
Ask HN: CS degree equivalent from MIT or Harvard with online classes, for free? - brunomiranda
Both universities (and many others) have made thousands of courses available online. Is it possible to obtain the equivalent to a CS degree without ever attending a class on campus?<p>Has anyone tried? How long would it take? How marketable would such education be? Could we argue that if you are the a self-starter kind of person you may get a “better” education this way?<p>Of course no diploma would be given at the end, and perhaps there are nominal fees.
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giantg2
The education itself would not be very marketable since there is no
validation, accreditation, etc. The vast majority of places require an
accredited degree to be hired. If you want to work for other people,
especially at larger companies, then what you want to do would not be very
helpful.

If you want to work for yourself, this could be a good option. If you gain a
good reputation working on open source projects, then maybe you can get into
smaller companies or startups that aren't as stringent in their policies.

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giantg2
Why is this downvoted?

Nobody else has addressed the marketability concerns.

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sterlinm
I think that if you are extremely disciplined and self-motivated you can learn
a lot these days from freely available resources on the internet. I think you
miss out on two really big things.

The first is that most people can learn much more and more quickly when
interacting with others and with good mentors. Depending on your personality,
you might need this less or be able to get some of that from communities
online (e.g. forums and open source projects).

The second part is basically the value of signaling and credentials. Part of
the value of a Harvard/MIT degree is that it tells potential employers that
you _were able to get into Harvard or MIT._ Since they're very selective that
is a useful piece of information for them. A capable seeking person who comes
across well in interviews but is self-taught might rationally lose out to an
equally smart seeking person who also has a fancy degree.

You could consider Georgia Tech's OMSCS program. It's not free but it's pretty
cheap and you get a degree from a well respected school. FWIW I'm an alum of
that program.

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muzani
They are excellent resources and the people who have the self drive to do
MOOCs often perform better than people with a degree. I'm not sure how many
really complete a MOOC though. The ones from elite universities have been very
tough in my experience, but worth the effort.

Online _certifications_ seem to be a negative though. Doing a MOOC in itself
signals you have the passion, whereas getting a certification implies you
neither qualify to actually go to MIT or Harvard, nor do you have the passion
to finish without being motivated by e-paper. While they are hard to get, I
doubt the pain level it takes to finish is anywhere near that of a MIT degree.

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asicsp
See teachyourselfcs [0] and OSSU [1]

[0] [https://teachyourselfcs.com/](https://teachyourselfcs.com/)

[1] [https://github.com/ossu/computer-
science](https://github.com/ossu/computer-science)

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gabrielsroka
This sounds familiar, eg [https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-
challenge-2/](https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/)

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Jugurtha
You can learn what you need to build something that helps you escape a world
in which your degree matters.

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batt4good
Do it just for algorithms theory and practice! This is 90% of the value of a
modern CS education.

