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OMSCS Open Courseware

(sites.gatech.edu)
234 points kerim-ca | 15 comments | 06 Dec 25 19:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.223s | source | bottom
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photochemsyn ◴[06 Dec 25 20:13 UTC] No.46176262[source]▶
I really can't imagine that these online degrees have any real value in the modern world of LLM-assited coding - there's no way anyone looking at a resume would think such institutional online degrees still have any value. Perhaps there is some educational value for the student, but even there the only real value is the organizational structure - you might as well form an online study group on discord for free, and get the same learning benefit, just have an LLM write up the syllabus for a course based on a good textbook, no instructor overhead needed.
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1. mym1990 ◴[06 Dec 25 20:54 UTC] No.46176518[source]▶
The OMSCS degree you get is equivalent to the in person one, so there is no way to make the distinction in an interview. I actually don’t see how people see that an experience like this brings no value, given the rigor of the assignments. One certainly would come out with a better knowledge of how things work, develop a better work ethic, and hopefully make some network connections on the way…
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2. coolThingsFirst ◴[06 Dec 25 20:59 UTC] No.46176553[source]▶
This is very debatable. The courses look like they were recorded in the 90s.

The DB course particularly sticks out. My undergrad's DB course was fathoms harder than this. This is what you'd expect a highschooler should be able to learn through a tutorial not a university course.

If it doesn't talk about systems calls like mmap, locking and the design of the buffer pool manager, it's not a university Database course it's a SQL and ER modelling tutorial.

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3. __loam ◴[06 Dec 25 21:28 UTC] No.46176744[source]▶
DB is known to be a weaker offering.

https://www.omscentral.com/

4. rybosworld ◴[06 Dec 25 21:36 UTC] No.46176793[source]▶
Respectfully, I think you should do more research.

The OMSCS program is well known and well respected in the tech industry. It's a masters degree from the currently 8th ranked computer science school in the U.S.

The university make no distinction between students who take the courses online, vs in person. I.e., the diploma's are identical.

5. StefanBatory ◴[06 Dec 25 22:10 UTC] No.46177012[source]▶
Is this a common thing to have at university? I'm from one of top universities in Poland; our database courses never included anything more than basic SQL where cursors were the absolute end. Even at Masters.
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6. dqg82 ◴[06 Dec 25 22:27 UTC] No.46177145[source]▶
OMSCS student here. You are absolutely right that the DB course is one of the weaker offerings. There is a newer Database System Implementation course, which is based on Andy Pavlo's excellent undergrad course (which is also available online), but only the first half or so of that course is covered, which is disappointing for a graduate course. In terms of the larger program, however, the two database courses are outliers and most courses are of much higher quality and definitely not undergrad level.
7. linguae ◴[06 Dec 25 23:17 UTC] No.46177511[source]▶
I’ve taken graduate-level courses in databases, including one on DBMS implementations and another on large-scale distributed systems, and I also spent two summers at Google working on Cloud SQL and Spanner. Database research goes further than DBMS implementation research. There is a lot of research on schemas, data representation, logic, type systems, and more. It’s just like how programming language research goes beyond compilers research.
8. t_mann ◴[07 Dec 25 00:27 UTC] No.46178045[source]▶
> there is no way to make the distinction in an interview

Just ask?

Some online degrees state that they're equivalent, but interviewers may still have their own opinions. I would discourage anyone from failing to mention the online nature of a degree in their CV. You're really not doing yourself a favor. A rigorous online degree is something to be proud of. I see people with PhD's proudly announcing their online course certificates on LinkedIn. However, 'discovering' that an education was of a different nature than one had assumed based on the presented materials may raise questions.

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9. mym1990 ◴[07 Dec 25 00:50 UTC] No.46178195[source]▶
This just reeks of you being insecure and thinking online education is of lower quality than in person education. Are you also pining for everyone to go back to the office? The degree GT gives you is literally the same thing as the in person degree. If GT does not make the distinction, why would I???

Here is a tip: maybe don't assume so much!

10. mym1990 ◴[07 Dec 25 00:58 UTC] No.46178241[source]▶
I don't think watching the lectures is the hurdle that anyone at OMSCS is trying to jump. The program has a pretty low graduation rate, and the tests are known to be fairly difficult, which essentially requires the student to do work outside of class or go to the resources available through GT to understand the material. I can look up the highest quality lectures on any subject on YouTube, it doesn't mean I will understand any of it without the proper legwork.

FWIW I meant the diploma is identical, the actual experience will obviously vary. Some people will get better outcomes online, some will get better outcomes in person.

11. rs186 ◴[07 Dec 25 02:17 UTC] No.46178602[source]▶
> interviewers may still have their own opinions

That says nothing other than that the interviewers have a narrow mind and/or are ignorant. OMSCS is a very well known program, and it's their problem if they don't know it.

12. redbluered ◴[07 Dec 25 04:18 UTC] No.46179112{3}[source]▶
Yes. It is. Your database course was apparently broken.
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13. StefanBatory ◴[07 Dec 25 11:08 UTC] No.46180876{4}[source]▶
I can tell you something scarier.

My specialisation was databases there.

...

Do not worry, I do not work with databases in professional life as my main aspect. But I was not given a comprehensive education, and not even once there was a focus on anything more in depth. I came out without even knowing how databases work inside.

Naturally, I know what I could do - read a good book or go through open source projects, like Sqlite. But that knowledge was not was my uni gave me...

I am jealous of American/Canadian unis in this aspect.

14. photochemsyn ◴[07 Dec 25 17:04 UTC] No.46183156[source]▶
The whole point is, if an LLM can easily complete rigoruous assignments and all the student has to do is add a little bit of personalization to the output, then has that student really learned anything? Can they evem come up with a plan to do such tasks without the LLM, even if it takes a lot longer without it?

Educational certifications in the era of LLMs are going to be increasingly meaningless without proof-of-work, and that's going to mean in-class work without access to computational aids, if you really want to evaluate a person's skill level. This of course is the coding interview rationalization - CS students have been gaming auto-graded courses created by CS professors for some decades, and now that's easier than ever.

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15. mym1990 ◴[07 Dec 25 22:52 UTC] No.46186133[source]▶
There is absolutely no way you’re passing OMSCS tests if you’re winging it on the other assignments, and the tests usually account for over 50% of the grade. Certifications you’re right about but there are ways to test knowledge without asking for code snippets.