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Does anyone have experience with the step down from this? I have zero formal CS education but two decades of experience at pretty much all types of development.

Does anyone have experience with the step down from this? I have zero formal CS education but two decades of experience at pretty much all types of development. I live within spitting distance of my local state university (UNH) and don’t really care about any piece of paper, but I would love to take formal/ hard CS classes, whether for credit or audit. Is there a “right” way of doing this? Does it make any sense?

hauget 4y ago
Why not just go through MIT's open courseware syllabus, or perhaps emailing/contacting a university teacher for guidance?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- tclancy 4y ago
  Without the rigor/ expectation of formal classes, I always wind up trailing off.
majormajor 4y ago
Looking at the course listing for UNH ( https://ceps.unh.edu/computer-science/program/bs/computer-science https://ceps.unh.edu/computer-science/program/bs/computer-sc... ), I'd suggest auditing (I imagine that's cheaper if you're not looking for a degree?) some of the following: Data Structures and Introduction to Algorithms, Assembly Language Programming and Machine Organization, Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Operating System Fundamentals, Algorithms, Programming Language Concepts and Features, Compiler Design, Systems Programming, Formal Specifications and Verification of Software Systems. Those are the ones that look like more formal CS, and gets you into at least an intro to fun formal/theory stuff like automata, grammars, low-level programming, functional programming. Performance Evaluation of Computer Systems and Mathematical Optimization for Applications also look fun to me, or you may be interested in some of the other electives too like Computer Vision, ML, etc. If that's local, affordable, and easy, I wouldn't worry too much about looking for something "fancier" right off the bat, I think there's a lot to sink your teeth into there. There's a lot of stuff online too on all these topics of course, but if you're like me, that's not the same as taking a live course.
_moof 4y ago
I did a four-year CS degree after about twenty years in industry. I learned one thing, which I do not use. My recommendation is don't waste your time and money unless you have a specific goal in mind or want to go on to a master's program - which I also generally don't recommend unless, again, you have a very specific goal and no other way of accomplishing it.
mdorazio 4y ago
I recommend you email or call the admissions team for programs you’re interested in. I did undergrad in CS and business and was interested in a different engineering discipline masters after quite a few years of unrelated work. The responses varied significantly among the programs I looked at, but the admission teams were all helpful and clear on requirements & expectations.
evanmoran 4y ago
I taught my spouse to program when she decided to change fields, and did a similar thing where she wanted to master the advanced stuff by taking classes (she took them for credit on the off chance she needed it in a masters program) The classes she took were equivalent to three classes majormajor suggests: Data Structures and Introduction to Algorithms: everyone needs this and it is maybe 50% of leet code problems Assembly Language Programming and Machine Organization, Introduction to the Theory of Computation: this is the low level of how computers really work Operating System Fundamentals: concurrency programming plus a lot more useful stuff I think it is definitely worth it. Good luck!
- barry-cotter 4y ago
  > Data Structures and Introduction to Algorithms: everyone needs this and it is maybe 50% of leet code problems What’s the other 50%? I’d have thought DS&A would cover everything.
  - selfhifive 4y ago
    A standard Introduction DSA course will generally not cover advanced DSA stuff like segment trees or Heavy-light decomposition, or theoretical stuff like number theory, or computational geometry all that stuff you would find in the competitive programming space.
    - barry-cotter 4y ago
      Are there companies that ask a lot of leetcode bards in their interviews? That seems like overkill even for FAANGs though I can see why some groups might do so purely to filter by Math ability/interest.
      - selfhifive 4y ago
        From what I've seen and heard: Salesforce, Codenation, Wells Fargo, DE Shaw, so basically Hedge fund/finance or teaching/coaching/consultancy.
    - 4y ago

hauget 4y ago

Why not just go through MIT's open courseware syllabus, or perhaps emailing/contacting a university teacher for guidance?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tclancy 4y ago
Without the rigor/ expectation of formal classes, I always wind up trailing off.

majormajor 4y ago

Looking at the course listing for UNH ( https://ceps.unh.edu/computer-science/program/bs/computer-science https://ceps.unh.edu/computer-science/program/bs/computer-sc... ), I'd suggest auditing (I imagine that's cheaper if you're not looking for a degree?) some of the following: Data Structures and Introduction to Algorithms, Assembly Language Programming and Machine Organization, Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Operating System Fundamentals, Algorithms, Programming Language Concepts and Features, Compiler Design, Systems Programming, Formal Specifications and Verification of Software Systems. Those are the ones that look like more formal CS, and gets you into at least an intro to fun formal/theory stuff like automata, grammars, low-level programming, functional programming. Performance Evaluation of Computer Systems and Mathematical Optimization for Applications also look fun to me, or you may be interested in some of the other electives too like Computer Vision, ML, etc. If that's local, affordable, and easy, I wouldn't worry too much about looking for something "fancier" right off the bat, I think there's a lot to sink your teeth into there. There's a lot of stuff online too on all these topics of course, but if you're like me, that's not the same as taking a live course.

_moof 4y ago

I did a four-year CS degree after about twenty years in industry. I learned one thing, which I do not use. My recommendation is don't waste your time and money unless you have a specific goal in mind or want to go on to a master's program - which I also generally don't recommend unless, again, you have a very specific goal and no other way of accomplishing it.

mdorazio 4y ago

I recommend you email or call the admissions team for programs you’re interested in. I did undergrad in CS and business and was interested in a different engineering discipline masters after quite a few years of unrelated work. The responses varied significantly among the programs I looked at, but the admission teams were all helpful and clear on requirements & expectations.

evanmoran 4y ago

I taught my spouse to program when she decided to change fields, and did a similar thing where she wanted to master the advanced stuff by taking classes (she took them for credit on the off chance she needed it in a masters program) The classes she took were equivalent to three classes majormajor suggests: Data Structures and Introduction to Algorithms: everyone needs this and it is maybe 50% of leet code problems Assembly Language Programming and Machine Organization, Introduction to the Theory of Computation: this is the low level of how computers really work Operating System Fundamentals: concurrency programming plus a lot more useful stuff I think it is definitely worth it. Good luck!

barry-cotter 4y ago
> Data Structures and Introduction to Algorithms: everyone needs this and it is maybe 50% of leet code problems What’s the other 50%? I’d have thought DS&A would cover everything.
- selfhifive 4y ago
  A standard Introduction DSA course will generally not cover advanced DSA stuff like segment trees or Heavy-light decomposition, or theoretical stuff like number theory, or computational geometry all that stuff you would find in the competitive programming space.
  - barry-cotter 4y ago
    Are there companies that ask a lot of leetcode bards in their interviews? That seems like overkill even for FAANGs though I can see why some groups might do so purely to filter by Math ability/interest.
    - selfhifive 4y ago
      From what I've seen and heard: Salesforce, Codenation, Wells Fargo, DE Shaw, so basically Hedge fund/finance or teaching/coaching/consultancy.
  - 4y ago