4 ms·

Graduate courses are geared towards research and the generation of knowledge instead of just a consumer. It's probably the biggest difference most students don'

by esturk 9y ago

Graduate courses are geared towards research and the generation of knowledge instead of just a consumer. It's probably the biggest difference most students don't get. Yeah, you can look up anything that someone else has done before but what something original that you can add?

matte_black 9y ago
You mean like an NPM package??
- TAForObvReasons 9y ago
  If you view CS education as merely credentials to obtain a job, and if you view the job as stringing together NPM modules and libraries to bang out simple CRUDs and websites, then in fact the CS MS degree is entirely in the piece of paper (the education itself has no value). As is the case with the BS, you can learn all of the material from books and papers on your own without having to shell out thousands of dollars to a college. The real money quote, though, really applies to both BS and MS degrees: > I believe that the purpose has, in some ways, shifted to be a cash cow for the university in question. Universities as a whole shifted their business model to focus more on revenue. This is a multi-decade trend that many people have discussed, and are currently debating in the context of the massive student loan bubble.
enraged_camel 9y ago
>>Graduate courses are geared towards research Nope, only PhD courses. In the US, Master’s programs are widely understood to be “professional” programs, i.e. geared towards private sector.
- madengr 9y ago
  There were no PhD courses when I was in grad school. There were grad and undergrad courses. The advent of online MS has turned it into professional programs.
ianamartin 9y ago
This used to be true in the U.S. It's increasingly less so. That's true in a general way for all Master's programs. Bachelor's degrees are mostly focused on covering all the general stuff that no longer gets taken care of in high school, plus a couple of semesters of consuming the basics of your degree program. The Master's is basically an intro to research + some deeper dives into focused topics. I think the article is accurate but not particularly useful. The value of all degrees is dropping over time as degrees inflate. It's not specific to comp sci. It's a reflection of our incredibly shitty primary education. Universities simply don't have a choice. They can't keep the standards of admission they had 20 years ago, let alone 50. They just won't have any students at all. And each link up the chain of education has to pay for the sins that came before. High schools have to deal with kids who can't read. Colleges and Universities have to deal with kids who can't write. Grad programs have to deal with kids who don't know wow to research, and PhD programs have to deal with people who don't know how to produce new insight. There are some exceptions, of course. But it's a problem the entire academic system is struggling with very badly right now.

by esturk 9y ago

matte_black 9y ago

You mean like an NPM package??

TAForObvReasons 9y ago
If you view CS education as merely credentials to obtain a job, and if you view the job as stringing together NPM modules and libraries to bang out simple CRUDs and websites, then in fact the CS MS degree is entirely in the piece of paper (the education itself has no value). As is the case with the BS, you can learn all of the material from books and papers on your own without having to shell out thousands of dollars to a college. The real money quote, though, really applies to both BS and MS degrees: > I believe that the purpose has, in some ways, shifted to be a cash cow for the university in question. Universities as a whole shifted their business model to focus more on revenue. This is a multi-decade trend that many people have discussed, and are currently debating in the context of the massive student loan bubble.

enraged_camel 9y ago

>>Graduate courses are geared towards research Nope, only PhD courses. In the US, Master’s programs are widely understood to be “professional” programs, i.e. geared towards private sector.

madengr 9y ago
There were no PhD courses when I was in grad school. There were grad and undergrad courses. The advent of online MS has turned it into professional programs.

ianamartin 9y ago

This used to be true in the U.S. It's increasingly less so. That's true in a general way for all Master's programs. Bachelor's degrees are mostly focused on covering all the general stuff that no longer gets taken care of in high school, plus a couple of semesters of consuming the basics of your degree program. The Master's is basically an intro to research + some deeper dives into focused topics. I think the article is accurate but not particularly useful. The value of all degrees is dropping over time as degrees inflate. It's not specific to comp sci. It's a reflection of our incredibly shitty primary education. Universities simply don't have a choice. They can't keep the standards of admission they had 20 years ago, let alone 50. They just won't have any students at all. And each link up the chain of education has to pay for the sins that came before. High schools have to deal with kids who can't read. Colleges and Universities have to deal with kids who can't write. Grad programs have to deal with kids who don't know wow to research, and PhD programs have to deal with people who don't know how to produce new insight. There are some exceptions, of course. But it's a problem the entire academic system is struggling with very badly right now.