I have finished the OMSCS program and in some ways I have mixed feelings about it. My background has been primarily in mathematics/statistics and I didn't come from a "tradition CS" educational background.
Did I learn a lot?
I learnt a ridiculous amount. For the time+dollar investment it is amazing. The program is definitely not easy either.
It has been amazing to learn the concepts in ML (Dr. Isbell) and AI (Dr Starner) courses and then a few weeks later think "I think I can actually use these concepts in my workplace".
Why the mixed feelings?
Not all courses had the same quality to it. From the top of my head, AI, ML were probably the best 2 courses. Other well ran courses I would add was computational photography, edutech, introduction to infosec (besides the rote learning...), however some of the other courses I had a relatively negative experience.
The degree does suck up a lot of time and I would say it is the real deal.
Knowing what I know now I can't say 100% that I will "re-do" OMSCS - to be fair on GaTech I'm not sure whether the challenges that I feel above are due to an online program and I personally would be more suited to an in-person program but the experience has definitely been better than Udacity's nanodegree and any MOOC which I have sat.
Overall I would say if you do it for the sake of learning and that alone - OMSCS is worth it. For any other reason please don't do it.
Did I learn a lot?
I learnt a ridiculous amount. For the time+dollar investment it is amazing. The program is definitely not easy either.
It has been amazing to learn the concepts in ML (Dr. Isbell) and AI (Dr Starner) courses and then a few weeks later think "I think I can actually use these concepts in my workplace".
Why the mixed feelings?
Not all courses had the same quality to it. From the top of my head, AI, ML were probably the best 2 courses. Other well ran courses I would add was computational photography, edutech, introduction to infosec (besides the rote learning...), however some of the other courses I had a relatively negative experience.
The degree does suck up a lot of time and I would say it is the real deal.
Knowing what I know now I can't say 100% that I will "re-do" OMSCS - to be fair on GaTech I'm not sure whether the challenges that I feel above are due to an online program and I personally would be more suited to an in-person program but the experience has definitely been better than Udacity's nanodegree and any MOOC which I have sat.
Overall I would say if you do it for the sake of learning and that alone - OMSCS is worth it. For any other reason please don't do it.