Comment by plinkplonk | Hacker News Reader

Comment by plinkplonk | Hacker News Reader

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If I wanted to spend 10,000 $ on a CS education, I'd put some of it into the Georgia Tech online MS program [1] and still have 3k+ left. Admittedly I do have a Bachelor's degree in (non CS) engineering,so I meet their eligibility criteria.

Burning 10k for a non accredited "CS" education makes no sense. How much Computer Science you can learn in 6 months is another question. If you don't want accreditation,why not work through some CS MOOCS at edx in that time and save the 10k?

I doubt many companies will take 6 months of such "Computer Science bootcamp" seriously.

OTOH I suppose this might be better than paying for a code bootcamp. And many people do pay that much to learn barebones javascript, might as well learn some barebones 'computer science' instead. Why not?

Might be interesting to see how this turns out in a year or so.

[1] From the Georgia Tech online MS FAQ

How much does the degree program cost? Exact cost will depend on how quickly students complete the program. We anticipate that working students will take an average of two courses per term, resulting in a total program cost of about $6,600 over five terms. Students who complete their programs more quickly will pay less; those who take longer will pay more.

I'm sure the online Master's program at Georgia Tech is strong and it's certainly priced much better than an average MS in CS [1], but I think this is an apples-oranges comparison because the audiences are so different. As you mentioned, you have an engineering degree already. The overlap between people who are considering a dev bootcamp program and people that are also considering and are eligible for a Master's in CS must be a very small (or nonexistent) pool.

[1]: It's worth mentioning that one can effectively do a MS in CS at a research school for "free" with a graduate research assistant position that includes a tuition waiver. Some of these are competitive but again the pool of qualified Master's in CS candidates is relatively small to begin with.

Hi, I'm one of your unicorns! Currently attending Fullstack Academy, while I work on my GA Tech application.

I took some math and one CS class in undergrad... have messed around with algorithm study... really hoping I get in. I didn't want to pay $60k for a masters at a place like UChicago.

Where are these free masters you speak of? I don't have a lot of "accredited" classes, just a lot of self study online.

I put free in quotes because the tradeoff is that you do research for the university as part of a graduate research assistantship (GRA). Typically the position comes with a stipend as well and usually requires being a full-time student. The officially term is "tuition remission". You may receive special consideration if you attend the same university for undergrad and grad school.

Here's more info from the school I attended: https://engineering-computer-science.wright.edu/advising-and....

Ask HN: Is Georgia Tech's Online Master in CS Worth It? (1 hour ago)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15018002

I think you're making a big assumption that you'll be accepted - anecdotally I've heard that they turn away many people who meet their basic acceptance criteria unless those people have a large amount of industry experience. As a result, it's pretty apples to oranges - if you can get into GT's OMSCS you don't need Lambda School, because you're already in the field.

I wish they taught you JavaScript but I'm afraid a few of them "directly" teach you react or some library or framework.

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