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The author draws a hard distinction between Udacity/Coursera MOOCs (good) and traditional master's degrees (bad). I'll interject that with Georgia Tech's Online

The author draws a hard distinction between Udacity/Coursera MOOCs (good) and traditional master's degrees (bad). I'll interject that with Georgia Tech's Online Master's in Computer Science program [0], which is delivered via Udacity and insanely cheap [1], you can get the best of both! (Their "Computability, Complexity and Algorithms" class is one of the top Udacity courses cited in the article.) Keep in mind that a traditional degree program does have a huge advantage over a strict MOOC: accountability. It sounds good to say that anybody can go push themselves through one of these courses. Try pushing yourself through ten, and actually writing all the papers and implementing all the code, while working full time and having a family. That grade looming at the end of the semester really does wonders for your motivation. Plus you can get help from live professors and TAs, and the Piazza forums for OMSCS are full of smart, curious students who love talking about the subject at hand. There's a richness to the degree experience that I don't think you get with scattered classes. (Obvious disclaimer: I'm a current OMSCS student) [0] http://omscs.gatech.edu http://omscs.gatech.edu [1] https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/program-info/cost-payment-schedule https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/program-info/cost-payment-sched...

lordCarbonFiber 10y ago
Jumping in as another OMSCS student to second your post. The accountability really makes a difference finding the balance between work/life and the schooling (which can be nontrivial considering the courses are certainly rigorous).
- nkozyra 10y ago
  Same here. There's much more at stake and it helps push you. Grades and money are extrinsic motivators, but they get you from point a to b.
jonathanfoster 10y ago
$6,600 [1] for a master's from a top 10 computer science program [2] is an absolute steal! My master's program costs that per semester. [1] https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/prospective-students/faq https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/prospective-students/faq [2] http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- zerr 10y ago
  You live in the wrong country.
- vog 10y ago
  These numbers still look very high from a European point of view. It seems it makes a huge difference whether a society deeply cares about educating the population, or cares just superficially. For example, in Berlin you spend less than 300€ per semester, a CS master takes 10 semesters regular time. Add two semesters to make the time more realistic, and you end up with 3,600€ which are roughly $3,800. Oh, and it contains a full time ticket for public transport (which would otherwise cost 970€/year, i.e. 485€/semester). In other words: University education is cheaper than regular public transport, even though it contains a full time ticket. Oh, and if your parents don't have that money, you can get half of the university costs + half of the living costs + half of the rental costs from the state. [1] And note that Germany is by far not the best one in Europe regarding education, in universities as well as all other types of schools. It is regularily and heavily criticized for cutting educational expenses more than is good for the country. [2] However, after reading statements like the parent comment, I suspect it is still pretty good. [1] More precisely, you get a debt called "BAföG", from which you have to pay back only ~50% after finishing - either in rates or all at once. [2] For example, this forces universities into projects financed by third parties (i.e. companies), which adds a strong bias to the research direction and even more so to the results. Even worse, if this research contains business internals (which is easy to claim by any company), this leads to results being only partly published, or not being published at all. To be fair, the latter is more a problem of the law and not of third-party project. There should be a law that demands everything that is fully or partly paid with public money is Open Access as well as Open Source.
  - witty_username 10y ago
    But it's subsidized; so people who aren't getting an education are paying for those who do.
dibstern 10y ago
I'm studying a 3 year coursework masters that allows people with no background in CS (just had to do an additional semester of courses) to participate and it aims to give a pretty well rounded CS education. Not a common thing, apparently. I completely agree, the motivation and environment that it gives you, the reinforcement that you're actually doing something official and serious as opposed to doing something that very few people outside of the software industry take seriously, the structure it gives you, the fellow students you meet and befriend, it's all huge. Additionally, looking at the Udacity/Coursera material, a lot of it is shallow, poorly taught, and would not have taught me nearly as well as my master's program has taught me.
- wikibob 10y ago
  Which program are you doing?
- ortekk 10y ago
  Could you please elaborate? It looks like this program is only for people that already have an CS-related degree. What courses are you taking?
- consp 10y ago
  Other Masters have acceptance programs for this as well. I know that Delft TU has an 'introduction' year which covers everything you need for the masters years (two). It does require a technical (of sorts) bachelor and has a low success rate due to it containing all the difficult subjects in one instead of multiple years like in the regular CS Bachelors and skipping over any form of specialization courses. Not completely undoable, but difficult non the less. I imagine there are multiple universities around the globe offering the same sort of educational entry. While it was shown in the article it doesn't matter at interviews, we (at my company) do require technical masters degrees. Though it does not need to be a CS master. The form of individual thinking combined with analytics and methodology we found to be far better at those completing (any/a) Masters degree than those without. Especially self-reliance, which is important if you do not have groups of 10+ devs working together.
- mileycyrusXOXO 10y ago
Permit 10y ago
> Keep in mind that a traditional degree program does have a huge advantage over a strict MOOC: accountability. I wonder if this is a contributing factor to the success of those who completed MOOCs. There was zero accountability but they STILL manage to complete the coursework and assignments.
deleted 10y ago
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ooqr 10y ago
While I agree that MOOCs lack face time, I was a terrible traditional student and excel when given the opportunity to structure my time as I see fit. Accountability is overrated.
- greenhatman 10y ago
  I'm im the same camp. I've start studying at a university a few times now, and I keep failing because other oportunities come up that are more important than passing the course. I need to be able to self study at my own pace according to how my free time allowes. I'm also not that interested in formal tests and exams. And even course projects. I want to learn what I need for whatever project I'm currenty working on or going to work on next.
  - sunilkumarc 10y ago
    You are speaking my mind here :)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 10y ago
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cr0sh 10y ago
I so want to enroll and take the OMSCS; I know I could succeed at it if I took it, but the school requires you to have at least a Batchelor's degree to attend (they don't count work experience in software development - so my 25+ years mean nothing). I found out about the OMSCS after I started my work on Udacity's "Self-Driving Car Engineer" nanodegree course, which I am currently taking. My plan (hopefully) is after I complete the nanodegree, I'm going to take some kind of online BS program (maybe accelerated if I can find one), then hop over to the OMSCS (hopefully it or something similar is still running). I mainly want to do it to prove to myself I can do it - I believe that I can. I made some early life choices that have led me to where I am at, and while it hasn't hindered my job or career prospects, I have always wanted what I should have done in the first place.
- n-exploit 10y ago
  Western Governors University (non-profit, accredited, affordable) offers a few different B.S. programs that you could look at to use as a buffer. I received my undergraduate degree from WGU and highly recommend it. It's self-paced and there are ways to fast-track the degree in less than the typical 4 years.
  - cr0sh 10y ago
    Hey - thanks for this recommendation - I will definitely look into it!
buckhx 10y ago
OMSCS looks pretty intriguing. Were there any other similar programs that came up while you were initially looking into it?

lordCarbonFiber 10y ago

Jumping in as another OMSCS student to second your post. The accountability really makes a difference finding the balance between work/life and the schooling (which can be nontrivial considering the courses are certainly rigorous).

nkozyra 10y ago
Same here. There's much more at stake and it helps push you. Grades and money are extrinsic motivators, but they get you from point a to b.

jonathanfoster 10y ago

$6,600 [1] for a master's from a top 10 computer science program [2] is an absolute steal! My master's program costs that per semester. [1] https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/prospective-students/faq https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/prospective-students/faq [2] http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu...

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
zerr 10y ago
You live in the wrong country.
vog 10y ago
These numbers still look very high from a European point of view. It seems it makes a huge difference whether a society deeply cares about educating the population, or cares just superficially. For example, in Berlin you spend less than 300€ per semester, a CS master takes 10 semesters regular time. Add two semesters to make the time more realistic, and you end up with 3,600€ which are roughly $3,800. Oh, and it contains a full time ticket for public transport (which would otherwise cost 970€/year, i.e. 485€/semester). In other words: University education is cheaper than regular public transport, even though it contains a full time ticket. Oh, and if your parents don't have that money, you can get half of the university costs + half of the living costs + half of the rental costs from the state. [1] And note that Germany is by far not the best one in Europe regarding education, in universities as well as all other types of schools. It is regularily and heavily criticized for cutting educational expenses more than is good for the country. [2] However, after reading statements like the parent comment, I suspect it is still pretty good. [1] More precisely, you get a debt called "BAföG", from which you have to pay back only ~50% after finishing - either in rates or all at once. [2] For example, this forces universities into projects financed by third parties (i.e. companies), which adds a strong bias to the research direction and even more so to the results. Even worse, if this research contains business internals (which is easy to claim by any company), this leads to results being only partly published, or not being published at all. To be fair, the latter is more a problem of the law and not of third-party project. There should be a law that demands everything that is fully or partly paid with public money is Open Access as well as Open Source.
- witty_username 10y ago
  But it's subsidized; so people who aren't getting an education are paying for those who do.

dibstern 10y ago

I'm studying a 3 year coursework masters that allows people with no background in CS (just had to do an additional semester of courses) to participate and it aims to give a pretty well rounded CS education. Not a common thing, apparently. I completely agree, the motivation and environment that it gives you, the reinforcement that you're actually doing something official and serious as opposed to doing something that very few people outside of the software industry take seriously, the structure it gives you, the fellow students you meet and befriend, it's all huge. Additionally, looking at the Udacity/Coursera material, a lot of it is shallow, poorly taught, and would not have taught me nearly as well as my master's program has taught me.

wikibob 10y ago
Which program are you doing?
ortekk 10y ago
Could you please elaborate? It looks like this program is only for people that already have an CS-related degree. What courses are you taking?
consp 10y ago
Other Masters have acceptance programs for this as well. I know that Delft TU has an 'introduction' year which covers everything you need for the masters years (two). It does require a technical (of sorts) bachelor and has a low success rate due to it containing all the difficult subjects in one instead of multiple years like in the regular CS Bachelors and skipping over any form of specialization courses. Not completely undoable, but difficult non the less. I imagine there are multiple universities around the globe offering the same sort of educational entry. While it was shown in the article it doesn't matter at interviews, we (at my company) do require technical masters degrees. Though it does not need to be a CS master. The form of individual thinking combined with analytics and methodology we found to be far better at those completing (any/a) Masters degree than those without. Especially self-reliance, which is important if you do not have groups of 10+ devs working together.
mileycyrusXOXO 10y ago

Permit 10y ago

> Keep in mind that a traditional degree program does have a huge advantage over a strict MOOC: accountability. I wonder if this is a contributing factor to the success of those who completed MOOCs. There was zero accountability but they STILL manage to complete the coursework and assignments.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

ooqr 10y ago

While I agree that MOOCs lack face time, I was a terrible traditional student and excel when given the opportunity to structure my time as I see fit. Accountability is overrated.

greenhatman 10y ago
I'm im the same camp. I've start studying at a university a few times now, and I keep failing because other oportunities come up that are more important than passing the course. I need to be able to self study at my own pace according to how my free time allowes. I'm also not that interested in formal tests and exams. And even course projects. I want to learn what I need for whatever project I'm currenty working on or going to work on next.
- sunilkumarc 10y ago
  You are speaking my mind here :)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

cr0sh 10y ago

I so want to enroll and take the OMSCS; I know I could succeed at it if I took it, but the school requires you to have at least a Batchelor's degree to attend (they don't count work experience in software development - so my 25+ years mean nothing). I found out about the OMSCS after I started my work on Udacity's "Self-Driving Car Engineer" nanodegree course, which I am currently taking. My plan (hopefully) is after I complete the nanodegree, I'm going to take some kind of online BS program (maybe accelerated if I can find one), then hop over to the OMSCS (hopefully it or something similar is still running). I mainly want to do it to prove to myself I can do it - I believe that I can. I made some early life choices that have led me to where I am at, and while it hasn't hindered my job or career prospects, I have always wanted what I should have done in the first place.

n-exploit 10y ago
Western Governors University (non-profit, accredited, affordable) offers a few different B.S. programs that you could look at to use as a buffer. I received my undergraduate degree from WGU and highly recommend it. It's self-paced and there are ways to fast-track the degree in less than the typical 4 years.
- cr0sh 10y ago
  Hey - thanks for this recommendation - I will definitely look into it!

buckhx 10y ago

OMSCS looks pretty intriguing. Were there any other similar programs that came up while you were initially looking into it?