Ask HN: Georgia Tech CS Masters (udacity) vs. a "Hacker School"
I'm considering both options and would like to hear other people's experiences with either. Thanks!
In my case, I'm working full-time and none of the Hacker Schools are close by and I wouldn't have the opportunity to take any of them on full-time as most of them require.
I think it would be a wonderful learning opportunity and would be really cool to do, but realistically having to leave my current job to go to one of them wouldn't be a good choice for me.
I applied to the Georgia Tech Masters program back in November/December and heard back from them in late December/early January.
I didn't end up getting into the first semester that started in January, but they did give me the option of starting in either the Summer or the Fall and I chose to start in the Summer, which means I should be taking my first classes in May.
To me, this works out a lot better because since it's online I'll have a bit more freedom to be located where I am and still hopefully get to learn a lot of cool new things. Plus there's that additional benefit of having a Masters degree at the end of the process (I work for a college and to teach any of the Computer Science courses you have to have a Masters degree so if I ever want to do a little teaching in that department I'd have that opportunity to do so, since my day job is in the IT Department).
If you have any questions on how applying for the Georgia Tech program has been I'd be happy to answer as many of those questions as I can as well!
I think that I would need to take some remedial CS courses to even be eligible for the Georgia Tech program now that I look at it, and will probably go the hacker school route. Not having the masters afterwards will be a drag, but I hope that it can bring me up to competent quickly!
Good luck with teaching and thanks again for the reply!
As a recent graduate I think you might have a little more freedom to go directly to a program like that and submerge yourself deep within code for a good period and just absorb everything you can like a sponge :-).
The other nice aspect of the Hacker Schools is that it seems like they do make a good effort to place you with companies accept your skills and value you at the end of the program, which is a wonderful thing to have available. (it's tough to finish something, but then not have a decent guarantee that you can get a good position that pays well afterward).
Thank you and I hope you lots of fun if you take the Hacker School route :-).
I didn't get my undergrad in CS (instead it was Information Systems) and I feel as if there's a whole body of knowledge regarding programming that I'm totally ignorant of. I've started to think about attending some undergrad CS courses at the local University here and applying to the Georgia Tech program when I'm ready.
I would say my primary motivation was simply the cost of the program (at the estimated $7000 they've mentioned) and the fact that it didn't require any GRE scores to be submitted, which was a plus for me since I haven't taken the test.
I've been looking at a bunch of Masters programs over the past 4 years or so, mainly online ones since we don't have any local universities I could go to in person for a technology related degree, but all of them have been in the typical $30,000 range or so for the cost of the entire program and in my current position there's absolutely no financial benefit to getting a Masters.
I've been debating about getting a Masters in Business instead (since that's a local degree that is offered at a small university extended campus) but I'd definitely prefer the Computer Science route and the Georgia Tech program was the first one that really sounded like something I wanted to do.
As far as specialization, right now I'm thinking of sticking with something I'm at least somewhat familiar with so the Databases and Software Engineering one sounds like a good bet, but the others could definitely have something I might enjoy too so hopefully I'll have the option to explore one or two of the others as well.
While I started in CS for a year (and at least go a decent basic foundation in programming), my degree is also in Information Systems. I definitely share your feeling like there's a whole lot I still don't know that I missed by not fully completing the Bachelors in CS, but I think so long as you've been in some sort of development role these past few years, I believe that experience will be helpful and also allow you to directly apply what you'll start learning in the Masters program, which is another exciting aspect for me (one of the lame things in college before you really get out into the workforce is the issue of relevancy and doing things that actually matter...but when you're already working and then end up start a program like this I think the results are a whole lot better because you're able to apply things right away if you're already doing similar work).