5 ms·

I am a Senior Software Engineer in my mid thirties doing an Online degree at a local university of applied science in Germany. I am doing most of the work at ho

I am a Senior Software Engineer in my mid thirties doing an Online degree at a local university of applied science in Germany. I am doing most of the work at home and just go there 4 times per semester and once for exams, but i have a lot of deadlines for assignments during the semester, while i work a fulltime job obviously. As far as i can tell, they apply the same standards to exams and grading than they do for normal on-campus students and I need to go much deeper into subjects than i would if i would self study for fun, to get good grades. I also need to study stuff that might not be on my list if i would only self-study, but in the end often is really valuable. Maybe some people can go really deep into topics when learning by themselves, for me the fact that i need to pass an exam and want a good grade helps a lot to go the extra mile on some of the harder stuff. So when someone says an Online degree equals "I read some books and here's a good portfolio of personal projects" i honestly get mildly offended.

thiago_fm 8y ago
where is that? I also live in Germany with time constraints...
- cpursley 8y ago
  I'm interested as well. Are the courses in English?
  - kayoone 8y ago
    For the remote programs unfortunately I think they are german only.
- thesimon 8y ago
  Not OP, but from my research Fernuni Hagen is supposed to be good https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/mi/studium/msc_informatik/ https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/mi/studium/msc_informatik/ (German only) Around 1000€ for the Computer Science Master.
- kayoone 8y ago
  In my case it's https://www.vfh.de/ https://www.vfh.de/ which is a group of Universities of Applied Science throughout Germany that offer a selection of degrees. I myself am in Berlin, experiences may vary between different universities. I am doing a Medieninformatik Degree which equals something like "Computer Science and Digital Media", meaning some emphasis on Computer Graphics, Web/Mobile Development combined with CS fundamentals etc. If you want a Degree from a research University in pure Comp Sci, Fernuni Hagen is the only options for remote studies afaik.
  - thiago_fm 8y ago
    That is great. Are you very fluent in german? I speak okayish german. Can definitely understand and work with it, but I think that writing a essay in German for me might be too much. So I've been delaying my MsC until I learn better German, but this will take forever.
    - kayoone 8y ago
      I am german, so yes i guess you could say i am fluent. However, since the studies are mostly remote and a lot of communication is in written form, you should get by with okayish german during the semester and exams. There are quite some essays to write and presentations to hold though (more in the Master than in the BSc), so i am not sure how that would work out but could also see them being flexible and let you do it in english, since it's smaller groups and thus more personal mentoring. This is just a guess though. Otherwise you'd need to try something like Internationale Medieninformatik at TU Berlin which is in english, but not remote unfortunately. Otherwise maybe the Open University Masters is something for you, or of course the GTech MSc which is quite a bit more expensive though.

thiago_fm 8y ago

where is that? I also live in Germany with time constraints...

cpursley 8y ago
I'm interested as well. Are the courses in English?
- kayoone 8y ago
  For the remote programs unfortunately I think they are german only.
thesimon 8y ago
Not OP, but from my research Fernuni Hagen is supposed to be good https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/mi/studium/msc_informatik/ https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/mi/studium/msc_informatik/ (German only) Around 1000€ for the Computer Science Master.
kayoone 8y ago
In my case it's https://www.vfh.de/ https://www.vfh.de/ which is a group of Universities of Applied Science throughout Germany that offer a selection of degrees. I myself am in Berlin, experiences may vary between different universities. I am doing a Medieninformatik Degree which equals something like "Computer Science and Digital Media", meaning some emphasis on Computer Graphics, Web/Mobile Development combined with CS fundamentals etc. If you want a Degree from a research University in pure Comp Sci, Fernuni Hagen is the only options for remote studies afaik.
- thiago_fm 8y ago
  That is great. Are you very fluent in german? I speak okayish german. Can definitely understand and work with it, but I think that writing a essay in German for me might be too much. So I've been delaying my MsC until I learn better German, but this will take forever.
  - kayoone 8y ago
    I am german, so yes i guess you could say i am fluent. However, since the studies are mostly remote and a lot of communication is in written form, you should get by with okayish german during the semester and exams. There are quite some essays to write and presentations to hold though (more in the Master than in the BSc), so i am not sure how that would work out but could also see them being flexible and let you do it in english, since it's smaller groups and thus more personal mentoring. This is just a guess though. Otherwise you'd need to try something like Internationale Medieninformatik at TU Berlin which is in english, but not remote unfortunately. Otherwise maybe the Open University Masters is something for you, or of course the GTech MSc which is quite a bit more expensive though.