
Ask HN: Anyone Done Virginia Tech's Online Master of IT? - alangibson
Has anyone done the Virginia Tech Online Master of Information Technology? If so, how did you like it and why did you choose it over others, like Georgia Tech&#x27;s Online Master of Science Computer Science?<p>I&#x27;m attracted to the interdiciplinary angle of the VT program, but it has less name recognition (I can&#x27;t even find a single mention in HN search) than some others. Plus, at 30K, it&#x27;s several times more expensive than the Georgia Tech program.
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deve
I'm finishing up my final semester in the program. As with anything, you get
out of it what you put in to it. I felt it was possible to get an A in any
course with just a surface understanding of the material. However, there is a
lot to learn if you put the effort in.

I really enjoyed the courses on Machine Learning (CS 5644) and Social Media
analytics (CS 5664). The Computer Fundamentals (ECE 5484) was an interesting
course for someone with a non-CS background. The database courses (ACIS 5504,
ACIS 5524) were fairly in depth, though it's a very large space to fit in to
two courses. The BIT courses were too nontechnical for my liking.

The course Web Development (CS 5244) is good only if you want to learn JSP.
The material presented on Javascript is from W3Schools. The course also misses
a great opportunity to shine by enforcing the use of a VCS system over the
dozen or so iterations of the course project. The program badly needs a course
dedicated to front-end web development.

If you expect Coursera quality lectures you'll be disappointed. Expect little
more than uploaded videos and pdf downloads. I'm happy with what I've learned
from the program, but wish I would have gone with GT and kept the $20k.

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alangibson
Thanks for the info. I expected it to be way more interactive than videos and
pdfs.

"If you expect Coursera quality lectures you'll be disappointed." That's
frightening because I'm doing a Coursera mini-specialty now and, with a couple
of exceptions, I find the lectures seriously unimpressive.

"Javascript is from W3Schools." No, just no.

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deve
To clarify, the only Coursera courses I've taken are the algorithm courses by
Tim Roughgarden from Stanford. They may be an outlier in quality, but I found
them fantastic.

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praneshp
Personally, even without looking at course content, I wouldn't do an online MS
in IT course if it costs 30k. That's getting close to the cost of a decent in-
campus program. Any reason you cannot do the gatech one?

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alangibson
Honestly, the main reason I'm looking at Virginia Tech is because I've got an
unexpected chunk of free time coming up, and I want to get moving soon. The
next GATech semester I could get into doesn't start for 10 months.

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praneshp
Ah, I see. Well good luck with whatever you end up doing!

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gargarplex
I find it hard to imagine you couldn't get a better ROI from just sitting down
with "Cracking the Coding Interview" and tediously completing each exercise.

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hellogoodbyeeee
Is cracking the coding interview useful for learning comp sci topics or is it
more of a cramming tool for interviews at big tech companies?

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alangibson
I'm looking at a copy of it right now. It's really a cramming tool, but it is
good as a jumping off point to see what you need to backfill. See also:
geeksforgeeks.org

