
Omscs: The Revolution Will Be Digitized - alanfranz
https://www.cc.gatech.edu/news/620099/omscs-revolution-will-be-digitized
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mrosett
The thread is filled with other OMSCS students, so I may as well throw in my
perspective as a grad.

\- The instruction quality is comparable to free online courses (which is
unsurprising since it's all delivered over Udacity anyway.)

\- I learned a ton

\- What Georgia Tech gets right is simple and a little sad: credentials
matter. I learned a lot by going through a bunch of online courses and being
graded, but a significant chunk of the value is just saying I have the degree.
I wish that "I took a dozen MOOCs" carried the same weight as saying that you
have an MS from a top-10 school, since in this case they really are exactly
the same, but it doesn't. That's particularly true with arms-length
interactions. Day-to-day my CEO cares more about the skills I picked up from
the program, but when he's assembling slides about team for a pitch deck, the
credential matters more.

Here's my full write-up: [http://writing.maxrosett.com/reflections-on-the-
georgia-tech...](http://writing.maxrosett.com/reflections-on-the-georgia-tech-
online-ms-in-computer-science.html)

Edit: Formatting

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alanfranz
> The instruction quality is comparable to free online courses

IMHO: the instruction (video classes) is comparable to GOOD QUALITY online
classes. There're a ton of shitty online content.

And projects/exams are, IMHO, far harder.

But YMMV.

~~~
mrosett
That's a good point. I haven't really come across bad online content, but
that's probably because I've stuck to stuff coming out of top universities
rather than random Udemy courses.

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itsmemattchung
SDE in AWS working in industry for approximately 10 years.

I'm finishing up my first semester, taking graduate introduction to operating
systems (GIOS), and so far I'm super impressed with quality of the program
(again, not sure how the other courses compare but I hear GIOS sets the bar
quite high). In addition to the rigorous curriculum, the students actively
chat with one another online; the current course has a very active Slack
instance — paid out of pocket by one of the TA — where people chit chat pretty
much every day, many of us sharing our frustrations with the projects that, as
others have mentioned, drill the theoretical concepts into your head.

In short, I'm pleased with the program so far and look forward to the rest of
the courses.

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loveofprofit
I graduated in December. Before this I already had an MS in Finance.

Overall OMSCS was a phenomenal value. The lectures are hit or miss, but that's
not where the value lies in general, though there are exceptions (Joyner's
classes like Human Computer Interaction). The value of the classes lies in the
curated projects that high class professors designed and selected to
facilitate learning. I learned so much in RL and ML especially due to those
projects, as well as Educational Technology due to a project I selected
myself.

FWIW I was working full time as a new software engineer when I started the
program and after a year it helped me move internally into a data scientist
position where I've now been for 2+ years.

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milosdog2
how soon after did you start the program after your first full time role?

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loveofprofit
Concurrently, actually, in the engineering space.

My path was BA philosophy -> MS Finance (worked as an investment advisor) ->
after a year break I went back for a post-bacc certificate in CS during which
I interned as a software engineer -> OMSCS, which I started the same month I
started my first full time software engineer position. A year later I
transitioned to a junior DS position, and am now a DS. I'm 30.

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el_benhameen
Can anyone who is taking/has taken the program and who has a family and full
time employment comment on how the time commitment fits into your life, both
in terms of course workload and the overall length of the program? I keep
finding myself looking at omscs, but I’m a full time swe and I have kids so
the prospect of another major time commitment is a little daunting.

~~~
allanbreyes
OMSCS grad, father, and full-time SWE, here, also currently enrolled in the
OMS Analytics program. I had my first kid mid-way through the program, and it
was pretty rough. Something's gotta budge, and for me, it was sleep. In total,
I pulled about 15 all-nighters, give or take, and watched a whole lot of
lectures holding an infant. Most of the all-nighters were for large
assignments/projects. It's tough, but can be done. Some tips:

1\. Load-balance your courses. omscentral.com is an excellent resource for
this, and I made sure that the workload never exceeded 20 hours per week
(there's crowd-sourced statistics there). Pairing some of the more work-
intensive courses with "easier" courses was very helpful, in retrospect.

2\. Spread out your courses. It's self-paced! You can take 1 course per
semester, skip a semester, etc. Before my kid arrived, I front-loaded and took
a 3-course semester.

3\. Watch lectures at 2x speed. This was clutch. Most of the content has very
slow speakers, likely for clarity, so if you're a native English speaker,
watching at 2x speed is usually reasonable.

4\. Be okay with mediocre grades. This was probably the most liberating aspect
for me. In undergrad, I really cared about my grades. Not caring about grades
in OMSCS (or caring more about learning what I want to learn) was more
liberating. There were many times I submitted sub-par assignments because they
just didn't interest me, or I would rather have spent time with my family.

Hope this helps. If you attend the program, join the unofficial Slack group (I
run it). Happy to chat with you offline.

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jki275
The grade thing is huge. I've always been a 4.0 type, pushing for As in every
course, but it just isn't realistic here.

Bs work, I don't care about GPA, I'm trying to learn and get the degree at the
end.

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hacym
If anyone is interested in OMSCS, I recently wrote up some of my thoughts
about being in the program:

[https://medium.com/@mycahp/thoughts-on-the-omscs-program-
at-...](https://medium.com/@mycahp/thoughts-on-the-omscs-program-at-georgia-
tech-after-my-first-year-ed8ad9a0aeab)

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mr_overalls
It seems like most people have done the Machine Learning or Computing Systems
specializations.

Can anyone speak to the value or content of the Interactive Intelligence and
Computational Perception/Robotics specializations?

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jki275
Computer Vision is a somewhat outdated course that gives a good foundational
set of knowledge in the field.

It's run completely by the TAs, it does have one project at the end that
allows the students to explore a bit outside of the basics.

That's the only one in that specialty I've taken so far.

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mr_overalls
Has anyone here graduated from this program? I'm curious about the instruction
quality and career prospects in comparison to in-person programs from
similarly prestigious schools.

~~~
epmatsw
I’m about halfway through and also did my undergrad at GT. Overall I’ve been
pretty disappointed. The lectures are just YouTube videos played through
Udacity, and the quality has varied from okay to bad. TAs make a big
difference, but the quality there is a huge range. Some classes have had
really good interesting active Slack communities, while others are basically
just a Piazza page with people asking for help on projects. If you were
disciplined and didn’t care about the degree at the end, you’d get a lot more
bang for your buck just by watching the YouTube videos and reading the
textbook, since that’s basically the level of instruction you get.

~~~
barry-cotter
> If you were disciplined and didn’t care about the degree at the end, you’d
> get a lot more bang for your buck just by watching the YouTube videos and
> reading the textbook, since that’s basically the level of instruction you
> get.

Comparing it to my Master’s which has even less faculty involvement I doubt
it. Watching videos and reading the textbook leads to the feeling you know
something. Doing projects and preparing for exams, that leads to genuine
learning. You learn far more working through past exam papers or doing all the
questions in the textbook than you possibly could by trying to absorb
information passively.

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ajhurliman
If you could actually register for any classes you wanted. Why matriculate so
many students if none of them can get into classes?

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SeanAppleby
Is this your first semester? The waitlists clear up shockingly aggressively
when the semester starts. I'm always surprised when I get into a class from
position 300 on the waitlist, but it always happens.

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ajhurliman
I'm halfway through the program. Some classes clear up, but I rarely get the
classes I actually want.

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jressey
This is an ad and there are a ton of posts just singing the praises of this
program. I call bullshit.

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alanfranz
First, this is not an ad. It's a post that was sent internally to students by
the dean of the College of Computing in order to recollect the inception of
the program.

Second, why should this be bullshit? I'm an OMSCS student, and others HNers
are, too. Check the accounts: all of them seem in good shape.

I don't understand this attitude; if something gets praised, it must be a
scam? Maybe it's just something good.

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wuschb
The amount of astroturfing for this blatant ad is staggering

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mrosett
I wouldn't say it's astroturfing. People who participate in the program just
seem to be really enthusiastic about it.

