Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online • Hacker News Board

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#21

Post by justizin » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 8:38 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #12

codegeek wrote: post #7

I have/had my eye on this one. I spoke to the admission counselor for this program. Apparently, they assign each student one counselor if you join this program. Here are some details: - 100% online [0] (you do have to visit the campus for a week during the course) - Total price tag: $60,000 (Yes, pretty steep) - You can finish in 1-2 years depending on how much you can do - You must take the GRE or GMAT. No exception…

Trying to make money off the brand, pathetic. But they have to pay for all those administrators somehow.

And all the messaging around hiking the hell out of their undergrad fees in recent years.

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#22

Post by tgeery » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 8:39 PM UTC

I know this price is pretty on par with the likes of Northwestern and other great schools that offer similar online programs. But it seems a bit insulting when schools like Georgia Tech are offering a $7k online Masters CS. A lot of the infrastructure of modern college is online anyways, so I'm not sure that putting the lectures online and removing the facilities completely is progressive. Learning to scale these classrooms efficiently and continually reducing the fixed cost per student seems to be what we're (me, without the dedication/job willing to pay for this degree) waiting for. Especially, if the goal really is to provide an education available to all online

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#23

Post by taude » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 8:40 PM UTC

washedup wrote: post #9

codegeek wrote: post #7

I have/had my eye on this one. I spoke to the admission counselor for this program. Apparently, they assign each student one counselor if you join this program. Here are some details: - 100% online [0] (you do have to visit the campus for a week during the course) - Total price tag: $60,000 (Yes, pretty steep) - You can finish in 1-2 years depending on how much you can do - You must take the GRE or GMAT. No exception…

Yea, I came to the same conclusions. $60K seems like a lot for any online degree. Obviously there are still people working behind the scenes, but to me a majority of the cost is covering the Berkeley brand. While that is very attractive, I wouldn't pay more than $20,000 for this program. The knowledge itself is very valuable, but attaining it should not be so costly when there are amazing free resources all over the…

I like the Georgia Tech MS Computer Science [0] which was in the 8K range. That seems reasonable for an online education that's mostly self-driven.

I hate the feeling pay to play of a lot of our higher-level education as it seems that what you learn has nothing to really do with where you learn it.

[0] http://www.omscs.gatech.edu/

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#24

Post by eddotman » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 8:42 PM UTC

As others have said, $60k sounds steep for this. I wonder if these data science programs will catch on. Having done my bachelors in 'nanoscience' - I feel that these data science courses are a little buzzwordy in a similar fashion. I'm somewhat skeptical that these data science programs will exceed the value of a graduate degree in stats, math, cs, etc.

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#25

Post by eranation » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 8:54 PM UTC

I'm taking the GTOMSCS from Georgia Tech, for less than $7,000. I asked Berkeley if they have any plans to change their steep price tag ($50-60K), and they said no, because I'll be allowed to go on campus and get all benefits of an on campus student. I told them I don't plan to do so, and that I think I'm paying a high premium for a "feature" that I don't use.

They didn't reply.

in G.Tech you CAN'T go on campus, although the degree is the same. I didn't hear of a decrease in the on campus program enrollment there.

I think that if GT will show profit and that it didn't hurt their on campus program (and that the program rigor is not affected) then other universities will have to follow.

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#26

Post by grumblestumble » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 9:01 PM UTC

Are their any legitimate programs like these for Bachelor's degrees? I've had my eye on doing something like this, but as I never completed my undergrad before getting sucked into the tech goldmine, I'm ineligible. Online undergrad degrees seem to mostly be diploma mills with no real value.

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#27

Post by guybrushT » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 9:03 PM UTC

Its difficult to deny the need, relevance and popularity of the topic of this degree. I just think that there may be a startup idea here: just offer an opportunity to learn the curriculum as a vocational training/course over 4-6 months, along with a practical project at the end of it (say a Kaggle problem). I can imagine a tie up with companies to solve problems, very much like Kaggle and tie ups with companies looking for analytics talent.

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#28

Post by winslow » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 9:11 PM UTC

eranation wrote: post #25

I'm taking the GTOMSCS from Georgia Tech, for less than $7,000. I asked Berkeley if they have any plans to change their steep price tag ($50-60K), and they said no, because I'll be allowed to go on campus and get all benefits of an on campus student. I told them I don't plan to do so, and that I think I'm paying a high premium for a "feature" that I don't use. They didn't reply. in G.Tech you CAN'T go on campus, alth…

I just got accepted to the GT OMSCS as well for the January group. When do you start or have you already started? What's your focus? I'm focusing on parallel computing and machine learning.

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#29

Post by bequanna » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 9:13 PM UTC

ajones wrote: post #10

I spoke with Berkeley when deciding where I was going to apply and got the sense that they plan on leaning on their more established programs to provide instruction. While this may sound great, you won't get the specific data science instruction that these curriculums require. After an awful experience with Northwestern's online analytics program, I don't want to touch any of these programs.

As someone who is interested in Northwestern's Predictive Analytics program, I would be interested in hearing your specific issues with that program.

Re: Earn a Master of Information and Data Science Online

#30

Post by elemeno » Thu, Aug 21, 2014, 9:17 PM UTC

grumblestumble wrote: post #26

Are their any legitimate programs like these for Bachelor's degrees? I've had my eye on doing something like this, but as I never completed my undergrad before getting sucked into the tech goldmine, I'm ineligible. Online undergrad degrees seem to mostly be diploma mills with no real value.

I don't know about any programmes based in the US, but in the UK there's both the Open University ( http://www.open.ac.uk/ ) and the University of London International Programmes ( http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/ ) - both of which are legitimate and well known universities of good repute.