Ranking for Masters(Online) as a Career Changer?

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Jan 17 21 Comments

Looking at GT OMSCS, UIUC MCS and ASU MCS. My pros and cons for each as follows:

GT:
Pros- Highly ranked school, dirt cheap(7k), lots of class options

Cons- Will take the longest to complete, heard mixed reviews about many classes, some material hasn’t been updated in a while

UIUC:
Pros- Highly ranked school, heard the cloud courses are great, only 8 classes required

Cons- the most expensive option(22k), limited class options

ASU:
Pros- 8 week classes(can focus on 2 courses individually in a semester), moderate amount of classes, reasonable price (15k)

Cons- seemingly not a lot of information about people who went through it, little information about if the classes were good, ranked not as strongly.

Overall I’m looking to start in the fall and will have the following courses in progress (Data Structures, Algorithms, Comp Architecture) with the following completed (Intro to CS, Discrete Math).

My goals for the program are to hopefully qualify for internships (no visa issues about working and being in an online program as I am a citizen) or possibly have better odds going through resume screening with an in progress masters.

Any advice would be appreciated!

TC: 92k
Location: Bellevue
YOE: 4

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TOP 21 Comments
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    • Blue Origin
      blueORGN

      Go to company page Blue Origin

      BIO
      Climbing the TC Ladder 76 -> 160
      blueORGN
      Yeah I don’t *personally* recommend a bootcamp either. Many, if not all, tend to focus on DSA and web development skills rather than CS theory and various specific classes like OS, Parallel systems, etc. Out of curiosity, which bootcamps were you looking at?
      Jan 17
    • HNTB
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      OP
      Originally general assembly, flatiron or the cheap option nucamp. But decided that I’d rather take a more traditional path, especially with the cost of bootcamps.
      Jan 17
  • Blue Origin
    blueORGN

    Go to company page Blue Origin

    BIO
    Climbing the TC Ladder 76 -> 160
    blueORGN
    Check out MSCSO at UT Austin, this is best for those considering a bit more of a ML specialization

    Highly Ranked, ~10K, courses get refreshed, and more
    Jan 17 1
    • HNTB
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      OP
      I looked at that one and it looks fantastic for the 10k it costs, but I don’t plan on doing a ML heavy focus so it seems like it won’t be the biggest help.
      Jan 17
  • UIUC
    Jan 17 4
  • I highly recommend ASU. I took two classes there and the material was very clear and professors provided office hours. The student body is so diverse, there are some FAANG students as well as Phds and career changers.
    Jan 17 1
    • HNTB
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      OP
      On paper I like the course selection a lot, the cost is very reasonable and I love the 8 week classes. The biggest form of hesitation for me was coming from the amount of unknown surrounding the program compared to something like OMSCS and the rank considering my undergrad and grad were at pretty “meh” universities.

      Which classes did you take?
      Jan 17
  • Cisco
    aWqA80

    Go to company page Cisco

    aWqA80
    I know this is prob super expensive (30k?) but you can look into MCIT online program at UPenn. I’m not in the program, but I am doing my masters there for other degrees and I have seen many graduates there go to faang. You can look up their courses and compare it to programs you’re interested in. Personally I think their curriculum is pretty good at preparing you for the industry
    Jan 17 1
    • HNTB
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      OP
      I thought about that one, part of the problem is I think that with all the pre-reqs I’ll have finished this semester I’ll be in the camp of “too technical” for the program. So pretty much I’d have to drop everything I’m going to start taking tomorrow and rely on that being my only choice.
      Jan 17