Watch this video before applying to Georgia Tech OMSCS
Summary
TLDRThis video review delves into the Georgia Tech OMS CS master's degree, highlighting its affordability and flexibility as an online program from a top university. It emphasizes the need for a strong undergraduate background in computer science due to the advanced curriculum, and discusses concerns about the support provided for coursework. The reviewer advises that the program is best suited for those with a solid CS foundation or the discipline to self-study extensively, while cautioning international students about the lack of visa support for job opportunities in the U.S.
Takeaways
- 🎓 The Georgia Tech OMS CS degree is popular for being an affordable online master's degree from a top university.
- 💰 The program costs only $7,000 and does not require the GRE for admission, making it accessible to a wider audience.
- 📚 The degree requires 30 credit hours, with a specialization that ranges from 15 to 18 credit hours, and the rest are electives.
- 🔍 There are several specializations available, each with a diverse and in-depth course selection.
- 📈 The quality of the courses is high, with many videos available for free to the public.
- 📈 The program emphasizes the importance of applying high-level concepts to practical projects in computer science.
- 🚫 The program assumes a strong background in computer science, with prerequisites like algorithms and discrete math.
- 🤔 There are concerns about the level of support provided for homework and projects, which may be less than expected.
- 👨🏫 Students are expected to have a solid understanding of programming and software engineering concepts before starting the program.
- 📉 The lack of official job placement information is a red flag, indicating potential uncertainty about career outcomes.
- 🌐 International students may not benefit from the program due to the lack of a visa and OPT opportunities in the U.S.
- 🎯 The program is best suited for individuals with a strong computer science background or those willing to self-study extensively before enrolling.
Q & A
What is the OMS CS degree program?
-The OMS CS degree is an online Master's degree in Computer Science offered by Georgia Tech. It is known for being cost-effective and accessible without requiring the GRE.
What are the program requirements for the OMS CS degree?
-The program requires 30 credit hours, which is equivalent to 10 courses. Students must declare a specialization, which ranges from 15 to 18 credit hours (5 to 6 courses), and the remaining 12 to 15 credit hours (4 to 5 courses) are free electives.
What specializations are available in the OMS CS program?
-The specializations include Computational Perception and Robotics, Computing Systems, Interactive Intelligence, and Machine Learning.
Are all courses in the OMS CS program available online?
-Not all courses are available online. Only courses listed with bold titles are offered through the online program.
What is the significance of the core classes in the OMS CS program?
-Core classes such as CS6515 (Introduction to Graduate Level Algorithms), Software Development Process, and AI/ML are required for various specializations, indicating their importance in the curriculum.
Why are many of the classes' videos freely available to the public?
-The videos are available to showcase the quality of the courses. However, the fee for the program covers accountability and support with homework and projects, not just the access to the lectures.
What is the assumed knowledge for the OMS CS program?
-The program assumes students have an undergraduate background in computer science or related fields, including knowledge of algorithms, software engineering, and discrete math.
Why might the OMS CS program not be suitable for everyone?
-The program is not suitable for those without a strong background in computer science or related fields, as the material is advanced and requires significant self-study.
What are the concerns regarding the support provided for homework and projects in the OMS CS program?
-There is a concern that the program may skimp on the amount of help provided for homework and projects, which is crucial for learning in computer science.
Why is the lack of job placement information on the official website a red flag?
-Job placement information is crucial for students considering a master's degree to improve their career prospects. The absence of this information raises questions about the program's effectiveness in helping students secure jobs.
Who would benefit most from the OMS CS program?
-The program is best suited for individuals with a related undergraduate degree in computer science or those willing to self-study extensively before attending the master's program.
Why is the OMS CS program not recommended for international students hoping to work in the U.S.?
-Since the program is online, international students do not receive a visa, which means they cannot use the program to obtain a job in the U.S.
Outlines
🎓 Overview of Georgia Tech's OMS CS Degree
This paragraph introduces the Georgia Tech's Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMS CS) degree, highlighting its popularity due to affordability, top-university status, and no GRE requirement. The program requires 30 credit hours, with a specialization that ranges from 15 to 18 hours and the rest as electives. The breadth and depth of the courses are praised, with many available for free online, showcasing high-quality educational content. The paragraph also emphasizes the importance of the support system for homework and projects, which is a significant part of the learning experience in computer science.
🚫 Caveats and Prerequisites for the OMS CS Program
The second paragraph delves into the prerequisites and potential difficulties of the OMS CS program. It points out that the program assumes a solid undergraduate foundation in computer science or related fields, with specific mention of required knowledge in algorithms, software engineering, and discrete math. The paragraph shares anecdotes of students who struggled due to a lack of background, suggesting that the program may not be suitable for those without substantial self-study or a related degree. It also touches on the limited support provided for homework and projects, which is a cost-saving measure but could be a drawback for students needing more assistance.
🤔 Considerations for Career Opportunities and International Students
The final paragraph discusses considerations for potential students, particularly regarding career opportunities post-graduation. It raises concerns about the lack of official job placement data and the uncertainty of outcomes for those seeking to transition into fields like data science. The paragraph also advises against the program for international students seeking U.S. employment, as the online nature of the degree does not provide a visa or OPT. It concludes by identifying the types of individuals who may benefit from the program: those with a strong undergraduate background in computer science or equivalent, and those willing to undertake extensive self-study to acquire the necessary prerequisites.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Georgia Tech's OMS CS degree
💡Online Program
💡Specialization
💡Course Syllabus
💡Free Electives
💡Accountability
💡Assumed Knowledge
💡Self-Study
💡GRE
💡Job Placements
💡International Students
Highlights
The Georgia Tech OMS CS degree is renowned for being an affordable online master's degree in computer science from a top university.
The program costs only seven thousand dollars and does not require the GRE for admission.
Testimonials suggest acceptance into the program without a related undergraduate degree, making it highly accessible.
The OMCS degree requires 30 credit hours, including a declared specialization and electives.
Specializations offered are Computational Perception, Robotics, Computing Systems, Interactive Intelligence, and Machine Learning.
Courses within specializations are diverse, with many available in bold titles for the online program.
Many classes have freely available videos of high quality, accessible to the public.
The cost of the program includes accountability and support for homework and projects, which is crucial in computer science.
The program assumes a strong undergraduate background in computer science or equivalent knowledge.
Core classes have prerequisites such as algorithms, software development, and discrete math.
Students lacking the required background may struggle, even with substantial self-study.
The program may not provide enough support for students without a strong foundation in computer science.
Job placement information is not readily available on the official website, which raises concerns.
Graduates seem to secure interviews, likely due to the program's reputation, but official data is lacking.
The program may not be suitable for those aiming for careers outside of software engineering.
The degree is ideal for individuals with a related undergraduate degree and strong self-discipline.
Those willing to self-study an entire undergraduate degree before attending may also benefit.
International students seeking U.S. employment should avoid this program due to the lack of visa support.
The review emphasizes the importance of self-assessment and honesty regarding one's background and capabilities.
Transcripts
and this is a nice little summary of The
General sentiment of students
hey everyone the top comment on this
post was Georgia Tech's OMS CS degree so
I did some in-depth research for you
guys to make this review this program is
quite famous and popular primarily
because it's an online CS master's
degree from a top-ranked University and
it only costs seven thousand dollars on
top of that you don't have to take the
GRE and there seems to be testimonials
from people who got accepted into this
program even without a related undergrad
that just makes it even more appealing
doesn't it so first off let me talk
about what is amazing about because this
program really is a great bang for the
buck but let me also show you guys why
this program isn't for most people and
finally and with who the program would
be great for let's start off by going to
the program info section of their
website the omscs degree requires 30
hours which is 10 courses and students
must declare specialization which
depending on the specialization is 15 to
18 hours which is five to six courses
and the remaining 12 to 15 hours which
is four to five courses our free
electives and can be any courses offered
through the omscs program okay so you
have to choose a specialization which
are a computational perception of
Robotics Computing systems Interactive
Intelligence or Machinery flicking
through each of them I was very
impressed by the breadth and depth of
the courses that are offered I've seen
some master's degree programs that have
these specializations but really most of
the courses are the same and they just
put like a specialization names have on
it that is usually a buzzword like
machine learning or something but that's
not the case here ooh but there is a bit
of fine print or more like italicized
print only courses listed with bold
titles are offered through the online
program okay fair enough still very
impressive in terms of poor selection
and diversity each of these
specializations do offer different
courses and you have a pretty good
selection for all of them you have the
core class of cs6515 which is
Introduction to graduate level
algorithms software development process
is required for interactive intelligence
and AI ml is required for three quarters
of the specializations while I look
through some of these course syllabi and
realized something really really cool as
well many of the classes have all the
videos freely available to the public
and after watching some of these videos
the quality is really great seriously
I'm gonna be coming back here to go
through some of these videos myself
sometime in the future by the way you
might be wondering why in the world are
they providing you with all of these
courses for free and that's because what
you're really paying for in addition to
the Master's Degree title is the
accountability and support with homework
and projects if you haven't done a
degree in computer science where
Computer Engineering work a lot of
projects in this field you might not
think it's a big deal to have help it
but it really really is very important
as with all learning the bulk of it is
actually taking the high level stuff you
learn from lecture and applying it to
projects this is especially true in
computer science since it's also an
extremely applied field and just because
you understand Concepts and how things
work at a high level does not mean you
know how to actually do anything
implementation is another beast and it's
really where you spend most of your time
I'll return back to this point later on
because I do have some specific concerns
surrounding this aspect of the degree
but this is a good transition point for
my general concerns we're really more
like caveats that I think they don't
advertise enough about this program
which makes me believe that this program
is actually not for most people so the
reason is because there's a lot of
assumed knowledge for this degree as I
went through the syllabus for
introduction to graduate algorithms
software development process and the ML
Class that make up the core of most
specializations I noticed that they
really are graduate level classes
there's some underground material that
you can find here and there like graph
algorithms dynamic programming but they
seem to be covered really quickly in the
beginning and the rest of the material
does really get up there and sure enough
under the before taking this class
suggests the background knowledge it
says that students are expected to have
an undergraduate course on the design
and Analysis of algorithms in particular
be familiar with basic graph algorithms
DP divide and conquer Algos as well as
an undergraduate course in discrete math
and analyzing asymptotic runtimes of
Algos and they really weren't lying when
they say that you do require these
courses like you really really do
looking at the other core classes
substantial background requirements
seems to hold for them too for example
for the software development process
class you have to know at least one
programming language already and be
familiar with basic software engineering
Concepts through an undergraduate course
in software engineering or have industry
experience looking at the syllabus here
they are not lying again I think it
would be very very difficult to get
through this course without a decent
background already and also taking a
look at the ml course these are the
course Readiness questions
and here's the reading list you need
linear algebra probability and stats and
I would argue it would probably be nice
to also have calculus although it
doesn't seem necessary if the course
doesn't venture too deeply into the ml
outcomes in any case as you can see a
lot of assumed knowledge here there are
people who talk about getting accepted
into this program without an
undergraduate in computer science or
related degree War have substantial
self-study to get the equivalent of that
undergraduate degree you will see that
it is absolutely the case that it's
extremely difficult you really do need
to have a solid background and
truthfully I find it a little bit weird
for some of these people to have even
gotten accepted into the program as this
one guy said he literally failed the
first two classes he took and barely
made it to graduation despite
substantial self-study and having a job
at the devops because I had recently
gotten a job as a devops engineer so I
didn't really have any computer science
background before starting the program
in my first semester in Spring 2017 I
took two courses so software development
process and machine learning for trading
both of these courses are considered
beginner courses in the omscs program
and I got two F's in both courses and
this guy here just straight out dropped
up
of course there is selection bias here
and there's not much of the sample size
going on but I think it's worthwhile
realizing that even if you can get into
this degree it's really important to be
honest about the background that you do
have prior to attending if you don't
have the background knowledge even if
you try really really really hard to
catch up while taking the classes I
think it would be insanely stressful
challenging and you probably won't even
get that much out of it so yes this
degree is not for someone who doesn't
have a related background and my second
Point certainly back to what I said
earlier that what you're paying for is
they help with homework and projects I
did some pretty intense dating here
again yes selection bias but I only had
what I could find on the internet and
this is a nice little summary of The
General sentiment of students
it seems like the reason why the program
manages to be so cheap is by skimming a
bit on the amount of help they provide
you with homework and projects for my
own master's degree like 80 of the time
was on homework and projects and there
was absolutely no way I could have
managed to get through it without large
amounts of support from office hours Tas
working with other students literally
every single day as well as one-on-ones
with instructors with the difficulty
level of these classes and also much
support you'll find yourself doing a lot
of self-study the third point is more of
a call for you to do more research than
anything else and that's surrounding
career opportunities I can't find job
placements on their official website
which is a huge red flag for me because
the primary reason why people do
horse-based master's degree is to get a
better job so why would you not post
where people end up I have to rely again
on my own digging around and I don't
know how reliable these comments are on
places like Reddit or quora but it does
seem like graduates do manage to get
interviews I'm not surprised given the
reputation of this program but it's
still a little strange for them to not
officially mention job placements also
the only info that I could find were
people who became software Engineers
mostly attacked so what happens if you
want to go into data science or some
other related field so that's the thing
we don't know right if I was seriously
considering this program I would contact
a program and ask them directly for some
stats okay moving along who is this
program so I think there are two types
of people that would benefit from this
degree the first is someone who already
has a related undergrad degree in
computer science Computer Engineering
for something equivalent to that and is
self-discipline enough to stop study the
second is someone who is willing to
self-study essentially an entire
undergraduate degree by themselves
before attending the Master's Degree as
an FYI the second type of person like
honestly I've met a handful of them in
my life and this guy here who is in the
same cohort as me my master's degree is
one of if you're not sure if you're that
kind of person I suggest that you check
out the video and just kind of observe
his mindset and see if you're also
someone like that overall I think it's
really important to be honest with
yourself here ask yourself are you
really the type of person who can
self-study everything beforehand I'm
just gonna say straight out that this is
definitely not me so if I didn't already
have a master's degree in computer
science I would not recommend myself to
take this master's degree finally in a
Edition there is another group of people
who should not take this master's degree
and that group is international students
if you're not American but hope to come
to the US for a job since this is an
online program you don't get a visa and
so you don't get OBT from it so this
will not help you get a job in the U.S
all right this is my review of the OMS
CS degree I hope it was useful for you
let me know in the comments below if
you're considering this program or
you've already been through this program
I would love to get your thoughts see
you guys in the next video or live
stream
Посмотреть больше похожих видео
My Review of TRU Online Computer Science Degree
Matemática EAD Vale a Pena?
Is Computer Science still worth it?
CUET 2024 Computer Science | Most Important Topics | बस ये कर जाना | By Asmita Ma'am
Understanding U.S. Higher Education: Academic Degrees
Is a $60k Nuclear Engineering degree Worth it in 2023?
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)