

Stanford on-line Data Mining Courses ($10k for a certificate) - zeratul
http://scpd.stanford.edu/ppc/iframes/dataMiningCourses.html

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tryitnow
Nice try, but I've always been suspicious of "Certificates" even at top tier
schools. The best way to signal skills to potential employers is to gain
experience (either through employers or maybe through contributing to some
online collective endeavor).

As an employer I wouldn't want to pay people to go to school I pay them for
results. Show me.

I do like the fact that elite schools are offering online certificates, but
for $10K there has got to be a great value proposition.

I find the hard GPA requirement a little odd. So an MIT engineering alum with
a 3.4 GPA wouldn't be accepted, but a liberal arts grad from a third tier
school who happened to pass one probability and one linear algebra course,
would be accepted?

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pavelkaroukin
Your approach (result-driven hiring) work well in small organization. In big
organization certificates simplifies and standardize hiring process.

I am not saying I support it, I am just saying this is being used and if
student aims to work for big company, he probably better invest into this
piece of paper.

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raganwald
_In big organization certificates simplifies and standardize hiring process_

I agree 100%.

But let’s not forget that _simplification_ and _standardization_ are
orthogonal to _Results as measured by performance._ The trouble is,
simplification and standardization are how HR departments are measured,
whereas employee performance is how line managers are measured. Thus, the
companies most likely to emphasize these metrics will be the ones with HR
departments.

It’s not so much that big companies benefit, it’s that HR departments benefit
and big companies are the ones with HR departments.

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webspiderus
having taken the 224W, 229, and 246 courses, I will say that they provide a
good introduction to a lot of the data mining algorithms (with 224w
emphasizing graph-based algorithms, 246 emphasizing things like decision trees
and association rules, and 229 emphasizing regression and SVMs).

however, the main issue for me is bridging the gap between completing those
courses and actually being able to apply the skills learned to real-world
problems. i hoped to do that with my internship this past summer, but it
proved to be more difficult than i thought, particularly without having much
guidance from anyone with similar specializations.

how much value does a certificate like this signal then? i feel like there's
not much it shows beyond commitment and a focused interest, since it seems to
me that the true test of anyone in data mining comes in the form of projects,
not classes.

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softwaregravy
So, being someone in the market to hire someone with Data Mining and AI
skills, this: " i feel like there's not much it shows beyond commitment and a
focused interes" is very valuable. Obviously there are other ways that may be
cheaper, but this is not a bad way.

The other things I look for are evidence of raw smarts and a track record of
accomplishment, CS fundamentals, and, of course, personality. (Also, prefer
someone with a poor understanding of Football so that they don't upset me in
the fantasy league.)

~~~
wanorris
Well, if their data mining skills are good enough, they still might be a
threat in your fantasy league.

~~~
softwaregravy
touche

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packetslave
Note that this isn't necessarily _just_ a certificate. You're able to earn
normal academic graduate credits, and in many cases, you can transfer up to 18
credits from SCPD into a Stanford master's program. It also looks quite good
on a grad school application.

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eob
It's interesting to see the school simultaneously make a big push for free
educational content online while also expanding it's for-profit online reach.

~~~
rch
Online education isn't any more free to provide than anything else. And not
all courses will scale equally well either. For instance, would a data mining
course include several thousand cpu hours per student?

One would hope they are working towards a sustainable model for efficiently
allocating education services, and doing so will require reasonable fees for
some courses.

~~~
eob
Yes, you're right. I'm not criticizing their decision.

With the cost of a college education skyrocketing, and "open source" education
in its infancy, the moves and adaptations of the big players are just
interesting to watch, is all I meant.

I believe the next 10 years will birth new forms of socially-acceptable higher
education, which is a pretty big deal, since the system we have to day is
pretty ancient.

MIT, with it's strict "information should be free" policy. Stanford, with a
mixed bag approach. Harvard, with it's extension school. Johns Hopkins, with
it's satellite campuses in other countries.. The big schools are all trying
out different strategies to offer a variety of bundles for students looking
for education.

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amandalim89
Stanford has a lot of free courses too (Eg: this one about databases:
<http://www.db-class.org/course/auth/welcome> ) and I think if one really
wants to learn for the sake of learning and enrichment rather than having an
official Stanford cert than these classes are good enough and you would not
have to spend a fortune.

~~~
wanorris
Likewise, ml-class.com is currently being offered and covers some of the
material under discussion.

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DavidChouinard
There's quite a substantial difference between ml-class.com and the equivalent
CS 229 (Machine Learning). The former is much dumbed down, but still
informative.

This link gives you access to the current (2011) lecture as it's being taught,
if you're interested:
[http://171.64.93.201/ClassX/system/users/web/pg/view_subject...](http://171.64.93.201/ClassX/system/users/web/pg/view_subject.php?subject=CS229_FALL_2011_2012)

~~~
webspiderus
so, is ml-class.com then more comparable to the CS 229A class that is being
offered this year? I'm taking the latter, and was wondering how similar the
two are.

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wanorris
It's referred to in the materials as 229A, so yes.

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droithomme
To clear up what this is, looking at the actual program description, it's not
a class or a single course. It's an entire graduate program that takes 1-3
years to complete and the total tuition for the entire program is
$9900-$11700.

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adestefan
It's not an entire graduate program. Instead you'll usually see this called a
post-graduate certificate program. It's a series of class that area all in the
same specific area (in this case 3) that at the end you'll have a signed piece
of paper from Stanford that says you took these classes and passed.

~~~
droithomme
Please note that I did not say it was a graduate degree, I said it was a
graduate program, which is what it is.

It is not a single class, it is a set of classes, with a core class, and a set
of electives. A graduate program and a graduate degree are not the same thing.
This is a graduate program.

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astrec
Yes.

Typically there are 3 tiers of graduate program by coursework (certificate,
diploma, masters) and 2 tiers of graduate program by research (masters, Ph.D).
Universities may offer none or all of these programs under different names.

There is sometimes another tier by coursework called a "diploma for graduates"
which differs from a graduate diploma in that it is usually at the
undergraduate level, and very occasionally you see a Ph.D by coursework.

Stanford also offers professional certificates through SCPD which are entirely
distinct from their graduate program being targeted towards the continuing
education market.

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ramblerman
I thought it said $10 not $10K. that was 15 minutes ago, I was reading through
all the courses getting genuinely excited :(

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littlemerman
What are the differences between these two certificates?

They seem pretty similar to me.

