, taking a course on a subject is basically a subscription to being exposed to a defined set of material. Whether an individual learns that material is up to them (is this considered “self teaching”?). Formal education (with or without a degree tied to it) can lower the activation energy of learning. But it is by no means the best way to learn for everyone.

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#36

Post by groestl » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:46 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #29

On the Contrary: A Masters Degree is often easier than an undergrad degree. You get a lot more freedom to do whatever the fuck you want. In most Universities, Masters students can teach/do research and get tuition forgiveness. If you want the experience of being in a college campus for a while without the bullshit involved in {undergrad, phd, jobs}, Masters degrees are the perfect middle ground. I did a Masters degre…

I can second that - exactly my experience, and I did my Masters in Austria.

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#37

Post by ModernMech » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:46 PM UTC

kache_ wrote: post #22

I was about to write a blog post against CS masters degrees. I'm going through a pretty ambitious gauntlet autodidact process. Some background: I already have a CS undergrad degree. - I've found all the online courses I would ever need, alongside high quality video courses (MIT, standford, 3b1b) + books - A masters costs money & too much time (my time is better spent than getting an application together) (Opportunity…

Sounds like you’re very smart and self motivated, and you’re good at figuring things out without any help. As a teacher, this describes about 1% of my students.

Your post here really isn’t an indictment of higher learning institutions, so much as it reveals you aren’t the target audience for master’s programs. That it’s not for you personally doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for others.

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#38

Post by distrill » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:48 PM UTC

f17 wrote: post #24

dwrodri wrote: post #2

Lots of valid criticisms here against academia, but I'll take this time to get on a mini-soapbox about communication skills. The biggest value-add I honed over the course of my academic career is my ability to communicate technical topics. Now, that isn't to say every master's student or CS degree holder is definitely better than a bootcamp grad at tech comm, in fact the winning combo there would be a communications/…

It's making effective use of your time in standups. If you have an advanced degree and your job is making you do standups, you should get another job.

most of the eng on my team have masters degrees, and we have standups. this is common where i work and i assume other faang

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#39

Post by f17 » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:50 PM UTC

itsmemattchung wrote: post #31

f17 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing the OP is bashing OMSCS based on Reddit comments from people who tried a course, found it difficult (because, hello, it's actual graduate school at a real university), gave up, and are now spreading negativity on the internets about something they only gave a half-assed try. Sure, there are negatives of learning at-scale. Grades are going to be exam-driven (noisier) because papers/independent projects do…

Great to hear. Which two courses have you taken so far and have you decided on your specialization? I had specialized in computing systems and the courses — especially compilers — was top notch.

GIOS Spring '22, AI Summer '22.

Really excited about Compilers. I've heard it's very good. Haven't decided on a specialization yet; I'm still in that phase where everything looks interesting. TBH, there are ~20 courses that appeal to me, although if I still feel like I want to press on after 10, I'll probably look into pursuing a PhD.

Re: The case against CS master’s degrees

#40

Post by nix0n » Fri, Jul 15, 2022, 10:52 PM UTC

anewpersonality wrote: post #17

I would do a masters degree if it could help me be more creative and synthesize new ideas. Does OMSCS do this?

Most new ideas build off of existing ideas, so if you want to make new ideas, one way is to learn all of the existing ideas in a particular field (and a few ideas from other fields) so you can reuse those ideas in novel ways.

If you have some idea of what you'd like to have ideas about, research in that field is definitely something you can do as part of a Masters. I can't speak to the OMSCS specifically, but many in-person Masters actually require research.

Don't get suckered into a PhD program, though.