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Comment by theflyingpigeon | Hacker News Reader

I have a similar trajectory. I attended two very competitive military schools in Brazil but never finished and moved to America.

Today I’m a senior software engineer at a FAANG company. The lack of diploma has never been a barrier and I progressed very quickly in the company from junior to senior (4 years).

But this has always been a perceived pain point and limiter for me so I decided to get a CS degree during COVID online from a college from Brazil. Just finished last week :)

I do look for a stronger school name on my resume and got accepted at Johns Hopkins Masters in AI (online). Anyone had any experience with that program? Thoughts?

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> Johns Hopkins Masters in AI (online)

do whichever one of these online MS which permit you to leave off the "online" part (i.e., are awarded through the conventional faculty). i'm not sure johns hopkins does but OMSCS from gatech does.

GaTech only permits OMSCS if you have a 4 year undergrad. In many countries undergrads are three years. Even you have a Master's, that is also not counted. 4 years undergrad or nothing.

Yup, in Europe I think almost every undergrad is either 3 years, or 3.5 if you are to get engineer title afterwards.

But then Masters is way more common to do afterwards compared to American system where it's rarity.

It is 4 years in Brazil. Sometimes 5.

There are 3 years non-BS degrees though.

My country only recently switched to 4-year undergrad for all streams. Previously, only Engineering had it (not counting professional degrees like Medicine, Accountancy, etc.)

> got accepted at Johns Hopkins Masters in AI (online). Anyone had any experience with that program? Thoughts?

Not worth the tuition.

GATech and UT Austin is highly respected and they only costs $6k and $10k respectively for their OMSCS.

The only online CS degree programs I can think of that are actively taught by top faculty and don't break the bank are GT, UT Austin, and UIUC.

Agree on the list, I would say GT is hardest to get in, but most inexpensive. While the later two are much easier.

I also suggest reading Dr. Joyners’ Reddit posts and books, they helped me quite a bit and I do want to reiterate that if you need help on admission and completed the EDX cs50(?) course, you can personally email him, as it’s stated on one of the last slides.

All around an amazing program that I hope to one day do, but I went the UIUC for business for now.

> I would say GT is hardest to get in, but most inexpensive. While the later two are much easier.

Regarding the acceptance rates, it's actually the opposite. GT OMSCS has a very high acceptance rate (~80%) and UIUC and UT Austin online masters are much more selective (~30%).

For break-the-bank options, Stanford and Columbia have good programs too.

If you're looking at the potential returns to a graduate degree in a high paying field, $60k spread over a few years isn't an insane investment, but yes, it is worth considering the value vs. GATech/UT Austin.

Columbia as a program isn't worth $70k in tuition, and the Columbia name doesn't open any doors that GT or UT Austin couldn't unless you live in NYC or China.

Stanford HCP is great (I've worked with plenty of their grads), but a large portion end up switching to FT because Stanford is a once in a lifetime experience.

Stanford would be interesting as well. Applications for the next cycle open in mid-September I believe.

The company I work for will pay around $10K per year, so UT Austin or GT would be fully covered, but I would have to fork some money for JHU.

Still weighing my options - and waiting for UT Austin decision.

I am in a similar boat where I never completed my degree. I am from Asia. As far as I know even if a job does not require a degree, lots of countries do require Bachelor's degree to get a work visa, for example, for USA it's either bachelor's or 3/4 years of experience per university year I think. I would appreciate if you could share your story of how you moved to America.

My move to America was not related to my work :D I got married here and that made things a lot easier. I was fortunate enough to not have the visa barrier.

I agree that most jobs don’t require a degree if one has experience, but one ends up limiting themselves on the kinds of opportunities they can get abroad (if that is something the person is interested in).

Thanks for the response!

Congrats! I am also an autodidact who desired a stronger school name on my resume after a long run in startups, so I took a senior engineering role at Johns Hopkins.

I'm not affiliated with the engineering school or familiar with their curriculum. It may not be as famous as the schools of medicine or public health, but in general they are quite good.

I had an unrelated undergrad did my MSCS online (not JHU but same idea). It was great. But if you’re already senior at FAANG I’m not sure you need further legitimacy.

The actual education can be useful. I dont think my masters degree has ever landed me job. But I would not have been able to deliver many of the things that got me a leadership position, nor be as capable as an engineer as I am today without the experience. The milage obviously varies greatly here based on where one goes.

It depends, as always. My Masters degree at a Polish (good) university was... Let's say I didn't learn anything during these three semesters and the only upside is that I have paper now.

> But if you’re already senior at FAANG I’m not sure you need further legitimacy

For rat raceing the pyramid it is still a differentiator at executive level.

Nobody wants to be held accountable, if projects go south, for having promoted to a leadership position a self taught engineer.

It's really about politics and accountability more than anything.

I absolutely agree with this, and it is my main motivation TBH. I know I’m capable of learning almost anything in my field by hands on experience, but having the advanced degree from a strong institution will help on the rat race. At the end of the day I’m competing with equally capable peers that have a degree from a good school.

So you got into one of Faang before 2020’s hype? Not surprising that you could do that without any degree. Nowadays there are so many smart guys from unis and colleges like Standord or MIT who couldn’t get into even a small company. “No degree but no problem” sounds like totally ignoring your own luck.

The current market values experience (if there's any position at all) above 0 experience leetcode black belts.

But layoffs create a market where people have both experience and good degrees.

I think attributing it to luck is a bit uncharitable. They described getting in on talent over credential. I also don't hold a degree. I've worked with a handful of Ivy League interns over the years and none of them blew me away. Certainly none were at the level I was at when I interviewed without a degree. I think I'm _fortunate_ to have gotten into the work without a degree, but it wasn't _luck_, it was ability.

I got in 2020, during COVID. But before that I was already working at a large financial services and tech company.

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