Comment by matchh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by matchh | Hacker News Reader

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You shouldn't be allowed in right now because with your experience you would be unlikely to succeed.

This is intended to be a serious master's degree from a top ten university for people with strong practical knowledge. Unless you are a brilliant student, it will be very hard for you to pass the initial courses - those required to continue - especially because you probably will not be doing this full time. It's unlikely that you're a brilliant student because you chose to study journalism. I made the same mistake.

Udacity failed in their first attempt at accredited online courses with San Jose State. This was attributed to unprepared students with full time jobs.

Georgia Tech can't accept this. So for the demonstration classes over the next few years, they'll carefully choose the most motivated and capable people from all over the world.

That said, MOOCs likely respect the work of other MOOCs, and there are lots of courses on programming available. Udacity already has great ones (i'm currently taking debugging), and even these can be difficult to complete on time.

So it seems like using these to develop the discipline to complete the courses will be perfect preparation for you to take the Master's.

And when they begin to accept more students, they'll likely start looking closely at those who show demonstrated aptitude for working through online courseware.

heh. > It's unlikely that you're a brilliant student because you chose to study journalism. I made the same mistake.

i don't see the line of logic there, but oh well.

i just signed up with the course era python course, and i'll probably do a few more of those courses. So you think several of those in conjunction with full time programming will get me ready for a master's (or any other degree?) in a year or so?

Man, don't let people discourage you.

I guess the thing that you should realize though is that this isn't a degree in computer programming, or IT - it's a more or less a mathematics degree. As the saying goes, "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."

If you want to get ready for serious computer science, I'd recommend a few things which are what I think I got out of my undergraduate degree:

1. A solid understanding of algorithms and data-structures. To this end, topcoder.com/tc is invaluable and some serious study will quickly bring you up to speed. CLRS (Introduction to Algorithms) is a great resource, as is train.usaco.org.

2. A basic understanding of theoretical computer science. To that end, I found this a really useful book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321455363

3. Basic understanding of networking and operating systems. Not sure the best route here, there must be online courses. Not too many great self-study books in this area, unfortunately. So find some online courses.

4. A decent math background: linear algebra, calculus, combinatorics, and probability. For self study:

    Calculus: Stewart's Calculus is great.

    Linear Algebra: I've yet to meet a linear algebra text I liked, so not sure here.

    Probability: A First Course in Probability is an outstanding textbook.

    Other: Concrete Mathematics by Knuth is an incredible book, very VERY hard and took me a long time to get through, but packed with useful and interesting information. I'd recommend it after the rest of these.

5. Read Snow Crash and watch Hackers.

Also, keep writing lots of code. Daily practice is the secret to everything.

No, don't let people ever discourage you. That wasn't my intention.

I think I responded to myself and my friends j-school, all poor students with the wrong expectations. Largely journalism attracts and employs careless and self-righteous people, so I was a good fit.

In engineering though there isn't alot of room for that. And the opportunity before us is unprecedented, to build our capacity to do something special with our work.

And there's a risk that because it's so easy to sign up and get started, it'll be just as easy to fail and never try again, or worse get nothing out of it.

I've spoken to some people involved in program at Georgia Tech, and they're advice is to take other online courses because skills transfer. Plus they make us much better at what we do.

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