The $6,600 Master's Degree. • Hacker News Board

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#51

Post by Dewie » Sat, May 25, 2013, 1:54 PM UTC

codeonfire wrote: post #48

gambiting wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to say the same thing. I come from a country where Higher Education is free(yes yes I know - paid for by the taxpayer), but I have personally studied in the UK paying 3450 pounds a year (~5300 USD) in one of the best universities in that country. Yes I know it went up now to 9000 pounds(~13600 USD) but still, it's a lot less than what they charge for education in the US, which I don't understand.

There are no answers to the difference in tuition prices that don't lead to uncomfortable social comparisons of two countries. It depends on if you believe education markets are efficient or not, meaning the true value will be reflected in the price. Two things that would make a degree worth less are limited access to education and limited social mobility for degree holders. Free also does not mean unlimited access.

It would seem that the market is not efficient, since the average cost of tertiary education has risen a lot in the last decade(s) (from what I've read).

EDIT: in the US

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#52

Post by kozikow » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:21 PM UTC

Does anyone know if this degree will count as masters in front of USA immigration department? The only reason I see for getting the masters degree is getting into the EB2 bracket for green card.

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#53

Post by melvinmt » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:26 PM UTC

p4bl0 wrote: post #17

As a French person my first reaction to the title was "that's awfully expensive!". Then I thought about the US education system and thought "Oh, the title must actually imply that it's cheap…". I still had to go read the article to make sure. And then I learned that it's actually an online master. So my (second) first reaction was that it's cool to be able to get a master's degree from a top university from almost an…

You have to realize that European college education is heavily subsidized for their citizens. If a student from a developing country comes to Europe to study, they'll have to pay the full prize, which often comes down to €10,000+/year.

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#54

Post by andrewljohnson » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:29 PM UTC

The author doesn't mention a lot of journalists will be replaced by robots too. He thinks the Internet was a great tidal wave for the profession... Just wait for the next auto summarization breakthroughs.

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#55

Post by melvinmt » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:30 PM UTC

insertdisktwo wrote: post #36

p4bl0 wrote: post #17

As a French person my first reaction to the title was "that's awfully expensive!". Then I thought about the US education system and thought "Oh, the title must actually imply that it's cheap…". I still had to go read the article to make sure. And then I learned that it's actually an online master. So my (second) first reaction was that it's cool to be able to get a master's degree from a top university from almost an…

re: Second-class degree Geogia Tech's engineering program ranks extremely high in the U.S. and the United States' academic institutions rank extremely high on various world-wide charts. Having spent a long time on the inside track of the Silicon Valley hiring processes, I can vouch that getting a degree from a prestigious institution really does fast-track your interview, at least when it comes to the screening or pr…

Europeans don't have to worry that much about prestige, since in most (Western) EU countries, the quality of education is mandated and upheld by the Department of Education.

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#56

Post by gambiting » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:34 PM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #41

gambiting wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to say the same thing. I come from a country where Higher Education is free(yes yes I know - paid for by the taxpayer), but I have personally studied in the UK paying 3450 pounds a year (~5300 USD) in one of the best universities in that country. Yes I know it went up now to 9000 pounds(~13600 USD) but still, it's a lot less than what they charge for education in the US, which I don't understand.

What is the total cost of education in your country? I.e., amount paid by student + amount paid by govt? I suspect the answer will be similar to the US, but scaled down a bit since high skill labor is much cheaper in Europe.

In my country it's 0 cost for the student. Apparently the average cost the government pays per year per student is around ~3000 USD. Medical students cost our government ~7000 USD per year.

And as far as I know, professors are still very well paid, so I still fail to see why would the education in the US cost so much money.

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#57

Post by gambiting » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:38 PM UTC

codeonfire wrote: post #48

gambiting wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to say the same thing. I come from a country where Higher Education is free(yes yes I know - paid for by the taxpayer), but I have personally studied in the UK paying 3450 pounds a year (~5300 USD) in one of the best universities in that country. Yes I know it went up now to 9000 pounds(~13600 USD) but still, it's a lot less than what they charge for education in the US, which I don't understand.

There are no answers to the difference in tuition prices that don't lead to uncomfortable social comparisons of two countries. It depends on if you believe education markets are efficient or not, meaning the true value will be reflected in the price. Two things that would make a degree worth less are limited access to education and limited social mobility for degree holders. Free also does not mean unlimited access.

What do you mean by unlimited access? Sure, there is only a limited amount of university places, but it does not matter what is your social situation or how much money you currently have - you can study law or medicine just the same as a rich guy, as long as you have good grades that allow you to get into the university in the first place. But if you did study hard and got good grades, any degree you could choose is 100% free.

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#58

Post by chasing » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:46 PM UTC

blazespin wrote: post #33

I think we need to have some A|B testing around this. While I am a huge believer in this, my little finger tells me that Online students will perform worse when it comes to exam time. There is an energy to synchronous group learning you can't duplicate via websites. I remember when I was in college and university, a bunch of us bonded a bit and got pretty competitive (in a friendly way) when it came to our grades and…

This. (Except for the virtual worlds stuff.)

If what they're selling is online videos and someone to check your homework, $3,300/yr sounds kind of expensive.

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#59

Post by chasing » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:50 PM UTC

The first quote doesn't appear in the article Berman links to. And I can't find a reference to $6,600 anywhere else except in that non-existent quote.

Am I missing something? Did Berman pull that number out of thin air? Where did he get it?

---

Edit- Here [http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/faq/] they write:

"We’re not yet ready to announce a specific program cost, but the plan is to offer the Georgia Tech OMS CS for a total cost of under $7,000—a fraction of the cost of Georgia Tech’s on-campus program and even less than that of comparable private universities."

That FAQ has a lot more meat than the LinkedIn article...

Re: The $6,600 Master's Degree.

#60

Post by HarryHirsch » Sat, May 25, 2013, 2:50 PM UTC

glurgh wrote: post #28

Looking back on it now, this experience had far more in common with the Middle Ages than the world of 2013. What's the difference between watching a lecture in an auditorium and watching HD-quality video in one's living room or beach cabana? There's no difference at all but for any even mildly ambitious undergrad in a STEM field, physically attending a research university is an opportunity to get involved, however pe…

> There's no difference at all but for any even mildly ambitious undergrad in a STEM field, physically attending a research university is an opportunity to get involved, however peripherally, in such research.

This is precisely the point. Our undergraduates go mostly up to Med School, and having a reaearch paper published is almost a requirement to get into any decent medical program.

Also, in an online course the interaction between is of a wholly different kind that a traditional brick-and mortar university. The social network that you build while at uni is part of why you go there in the first place.