georgia tech omscs thesis

Studying Experiences of Graduate Students in Computer Science: the GT OMSCS Program

PIs: Julia Melkers and Ruth Kanfer

The Dr. Melkers and the ROCS team, in collaboration with the Dr. Ruth Kanfer and her doctoral students in the PARK Lab (School of Psychology, Georgia Tech), is working on an on-going suite of research projects to assess the experience and outcomes of working adults enrolled in the GT Online Master’s Program in Computer Science (OMSCS). The Georgia Tech OMSCS program has been a leader and innovator in implementing the first exclusively online graduate program in computing from an accredited university for a fraction of the cost of traditional, residential programs. Through support of the College of Computing, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and other internal support, our interdisciplinary team has been able to build a set of cumulative research inquiries that build upon one another. 

• Development and implementation of a new conceptualization and measures aimed at assessing adult learner self-efficacy and other student experiences in the context of an online degree program in computing. 
• Study of degree strategies via course-sequencing analysis.
• Examination of working adult experiences as OMSCS TA’s in furthering their own professional development.
• Study of the impacts of COVID on the OMSCS student experience highlighting the intersectional challenges among working adults who are balancing school/learning, home and work lives and obligations.  
• Student-driven research on a thesis (self-regulated learning) and dissertation (career-networks/social capital as a foundation for deciding to pursue OMSCS) have also extended the inquiry of our team.  
• Other work in progress include addressing the OMSCS experience of groups traditionally underrepresented in the information technology field (women and people of color); and the real-world consequences of online graduate training on learning attitudes and career development through a study of alumni.   

Click here to learn more about the Kanfer lab Click here to learn more about OMSCS

Publications  * = student author

Ruthotto*, Isabel, Quintin Kreth*, and Julia Melkers. “Entering or advancing in the IT labor market: The role of an online graduate degree in computer science.” The Internet and Higher Education  (2021): 100820.

Ruthotto*, Isabel, Quintin Kreth*, Jillian Stevens*, Clare Trively*, and Julia Melkers. “Lurking and participation in the virtual classroom: The effects of gender, race, and age among graduate students in computer science.” Computers & Education  151 (2020): 103854.

Goodman, Joshua, Julia Melkers, and Amanda Pallais. “Can online delivery increase access to education?.”  Journal of Labor Economics  37, no. 1 (2019): 1-34.

Kreth*, Quintin, Mary Eve Spirou*, Sarabeth Budenstein*, and Julia Melkers. “How prior experience and self-efficacy shape graduate student perceptions of an online learning environment in computing.” Computer Science Education  29, no. 4 (2019): 357-381.

Working Papers/Under Review

Tatel*, C.E., Lyndgaard*, S.F., Kanfer, R., & Melkers, J.E. (in prep). Course Choice and Timing in Adult Online Skill Training: A Profile Approach to Differential Patterns of Successful Learning Management.

Lyndgaard*, S.F., & Kanfer, R. (in prep). A socio-cognitive framework of adult online learning: Integrating interpersonal, intrapersonal, and cognitive learning strategies.

Lyndgaard*, S.F., Tatel*, C.E., Kanfer, R., Melkers, J.E., & Sabree*, J. (submitted). The hidden cost of COVID: Consequential effects for the development of a diverse STEM workforce.

Pham, V. & Lyndgaard, S.F. (Nov, 2021).  Gender Differences in Affect During Online Learning: A Sentiment Analysis Approach. To be presented at  American Psychological Association, Technology, Mind, and Society Annual Conference

Lyndgaard, S.F., & Kanfer, R. Working Adults as Self-Regulated Learners: Strategy Use in    Online Skill Training. Poster at the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA. April 2021.

Lyndgaard, S.F., Tatel, C.E., Kanfer, R., Melkers, J.E., & Sabree, J.E. COVID-19 and Exacerbation of Disparities in Computing: Work and Upskilling Attitudes. Poster at the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA. April 2021.

Tatel*, C.E., Lyndgaard*, S.F., Kanfer, R., & Melkers, J.E. A Profile Approach to Differential Patterns of Successful Learning Management. Poster at the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA. April 2021.

Panels/Presentations

Melkers, J.E., Kanfer, R., Lyndgaard, S.F., Ruthotto*, I., & Tatel8, C.E. Transforming Graduate STEM Education: Challenges and Observations from the Study of a US Large Online Master’s Programme. Panel session at the NOS-HS funded workshop “Understanding Digital Transformations of Teaching and Learning in Nordic Higher Education”, Atlanta, GA (remote). March 2021.

Kanfer, Ruth, Julia Melkers, David Joyner, Sibley Lyndgaard*, Isabel Ruthotto*, David Schiff* and Corey Tatel*. “Using Online Technologies to Build Computing Skills That Meet Future Workforce Needs.” Panel Organizer, Chair, and Presenter (of 7 sessions). Interactive Panel Presentation at the Technology, Mind and Society (APA) Conference. Washington, DC.  October 2019.

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Georgia Tech's OMSCS FAQ (based on my experience)

[ learning omscs 🔥 ] · 15 min read

I’ve received many questions about Georgia Tech’s Online Master’s of Science in Computer Science ( OMSCS ), especially since I graduated last year.

• Whys : Why further studies? Why OMSCS?
• Hows : How can I get accepted? How much time required?
• Whats : What classes were good? What’s the difference after graduating?

Most questions were similar. Thus, with Gab’s suggestion, I decided to write this FAQ for people considering Georgia Tech’s OMSCS. It’ll be updated as I receive more questions .

If you’ve already been accepted and have/get second thoughts—don’t! Finish the program, it’s worth it.

Table of Contents

Why did you pursue a master’s in cs, how much did it cost, how did you get the three recommendations.

• Is an online degree as good as an in-person one?
• I don’t have a technical background, will I be able to complete it?

How can I maximise my chances of getting into OMSCS (or any program)?

What were the classes you took, which were your favourite classes what do you not recommend, how can i get the most out of omscs, how much time did you spend (on omscs), wow, that’s a lot of time, how did you manage it, what did you gain from omscs, do you get more interviews and job offers now, with a master’s in cs, did it help you get a better job, how can i ask more questions.

This question is sometimes tied to the topic of career: “Why did you do a Master’s in CS, given that you were already a data scientist (before you started) ?”

Today, many bootcamps tout themselves as the path to lucrative roles in software engineering and data science. As a result, career advancement has become the key reason for further education. While OMSCS did help with my career , it was not my reason for it.

Back in 2017, most of my programming and data science skills came from self-learning and work experience. I lacked the fundamentals and required a structured program to pick them up. After considering several options (MOOCs, bootcamps), I decided that a Master’s in CS would best fill this gap and thus took the plunge.

First, it’s value for money . In 2017, it was estimated to cost 7 - 8k USD. It’s hard to find a Master’s in CS of similar calibre even close to this price. (Something slightly different, but also value for money in CS education is Lambda School ).

The fees for my final term was USD$841. Given that I took 9 terms, this worked out to around 8k USD. To make it more affordable, I was able to get a 5k SGD scholarship from the Singapore government .

Second, I could do it part-time . I was, and still am, hungry for learning and growth. The industry was progressing so fast and I didn’t want to miss any of it. In 2015 it was all about big data and Spark ( time capsule of the first Spark MOOC). Then, data science . After that, machine learning . Next, deep learning and its various flavours (e.g., CNN, RNN, GAN). Now, it’s how to deploy and maintain and get business value from machine learning systems. OMSCS allowed me to straddle industry and academia.

BTW, the technology (and buzzwords) change over time, but the problems remain the same—focus on the problems.

Third, Georgia Tech is a top 10 school for CS and Engineering across many rankings . This gave me assurance that I would gain from the pedagogy and classes. Now that I’ve graduated, I can confidently say the professors and pedagogy are top-notch.

See the first paragraph of Why OMSCS?

OMSCS requires applicants to provide three references (to get recommendations from). For applicants that graduated (and left school) a while back, this can be difficult.

I think non-academic references work as well. For me, my thesis advisor helped with one recommendation, while my current and previous bosses provided the other two. Several other friends also had non-academic references and got accepted.

Is an online education as good as an in-person one?

While I had initial doubts, these were quickly put to rest within the first few weeks. Online education has several benefits and aspects that facilitate learning.

First, all lectures are on-demand . They have to be, given a global cohort. Being able to watch 3 - 4 hour lectures in chunks—on my schedule—allowed me to effectively balance work and school.

Second, asynchronous discussions on forums and slack are a gift of technology. By having to think through and write questions and responses, the quality of discussion is raised. With discussion logs, we can search(!). We no longer have to worry about missing an important announcement from the Prof or TAs. When angels descend from heaven (read: TAs) to help struggling students on the assignment (due tomorrow), we can refer to the advice and hints on forums and slack, even if we were not part of the discussion.

Third, assignments ensure you learn by doing (or die trying). Most OMSCS classes were assignment heavy; working through them taught me 10x of the lectures. You really need to grok the theory and concepts to land your rocket , compete in the class Kaggle , or build your EdTech product .

(Now, I wholeheartedly recommend online learning over in-person learning.)

I don’t have a technical degree, will I be able to complete it?

I didn’t have a technical degree either and was able to complete it (without too much trauma).

Other than the ability to learn , the key requirement is the ability to write code , mostly Python . If you can do this, you’ll be fine for most of the machine learning classes (i.e., ML, RL, AI, CV, ML4T).

Here’s a more specific guideline: Are you able to build prototypes and iterate through experiments quickly? In some classes, you’ll submit code to an grading server Bonnie where test cases are run against it (e.g., Intro to OS, ML4T). In others, you’ll build an agent and pit it against the Prof or TA’s implementation (e.g., AI, RL), also on Bonnie. (Don’t worry, they don’t make it too hard).

Most of my classes used Python , but there were classes where I got to learn something new: Software Development Process ( Android ), Intro to Health Informatics ( Java ), and Intro to OS ( C , C++ ).

Other than being able to write code, you need to be able to write papers . Most of my classes involved 3 - 4 papers (ML, RL) or short summaries every two weeks (HCI, EdTech, IHI). Writing these papers is not difficult in the regular sense of writing—there’s no need to make it interesting to read. Nonetheless, you’ll need to demonstrate your ability to research and apply the concepts taught.

I’ll answer this via my interpretation of the two essay questions I received, and suggest how to answer them.

Qn 1: Please describe your background (academic and extracurricular) and experience, including research, teaching, industry, and other relevant information. Your space is limited to 2000 characters.

My interpretation: “What has prepared you for this program? Please demonstrate your ability to complete it.”

Convince them you have what it takes to complete and do well in the program. Even if you don’t have a technical degree (like me), you can draw on your industry or other experience.

Qn 2: Please give a Statement of Purpose detailing your academic and research goals as well as career plans. Include your reasons for choosing the College of Computing as opposed to other programs and/or other universities. Your space is limited to 4000 characters.

This has two questions, one in each sentence. The second sentence is easier: “Why Georgia Tech? Please show that you have researched this.”

This is straightforward. Research on OMSCS and figure out why it’s the most appropriate program for you. Perhaps in the process, you find another program that’s more suitable, or realise that further education doesn’t suit you now. This is a win-win: You don’t start an unsuitable program, OMSCS doesn’t take a candidate that might drop out, and another applicant gets the slot.

Now the first sentence. I read it as: “Why are you interested in a CS post-grad degree? How will you apply it? How will you contribute while at Georgia Tech, and after graduation?”

Demonstrate how further education in CS (or any other subject) is aligned with your career goal, or better yet, your calling. I answered by sharing about my mission and what I intended to pursue after graduation. (Oh, how naive I was about health tech back then.)

(Note: My interpretation is but one of many definitions of Statement of Purpose ; take it with a pinch of salt.)

Another perspective is to view the admission essays as a job/college admission interview, but in prose. As an interviewer , what would you be interested in? Here’s what I would ask:

• What makes you qualified for this program?
• Why are you interested in this program?
• How will you contribute while in the program, and after completing it?

If you address the questions above, your admission essay should be on the right track. While it doesn’t guarantee acceptance, it means your precious character counts are put to good use.

Read my (embarrassing) application essays here .

You can find them under the omscs tag . I’ll list it here again, just for you.

Machine Learning

• CS7641: Machine Learning
• CS7642: Reinforcement Learning
• CS6601: Artificial Intelligence
• CS6476: Computer Vision
• CS7646: Machine Learning for Trading

Engineering

• CS6200: Introduction to Operating Systems
• CS6300: Software Development Process
• CS6750: Human-Computer Interaction
• CS6460: Education Technology
• CS6440: Intro to Health Informatics

I enjoyed classes that involved hands-on implementation, as well as writing heavy classes from a particular Prof. Some recommendations:

ML + RL: Profs Charles Isbell and Michael Littman banter throughout class lectures while dropping knowledge on making machines learn. The pedagogical approach: tough-love. I had to build prototypes, run a lot of experiments, and report them succinctly in papers. The papers (4 per term) focused on how to replicate breakthrough papers and conduct ML research. I found this extremely fun and gained a cherished skill (more below ).

AI: This is not “AI” as how most people perceive it now. Instead, it covered adversarial search (e.g., game playing), search (e.g., route planning), bayesian networks, decision trees, expectation maximisation, and HMMs in 6 projects (brutal).

The mid-term and final were 7-day, take-home, open-book, 30+ page exams—it’s clear the intent wasn’t evaluation, but for students to learn more by working through the questions (more tough love). TAs conceive new questions every term and it was fun watching the live broadcast of Prof Thad Starner tackling the papers himself (he’s a beast). Together, the assignments and exams ensure that you’ll learn a lot.

There’s feedback that the lectures only teach 10% of what’s required for the assignments and exam. Here’s Thad explaining the class pedagogy (also applies to most of OMSCS):

”… The lectures are indeed high level as per Sebastian Thrun’s suggestion of teaching intuition in lecture and details in the assignments (this method is also advocated by Richard Feynman, whose lectures I try to emulate somewhat). …” – Thad’s full views in the comments section here

HCI + EdTech: David Joyner is an awesome Prof who has clearly put a lot of thought and effort into online teaching. I loved HCI and EdTech. The classes are very well-organized (not synonymous with structured ) and a model of online education. It’s heavier on writing papers and depending on your project, lighter on writing code. I learnt a lot about building useful products and interfaces. A bad interface makes good engineering and machine learning pointless; a good one tucks away complexity and enhances what goes on behind.

Intro to OS: For me, this was the hardest class out all all classes I took. I had to learn C and C++ while working on the assignments. I had one class remaining and thought, what the heck, might as well try something out of my comfort zone. I regretted (that foolhardiness) two weeks into the class. But looking back, I’ve learned so much about operating systems, multithreading, inter-process communication, distributed interactions, etc. Highly recommended . The TAs and peer discussion made this class exceptional.

What I would not recommend: IHI. It was useful for me (due to my interest in healthcare) but less than what I expected . People not interested in healthcare probably won’t gain much from it.

Do the assignments . Can’t stress this enough. I attribute 90% of my learning to the assignments and this is likely what the Profs intended. Quoting Prof Thad (of AI) again:

”… The lectures are indeed high level as per Sebastian Thrun’s suggestion of teaching intuition in lecture and details in the assignments (this method is also advocated by Richard Feynman, whose lectures I try to emulate somewhat). …” – Thad Starner

Engage with your peers (including TAs) through forums, slack, etc. Much of my learning came from classmates. It also tided me through torturous assignments where we became comrades in arms, celebrated each small test-case win, and popped the (imaginary) champagne after the final exam. (In some classes, actual alcohol was involved.)

Don’t try to cram it . I found it almost impossible to take two classes at once (though you’re likely smarter). Thus, I had eight single-class terms, and one term with ML4T and IHI. During the double-class term, I felt that I would have learnt more if it was just a single class. I certainly couldn’t have taken another class together with IOS, ML, RL, AI, CV, and EdTech, and wouldn’t have learnt half as much.

It varies each week; I would say I spent an average of 20+ hours per week. Some weeks I get lucky and figure out the assignments almost immediately (4 - 8 hours); some weeks I get stuck or have to learn a new programming language (30+ hours). I’m considered a slow learner so you’ll probably need less time.

(Truth be told, if I travelled back in time and was offered OMSCS again, I might have second thoughts. It’s a great program and I gained a lot . Nonetheless, the effort required was tremendous and some classes were pull-your-hair-out difficult (for me); I’m looking at you—IOS, AI, RL, ML, CV.)

I have a very understanding family and wife (then girlfriend) who allowed me space to study on weeknights and weekends. Also, I don’t have much of a social life haha…

I gained—and cherish—the ability to replicate and implement research papers. Or more generally, how to convert research, theory, and papers into working code. This is essential at work and allows me to stand on the shoulders of giants and achieve fast baselines. The results are often surprisingly good, even with different ML techniques and applied in different domains.

(Aside: I believe there’s a limited set of problem formulations and the domain doesn’t matter as much as we think. Nonetheless, there are very domain-specific applications such as self-driving cars.)

Here are some curated papers on how businesses applied machine learning to solve problems, with methodology and results. (150+ papers and counting.)

I also gained more depth in ML fundamentals, and breadth in subjects outside of ML. OMSCS provided a structured environment to learn: Android (SDP), operating systems (Intro to OS), how to build useful products and interfaces (HCI), and tech in education and healthcare (EdTech, IHI). It may come across as too much generalisation, but I thoroughly enjoyed the classes and it made me a more well-rounded data scientist .

Overall, I gained (i) the ability to implement papers, (ii) slightly more depth, and (iii) significantly more breadth. This gave me more confidence (darn you imposter syndrome) and capability to build ML systems end-to-end: business context -> problem statement -> R&D -> integration with engineering & product -> deployment and measurement.

Sadly, yes. Many recruiters (and hiring managers) still want candidates to have certain education qualifications for reasons such as demonstration of past ability, human resource job band requirements (read: bureaucracy), etc. (Why “sadly” ? Because these requirements don’t make sense. I believe—and have observed—that a person’s educational qualifications have little to zero correlation with ability and results at work.)

I didn’t do an A/B test by submitting two resumes, one with my Master’s in CS and one without. But relative to my previous job searches, I think I got 2 - 5x more interviews (normalized by application count).

Yes. I recently joined Amazon and moved from Singapore to Seattle. For this, I needed a US visa, which requires applicants to have a STEM degree. With my previous Psychology degree, I would not have made the cut. Thus, the Master’s in CS was critical. But bear in mind that this is a single anecdote of a single job change by a single person.

IMHO, I think that on my visa application, only three terms mattered: “Amazon”, “Georgia Tech”, “Fragomen”.

Reply on this tweet thread or comment below!

I’ve received many qns about Georgia Tech’s OMSCS, especially since graduation. • Why further studies? Why OMSCS? • How can I get accepted? How much time needed? • What classes were good? What career impact? Shared my responses here; more qns welcome. https://t.co/xW4ack02SE — Eugene Yan (@eugeneyan) July 29, 2020

Thanks to Yang Xinyi for reading drafts of this.

If you found this useful, please cite this write-up as:

Yan, Ziyou. (Jul 2020). Georgia Tech's OMSCS FAQ (based on my experience). eugeneyan.com. https://eugeneyan.com/writing/georgia-tech-omscs-faq/.

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James Kerti

JamesKerti.com

Why I joined and left OMSCS at Georgia Tech

August 2, 2019 By James Kerti

Note added 2 August 2019

Two years ago I published this rather long post describing my experience in the OMSCS program at Georgia Tech. As I wrote it on my personal blog, which has few regular readers, I did not anticipate that one day this post would show up on the first page of Google searches for OMSCS.

I’m leaving this post up but I want to be clear that it reflects my personal experience in the program more than two years ago.

While I left due to OMSCS not being the right fit for me, I would in general recommend the program to someone looking to further their career and computer science education.

I spent the recent fall and spring semesters enrolled in the Online Master of Science, Computer Science (OMSCS) program at Georgia Tech . I decided near the end of the second semester that the program and I weren’t the right fit for one another.

I made the decision to withdraw.

I hope to provide some helpful information for anyone considering the program and wondering whether it fits their goals. Before I get into discussing that decision and the program in general, I want to share a little more about my background in this area.

I graduated from Villanova University in 2009 with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. I found employment at a few software jobs before and after graduation. For the last several years, I worked as a freelance web developer.

My interest and background in sports pushed me in the direction of research and analysis. Some exposure to the world of data science made me realize I had real interest in studying it.

After teaching myself some of the basics using books and online resources, I felt like a more formal education in the subject could be quite valuable — both as a tool for structured, accelerated learning and for the sake of having the credential.

During my research I came across the OMSCS program, which seemed like a dream come true.

Roughly $7,000 for a genuine Master’s degree.

Learn from the real professors and university resources at one of the top computer science schools in the country.

Get in on the cutting edge of something refreshing and forward-thinking in education.

So I applied. And I got in.

(One thing I want to reflect on real quick — when I enrolled in undergrad at Villanova, I was an 18-year-old who was doing what he thought he was supposed to do — go to college, get the piece of paper. The education part of it didn’t linger much in my mind. I reversed my priorities this time around. Learning mattered more to me than the credential.)

Before I talk about my experience as a student, I want to say a couple things about my feelings toward the program in general after having left it:

• I really appreciate what they’re trying to do. The partnership with Udacity represents a step forward for education in general. Their effort to make the program affordable also goes a long way to opening up opportunities for people to learn and advance their careers.
• The professors are the real deal. I didn’t feel like there was any downgrade in instructor expertise compared to in-person classes.
• I feel grateful I enrolled. I performed well academically, “met” interesting people, and had a positive experience overall. More on this near the end.

I also want to make it clear that I can only share my personal experience here. I only enrolled for two semesters. Other courses might be different. Your mileage with the program may vary.

The basic structure works like this.

1) Udacity hosts the standard lecture videos for the class. Lectures often include (ungraded) quiz questions throughout to encourage you to pay attention and understand the material as you watch the lecture. (You can actually watch these lectures without enrolling. Go ahead and sample them yourself to get an idea of what to expect.)

2) Piazza serves as the online discussion board for the class. The students, TAs, and instructor use it as a primary tool for communication regarding questions and assignments.

3) T-Square hosts assignment instructions and other downloadable resources, usually PDFs. It also serves as a portal for submitting your work.

4) Exams are proctored using ProctorTrack. Basically you set up a webcam and microphone in a quiet space. You have a specified amount of time — 90 minutes, two hours, etc. — to complete the exam during what usually amounts to a three-day Friday through Sunday window. Any time during those three days, you can choose to sit down and take your exam. It’s like an in-person exam otherwise — don’t talk, don’t get up, don’t look around like you’re trying to cheat.

5) Most things happen on a weekly basis. Students have lectures to watch, material to read, homework to do each week. The exact days and times during the week they choose to do those things is up to them. Aside from scheduled optional office hours, there’s no need to be anywhere at a specific time. It works pretty well around your schedule.

That structure works fine. While some students occasionally shared problems they had with the software, I never had any issues.

(I’ll concede that experiencing software issues while trying to take an exam must be really stressful. There were some meltdowns and freakouts on the discussion board. I feel grateful to not have encountered any issues myself.)

While the software and basic structure worked pretty well, some challenges came up pretty consistently across the courses I took.

The pre-recorded nature of the lectures gives them the advantage of polish and convenient access for the students. No need to be in classroom at a particular day or time. Go through them at your own pace. Good things.

However, in the classes I took, the lectures were created by someone other than the current instructor. This disconnect brought a couple challenges.

The current instructor had his own perspective about what he wanted to cover in the course — and in what order to present. Instead of going through the lectures in the order in which they appeared in Udacity, students went through them in a different order that fit the current instructor’s plans for the curriculum.

Sometimes it caused confusion. It became more difficult to track our weekly schedule. Covering pre-recorded material in a different order than its creator intended left gaps in understanding.

One instructor created additional supplemental content which he posted on YouTube to cover things not in the original lectures. While this content provided extra value, it also obscured what we were expected to be watching and learning each week.

The situation also meant the current instructor lacked the level of intimate familiarity with the lectures (and included quizzes) that the original creator surely had.

It sometimes meant the instructor expected us to use a specific method or go about solving a problem in a particular way that differed from what the lecture creator presented. This disconnect caused confusion and miscommunications and created extra work for everyone involved.

Miscommmunication and confusion.

I felt like those two characteristics appeared among the most consistent themes of the program for me.

It felt like students frequently lost important information in translation on the online discussion board compared to what could have been more easily communicated and clarified in-person. The highly technical nature of the computer science material surely contributed.

Teaching assistants and instructors frequently answered student questions on the discussion board in ways that failed to provide the necessary amount of clarity.

Sometimes their responses even caused more confusion than previously existed.

I could share several stories, but one incident sticks with me most.

A student asked a question about a challenging homework problem we faced.

She wanted to know what level of detail the instructor expected us to go into in solving a problem. Did we have to do the entire thing by hand in great detail, or was using a shorter, known method we learned in the lecture sufficient?

This question represented a big deal because solving the problem by hand involved using fairly advanced calculus many students had not taken in years (or at all). Furthermore, this class did not list such calculus as a prerequisite.

(I’ll note at this point that this type of situation became very common in this class. Vaguely worded assignments left students guessing. The instructor, for reasons I did not understand, did not engage with students in addressing these concerns, instead opting to let students figure it out for themselves, docking points after the fact if students didn’t read the instructor’s mind.)

A TA responded that no, students could not use the shorter method and must use the calculus.

Meanwhile, the instructor himself remained silent.

Cue a panic as students started desperately trying to learn the necessary calculus while figuring out how to do the rest of the assignment.

The instructor then appeared in an office hours session three days later to say that no, in fact the rigorous method involving the calculus was not necessary, and the shorter version would be perfectly sufficient.

But then … oh no.

A few days later, in his weekly update on the discussion board, the instructor acknowledged the confusion and asserted that — yes — in fact the rigorous version involving the calculus would be necessary.

This 360-degree circle of confusion spread over an entire week spent trying to simply understand in what way to answer the first question, on whose solution the other five questions depended.

This story offers one of the more extreme but representative examples of the type of miscommunication that plagued the classes I took.

I often felt like I spent vastly more time trying to resolve these gaps in communication than actually learning the material. I found this balance to be incredibly frustrating at times.

Because I never had an experience like this one in my in-person undergraduate and graduate studies at Villanova, I can’t help but wonder if the frequency and magnitude of these challenges uniquely exists in an online program

Now I’ll repeat what I said earlier about my intention in joining OMSCS:

“I felt like a more formal education in the subject could be quite valuable, both as a tool for structured, accelerated learning and for the sake of having the credential.”

It seemed to me that I spent a fairly small portion of my weekly education time and energy on learning the content through the provided materials.

Instead, I spent the bulk of my time trying to:

1) Do extra learning on my own, hunting down other resources, to resolve gaps and incongruencies between the original created lecture material and the current instructor’s expectations. At times I watched several hours of video on YouTube and non-OMSCS MOOCs to clarify outstanding questions about four minutes of an OMSCS lecture I watched.

2) Resolve communication difficulties so I could make sure I learned the right things and completed assignments properly.

I felt like too much of a disappointing gap existed between the progress I made in learning the material and the speed at which I hoped to learn.

So I decided to leave the program because we weren’t the right fit for one another.

I’ve been continuing to do a lot of independent learning on my own. I feel like I’m learning more efficiently and effectively in this way.

As someone who’s already been working as a freelancer for several years, the credential doesn’t mean as much to me as it might to someone else.

The program probably is a good fit for someone who:

1) Feels more comfortable learning in an environment that provides a structured curriculum with an instructor.

2) Craves an introduction to interesting ideas and material in computer science to which they might not otherwise have an encounter.

3) Recognizes that earning the degree would bring a lot of extra value to their career.

I hope this post provides some value and guidance to someone exploring the program and wondering whether it is the right fit for him or her.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me .

Digital strategist and systems specialist, poet, former basketball scout, technically a politician.

Reader Interactions

November 22, 2018 at 7:10 am

Thanks for your post. It provides me with quite a lot information about this program.

I am living in China and graduated from Chinese top university with major in Mechanical Engineering. Despite my major, I have been working as a server software engineer for near three years at Tencent. I am trying to know more about this program, your post truly helps.

December 11, 2018 at 10:31 am

Hello James,

It sounds like the class you had difficulty with was Data Visualization and Analytics (DVA). I was in the class that same semester. It was easily the worst class I took in the program, and I ended up withdrawing from it. I am sorry you had to endure that.

I can assure you that the vast majority of the classes are handled much better than DVA (with some exceptions). I’m about to graduate this month, and I am very pleased with the quality of 9/10 of the courses that I completed.

December 11, 2018 at 12:05 pm

You are correct. No, it did not make for a good experience.

I’m glad to hear your experience on the whole was better. Congrats on being on the verge of graduating!

May 6, 2019 at 3:29 am

Great post James! Appreciate the time you have taken to write this!

July 4, 2019 at 7:56 pm

Thank you James Kreti. This post is a great help to me.

August 1, 2019 at 12:13 pm

Just a quick update two years on for anyone curious: this course was actually completely re-done from scratch not long after that semester, based in part on the feedback we received.

-David, person who works on the program 🙂

August 5, 2019 at 4:35 am

Prof. Jonyer, I really love how you take care of such details and try to answer all posta

and to share my experience I took 2 courses till now and they were very good (other than some small technical issues in the 2nd course)

overall I think such program gives us the chance to get a degree also learn the right way

so for me its better than MOOCs and Online courses ..etc (I also take alot of online courses) and i actually do think online courses are very good thing, but they are not as good as having someone in person to guide you

October 17, 2019 at 7:51 pm

Wow, I like your course for the Python!

October 11, 2019 at 8:00 pm

I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. Your feedback made the class better! So, thank you for the feedback!

I took the remade DVA by Dr. David Joyner and loved it. I learned the derivation of logistic regression. The calculus bit wasn’t too bad. I graduated from GT and had good experience with 1o of the classes I took (Most of the classes I took were related to ML/AI and Computational Perception).

I am happy you found a better learning method. I wish you all the best in your continuing learning!

February 22, 2020 at 4:24 am

I also quit the program. Before starting the program, I wrote a personal plan about what classes I would like to take. In my first semester, I got the class I wanted which was Computational Photography. In my second semester, NONE of the classes that I wanted were available. I started panicking: ALL the classes available were not in my plan. It had only “Advanced …”, or classes that I’ve never heard about before. I was waitlisted to one class that I would love to take and my position was #836 lol. End of story: I did not take this class. So, I took one class that I would be more familiar with… KBAI. I know it has the word AI, but not related to AI you saw in undergrad. I know It’s my fault, but when I’m not interested in something, I don’t put effort into it. I feel it’s a waste of time, energy, etc. I work fulltime and I really enjoy my job. Every time I was home, I was feeling very tired just to think of this class. So, I decided to quit.

March 20, 2020 at 12:14 pm

Like some here, I spent a lot of time doing extra learning on my own in order to complete homework and assignments because the course material was insufficient. Some courses were a normal graduate workload of about 3-4 hours per week per credit. Others were ridiculous 20-30 hours per week for 1 class. I couldn’t take it anymore and I quit the program after 5 of 10 courses. I have a full time job and kids who missed their mom. I gained 30 pounds from the stress and sitting still. I really wish I could have finished. It bothers me to not finish. I also experienced big problems getting the classes I wanted. KBAI was a total waste of time and was the straw that broke this camel’s back.

May 5, 2020 at 3:49 am

Fun. There are probably 4-5 courses in the program that are not available after you’ve taken 1 class. You either (a) missed your time ticket for registering, (b) cannot endure sitting some time on the wait list, (c) had severe misunderstanding about how the system works. Either way, it’s hard to blame the program for that. P.S. KBAI is a trash course though, I agree.

July 1, 2020 at 3:02 pm

I just finished my first semester at GT, and I was in the wait list. I din’t get in until 2 days before register end. OMG!! After finished my semester I was feel very tired want to take a break. A lot of work load but fun with my team work. I hope I able to get in to class that my list on my second semester.

June 4, 2020 at 6:53 am

James, Thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping this post up! While I have been battling the Georgia Tech administration for the past 20 months to be able to continue in OMSCS, it has been infinitely reassuring to see that there’s at least one other poor slob out there who couldn’t read the TA’s mind.

You were wise to get out after two semesters. I stayed in for 5 semesters, until they finally succeeded in kicking me out over an exam issue that was not my fault.

My blog is coming next. I don’t have the URL yet, but the title will be: “One Woman’s Nightmare in the Georgia Tech OMSCS Program” Please keep an eye out for it!

June 26, 2020 at 2:59 pm

Some TA’s are really good but some are mediocre and its really hard to get the problems regraded even though we gave them right answers. I chose and left the program only because of poor grading structure and huge class sizes becomes impossible for professors to respond in timely manner. If we lose a point , TA is clue less and there is no way to talk to professors or head TA. If we argue there is a way our work will be flagged and i feel this is a key aspect in grading assignments and will be left out at their mercy. I feel in general its ook but there needs lot of improvement on grading and providing efficient feedback .

June 30, 2020 at 9:12 am

I am into my second semester of CS and I am convinced OMS is just a money factory for GATech and little to no academic oversight.

James I will say that the professors or teachers so far are non existent.. On two classes by W Lee not once he has responded to students with anything meaningful. You many know or be an expert on a particular subject, but that does not make you a teacher or professor!

TA’s here are the “professors here, they run the class and bully everyone. The current CS-6262 is the worse class I have seen in my life. The projects are poorly written, have errors, omissions and TA’s (Muktar) response it to ask in Piazza. Why can the fix the damn documentation?

Being a networking class, it is heavily loaded into web development and it should not be the case. There is a world out there for network security and chasing a malware/bots is not something exotic or that I can use at work today.

I am a paying student and should not have to ask or beg to get the proper documentation, references and resources for a project.

Everyone has personal experiences and opinions so for me personally, I did not join GATech to buy a masters for $9K or needed to “fuel” my career and make more money.

I get paid pretty darn well and this degree will not make a dime of difference. Instead, I expected to learn something for myself and be treated professionally. I have to say I am really disappointed.

Anyone reading https://omscentral.com reviews?

I am giving it a try for one more semester, but if this continues I will drop too.

September 8, 2020 at 6:52 am

This was quite insightful. Really appreciate it! As a matter of fact I was thinking to enroll to this course nay program. One thing I am worried about is when people in the comments saying that they did not get their preferred course, is there anyway to prevent this?

November 20, 2020 at 7:06 pm

I’m with you there. Coming from WGU that was never an issue. I don’t want to take courses because I have no other choice aside from wasting time until I can take the ones that are of interest; or worse, that must be taken.

September 13, 2020 at 11:26 pm

Was Just accepted to the OMSCS. Slightly concerned reading these posts. I have a CS undergrad and engineering undergrad but have been away from programing and calculus for over 20 years. Worked in Energy Engineering (power plants) not programming. Starting in jan and I am considering taking a C or C++ online class in coursera or jetbrians now to at least prep for coding have not taken a C programming class in over 20 years. If I accept the offer definitely doing one class at a time to minimize the difficulties and challenges here. I work full time but flexible schedule have the 20 hours a week to dedicate. Any thoughts?

September 14, 2020 at 8:36 am

I wrote this post years ago. I wouldn’t suggest it’s currently an accurate assessment of what to expect in the program. That being said, trying one class to start with sounds prudent if you’re working full-time and want to get settled in.

February 2, 2021 at 2:51 pm

No it’s quite accurate. And I would say it’s gotten worst. The course are TA driven and the head instructor is a former graduate of OMCS. Yes, the “canned” course on Udacity are Professors, but courses are now heavily led by and polices are set by former OMCS graduates. Disorganization and poor communication are still true. But most troublesome is the hypervigilance on student’s cheating. It is so intense that students don’t even want to talk to each other about ANYTHING. And these OMCS graduate instructors make no bones about communicating that someone was “caught”. It is used to further intimidate. There is no way they are this vigilant to students on campus. This will most likely be my last semester.

January 24, 2021 at 5:38 pm

Most courses are in python. I had not done any python before I started. Learned along the way. You’ll be ok, especially if you can devote 20 hours a week. Would recommend doing only one course a semester. Good for your confidence and will get you into it. I’m working on my 9th course now.

September 19, 2020 at 7:03 am

Thanks for your candidness. Villanova grad here as well, mathematics. I wasn’t as successful as you careerwise with math having very little practical application to the working world. I’ve been trapped at the bottom of the world of administration in the finance industry, lacking whatever personality trait is needed to climb the corporate business ladder. In hopes of moving to the more technical side of things where I belong, I enrolled in the CIS/Data Analytics program at BU. I attend on campus and the structure is very similar to what you described here. The core classes have tests made by the university which are checked by a computer, the instructors have no idea what is on the test, they lecture material they would like you to learn, and the TA’s grade the homework and are the only people you can reach out to for help. This is not the case for some of the electives, but in some classes they pretty much throw a book at you to teach yourself. I’m wondering if this is the overall mentality for graduate school where you aren’t expected to be spoon fed, or just the format for bigger universities in general. I have tuition reimbursement and was looking to do the OMSCS or OMSA after my current program to keep my skills sharp, it’s good to know to expect more of the same.

February 2, 2021 at 2:53 pm

You probably will not find a OMSCS program for $10,000 any where. It’s dirt cheap. But if you can find a way to work for a company and have them pay for your studies, you are much better off w/ traditional campus program or a hybrid program.

May 1, 2021 at 8:54 am

I know this article is a few years old but I wanted to ask if students in the online program could pursue research opportunities/write a research thesis?

That’s one of my chief priorities in pursuing a Master’s degree, as I want to use it to obtain research experience that I could use to get into a PhD program, as I currently lack any.

May 19, 2021 at 5:36 am

I was an undergraduate in the College of Engineering studying computer engineering at Georgia Tech from Fall 2020 – Spring 2021. Prior to GT, I had been to 7 higher-education institutions prior to GT; I moved a lot for work. GT was the only school where I had the hardest time connecting to a community and resources on campus for academic and professional enrichment and opportunities. I transferred to Cornell University and start there this upcoming Fall.

I’m not sure that Cornell will be better. I thought about applying to OMSCS program at GT, but if all of you are having the same problems I did during my undergrad at GT I think I better look elsewhere.

December 23, 2021 at 4:09 pm

I have completed 7 classes in the program. This is the OMSCS experience. It requires tons of self-learning and attention to detail. Almost all OMSCS classes offer high-level lectures and rigorous, graduate-level technical assignments. The real learning happens while grinding through the projects, which is consistent with Georgia Tech’s overall teaching philosophy.

At this scale, there’s definitely some overreliance on autograders and lack of grading flexibility. Minor issues with incorrect or ambiguous assignment instructions are, unfortunately, somewhat common. That’s the nature of school, especially online without synchronous opportunities to get clarifications. The good news is the unofficial online OMSCS communities have tons of information about the classes and literally hundreds of reviews, so you can easily avoid the problematic classes if you can’t tolerate some improvisation.

For posterity: a semester with 1 class currently costs $841, so a pace of 1 class per semester would be $8,410 total. The overall cost is slightly less for multiple classes in a semester.

June 1, 2022 at 1:27 am

I’ve earned two masters already.

Currently working on a doctorate degree.

I tried out the OMSCS to work toward a third master’s for one semester (a terrible idea and regrets for sure). They work as a business more or less than a Student’s self-interest to learn. There is no interface with the professor and seemed neglected, nor do they email you back. They do not promote interfacing with other students. You can easily get accused of false-positive or petty academic misconduct which can lead to an easy F or sanction from the OSI organization which is end-of-itself is very disorganized. I’ve read horror stories about these experiences. You will not be able to recover from this in graduate school. They do not replace grades but average them out.

Worst experience in my life after attending college for +10 years. I personally think it was a waste of time and money.

I don’t know how GT’s Computer Science is even ranked in the top tier. I believe it will get devalued over time due to the high quantity of MS CS degrees being handed out like candy at cheap prices. Plus the courses are self-taught by modules and typical exams that are proctored by a third party interface (they don’t want to do the work, but collect money like an education monopoly). Basically monopolizing off of their prestige and ranking. Not the greatest practice in my opinion. It felt like more of an undergraduate experience for me than anything else.

If I get asked if I would go back and attend GT OMSCS.

My answer is absolutely NOT.

To each their own experiences. And I expect professionalism and they did not offer that to me with basic standards.

August 3, 2022 at 12:58 pm

Some of these points are valid. Professor absenteeism happens in many classes. Thankfully, most of the TA teams have rock-solid leaders. The program does not provide direct professor interaction unless you seek out an independent project or research.

OSI violations are somewhat common but usually egregious. I say this as someone who has worked as a TA and talked to TAs from other classes. I haven’t heard any anecdotes of legitimate false-positive OSI violations. Unfortunately, aggressive plagiarism becomes a necessary evil when at least 1 cheating attempt is statistically inevitable in every class. The program has motivated a ton of plagiarism research at Georgia Tech.

“I don’t know how GT’s Computer Science is even ranked in the top tier. I believe it will get devalued over time due to the high quantity of MS CS degrees being handed out like candy at cheap prices.”

No evidence exists for this tired refrain based on foolish correlations: nobody is criticizing Berkeley with >1,300 CS graduates per year and nobody is praising University of Richmond’s >$200k CS degree. The US News ranking for the GT MSCS program has improved from #8 to #6 since OMSCS began.

OMSCS is a trailblazer, not a monopoly. UT Austin and UIUC host competing programs with similar objectives (fully online, discounted price, non-thesis). If you want something more exclusive and personalized, you could pay tens of thousands of dollars to the online programs at Johns Hopkins or Stanford for that privilege.

I understand you’re frustrated and the program wasn’t a good fit for you, but that doesn’t justify baseless accusations.

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Online Master of Science Computer Science (OMS CS)

College of computing, deadlines, decisions, requirements, and guidelines.

The OMSCS program accepts applications year-round for both Fall and Spring matriculations (there are no Summer admissions). The deadlines for submitting  ALL  application materials (listed in the next section), including any supporting materials, are:

• Fall matriculation: March 15
• Spring matriculation: August 15

We cannot guarantee that applications that do not have ALL  the required application materials submitted by these dates will be reviewed in time for the applied semester.

The OMSCS calendar is synchronous with the  Georgia Tech registrar calendar .

Generally speaking, the OMSCS Admissions Committee begins releasing decisions approximately 2 weeks after the application deadline has passed. Please be patient while waiting for a decision—due to the volume of applications, it takes time for the applications to be reviewed and decisions to be released. Emailing the help desk or the Office of Graduate Education inquiring about the status of a decision will not speed up the review process (and indeed actually slows it down!).  ALL decisions will be released 10-12 weeks after the application deadline.  After the deadline has passed, all applicants will receive a follow-up e-mail with a specific timetable.

Application Requirements

• Date & place of birth
• Permanent & current addresses
• Names & email addresses of recommenders
• Criminal & academic misconduct history
• Citizenship ( click here  for more information on accepted proof of citizenship)
• Colleges & universities attended
• Diplomas are NOT acceptable substitutes!
• If you have earned the degree, your transcript MUST show the date of conferral. If it does not, your application will be rejected or put on indefinite hold.
• TOEFL or IELTS score (see this page for the requirements)
• U.S. military affiliation
• Awards, recognitions, fellowships, scholarships
• Other universities to which you are applying
• The Objectives section contains 10 free-form questions and 9 "Yes/No" questions.
• The free-form questions are VERY limited in the response you can give.
• ALL the "Yes/No" questions should have an answer of "Yes" . If you answer "No" to ANY of them, you need to go back through your application and correct it until you can truthfully all "Yes/No" questions with "Yes".
• This is REQUIRED ! Your application will either be rejected or put on indefinite hold if it is not included.
• You should choose recommenders who know you well and can comment authoritatively on your scholarly characteristics (e.g., intellectual ability, knowledge of your chosen field, communication skills, etc.).
• Generally, current and former teachers and supervisors make more compelling recommenders than former classmates or co-workers.

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Please read this page for helpful hints on how to create a stronger application . It will save you time when preparing your application!

College of Computing

Graduate forms & procedures, master's degree forms & procedures.

Please read this important advising policy: The Computer Science advisors will not sign any forms to allow changes into the CS major including change of major, secondary major and declaring minors DURING any open registration period or final exam week. If you are seeking any of these services, please plan accordingly to see an advisor at times other than these listed.

MSCS Program of Study- Computational Perception and Robotics

MSCS Program of Study- Computer Graphics

MSCS Program of Study- Computing Systems

MSCS Program of Study- High Performance Computing

MSCS Program of Study- Human-Computer Interaction

MSCS Program of Study- Interactive Intelligence

MSCS Program of Study- Machine Learning

MSCS Program of Study- Modeling and Simulations

MSCS Program of Study- Scientific Computing

MSCS Program of Study- Social Computing

MSCS Program of Study- Visual Analytics

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Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS)

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So you’re ready to apply to Georgia Tech’s OMSCS program—terrific!

We now accept applications for Fall and Spring semesters. To find out about upcoming application dates and requirements, please visit our Deadlines, Decisions, Requirements, and Guidelines page .

By clicking the link below, you’ll be taken to Georgia Tech’s Graduate Studies website, where you’ll see a link to the Institute’s graduate application. Once you begin your application, simply select “MS in Computer Science—Online” as your chosen degree program.

If you have questions during the application process, check our Contact Us page.