[HN Gopher] OMSCS Open Courseware
___________________________________________________________________
OMSCS Open Courseware
Author : kerim-ca
Score : 91 points
Date : 2025-12-06 19:14 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (sites.gatech.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (sites.gatech.edu)
| dannyfreeman wrote:
| I would like to get my masters from georgia tech's omscs program
| but between work and 2 kids I dont see how I'll ever have the
| time
| marai2 wrote:
| One course per semester might be doable? Not sure how
| frequently the assignments are due because you could probably
| carve out some time over the weekends.
| dannyfreeman wrote:
| Yeah, thinking about waiting until both the kids themselves
| are in school and then 1 course a semester for me. Not sure
| if that will be easier or harder than doing it while they are
| young
| BlackjackCF wrote:
| OMSCS grad here. The awesome thing about the program is its
| flexibility. Some of the courses are definitely more time
| intensive, but I think if you took only one class and
| dedicated about an hour a day to the course materials,
| you'd be in good shape. (I know that's still a _lot_ to ask
| of someone with two young kids.)
| krapht wrote:
| There's no way to get through the harder courses in the
| program on 1 hour a day. And you're not getting value
| from the degree if you aren't pushing yourself to take
| those hard courses, unless you just need the diploma.
| tayo42 wrote:
| Is a masters of really holding anyone back once you have
| a couple years of experience?
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| There's a web site where different people share what they think
| of each course, and how many hours they devote per week:
| https://www.omscentral.com/
|
| That might help you decide whether it's doable.
|
| My first (and only) course was somewhere in the middle in terms
| of effort, and the courses I was most interested would have
| required another 50% on top, which wasn't going to work for me,
| between work, parenting, other learning etc.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I did it with two kids (both were in school at that point,
| which helps). It -is- a lot of work. I spent maybe an hour a
| day during most days of the week, and then for some things I'd
| try to get a few more hours early or late in the day on the
| weekend. And for the most part I only did one class per
| semester. I did two for one semester because they were both
| expected to be fairly easy, and that worked out, but I
| definitely wouldn't do that with GA or any of the ML stuff.
|
| It's doable, that's all I'm saying. But you will definitely
| need to be committed to see it through to the end, and you will
| be happy to have your life back when you're done.
| ludwik wrote:
| As a childless OMSCS graduate, I also can't imagine doing it
| while having kids, because it took basically all of my free
| time. That said, I met quite a few people in the program who
| were in situations similar to yours. I have no idea how they
| managed it, but they somehow did.
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| OMSCS requires ten courses to graduate. I completed one course
| (with an A grade) before realizing that, even at a pace of one
| course per semester, it was not a high enough priority for me to
| devote the time required to do each course well.
|
| That course was great, though, and I definitely learned some
| things I'm glad to have learned!
|
| IMO the instructional materials are a small part of the value.
| The things that stood out to me were:
|
| - the assignments
|
| - the autograding of programming assignments
|
| - giving and receiving peer feedback about written assignments
|
| - learning some LaTeX for those assignments
|
| - having an artificial reason (course grade) to persist in
| improving my algorithm and code [on the problems taught in that
| course, I wouldn't have been self-motivated enough if they were
| just things I came across during a random weekend]
| lumost wrote:
| The ability of OMSCS to scale paper writing, review, and
| grading with real human TAs is nothing short of astounding.
| While it's a ton of work (I'm just completing class #5) it's a
| great resource for both learning the material - and how to
| communicate it effectively.
| BlackjackCF wrote:
| Things that I loved about the program:
|
| * My fellow classmates. Had a small study group where we got on
| Discord to hang out and it was a blast
|
| * The TAs - they were so dedicated to the students and
| fantastic. MVPs of the program
| rahimnathwani wrote:
| Oh yeah I forgot to mention the class discussion board.
|
| I wasn't in any discord groups but the class discussion forum
| was a nice community.
| mgrat wrote:
| Very cool, thanks for posting this. I've had a number of
| colleagues try to level up through programs like this with mixed
| outcomes.
| loph wrote:
| I have taken three of those classes as part of the Online Master
| of Cybersecurity program. They were all excellent. I can say that
| the assignments were an important part of the learning
| experience, for instance the practical experience of attacking
| weak RSA keys.
|
| I would not let the lack of assignments, tests, and quizzes stop
| you from trying these if you are interested. At a minimum, they
| would give you a feeling for what the program/s are like, and
| possibly encourage you to enroll into the online degree program,
| which is an exceptional value.
| legerdemain wrote:
| Has anyone tried the courses in the ML or core CS areas? What'd
| you think?
| ssnola504 wrote:
| The ML course is interesting. Some of the lectures are a bit
| chatty and the official course text book was written in 1997,
| but it's a great survey of many different ML models, including
| Neural Networks. It's a good segue into Deep Learning where you
| explore more advanced NN architectures, beyond Feed-Forward
| NNs.
|
| For core CS, I found Graduate Intro to Operating Systems very
| rewarding.
| photochemsyn wrote:
| I really can't imagine that these online degrees have any real
| value in the modern world of LLM-assited coding - there's no way
| anyone looking at a resume would think such institutional online
| degrees still have any value. Perhaps there is some educational
| value for the student, but even there the only real value is the
| organizational structure - you might as well form an online study
| group on discord for free, and get the same learning benefit,
| just have an LLM write up the syllabus for a course based on a
| good textbook, no instructor overhead needed.
| xbar wrote:
| I am not sure what your point is. Is it that no CS is valuable
| or that only certain CS degrees are valuable?
| mym1990 wrote:
| The OMSCS degree you get is equivalent to the in person one, so
| there is no way to make the distinction in an interview. I
| actually don't see how people see that an experience like this
| brings _no_ value, given the rigor of the assignments. One
| certainly would come out with a better knowledge of how things
| work, develop a better work ethic, and hopefully make some
| network connections on the way...
| coolThingsFirst wrote:
| This is very debatable. The courses look like they were
| recorded in the 90s.
|
| The DB course particularly sticks out. My undergrad's DB
| course was fathoms harder than this. This is what you'd
| expect a highschooler should be able to learn through a
| tutorial not a university course.
|
| If it doesn't talk about systems calls like mmap, locking and
| the design of the buffer pool manager, it's not a university
| Database course it's a SQL and ER modelling tutorial.
| __loam wrote:
| DB is known to be a weaker offering.
|
| https://www.omscentral.com/
| rybosworld wrote:
| Respectfully, I think you should do more research.
|
| The OMSCS program is well known and well respected in the
| tech industry. It's a masters degree from the currently 8th
| ranked computer science school in the U.S.
|
| The university make no distinction between students who
| take the courses online, vs in person. I.e., the diploma's
| are identical.
| StefanBatory wrote:
| Is this a common thing to have at university? I'm from one
| of top universities in Poland; our database courses never
| included anything more than basic SQL where cursors were
| the absolute end. Even at Masters.
| grantgallagher wrote:
| I'm an OMSCS grad - the dedication to making higher education in
| CS more accessible is something that really sticks out to me from
| those in charge (shoutout to Dr. Joyner who heads the program).
| Although not every course is on the Open Courseware (nor course
| work), there's still a lot of good material, and if you like it
| enough, the program is a nice little side quest in ones journey
| through computer science.
| analog31 wrote:
| I didn't quickly find the entrance requirements for the OMSCS
| program and the other similar programs. I know someone who has an
| undergraduate arts degree and is learning programming and CS
| voraciously, but not in any organized fashion.
| kyawzazaw wrote:
| What do you mean? https://omscs.gatech.edu/admission-criteria
| analog31 wrote:
| Thanks. Don't know how I missed it.
| __loam wrote:
| AOS destroyed me lol. Video Game Design is excellent. Graduate
| algo is a requirement for everyone and has great lectures if
| you're looking for an introductory course.
| warabe wrote:
| I once considered applying, but I gave up because collecting
| letters of recommendation was a major hurdle. My academic advisor
| from university has already retired...
|
| How do you all deal with this?
| thisoneisreal wrote:
| I hit the same roadblock unfortunately. My academic references
| were all in a different field and I hadn't really stayed in
| contact except with one professor, who sadly has died. I did
| see that there's an option to use professional references, so
| even though I haven't done this myself, one route you could
| consider taking is to get references from managers, colleagues
| etc. who can speak to your technical knowledge. I agree though
| with your general point that after being out of an academic
| environment for a while that requirement becomes challenging.
| great_wubwub wrote:
| I have not applied to this program but I've gone through a
| part-time MBA. I doubt that an online program for working
| professionals is as rigorous about references as, say,
| undergrad admission to an Ivy League program or Oxford or
| Hogwarts or something. Just get a couple of coworkers with a
| similar advanced degree to write something that says "this
| person exists and I think they can handle the load" and you'll
| be fine. Remember that college is a business; if you look like
| you can both handle the program and pay for it, they'll let you
| in.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Unless something has changed recently, the letters of
| recommendation are pretty much a formality. If you have a
| bachelor's in CS with decent grades, getting admitted isn't
| difficult. I was pretty flippant about the whole thing, applied
| one afternoon on a whim after reading about it on HN. Asked my
| manager for a letter of recommendation as well as my nearest
| colleague. No letters from anyone in academia.
|
| I think the people who have the most difficulty getting
| accepted are those without a bachelor's in CS who also don't
| have some good CS fundamentals courses to show achievement and
| interest.
|
| I did complete the program, and I am happy for the
| accomplishment. But with my experience (I started working in
| the mid 90s) this wasn't for my career, it was for my own
| satisfaction. But in addition to being glad for the
| achievement, I was soooo glad to be done, LOL. The real
| commitment is not financial, it is time.
| oaxacaoaxaca wrote:
| I was in the very first cohort of this program. I loved it but
| had to drop for personal/family reasons after finishing three
| courses. Someday I'd love to jump back in! I highly recommend it
| to anyone who might be interested.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-12-06 23:00 UTC)