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Doesn't this program require an undergrad in CS? Why would it be more apropos for another field?
> Doesn't this program require an undergrad in CS? No it doesn't.
"an undergraduate degree in computer science or related field"[0]
[0] - https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/program-info/admission-criteria
Bachelor's CS is hard to find for some reason. ASU and PSU have Software Engineering bachelors which has the basics and covers a good bit of practical knowledge but not so much theoretical. This is probably not ideal if you are already a working software engineer and want stronger theory. The University of Florida and Auburn University have online CS programs but I don't know much about them.
University of the People ( https://www.uopeople.edu/ ) offers a tuition free CS degree program (both an AS and a BS). Many of the course materials are quite old (in some cases 5-10+ years), but this is really only a problem where specific technologies are concerned (for instance, there's a mobile applications class that covers Android 2.x). Many of the more general concepts will still apply. Note that you do have to…
Surprised nobody has mentioned Open University which just happens to be one of the largest in the world - http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/q62
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Can attest to that (graduating from it next Friday!). Few points - the main pitch for this is the cost, even if it was not a top 10 ranked MSCS program, it was still one of the most cost effective degrees in the US. The total cost for me was around $8,000 including everything (you can lower it if you take it less slowly than I did). The diploma is the same as the on-campus one by the way. I'm actually attending the c…
Thanks for sharing your experience with OMSCS. Did you work on OMSCS full time or part time? How did you end up scheduling in studying masters level courses into your daily life? And how long did it take at the end?
OMSCS is a part-time program by design, meaning you can only take up to 9 credits (3 courses) per term. Most students do it while working full time, although in that case, you'd either take one difficult course or two "easier" ones.
Most courses took between 6-10 hours per week (actual time spent on the videos/projects as measured by Toggl). That means you have to dedicate one full weekend day, or several evenings during the week. Note that if you're not a fluent software engineer (there is a significant % of students who don't have strictly CS background), some courses may take up to 30 hours per week as reported by others. So in summary, it's doable with full-time work but it requires planning and can be quite exhausting.
Btw if you're interested, pretty much everything about the program has been discussed at https://www.reddit.com/r/OMSCS/
If your goal is "become a software engineer", I would recommend you consider other online options. Your rough ROI equation should be "cost = (tuition + time-to-job * delta-in-salary) + cost-of-failure * odds-of-failure" and "odds-of-failure" is the product of graduation rate * job placement rate. Online CS programs tend to have higher time-to-job and unpublished job placement stats. They may still be good options, bu…
OP - you're welcome to ping me (bhaumik@thinkful[dot]com) w/ any specific questions. I run the full-time product.
What is the cheapest route from an AS in something like computer networking to a BS in CS? I'm 5 years into mid-level development jobs, so I'm not sure if it's even worth the money.
Just curious, do you do any comp sci in your developing role, what sorts of stuff; or is it mainly programming.
I am currently 60% through the GT omscs program. I’d say it’s good for your money. So far I have been unimpressed with the quality of the recorded lectures both compared to other recorded lectures and on campus lectures. Group projects are a pain. The focuses especially in ML are weak, you really have to do a lot of work on your own in order to be competent in a specialization. Because of the lack of courses they off…
Totally agree with this. For courses like AI, ML, and RL, I watched lectures from Berkeley and Stanford in addition to the GT lectures, and that really helped me understand it better.
> get a well rounded overview of some modern trends in cs
That's usually the case for a master's. PhDs are more in-depth.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Doesn't this program require an undergrad in CS? No it doesn't.
It basically does. "an undergraduate degree in computer science or related field"[0] [0] - https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/program-info/admission-criteria
Sacramento State, which I personally visited (in meatspace) while investigating online/distance learning Master's, has some excellent programs. I dug around and their site points to what is supposedly an entirely online CS program from a California university here:
https://csumb.edu/scd/cs-online-degree-completion-bs
A good resource for anyone interested in taking either online classes or getting a degree in California is California Virtual Campus:
You can search the database for classes you need. I have taken classes from several California colleges in the process of trying to complete my online Bachelor's, some in person and some online.
Penn State was the other thing I researched years ago that looked good to me, but I recall it being spendy. I am just going to point you to their home page and you can dig around and see if they have a program that interests you:
https://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/
I was mostly looking for either GIS programs or Urban Planning programs to further my education after my bachelor's (or looking for classes to fill in the holes in my undergrad education, because I have an AA in Humanities and needed more science classes to complete the requirements of my BS). But my recollection is that Sacremento State and Penn State were two well established online and distance learning programs more than 10 years ago when this was not common. So I think they likely know what they are doing and are not fly-by-night deals.