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Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

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Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#11

Post by argonaut »

rfnslyr wrote: post #4
jakelin wrote: post #3

Please notice you won't get a degree from MIT OpenCourseWare. "No registration, no enrollment, and no grades or credits are offered" from http://ocw.mit.edu/help/get-started-with-ocw/ But It is worthing to spend time on online courses now. I have finished some courses on https://www.coursera.org/ and https://www.udemy.com . I can always learn from the best. I finished my Bachelor's degree and Master's degree more tha…

Nobody in the real world cares about open source projects from my personal experience. I realize I won't get a degree, just wondering if people have ever been hired after spending time on something like this.

Define "real-world." Open-source projects are highly relevant in terms of getting exposure and connections. If you contribute to a project used by a company, that can be a big plus, for example. Or if you contribute to a project, you can then probably get internal referrals from other contributors at the companies they work at.

Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#12

Post by cubecul »

Scott Young, a blogger, did this (http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/mit-challenge/), but not to make himself more attractive to potential employers. He covered the equivalent of a CS degree at MIT in one year, where "covered" means passing. Highly recommend reading about it and watching a few progress videos to get his method down.

Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#13

Post by derekp7 »

argonaut wrote: post #11
rfnslyr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody in the real world cares about open source projects from my personal experience. I realize I won't get a degree, just wondering if people have ever been hired after spending time on something like this.

Define "real-world." Open-source projects are highly relevant in terms of getting exposure and connections. If you contribute to a project used by a company, that can be a big plus, for example. Or if you contribute to a project, you can then probably get internal referrals from other contributors at the companies they work at.

I think that depends on the type of company -- a number of old-school companies would be scared off by open-source contributors. For example, back when I was at Motorola (way before the split, and before Google bought out the cell phone section), part of the employment contract was that anything creative you think of at work or at home) belongs to the company, so technically you couldn't work on any side projects without them owning it. Not that it was legally enforceable or that they ever tried to enforce it...

Also, even today there are a number of companies (esp. in the midwest) that won't let any open source software inside, unless it comes from a paid vendor (like Red Hat).

Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#14

Post by argonaut »

derekp7 wrote: post #13
argonaut wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define "real-world." Open-source projects are highly relevant in terms of getting exposure and connections. If you contribute to a project used by a company, that can be a big plus, for example. Or if you contribute to a project, you can then probably get internal referrals from other contributors at the companies they work at.

I think that depends on the type of company -- a number of old-school companies would be scared off by open-source contributors. For example, back when I was at Motorola (way before the split, and before Google bought out the cell phone section), part of the employment contract was that anything creative you think of at work or at home) belongs to the company, so technically you couldn't work on any side projects wit…

Read my first sentence.

Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#15

Post by jkldotio »

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the cheapest path to a degree in the United States is to:

1. make sure your local state university offers cheap tuition to residents

2. make sure they accept credit transfers from community colleges, get it in writing

3. do 1-2 years in community college

4. transfer those to the state university and do the final years there at the cheaper tuition rate

You'd then exit with a solid computer science degree on the cheap. Speaking as someone from outside the USA most of the state universities are highly regarded.

Another option might be a BSc in Computing and Information Systems (does this count as CS to purists? does that matter if you aren't going on to higher studies?) from the University of London, Goldsmiths in this case, for just under 5000 pounds.[1]

However if your experience in the local small college was miserable you have to be brutally honest with yourself about what the real reasons were for not completing there as they will likely apply to anything you do elsewhere. The lowest risk option in that case is to perhaps take some uncredited core CS curriculum from OpenCourseWare, Coursera, Udacity and edX over 2014 and just see how you go. Then, if it works out, you will then be in a position to blitz a credited distance, community/state or online option that might arise in 2015+. The risk, at least in terms of "money on the line", of the community college moving to state university option is fairly low as well.

Finally, as someone with graduate degrees and who is working on a PhD in a different discipline to CompSci, I'd say you shouldn't get too caught up in worrying about degrees if it doesn't match up with you personally. There are reasonable, although often smaller than claimed or imagined, financial and personal benefits from doing a degree though and you should take another shot, or two, at it to make sure it's not for you (so long as the risk is low regarding debt, there is virtually no risk in watching lectures and reading textbooks as the time spent won't be wasted).

[1]http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/g... The courses seem perhaps a tad dry but it seems to cover the core mathematics, statistics, databases, algorithms and has some nice looking electives.

Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#16

Post by rfnslyr »

jkldotio wrote: post #15

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the cheapest path to a degree in the United States is to: 1. make sure your local state university offers cheap tuition to residents 2. make sure they accept credit transfers from community colleges, get it in writing 3. do 1-2 years in community college 4. transfer those to the state university and do the final years there at the cheaper tuition rate You'd then exit wi…

However if your experience in the local small college was miserable you have to be brutally honest with yourself about what the real reasons were for not completing there as they will likely apply to anything you do elsewhere.

It was low level introductory programming like basic C, PHP, navigating the UNIX filesystem, writing bash scripts, some simple database work. It's stuff I've already done before and didn't find challenging, wasn't worth it.

I'm not in the States and England is out of the question as well.

Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#17

Post by rfnslyr »

argonaut wrote: post #14
derekp7 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that depends on the type of company -- a number of old-school companies would be scared off by open-source contributors. For example, back when I was at Motorola (way before the split, and before Google bought out the cell phone section), part of the employment contract was that anything creative you think of at work or at home) belongs to the company, so technically you couldn't work on any side projects wit…

Read my first sentence.

I work in the corporate world. The reason it's frowned upon is because employers rather see complete projects that you did rather than a bit of random code here and there in an open source project.

Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#18

Post by ethanbond »

rfnslyr wrote: post #17
argonaut wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read my first sentence.

I work in the corporate world. The reason it's frowned upon is because employers rather see complete projects that you did rather than a bit of random code here and there in an open source project.

"the corporate world" is a pretty large place spanning companies that will hire people based solely upon open source contributions as well as companies that will disqualify people based solely upon open source contributions.

It's a pretty meaningless statement to say "in the real world, no one cares about open source" when your definition of "real world" is one fraction of one fraction of the real world (specific companies within the corporate world).

Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#19

Post by jkldotio »

rfnslyr wrote: post #16
jkldotio wrote: post #15

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the cheapest path to a degree in the United States is to: 1. make sure your local state university offers cheap tuition to residents 2. make sure they accept credit transfers from community colleges, get it in writing 3. do 1-2 years in community college 4. transfer those to the state university and do the final years there at the cheaper tuition rate You'd then exit wi…

However if your experience in the local small college was miserable you have to be brutally honest with yourself about what the real reasons were for not completing there as they will likely apply to anything you do elsewhere. It was low level introductory programming like basic C, PHP, navigating the UNIX filesystem, writing bash scripts, some simple database work. It's stuff I've already done before and didn't find…

Well the UoL one is done by distance and is theoretically open to anyone who can make it to their exam centers (~30 across Canada), not just those resident in the UK.

Or you could take the foundations of comp sci from edX[1] and/or the credited Coursera courses[2](you won't be getting a CS degree without at least a reasonable amount of maths and stats) with a view to 1) completing a degree mostly that way over the next few years as more like them become available with a finishing year or two somewhere that accepts the credits, or 2) using just a few of those courses and a reference/letter to gain mature entry to UoT (bypassing highschool requirements) or something like that with the understanding being that if you can motivate yourself to complete them, then you will be able to complete UoT and it will therefore be worth the money in increased earning capacity.

[1]https://www.edx.org/xseries

[2]http://blog.coursera.org/post/42486198362/five-courses-recei...

Re: Ask HN: Getting a CS "degree" via MIT OpenCourseWare?

#20

Post by usea »

How sure are you that university is out of the picture? I failed most of high school and then dropped out. Eventually I decided to go to university, where I got a CS degree. I had to take a remedial Math course my first semester that didn't count towards graduation, but overall college was fairly easy and rewarding. I did graduate with student loan debt, which I'm still repaying. I got a job doing programming right after graduation and I've been thriving.

The only thing university admissions required was some kind of high school equivalency and ACT or SAT scores. I took the GED and ACT, and my scores exceeded placement requirements by a huge margin. Your mileage may vary outside of the US.

Are you certain you don't meet admissions requirements for any nearby universities? Have you checked, or are you just assuming?

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