For coders, are these 100% online, accredited programs any good?

[TopHatFox]

1. UC Boulder, $16K: https://www.coursera.org/degrees/ms-com ... ce-boulder
2. ASU, $15K: https://www.coursera.org/degrees/master ... cience-asu
3. UPenn, $33,500 (fuck you lol): https://www.coursera.org/degrees/mcit-penn#requestinfo

They seem to blow traditional programs out of the water, both in terms of cost and the pain-assery of taking undergraduate pre-requisites that will be very similar to their graduate counterparts. The main reason I want to take these is to never be asked "omg you studied geology, are you sure you have the CS fundamental required for this job?" ever again. Over time, I can probably make $15K in one year's bonus. I'd probably just take 1 class a semester, and maybe they'd take some of my CS-heavy Geology classes as an elective or two.

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If I had to pick a program, I'd probably pick the UC Boulder one, as it has a similar price tag to ASU, but it also signals as fancy since Boulder is a fancy area. UPenn is tempting for the name, but it's 2x the cost, and will probably be unreasonably difficult for no other reason than its UPenn, just like my undergrad was.

[zbigi]

I'm not from US, so I don't know much about this stuff, but I've read University of Georgia remote Masters in CS recommended on multiple occasions.

[bostonimproper]

Once you have 2-3 years experience under your belt, nobody will care whether or not you got a CS degree.

[TopHatFox]

@bostonimproper, I'd care tho, I've been bummed about not choosing the undergrad CS major ever since the intro class at my Ivy was made way too difficult; feels like fixing a long-overdue regret. I'm sure interviews will go smoother with education no longer raising any flags, and 15K over 2 yrs isn't much in the long scheme of things. In fact, I can even start referencing the MS in CS as soon as I start it, which will be helpful immediately.

[take2]

Agree it doesn’t matter at all once you have experience. You care now but I doubt you’ll care later.

[mathiverse]

University of Georgia

I think you mean the Georgia Institute Technology's online masters which is often talked about: https://omscs.gatech.edu/.

I've also seen that program come highly recommended. Also GT is a top CS school according the US News rankings. It is also fairly cheap. Based on some Googling it looks the like the total cost is less than $10k? Maybe even less than $7k, but I didn't double check that.

I also agree that the degree won't matter very much. If your goal is more money at your salaryman job, then the time that would be spent on the degree is better spent learning data structures, algorithms, and system design, so you can get a remote job at a top tier tech company.

[TopHatFox]

Woah, that one looks really good. Imma apply

Do you guys know if it might suffer from the same “we made it really hard because we’re a fancy school” phenomenon?

[mathiverse]

Do you guys know if it might suffer from the same “we made it really hard because we’re a fancy school” phenomenon?

No idea. However, there is a subreddit for the program /r/omscs, iirc where you could ask questions or read old posts to figure out how rigorous the coursework is.

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Also one more I forgot about: https://online.stanford.edu/programs/co ... -ms-degree

That one is really expensive as each course is a few thousand dollars, iirc. Stanford is also highly ranked and well known. I hear the courses are very time consuming. However, I'm not sure about the difficulty.

[bostonimproper]

It’s hard for me to express just how little this will matter to you in like five years. As someone who has a CS degree and works in tech, I’m telling you your time is probably better spent learning one of the cloud computing stacks (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud) or whatever else that you might actually use in your work and developing side projects.

GTech has a reputation for being a “tough” engineering school (whether or not that is true I personally cannot say as I don’t have personal experience), and there really is no reason to add a load of classes— at least some of which are likely to be more rigorous and difficult than your intro to computer science class— on top of your full-time job. If you want to do it for your own personal learning, that’s great. But my expectation is that the overlap in knowledge and skills relevant to your day to day work is likely to be very little.

[TopHatFox]

I mean, it’s just one class a semester at an accredited state school over the internet. My guess is UC - Boulder wins. I’ll probably choose against GTech, Stanford, or UPenn; their classes are probably way too time-consuming, and I’m not trying to work at a FAANG any time soon, if ever. I just want a regular, night school experience at a reasonable cost with an accredited MSc in 2-years, part-time. None of this "omg, a 3.0 is considered excellent at this school," or "wow, you got a C!." My current role isn't Software Engineer yet (it's Software Implementation Specialist), so I'll likely have more time to do it now.

@bostonimproper, but you have a CS degree, do you know many ppl w/o one & what their xp is trying to get a job as a dev?

[bostonimproper]

I would say half my coworkers on the engineering side are non-CS graduates. Most have degrees from some other engineering discipline, math, economics, or physics though I’ve seen a smattering of random other fields as well. School prestige does not seem to matter except for new grads. Data science side mostly have masters degrees in stats/applied math or PhD in whatever.

I sit in product but am often on the interview panel for the engineering teams I work with. I’ve seen folks come in with all kinds of degrees on their resume— what we actually ask about and discuss in panel debrief is experience and performance on sample system design problems. This includes new grad hires, for what it’s worth. Degree helps get you past the HR/recruiter filter for your first 1-2 jobs, imo, but that’s about it.

[TopHatFox]

I think it'll be worth it to be part of the 50% with the CS background. Good to know about the prestige not mattering as much, no reason to kill myself and pay double for the Ivy degree. If anything, this will help with my fundamental understanding of CS, whereas sites like TeamTreeHouse are good at teaching syntax of flagship languages & software. I don't have as high an interest in data science nor a data science degree. Most of the time you don't even need advanced math to code what you company wants. Computer Science is the flagship degree title to get. Getting past the HR/recruiter filter is hella important. I'm concerned that as the field ages, it'll start requiring a CS degree more & more.

[Scott 2]

@TopHatFox - @bostonimproper is giving you the cheat codes. A CS degree doesn't matter. Especially given you already have an elite bachelor's and IIRC a master's in another field.

Maybe if you wanted to teach or pursue a PhD in CS? That's the only justification I could think of. But I think experience plus your current education would get you pretty far, even there.

I sat through maybe a year of weekly recruiting calls for my company's IT hiring. We'd discuss candidate resumes, decide who to move forward with, etc. The only times I recall discussing education, was to praise the broader perspective of a non CS degree.

The ways to stand out were crush our coding test and be personable. People with mediocre coding tests still got hired.

[Viktor K]

Pretty pointless at this point. What a course will do is give you a line on your resume. Who wants to know what coursework you did?

What comes up in interviews are practical certificates and experience e.g. cloud (AWS, Azure), which you can learn and apply online.

Where does the CS degree requirement come from

For OP, good in what way. You will learn things you can learn without paying. In that way they are not economical. You won’t get much return on your investment.

The quality of that content is probably fair. The relevance to a career probably poor.

The main reason I want to take these is to never be asked "omg you studied geology, are you sure you have the CS fundamental required for this job?"

Ok. They are good for that. But you still have a Geology degree. Can’t control how potential employers feel about that. Degree didn’t come up in FAANG interviews after 2 years experience, just leet code questions

[Stahlmann]

Do you guys know if it might suffer from the same “we made it really hard because we’re a fancy school” phenomenon?

yes, as cog in the system your part is about work hard and create theme of selfmade men self reinforcing propaganda, but many slots are taken by old money kids.

edit: ops, it might not be case for MSc courses in highly technical field.

[WFJ]

OP: Depends on you goals. Best way to determine correct grad program is to identify where you want to be, ask someone who is "there" how to get there today. "Best School" is 100% dependent on what you define as "best outcome".

Most of the programmers I interacted with while modifying systems for particular purposes, did not have US degrees or any degrees and were all over the world. All of the degrees may be a waste of time and money if one does not have clear goals for what they hope to get out of the program.

There are also no shortcuts and part of the programs are designed to be a pain in the ass because many of the jobs will also be a pian in the ass.

[TopHatFox]

Complete all five breadth specializations for a total of 15 credits.

Pathway Specialization: Graduate Algorithms

CSCA 5414 Dynamic Programming, Greedy Algorithms
CSCA 5424 Approximation Algorithms and Linear Programming
CSCA 5454 Advanced Data Structures, RSA and Quantum Algorithms

Pathway Specialization: Software Architecture for Big Data

CSCA 5008 Fundamentals of Software Architecture for Big Data
CSCA 5018 Software Architecture Patterns for Big Data
CSCA 5028 Applications of Software Architecture for Big Data

Machine Learning

CSCA 5622 Introduction to Machine Learning - Supervised Learning
CSCA 5632 Unsupervised Algorithms in Machine Learning
CSCA 5642 Introduction to Deep Learning

Computing, Ethics, and Society

CSCA 5214 Computing, Ethics, and Society 1 - Foundations
CSCA 5224 Computing, Ethics, and Society 2 - Algorithmic Bias and Professional Ethics
CSCA 5234 Computing, Ethics, and Society 3 - Applications

Network Systems

3 courses, titles TBD

Complete 15 elective credits five specializations or a combination of four specializations and three 1-credit courses.

Data Mining Foundations and Practice

CSCA 5502 Data Mining Pipeline
CSCA 5512 Data Mining Methods
CSCA 5522 Data Mining Project

Natural Language Processing

CSCA 5832 Fundamentals of Natural Language Processing
CSCA 5842 Deep Learning for Natural Language Processing
CSCA 5852 Model and Error Analysis for Natural Language Processing

Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction

CSCA 5859 Ideating and Prototyping Interfaces
CSCA 5869 User Interface Testing and Usability
CSCA 5879 Emerging Topics in HCI: Designing for VR, AR, AI

Foundations of Autonomous Systems

CSCA 5834 Modeling of Autonomous Systems
CSCA 5844 Requirement Specifications for Autonomous Systems
CSCA 5854 Verification and Synthesis of Autonomous Systems

Data Visualization

CSCA 5702 Fundamentals of Data Visualization

Computer Vision

CSCA 5812 Deep Learning Applications for Computer Vision

More courses to come! Various additional specializations anticipated in the near future. The CU Boulder Department of Computer Science is developing courses covering topics such as robotics, object-oriented analysis and design, network systems, and big data challenges and NoSQL solutions.
er Vision

Access up to six elective credit hours from CU Boulder’s Electrical Engineering, Data Science, and Engineering Management degrees on Coursera.

You can count up to six graduate-level credit hours of courses from other CU Boulder programs on Coursera as MS-CS degree electives. All courses must be graduate level, offered on Coursera, and meet all applicable academic standards. This includes all courses offered by the ME-EM, MS-DS, and MS-EE programs on Coursera that do not start with a "CSCA" prefix, with the exception of the following courses.

———

FAQ

1. What appears on the degree certificate? Is it the same degree as the on-campus program?

The MS-CS diploma that students earn on Coursera is the same diploma that students earn in the CU Boulder on-campus program. There are no "online" or "Coursera" designations on the diploma. The diploma will state that the student has earned a Master of Science degree from the University of Colorado Boulder.

2. Is the program accredited?

Yes, the MS-CS on Coursera falls under the University of Colorado Boulder’s overall accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

3. Can I try a course before I enroll in the graded pathway course?

Yes, you can enroll in the non-credit experience, allowing you to preview MS-CS on Coursera courses before committing to the degree program. You may upgrade to for-credit at any time during your learning journey. You will need to complete additional graded assignments to earn CU credit; this material is only available after you pay tuition.

4. Do the same faculty teach online and on-campus courses?

Yes, both versions of the program are overseen by the same highly experienced faculty.

5. What coursework or skills training is recommended before enrolling in the pathway courses?

Strong foundation in computer science via academic or professional background. Some experience in programming and software development. Knowledge in linear algebra, discrete math, probability, and statistics (calculus required for select electives – see individual course descriptions for details)

[zbigi]

These are relatively advanced topics. I don't know how much you can get of them without covering the basics first (the things covered in CS Bsc degree)- engineering is a really bottoms-up field, similar to math, so you'll be required to grasp more complex concepts in terms of simpler ones, which you haven't studied yet. Also, studying random advanced subfields without an explicit interest in them may be a waste of time (I've done that and I consider it a waste of time in my case), unless you're really hell-bent on having the "CS degree" entry in your CV.

[TopHatFox]

@zbigi, I believe the first grad class is an overview of the fundamentals of CS, kind of like what happened with the first class of my MSc in Geology. But I’m not starting from scratch, 1000 hours of TeamTreeHouse has to count for something. The classes actually look relevant and interesting. The ASU ones look pretty boring by comparison (ASU link above -> Academics).

It says I can try the first course before signing up, so that’ll be helpful to decide and see the quality/support the program offers.

Tbh, I could’ve easily done my MSc in Geology without the knowledge of my BSc in Geology. The first two undergrad years are the same as well (I.e., calculus, statistics, etc.)

[TopHatFox]

No idea. However, there is a subreddit for the program /r/omscs, iirc where you could ask questions or read old posts to figure out how rigorous the coursework is.

The GA Tech OMSCS program was described as "easy to get in, but hard to get out" on its Reddit threads. IOW, it's time-consuming pain-assery, probably because of the name. I think the advantage of the CU - Boulder or the ASU program is that they're bigger schools, so employers are less-likely to even know that I did the online version of the program, particularly since there is no distinction in the transcript or the diploma. As far as they're concerned, I tick the box of a CS degree, so onto experience, etc. The classes are also likely to be less time-consuming, and I'm more likely to get higher grades since the content is created for a larger cross-section of the population than the Ivy programs.

Whether the program is hard or easy, you still don't learn anything that actually helps you in the field. Like, what I learned in my state school MSc was pretty worthless on my first day at a mine site, just like everything I learned at AC aside from reading, writing, and speaking.