When my son was younger I got into a habit of going to sleep when he did, and then getting up a few hours later to do a few hours of work on side projects and then back to sleep. It worked quite well.
We'd also get into the habit of taking him to soft play centres (for those unaware: think warehouse full of padded climbing structures over multiple floors and a horde of kids running rampant through them; a total nightmare if your kid insists you join in, or quite relaxing when they run off by themselves) during the weekend so he could wear himself out totally and then go home and have a couple of hours nap when he did.
Until that horrible day when we got home from the soft play and he didn't go down for a nap... I can still remember the disappointment (we ended up still taking naps, but having to take turns)
Getting my master's while working full time and raising two young kids is probably not the brightest choice I've ever made, but I feel similarly. Glad I did it, even more glad that I'm finished. Nice to have my life back...
I also completed my master's while working full time way back then (+10 years ago). I wouldn't say it was the happiest or most relaxed time of my life, but I'm glad it was over in a year.
BTW in restrospect doing a master's degree wasn't such a good choice anyway.
> doing a master's degree wasn't such a good choice
Curious why you feel that way? I did mine because my employer paid for 100% of it - I don't think it would have been worth it if I'd had to pay for it myself, but otherwise I got a lot out of it.
Not the person you asked, but I’m starting my 6th/7th courses in the OMSCS program this semester.
It can definitely be interesting, but like any program, it depends on the course and professor. I’ve had some great courses (like the intro AI course I took last Fall) and I’ve had a terrible course (decent relational database course, but the only TA who responded to questions was absolutely terrible to students).
I enrolled in the program because I don’t have an undergrad in CS. I wanted to strengthen my credentials and, more importantly, my foundations. So far, I’d say the program has definitely helped with that. It is also a lot of work, but one course a semester isn’t going to preclude you from having a life. Two will keep you seriously busy though.
It is very much dependent on what you want from it. You can take an easy curriculum and maybe the hardest class will be graduate algorithms. And that class sounds more daunting than it is. But if you are up for it, there are some great classes with great professors who will really make you earn it.
I just finished OMSCS last year. Did one course at a time, no breaks, found the workload for most courses to be quite manageable; i.e. if you're already a good dev and have decent writing skills, you'll probably only have to touch grad school stuff a few times a week if you know how to prioritize. For me, most courses were like 40%-60% interesting, the rest feeling like busy work or the typical kinds of overhead you get within any academic framework (I mean that less flippantly than it sounds; personally, it's the highest density of interesting content I've had in an educational setting). The program forced me to explore a few topics I probably wouldn't have otherwise, which is good...but I'm also the type that enjoys building and launching side projects, and I found it hard to do that in any meaningful way while working full time plus OMSCS. So looking back, I can't be sure yet if the piece of paper will have been worth the opportunity cost, but overall I thought it was a good program.
Some courses are trash: Computer Networks, Knowledge Based AI, Databases, System Design.
Others are amazing: Big Data for Health, AI, Compilers, Deep Learning, Operating Systems, Computer Architecture.
All in all, for the price (and the right classes) it's a steal. Another thing to note is that courses are mostly run by TAs - professor availability/involvement is rare.
I've just started my first semester of OMSCS and planning to stick with a single course per semester, and skipping the summer semester to give myself a break.
Not sure if I can manage more than that + work, and also being able to enjoy time with friends or away from the computer.
I’d love to do OMSCS, but a masters wouldn’t really offer any changes to my career. I really enjoy structured learning but the time commitment for even a single class sounds enormous
I did this at Boston University (night school at MET) over 4 years. 10 total classes, they do 3 semesters a year, and I took 2 semesters off. Overall I liked it, solid program, assisted me later when the credential helped validate me to hiring managers and then later to investors. It also forced me to study deeper and become much more serious about the foundational knowledge.
The most hilarious part to me was that I did my undergrad at BU and it was ~$200k total over 4 years for a CS degree pre-2010 (BU has since gone parabolic in cost and is now over $75k per year!). My entire masters at night was ~$30k from 2012-2016, and I get the same institutional signal on my resume.
Why? Grad students taking night classes have to typically pay out of pocket, and want value for their money. Undergraduates, especially the enormous quantity of non-STEM majors, are not thinking rationally and take out huge debt for an experience.[0][1] This colors my opinion on why the government should not guarantee unlimited undergraduate debt - the cost problem would be solved overnight if students had to actually pay their way.
[1] BU is a school full of rich foreigners and trust funders. When I graduated (granted it was shortly after the iPhone was invented) the total number of CS students graduating out of a total class of almost 4000 students was 30! 30 whole CS majors out of 4000! The communications school was something like 1000 students. CS classes were in the basement of the math building, and the ceiling was falling down, pipes were banging, and I'm positive asbestos was rampant. A rich donor has now funded a new enormous CS building, but the capital cost will continue to add onto BU's enormous tuition as it expands ever further into Kenmore and Brookline https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/update-on-bus-center-for-co...
Honestly, the lazy river sounds a lot more opulent than it really is. I remember all the hype and jokes about it when the university announced its construction, and then the letdown upon seeing it in person. It was much smaller than I imagined, and it's tucked away in a back room with almost no natural light. It's next to a small pool (separate from the big competition pool) which I used a bit, and I hardly ever saw anyone using the lazy river while there.
It sounds like our undergraduate years in the BU CS department overlapped. I, too, have been stunned by the growth of the CS department since those days; going from the basement of 111 Cummington, as you described, to what will be one of the most iconic buildings in the city.
I heard good things from a friend about the MET CS master's program too. He said that his Theory of Computation class in that program made a lot more sense than the required undergraduate Theory of Computation class with Leonid Levin, haha.
But about the size of the graduating class: When we declared CS as our major in the mid-2000s, that was a historic low point for CS enrollment at all American universities, not just at BU. It's my understanding that CS departments boomed in the late 1990s, but then conventional wisdom after the Dot Com crash was that majoring in CS was a bad idea, so enrollment plummeted. I suspect that the market and compensation for software developers might still reflect this period of over-correction today. Basically, there are relatively few folks in their mid/late 30s today with a CS degree.
Leonid Levin (of the Cook Levin Theorem) was my undergraduate advisor. A very peculiar man, someone who became academic famous, and seemingly only cared about research which made his teaching an after thought. A true character.
Not the person you asked, but I've done the same. The answer: you have to choose the classes well. If you go with some easy classes for credit, you will be disappointed. If you decide to really do the program, then there are at least 15-20 classes worth taking. Some are really theoretical (ML), others are practical (Big Data for Health, lots of Spark and Scala), and some in between. To be the best class was AI, which deals with classical AI algorithms (minimax, tree search, etc.) - well designed class with some lessons by Peter Norvig.
All in all, I know it's not the exact same program taught live (although they say it is), but the classes are available online are good quality, I learned a lot, and at $841 per class, the price is unbeatable.
Downsides: I have a job and a kid. The workload for some of these classes is massive, so weekends (at least full Saturday) is gone for the duration of the semester, if you study at night every day - then Sundays are yours. Except for the ML class; that was pretty fucking insane and incidentally, the class where I feel I learned the least so far.
Short answer = Yes. Learned a lot and some more. (but of course depends on
what courses you end up taking).
In fact, its quite common to see alumni taking courses after they have graduated (case in point: many folks from my batch
enrolled in the newly started DL class, just for the sake of learning).
It did yes. I was more interested in the system level courses and my undergrad wasn’t great (Indian low tier) so for me it was very rewarding and helped me for sure.
Congrats on graduating -- I can't imagine doing OMSCS on top of working full time and raising a kid! I completed the program last month, and I wrote about the experience here[0] for anyone interested.
I think UT Austin has a program as well. Might want to check with the alumni there.
Also, I would say - if you don't hurry through the program and take 1 course at a time, it's worth giving it a shot. You must start slow, gradually you would have an intuition of how to pace your life along with the studies.
Congrats on the completion! I graduated from this program in May of 2021 after about a 15 year gap from my undergrad, coupled with two young kids, a job change, moving across the world, and military service in the middle of it!
Agree some of it was brutal, but I really enjoyed it all as a whole. The key to me getting through was being disciplined with when I would do the work / watch the lectures. I read the book Deep Work by Cal Newport just as I started the program in 2017 and I think it really helped to set me up for success here.
I'm glad it's done, and I really enjoyed some of the subjects - a couple I didn't get to cover in my undergrad - especially HPC, GA and AOS were my favorites.
I couldn't do it. From 2008 to 2011, I was 3 credits and half a thesis paper short, had to quit for my health. I had lost too much weight, down to 150 lbs at 6'3", I was falling asleep at work and not meeting expectations. It was horrendous. Props to anyone who can make it work. And to those who were bailed out by the Bank of Mom and Dad, a big fuck you.
Wouldn't you as a parent want to help your children avoid things you experienced?
I think you always want your children to go through less hassle than yourself?
I personally believe that guiding children through struggles we experienced is not a good idea of parenting.
Disclaimer: I didn't finish college as well, for same reasons as you.
Edit: I've realized my comment might've sounded like a critique of your parenting methods or anyone else's. That wasn't my intention, just that I know that it's hard to realize those things sometimes, especially if you're not a parent. I've always seen making life easier for your children as a bad thing, now I see this as the most important thing to do in life. It gets bad when you could move it further, helping people around making their life easier, but you don't - essentially making sure money "stays in family".. Again only my 2c.
Agreed, my parents adopted the financial policy of providing just enough support that college was as difficult as possible but technically affordable. In hind sight, just a bit more help would have made a world of difference.
That said there is a huge expectation in the US. 90% of the time professors or admins mentioned paying for college they assumed people were getting parental assistance or financial aid. For better or worse paying for your adult child's higher education is not really a parental strategy but rather a societal norm all but written into law.
I understand what you are saying. In my case, I was a disastrous student and put forth as little effort as possible and spent all of my time on my old PC.
Those costs are amazing. I just compared two state universities I'm familiar with, and the fees are vastly different - but the schools are ranked similarly. These are relatively low ranked. Heck, I just compared to a different top 10 state school, and it is cheaper than one of the no-rank schools.
I guess it all comes down to which state you live in.
For those debating starting a master’s program, the institution makes a big difference about 2 main factors. Required cost (which has been spoken about by multiple people so far), and required effort (which no one has touched on yet, and the reason I’m writing this).
While effort isn’t best depicted as a single value, some attributes of effort that I found making the act of getting a MS particularly easier and more enjoyable involves how professors bend to the life of students, rather than students to professors.
For homework this looks something like how common and easier it is to get an extension, extra help, adjustment of assignment/test, and so on. For schoolwork this looks something like whether class attendance is required, class sessions and professor office hours are time/location specific, and so on.
The original article talks about someone that made the decision to do school in person and then about how there were issues when it became remote. I opted to take an online program offered at a standard institution in hopes of increased flexibility and the same piece of paper at the end.
All my classes were pre-recorded lessons I could watch at my convenience. We would complete assignments and talk about them in a comment thread (usually required to do one OP and 2 comments per week), and also have larger projects etc. in groups. On about half of my classes I asked for and was always given extensions of anywhere between 30 days to complete and assignment to 3 extra months to finish 80% of the class I haven’t even touched yet due to increased demand at work.
As a side comment I’ll say you miss 100% of the extensions you don’t ask for, so if you ever feel stressed for time give it a shot and ask for an extension before the official due date or even on the day it’s due. Especially in higher education, I’ve never heard of a professor not working with a student. At the end of they day they have a financial incentive to keep you in the program.
Absolutely. And don't be ashamed to speak with your disabled students accomodations office about getting the accommodations you need. If you test slowly, request extended time. If depression or something else keeps you from getting stuff done during the week, ask for flexible deadline extensions. People are hesitant to request accommodations they genuinely need and it boggles my mind.
It's especially important for math and science STEM fields -- I wouldn't be making any progress on my math degree if I didn't request accommodations and left it up to individual instructors whether to approve or deny my requests for extensions
To provide a counterpoint: I went the Georgia Tech online MS route and my ML finals coincided with my father’s funeral. I logged-in a few days before to take the final and it was buggy as hell, but my timer (24hrs) kept going. I emailed and slacked the TAs and professors with screenshots, but no one answered. The professor was known for being unsympathetic, so I logged in to see if it worked the morning of my fathers funeral, the last day to take the final. I banged out the final with the last 2 hours remaining on my timer.
That one event ruined my whole MS experience at GT
You can go above the professor’s head for that stuff. When I was in undergrad and when I was doing the masters at GaTech, it was common for professors to say up front that if you missed assignments or tests for a valid reason, you had to go through the university (I forget what office).
They handle dealing with all excused absences. The professor could have responded and told you about this, but I’m assuming it’s just that no one got back in under 24 hours. It’s also expected that you read the syllabus and know this stuff already.
I dropped out of college in 1993. I’ve been in industry since and empty nesting has me thinking about going back to school. Are there programs that will give me any credit for time served? Not a full degree obviously but maybe fast forward a couple years in the process.
I’m thinking a 30 year old transcript with a ~2.0 GPA isn’t going to move the needle much.
When I took my MSc. most of the subjects were things I was very familiar with already, and so most of the courses were paint by numbers.
There were exceptions that were worthwhile, but it was largely an exercise in documenting my existing knowledge. I couldn't test out of things, and most subject had compulsory exercises, so I spent a lot of time basically proving what I already knew rather than learning new stuff. It was clear to me in advance which courses I could have easily skipped, so from that perspective I would not have skipped useful knowledge.
That said, of course the problem is that to give me an actual degree the university needed to know I actually knew those things and verifying that only with tests is hard to get right.
My school provides a way to "test out" of a given course by exam. Basically you contact an instructor for the course and make arrangements with them for what the test will look like, and submit some paperwork.
The big downside at my school is the fee for this approach is the regular cost of taking the course, paid before you take the test, and nonrefundable in the event you don't pass. But not passing doesn't appear on your transcripts, so it only dings you financially
Also, you're only allowed to test out of a handful of requirements for your major. It was explained to me this is so no one can effectively "buy a degree" over only a semester or two.
But I've found most instructors willing to let someone in their classes who doesn't have formal prereqs who has relevant work experience
I'm in a similar boat in that I'm in my 30s now back in school. when I was 18 I dicked around for a couple semesters and dropped out. Thankfully my old community college has a system for expunging bad grades that are more than 7 years old, and I don't think that's very uncommon
While I don't know if there's much you can skip, if you're going for a degree at a typical US state school, I'd recommend taking as much of your general education/ non-major requirements at a community college. It's far cheaper and there is less bullshit, as the state schools will pack a hundred (or four hundred) kids in a single 101 level class ("survey of architecture" or "intro to chemistry" or whatever), and for some classes like the calculus series, they're often poorly taught with needless complexities to weed out the weaker engineering students. (This is also way cheaper.)
Then once you have all that out of the way, you can take the upper level classes in CS at the university instead of the community college.
I was in the same research lab as the author, but from a different school (BU). When I found out that most of my peers were also doing their master's part time while working, I wished I could do that. But as an international student, there are a lot of restrictions. I had to do it full time (3-4 classes per semester), and I could only work 20 hours part time on campus, usually as a TA and/or research assistant. I did 3 jobs to max that out since most jobs only required you to work 6-8 hours a week. I could only do one internship for my entire degree. My total cost for 2 years was $117,889. BU did not have scholarships or aid for international students, because saying you need aid is admitting that you lied on the visa application. Then I had to pay $7800 to work on my thesis over the summer, which I chose not to finish because I wanted to start working earlier. To make up for lack of work experience, I pretty much did open source contribs 40 hours a week while working on my thesis and TAing. There was a period of 10 weeks where I was putting in 80-100 hours between school and unpaid work.
It was still worth it in the end. Similar experience coming from no CS undergrad. There were about 3 good classes that were very valuable, like Algorithms, Cloud Computing, and Embedded Systems. The rest was not that great, especially with remote. When I think about ROI compared to a bootcamp, it's a tough one. Really successful bootcamp grads are already self-selecting going into the bootcamp, same with the really smart students in my master's program. But going to a master's program seems to have a better ROI just based on quality of instruction/institution alone.
6 months after graduation and my pay bump has more than covered it. I was feeding the master's program cash cow, so I think of it as I'm helping fund my US and green card classmates' master's. Most of my peers had 50% or full ride scholarships.
This is just an insane amount of money for a a masters degree. I had no idea it was that expensive. And why did it take you 2 years if it was only a masters? It is only supposed to be 30 credits. I guess spending a year working on just the thesis could explain that.
Keep in mind this is for an international student paying out of state tuition with no aid. The 50-60k number is more reasonable for US citizens, <30k if you're coming in with a scholarship. 2 years is the average amount of time for a masters degree. It's typically like 2-3 semesters of classes, then thesis or project. As for credits, my masters segment was 36 credits, while my catch up undergrad segment was 28 credits.
That's to be expected. These programs are "cash cows". And they send a pretty bad signal [0] [1].
> BU did not have scholarships or aid for international students, because saying you need aid is admitting that you lied on the visa application.
That's also a red flag. Serious programs (that are research focused) are typically need blind when applying; if the lab wants a certain student, it will secure funding for him.
> Similar experience coming from no CS undergrad. There were about 3 good classes that were very valuable, like Algorithms, Cloud Computing, and Embedded Systems.
Interestingly, with these masters, the admission bar is often much lower than the undergrad at the same school, so these are watered down classes.
> That's to be expected. These programs are "cash cows". And they send a pretty bad signal [0] [1].
I read these two articles along with many others in the gap year I spent after undergrad, before deciding. I was pretty confident that I could have landed a SWE job without going to grad school with 6-12 months of serious study. But I could not do that while on visa. I was ineligible to be a SWE in the US without a degree related to CS.
I think I talked to ~20 people who went to grad school, bootcamps, or were self taught. I asked them what they liked and disliked about their program/learning path. I came up with two main requirements: the ability to take rigorous undergrad-level courses with structure, and the ability to interact with peers beyond the same course or subject (for a broad view of the industry). I also could not take a post-bacc program because my visa would not be valid unless it was for the next level (no OPT unless MS or PhD). So that brings it down to do an MS, or get deported in 3 months to a country with less SWE opportunities.
> That's also a red flag. Serious programs (that are research focused) are typically need blind when applying; if the lab wants a certain student, it will secure funding for him.
This is less on the school program and more on the US government. As part of the visa application, you need to show your bank account with liquid assets that covers the one year of tuition plus living expenses. I had a relative act as my sponsor, and I supplemented the funds through part time work. Additionally, I was applying for a terminal masters, and most programs only secure funding for students on the PhD track. While I talked with some PIs and expressed interest in joining their labs, this was not factored into my application packet. During the program, I considered remaining in my research lab for a PhD but I decided against it due to the high opportunity cost of not entering industry.
> Interestingly, with these masters, the admission bar is often much lower than the undergrad at the same school, so these are watered down classes.
This is true. I also asked the graduate office what the admissions rate for my program was and they said they don't keep track but would estimate it to be between 50-70% depending on the year. The reason they gave was that the applicants were very self selecting. The majority of my cohort had over 3 years of work experience, albeit in a different field. Some had 20 years. Most of the peers I talked to knew exactly what they were getting out of the program and only applied to 1-2 schools, the other being Georgia Tech OMSCS or a post-bacc program.
I specifically picked this program because I had to take undergrad courses at the school for 1-2 semesters. They were hard, and a lot of undergrads did drop. I ended up being a TA for two of these courses and saw first hand how some students were not cut out for university-level CS.
At the end of the day I feel like my decision was worth the time and money investment. In about 10 months from now, my income after expenses would have more than paid for the 2 years I spent in grad school, and I feel more equipped to pursue a PhD at some later time. Hopefully when I have a green card.
Did that a few years ago, started when I was 47, completed with 50.
Was easier for me.
Distance Learning University in Germany.
And I had the opportunity to do it at work.
One could call it a side project.
Since about two years I try my hand at a bachelor in mathematics at another Distance Learning University in Germany.
Guess I will pull that stunt around 2025.
Did you already have an undergrad in CS? I recently completed a MS in cognitive science in Sweden. I have been drawn to AI research, but it seems that most work in AI these days is being done strictly in Comp Sci rather than Cog Sci, so a Ph.D. in AI is what I really want to do but appears to be out of reach for me because of what seems to be a bias against cog sci despite my interests, skills at research and writing, and my technical ability to do the work. I think there is a perception that cog sci is only about human intelligence, even though AI/comp sci was one of the primary fields of research of the co-founders of cog sci.
Anyway, I was thinking maybe I should do a comp sci masters so that I can move on to comp sci PhD and keep going with my research interests.
Did you do your degree in English or German? I live in Germany, but my German is not quite good enough for advanced academic instruction.
Well, congrats. I finished my MS at 44, though I did it full-time in person, which itself was a weird and fun experience at that age.
And I seem to remember a study opportunity for a master in informatics for people with undergrad in humanities at the TU Chemnitz, when I looked back then.
In presence not via distance learning, so there probably are more opportunities out there now.
Just since you said you are happy to get English tips, you’d say “didn’t bother” there. The past tense is indicated by the “did” in “didn’t”, and so you don’t add the “-ed” to “bother”.
Great to read about your experience and challenges. I'm currently doing a part-time Masters in Software Development while working. A lot of what you said resonates with me.
I'm currently in a Master program (data science: maths, maths, maths and maths, oh and maths). I'm almost 50 years old. I was very happy to read that article because it doesn't mention a little detail : age. The sort of effort the author has done is really something he should be proud of, but at 29 your brain is still quite up to to the task. At almost 50 (+kids, +family to keep care of (even if family is incredibly supportive)) it's a totally different story. If you want to be able to learn the courses correctly (that is, you don't just try to barely pass the courses, you look for A grades), then you're in for a ride. Your brain has slowed down by a factor of at least 2. All in all, where a student spend 3 days on a task (praticals, studying), you spend about 8.
So it's very difficult to do that with a full time job. Such an effort makes me tired very quickly.
But, as the author said, doing something you choose, something that makes a better you, something where what you do is valued (instead of "soft skills") is extremely enjoyable, although exhausting and stressful... I'd do it again, but at maximum 35 years old :-)
I've found that cutting out sugar and eating more fat (especially EPA+DHA) has made my brain feel a lot sharper. Also strictness with bedtimes and getting natural light and exercise in the early morning get's ever more important with age. However, I agree ageing and family are definitely terrible for you :-)
I’ve found the exact opposite, age has given me greater focus, at 50 I’ve been able to study while working and raising four kids, I was not capable of the same in my 20s
I have theory on this, I don't think I'm worse at remembering (yet!),
I think what matters is the energy you can bring to focusing at the time your absorbing information in the first place. I have to plan to have that energy in advance, doing some exercise the day before so I can sleep, go to bed at 9 pm the night before with one earplug so I can still have an ear out for emergencies but not the snuffles and shuffles of children and pets, get up at five when the house is dark, go outside for a bit - then hit the books uninterrupted in the quiet morning. If I do that, my fifty year old focus is better than I ever had as a 20 year old - but! If I look ahead, at the older generations of my family, I'm confident I've got a good ten years, maybe fifteen, but don't see another 20.
Like many on here, I think I had a high potential - low discipline brain. I was never setting the world on fire, and even if as I age the potential ceiling of my cognitive capacity has come down, it was never an ceiling I was in danger of hitting, and now with a little more willpower I'm getting more out of the (possibly diminishing) total mental horsepower I have, than I ever did as a younger me.
Is it your actual brain or is it having a million things to worry about? Eg. if you could do a one-month retreat away from it all, would you get the same out of it as your younger self?
Of course it's also true one's younger self had other distractions, so it can be hard to compare.
The full story is I had a severe burn out (so that means exactly that : your brain is really damaged). My family is super supportive so I don't have that many things to think about.
As a young er student, I had tons of "side projects" (like coding games) :-) So I was definitely not studying all the time. Nowadays I'm 100% focus so it means I work about 8-10 hours a day on my courses. I have very good sleeping habits, I eat well (vegetables but just too much chocolate), I walk 45 minutes 5 days per week and practice taichi about 20 minutes a day.
I tend to outperform students (about 2 standard dev above mean) in practicals but for examinations, where I have to memorize the whole course, that's another story, I perform just as the average BUT I pass half the exams so it means I'm really underperforming... The stress is a big issue but the memorization is the biggest one. It just doesn't work like when I was 20. It's super frustrating.
I have a master im compsci + 2 years phd preparation. But after 20 years, data science is totally foreign to me. It's just math math math, I don't recognize anything I know (so it's super interesting, but I'm really lost :-))
Also I chose data sciences because I was scared to see some COBOL programmers who didn't jump into the web/java/you name it track and who are now old and can't make the effort to switch). So I felt, business intelligence is moving outside the realm of application developpers (because many companies now know how to to business processes with IT) to the realm of data sciences (because that's where there is more room for improvements). I hope I was not too wrong :-)
I recognize what you mean about exams. With some distance from it I now think a lot of what is needed to study for an exam is not really important, it's just incidental stuff that you need to perform in a timed setting, eg memorizing derivations.
On the practical side it makes total sense that you're better, because young people generally have not practiced long term productivity.
> Your brain has slowed down by a factor of at least 2
I've made it into a mantra to never accept this kind of sentiment (even if it were to be scientifically proven some day). It's dangerous and only serves to undermine motivation. Sure there is an overrepresentation of old people who are tired., but that doesn't mean you have to be.
And so do I. But for the time beingn, I must admit that there's definitely something wrong. By doing that master, I'm actually fighting a lot against that state of mind; a lot harder than those who don't at least :-)
The positive side is that I'm in the second year and things have improved. I suffer less from stress and many maths are now "restored" in my mind. So it gets better. But the price is high :-)
I guess that by the end of the thesis, which is less about emorizing an dmuch more about understanding, I'll feel much better and self confidence will be boosted...
I agree, and tend to see it more as a defense mechanism. The main thing young people tend to have more of is time.
There's also a use/abuse aspect. My older body creaks not necessarily because it's old, but because I have used (maybe abused - I started Jiu-Jitsu at 40) it physically for 40+ years. I suspect the mind is similar. If it's been abused through stress and/or drugs or let go out of shape by watching TV all day, then yes it's less sharp. But age isn't the driving factor in that case.
> Your brain has slowed down by a factor of at least 2
This is only if you let it. The human brain has something called neuroplasticity. If you exercise your brain, regularly and with variety, you can slow/prevent a degradation of neuroplasticity. Some example activities include doing coding in new programming language, learning a new spoken language, doing sudoku and other puzzles, doing painting if you are right brain dominant (or logic puzzles if left brain dominant).
The OP's statement also is one of the key reasons touted for ageism within our industry, and ageism is a major problem. The benefit of vast experience drastically outweighs the minor (or no) degradation in neuroplasticity if they've kept their brain active.
Not a neuroscientist or anything, but I've always made it a point to keep learning. Initially I did it purely for economic reasons, since knowing a lot of random programming languages and frameworks and math can make you fairly valuable employee, which equates to larger paychecks and therefore a happier Tombert.
But as I kept learning, I saw that a certain set of people decided that they were just done learning new stuff the second they were done with college, and resisted any change that wasn't taught to them by their professors. This affected young and old people at roughly the same rate (at least from what I observed), but it's more apparent for the older people just because they've been half-assing the learning for longer (and because what they learned in college is probably more out of date).
This is also why I make it a point to attend conferences where I am the "dumbest guy in the room" like ICFP. These things are a bit intimidating (I do not like feeling dumb), but work as exceptional ways of highlighting gaps in my knowledge, and giving me a "path to google later".
I had a great boss (a shoutout to Greg and Terry at MCCI), once tell me 'Be the dumbest guy in the room, but also the hardest working guy in the room'. I've tried to live my life in part by that mantra. It doesn't mean be an idiot - it means surround yourself with people smarter in one way or another than you are and learn from them to fast-track your growth.
I don't disagree with that at all. Sometimes it's fun to feel smart, but generally speaking I'd rather feel stupid and have gaps in my knowledge ironed out by people who understand a subject better than I do.
To be clear, this isn't about IQ or number-of-wrinkles-in-brain or anything like that. If I were to talk to a carpenter about carpentry or Taco Bell worker about food preparation I would feel stupid since I know basically nothing about either of those subjects.
You might be using left/right brain to refer to people who typically do one thing to them do something “opposite”, ie artsy people do science (these aren’t opposite but people treat them as such).
Just be careful as there’s no such thing as left/right brained people. It’s an old idea.
It has more or less been at least conceptually proven[0].But I think many people confuse a well-organized mind: which can function well[i.e take better shortcuts] at an old age (and thus give you the impression that the mind is still very fast) with neuroplasticity.This is not necessarily the case, and not necessarily even better, think something like overfitting.Then again without defining speed and time(which are hard to do not understanding the mechanisms of consciousness,if possible at all) the discussions are kind of up in the air.I wonder how much the emotions play a role here, because anecdotally being emotionally engaged can 'slow' time down for a person.
[0] https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/c...
This sounds like me a bit. I'm 40. I've worked as a programmer for 15 years, but I've always known my lack of maths is holding me back abd adds to my imposter syndrome. I've decided the new programming language I'm learning is, well maths. I'm just working through khan academy. I'll give myself this year's free(ish) time. I've got a family and a job, but I need to feel some sense of progression. I ll see what happens.
I like maths but I'm a CompSci first. Going to full-math mode is not easy after years without practicing. For example, the first 6 months, I spent a lot of time bringing back memories of basic stuff. In my case : probability calculus (the very basic stuff, expecations, conditional probabilities, etc.), Bayes theorem, least square derivations, Lagrangian, linear algebra, simplex method.
Be sure to reach a teacher at some point because these "simple" things are actually quite fundamental and thus sometimes hard to grab.
After that I can understand more complex stuff: GAN's, GLM's, SVM's, PCA, you name it... Things that were totally alien to me 1.5 years ago.
But well, just do it, in any case you'll be better! And proud of yourself!
By watching student's 25 years younger passing exams without actually studying them (if I'd do that, I'd bascally failed; I've tested that approach :-))
Not to minimize your own feelings/experience, but I wonder too if younger students are just so much more exposed to the technology that you were being taught that they only needed to learn half the 'net new' information you did.
For example, I went to school for a video game programming/design B.Sc. First couple of years were super basic programming to get non-programmers up to level, so to any of us who programmed since gradeschool it meant no studying/effort for a year while we breezed through simple loops/conditionals/Java stuff.
Obviously, things cranked up a notch when we finally got to new material.
When did you start noticing this? I'm 39 and dont feel this at all. I have less motivation and energy for lots of things. But that stems from a jadedness and pickiness. It's different to what you describe. I feel my mental faculties are as strong as ever, and my gut feel is that they're not declining anytime soon.
I started my master's at 50 and finished it 2 1/2 years later.
> Your brain has slowed down by a factor of at least 2.
My brain has never been better. I had decades of experience to lean on, and was an unofficial TA in most classes. It was fun and challenging, and only one course gave me any problems due to my lifelong math disability (I love it, it hates me).
Just to encourage people who might otherwise be discouraged by your post - I completed my CS Masters at 44. While it was time consuming, I found it rather refreshing compared to normal work.
Work is full of ambiguities and complexities whereas academic work has straightforward success criteria and you're always starting from a blank slate. I enjoyed it, but I was also lucky to have the support of my family to spend my time that way.
I disagree about the 35 years old statement. I took a full time in-person Masters in Data Science while also working full time from 36 to 38. I finished it with a GPA of 3.9/4 and I feel it was the best time to do it.
It was my third time going to school. The first one was to take a undergrad+grad in CS when I was 18. I did not even know why I was there. The second one was I was 29 for grad school in quantitative finance, why? Because everybody in my professional environment was doing it. I definitely did not enjoy that either and did not learn much. My third time, well I clearly knew I wanted to learn becase I truly enjoyed the matter, no professional need but I simply liked it. And I knew about the math part.
Now I am almost 40 and I know almost for sure I am in the same shape or even better to go to school again and enjoy it. To me is just to do something because you like it, not because of social pressure, professional reasons or hype. Also, I think to have a good time while doing it you have to be aware of your personal situation. Mine was totally favorable.
I have to say that I think I disagree with the last sentence. My mom started (and finished) law school at age 39 and finished at 42, with a 3.8 GPA, while raising four kids (one of which (me) was an extremely obnoxious teenage boy). She wasn't working, but I think it's reasonable to say that raising four kids is probably harder than anything I do at work.
My step-father is in his 50s and is currently doing a masters whilst working full time. His kids are admittedly old enough to mostly look after themselves at this point, but 1 of them still lives at home and he also most of the cooking and cleaning in around the house.
slows down may be the wrong way to think about it. Myelination is a very real thing though. By 24 the majority of the brain is grey matter, as opposed to pink matter. Grey matter is super fast at signal speed due to myelin sheaths around highly used neurons. The amount of pink matter continues to shrink as you get older. This seems to have measurable effects with knowledge, the main one being whatever you learned when you were younger is much easier to access and riff on when you’re older. It is believed that this contributes to it being more difficult to learn “new” things, particularly if they are unrelated to your current knowledge as you get older. (There is some evidence however that learning “new” related topics is even easier as people age)
So if someone says their brain is slower, they may be talking about how much harder it seems to be at learning new topics. I’d bet dollars to donuts they’re as fast a thinker on things they’ve been doing for 30 years as ever.
There's nothing like having kids and other commitments to sharpen one's focus and make timekeeping a thing of perfection.
I note the older students (40+/50+-year-olds, with families, etc) getting their work in way ahead of schedule whilst actively participating in discourse, moreso (dare I say) than the significantly younger ones in our cohort.
I’ve done this. It was really hard. Also the best thing I’ve ever done.
I had to be very ruthless with my main job. Working strictly 9-5. This really annoyed my boss and I almost got fired, but I just powered through and held my ground.
I had to work every evening for about 3 hours. I developed the habit of working even when very tired. Turns out you can do calculus even when exhausted.
I had to be very disciplined in saying ‘no’ to nearly all social events. (But still saw my girlfriend/now wife).
This whole experience was great fun and I would recommend it if you like learning new stuff. Especially if you want to change career.
My wife is doing a CS master's, after having done another master's during the lockdown. I'm looking over her shoulder, as I did with my brother a few years ago. It's been interesting to see how she thinks about algorithms and coding from a fresh start.
As a longtime coder I've found it interesting to dive back into some basic algorithms. Something about how it is taught to students makes it harder than just learning it as an already experienced dev. I find I can gloss over a lot of the stuff, but there are still details that I don't understand.
One thing that helps a lot is modern learning resources, basically websites and videos about the same topics, done by someone else. It's quite different from when I was in uni and you were stuck with the people you had around you and the same old books. Now if I don't quite understand insertion sort, there's a variety of explanations.
For those interested there's a number of UK universities that offer a remote master's. Takes a year full time and two part time, and you can often pay by the module. You might also be able to use the virus situation to get a "non-remote" master's remotely, which my wife managed to do last year.
Depends a bit on your background. It's pretty convenient for me to just have the course available to look at, and since I've been coding for many years it's not terribly time consuming to fill in the gaps.
For someone who's never done anything technical it's quite a leap, but not impossible. I can see she's increasing in confidence from learning this type of stuff, which is really positive.
If you're doing it to get a job, then it does seem likely that a CS master's will get you some interviews. Certainly the content is what you'd expect. It's a red brick (certain unis that were established I think in the 1800s?) she's studying at, so pretty good rep but not Oxbridge, which has its own aura. But worthwhile for sure, people won't look down on a red brick.
Yes, although they're not particularly well regarded for CS (not bad, just not better than other places). They have a reputation for being overly focussed on theory, and this is also a discipline that other universities do very well.
The Oxbridge aura extends to every course, nobody would really know anything other than that you went there.
Whether it's good or not, my guess is it's much the same menu as anywhere else in any established broad degree course. There'll be optional courses that take you more theoretical or more practical, totally up to you, but the content ain't gonna vary terribly much.
I've almost done this too but I saw that people having full time in masters or researcher in a lab more successful than people doing part-time masters as me. They have more time to do research. They produce more because it's their main job, they can go deeper. They collaborate more with researchers that also broader their research and network in the area. It can be the hardest thing to write a paper from research idea to result alone or with an advisor which is the advisor only will help you with the theory writing.
Assuming that you could have landed the job at Google without studying part-time (could you?), I’m a bit baffled by your experience. Unless your degree really propels you in your career (read: your employer values academic degrees over experience), couldn’t you have learned those skills without putting up with the cost and timely investment of formally enrolling for a master’s degree? I’d even go as far as to say: in your late 20s/early 30s, it pays off more to put in the hours at work and to start a family in what’s left of your days. Companies like Google ought to offer great ways to learn “on the job”.
That's my question too. I expect that the larger companies can afford to require qualifications for entry or promotion but for most of us, there is an insane demand for developers and I can choose to learn more about things that I find difficult.
I thought about a master (my UG degree was electrical engineering) but I was wondering if it was just an ego thing that would take loads of time, cost loads of money and not really make any difference.
On-the-job training would typically improve skills needed in your day-to-day work. A master's programme should improve academic skills (things like abstraction, reflection, generalisation, communication). The first makes you better at your current job, the latter makes you more flexible and versatile for any job.
Both are valuable, but for different reasons. Whether pursuing a master's degree is worth it depends on your individual circumstances.
Some context: during my part-time masters degree, which took 3 years to complete, I wrote the following from scratch: a MIPS and ARMv4 CPU in FPGA, an emulator for ARMv4, an assembler for it, a compiler for C89, an OS kernel with a shell, a 3d game, and several websites, webapps and mobile apps.
A job at Google won't bring you even close to be able to learn all of that on the job. The real world version of most of such projects are orders of magnitude more complicated, take years to develop and have tens to hundreds of people working on them.
Since you lack both the theoretical and practical knowledge of writing a kernel, for example, you will not be designing the solution for it at Google. At best you will learn to implement a piece of it, and it will take years (think of working on Fuchsia with no prior kernel experience).
A (master's) degree isn't an automatic ticket to becoming the lead developer on Fuchsia, but it gives you the chance to learn the theoretical portion of the domain and apply it in a controlled environment, at an accelerated pace, under the guidance of a person who specializes in teaching (not jaded Joe who's waiting for his RSUs to vest), so you have a large foundation on which to build the real world practical skills on the job.
Even if you switch teams every half, you will still not be able to cover the breadth of the material in a master's program on the job, not to mention having to perform to get a good enough rating to stay employed, while having essentially no prior knowledge of the topic.
You could supplement by taking some courses or reading books after work, but this would essentially be a diy masters without access to experienced professors, that would take much longer and be several times more stressful and inefficient.
I went to Harvard Extension School. At the time, about half the classes were shared with the engineering school's undergrad program and those tended to be the most fun courses with projects that I mentioned previously.
In many classes I chose what project to work on and I chose to push myself to work on difficult projects (e.g. I could have chosen to implement a basic stack machine with a small instruction set, instead I chose to implement an ARM CPU, which lead to many overnighters to meet the deadlines; the 3D game was my choice as well - I could have picked to implement an easy visualization in opengl).
In all honesty some of the intro courses were not worth the price tag, but the advanced ones I'd consider taking again just for fun. If your employer covers the tuition, then I'd say that any course taught by instructors at SEAS (Harvard's engineering school) is absolutely worth taking.
That's a good question, and there are a few things behind the "why" that I didn't go into in the write up, including:
- Enjoying taking classes
- Interest in learning about breadth of material that I wasn't seeing as a FE eng (even at Google)
- Some minor concern about having CS credentials (less these days, but very much a concern earlier in my career)
- Interest in learning about academia and doing research
For me, there were enough intangibles that interested me, and importantly I didn't do it just for the career benefits, though I think it helped out (although with survivorship and confirmation bias, it's hard to say).
> in your late 20s/early 30s, it pays off more to put in the hours at work and to start a family in what’s left of your days
Another reason why I'm not continuing with the part-time studies! I've joked with my wife that in my free time, we _could_ have kids, or I could do a part-time PhD for 5 years...
I’m in my mid-30s and have a CompSci Associates from a now defunct for-profit school. At 18, I was very much in a rush just to get into the industry, and this was a path that got me there by 20.
While I have a well paying job, part of me always wonders about going back and getting a better degree. I wouldn’t even know where to start. The article gives me a little hope for the idea however.
> A typical applicant will have at least two years' experience in a professional environment, and an undergraduate degree in a related subject. However, more extensive experience may compensate for a lack of formal qualifications
I did it as well. Finished when I was 34. At that time I had no kids and was working 36 hours. Wasn't that hard. I can believe it would be very hard today. Kids, busy work. Its hard to find even 1 hour of free time a day. So conclusion: do it before getting kids :)
166 comments
[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 235 ms ] threadWe'd also get into the habit of taking him to soft play centres (for those unaware: think warehouse full of padded climbing structures over multiple floors and a horde of kids running rampant through them; a total nightmare if your kid insists you join in, or quite relaxing when they run off by themselves) during the weekend so he could wear himself out totally and then go home and have a couple of hours nap when he did.
Until that horrible day when we got home from the soft play and he didn't go down for a nap... I can still remember the disappointment (we ended up still taking naps, but having to take turns)
BTW in restrospect doing a master's degree wasn't such a good choice anyway.
Curious why you feel that way? I did mine because my employer paid for 100% of it - I don't think it would have been worth it if I'd had to pay for it myself, but otherwise I got a lot out of it.
It can definitely be interesting, but like any program, it depends on the course and professor. I’ve had some great courses (like the intro AI course I took last Fall) and I’ve had a terrible course (decent relational database course, but the only TA who responded to questions was absolutely terrible to students).
I enrolled in the program because I don’t have an undergrad in CS. I wanted to strengthen my credentials and, more importantly, my foundations. So far, I’d say the program has definitely helped with that. It is also a lot of work, but one course a semester isn’t going to preclude you from having a life. Two will keep you seriously busy though.
Others are amazing: Big Data for Health, AI, Compilers, Deep Learning, Operating Systems, Computer Architecture.
All in all, for the price (and the right classes) it's a steal. Another thing to note is that courses are mostly run by TAs - professor availability/involvement is rare.
Not sure if I can manage more than that + work, and also being able to enjoy time with friends or away from the computer.
The most hilarious part to me was that I did my undergrad at BU and it was ~$200k total over 4 years for a CS degree pre-2010 (BU has since gone parabolic in cost and is now over $75k per year!). My entire masters at night was ~$30k from 2012-2016, and I get the same institutional signal on my resume.
Why? Grad students taking night classes have to typically pay out of pocket, and want value for their money. Undergraduates, especially the enormous quantity of non-STEM majors, are not thinking rationally and take out huge debt for an experience.[0][1] This colors my opinion on why the government should not guarantee unlimited undergraduate debt - the cost problem would be solved overnight if students had to actually pay their way.
[0] BU has an indoor lazy river that they try very hard to de-emphasize and keep images off the internet of. However it does exist as a "recreation pool" https://legitcampus.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/hey-boston-univ...
[1] BU is a school full of rich foreigners and trust funders. When I graduated (granted it was shortly after the iPhone was invented) the total number of CS students graduating out of a total class of almost 4000 students was 30! 30 whole CS majors out of 4000! The communications school was something like 1000 students. CS classes were in the basement of the math building, and the ceiling was falling down, pipes were banging, and I'm positive asbestos was rampant. A rich donor has now funded a new enormous CS building, but the capital cost will continue to add onto BU's enormous tuition as it expands ever further into Kenmore and Brookline https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/update-on-bus-center-for-co...
I heard good things from a friend about the MET CS master's program too. He said that his Theory of Computation class in that program made a lot more sense than the required undergraduate Theory of Computation class with Leonid Levin, haha.
But about the size of the graduating class: When we declared CS as our major in the mid-2000s, that was a historic low point for CS enrollment at all American universities, not just at BU. It's my understanding that CS departments boomed in the late 1990s, but then conventional wisdom after the Dot Com crash was that majoring in CS was a bad idea, so enrollment plummeted. I suspect that the market and compensation for software developers might still reflect this period of over-correction today. Basically, there are relatively few folks in their mid/late 30s today with a CS degree.
Was brutal, but worth it! Thanks to Georgia Tech. for creating this program!!
Program link: https://omscs.gatech.edu
All in all, I know it's not the exact same program taught live (although they say it is), but the classes are available online are good quality, I learned a lot, and at $841 per class, the price is unbeatable.
Downsides: I have a job and a kid. The workload for some of these classes is massive, so weekends (at least full Saturday) is gone for the duration of the semester, if you study at night every day - then Sundays are yours. Except for the ML class; that was pretty fucking insane and incidentally, the class where I feel I learned the least so far.
Short answer = Yes. Learned a lot and some more. (but of course depends on what courses you end up taking).
In fact, its quite common to see alumni taking courses after they have graduated (case in point: many folks from my batch enrolled in the newly started DL class, just for the sake of learning).
[0]: https://tinyurl.com/7b537ccn
Also, I would say - if you don't hurry through the program and take 1 course at a time, it's worth giving it a shot. You must start slow, gradually you would have an intuition of how to pace your life along with the studies.
Hope this helps & all the best.
Agree some of it was brutal, but I really enjoyed it all as a whole. The key to me getting through was being disciplined with when I would do the work / watch the lectures. I read the book Deep Work by Cal Newport just as I started the program in 2017 and I think it really helped to set me up for success here.
I'm glad it's done, and I really enjoyed some of the subjects - a couple I didn't get to cover in my undergrad - especially HPC, GA and AOS were my favorites.
I think you always want your children to go through less hassle than yourself?
I personally believe that guiding children through struggles we experienced is not a good idea of parenting.
Disclaimer: I didn't finish college as well, for same reasons as you.
Edit: I've realized my comment might've sounded like a critique of your parenting methods or anyone else's. That wasn't my intention, just that I know that it's hard to realize those things sometimes, especially if you're not a parent. I've always seen making life easier for your children as a bad thing, now I see this as the most important thing to do in life. It gets bad when you could move it further, helping people around making their life easier, but you don't - essentially making sure money "stays in family".. Again only my 2c.
That said there is a huge expectation in the US. 90% of the time professors or admins mentioned paying for college they assumed people were getting parental assistance or financial aid. For better or worse paying for your adult child's higher education is not really a parental strategy but rather a societal norm all but written into law.
I guess it all comes down to which state you live in.
While effort isn’t best depicted as a single value, some attributes of effort that I found making the act of getting a MS particularly easier and more enjoyable involves how professors bend to the life of students, rather than students to professors.
For homework this looks something like how common and easier it is to get an extension, extra help, adjustment of assignment/test, and so on. For schoolwork this looks something like whether class attendance is required, class sessions and professor office hours are time/location specific, and so on.
The original article talks about someone that made the decision to do school in person and then about how there were issues when it became remote. I opted to take an online program offered at a standard institution in hopes of increased flexibility and the same piece of paper at the end.
All my classes were pre-recorded lessons I could watch at my convenience. We would complete assignments and talk about them in a comment thread (usually required to do one OP and 2 comments per week), and also have larger projects etc. in groups. On about half of my classes I asked for and was always given extensions of anywhere between 30 days to complete and assignment to 3 extra months to finish 80% of the class I haven’t even touched yet due to increased demand at work.
As a side comment I’ll say you miss 100% of the extensions you don’t ask for, so if you ever feel stressed for time give it a shot and ask for an extension before the official due date or even on the day it’s due. Especially in higher education, I’ve never heard of a professor not working with a student. At the end of they day they have a financial incentive to keep you in the program.
It's especially important for math and science STEM fields -- I wouldn't be making any progress on my math degree if I didn't request accommodations and left it up to individual instructors whether to approve or deny my requests for extensions
That one event ruined my whole MS experience at GT
Edit: It’s called the office of student life.
https://catalog.gatech.edu/policies/student-absence-regulati...
They handle dealing with all excused absences. The professor could have responded and told you about this, but I’m assuming it’s just that no one got back in under 24 hours. It’s also expected that you read the syllabus and know this stuff already.
I’m thinking a 30 year old transcript with a ~2.0 GPA isn’t going to move the needle much.
There were exceptions that were worthwhile, but it was largely an exercise in documenting my existing knowledge. I couldn't test out of things, and most subject had compulsory exercises, so I spent a lot of time basically proving what I already knew rather than learning new stuff. It was clear to me in advance which courses I could have easily skipped, so from that perspective I would not have skipped useful knowledge.
That said, of course the problem is that to give me an actual degree the university needed to know I actually knew those things and verifying that only with tests is hard to get right.
The big downside at my school is the fee for this approach is the regular cost of taking the course, paid before you take the test, and nonrefundable in the event you don't pass. But not passing doesn't appear on your transcripts, so it only dings you financially
Also, you're only allowed to test out of a handful of requirements for your major. It was explained to me this is so no one can effectively "buy a degree" over only a semester or two.
But I've found most instructors willing to let someone in their classes who doesn't have formal prereqs who has relevant work experience
I'm in a similar boat in that I'm in my 30s now back in school. when I was 18 I dicked around for a couple semesters and dropped out. Thankfully my old community college has a system for expunging bad grades that are more than 7 years old, and I don't think that's very uncommon
Then once you have all that out of the way, you can take the upper level classes in CS at the university instead of the community college.
It was still worth it in the end. Similar experience coming from no CS undergrad. There were about 3 good classes that were very valuable, like Algorithms, Cloud Computing, and Embedded Systems. The rest was not that great, especially with remote. When I think about ROI compared to a bootcamp, it's a tough one. Really successful bootcamp grads are already self-selecting going into the bootcamp, same with the really smart students in my master's program. But going to a master's program seems to have a better ROI just based on quality of instruction/institution alone.
6 months after graduation and my pay bump has more than covered it. I was feeding the master's program cash cow, so I think of it as I'm helping fund my US and green card classmates' master's. Most of my peers had 50% or full ride scholarships.
This is just an insane amount of money for a a masters degree. I had no idea it was that expensive. And why did it take you 2 years if it was only a masters? It is only supposed to be 30 credits. I guess spending a year working on just the thesis could explain that.
That's to be expected. These programs are "cash cows". And they send a pretty bad signal [0] [1].
> BU did not have scholarships or aid for international students, because saying you need aid is admitting that you lied on the visa application.
That's also a red flag. Serious programs (that are research focused) are typically need blind when applying; if the lab wants a certain student, it will secure funding for him.
> Similar experience coming from no CS undergrad. There were about 3 good classes that were very valuable, like Algorithms, Cloud Computing, and Embedded Systems.
Interestingly, with these masters, the admission bar is often much lower than the undergrad at the same school, so these are watered down classes.
[0] https://blog.alinelerner.com/how-different-is-a-b-s-in-compu...
[1] https://ozwrites.com/masters/
I read these two articles along with many others in the gap year I spent after undergrad, before deciding. I was pretty confident that I could have landed a SWE job without going to grad school with 6-12 months of serious study. But I could not do that while on visa. I was ineligible to be a SWE in the US without a degree related to CS.
I think I talked to ~20 people who went to grad school, bootcamps, or were self taught. I asked them what they liked and disliked about their program/learning path. I came up with two main requirements: the ability to take rigorous undergrad-level courses with structure, and the ability to interact with peers beyond the same course or subject (for a broad view of the industry). I also could not take a post-bacc program because my visa would not be valid unless it was for the next level (no OPT unless MS or PhD). So that brings it down to do an MS, or get deported in 3 months to a country with less SWE opportunities.
> That's also a red flag. Serious programs (that are research focused) are typically need blind when applying; if the lab wants a certain student, it will secure funding for him.
This is less on the school program and more on the US government. As part of the visa application, you need to show your bank account with liquid assets that covers the one year of tuition plus living expenses. I had a relative act as my sponsor, and I supplemented the funds through part time work. Additionally, I was applying for a terminal masters, and most programs only secure funding for students on the PhD track. While I talked with some PIs and expressed interest in joining their labs, this was not factored into my application packet. During the program, I considered remaining in my research lab for a PhD but I decided against it due to the high opportunity cost of not entering industry.
> Interestingly, with these masters, the admission bar is often much lower than the undergrad at the same school, so these are watered down classes.
This is true. I also asked the graduate office what the admissions rate for my program was and they said they don't keep track but would estimate it to be between 50-70% depending on the year. The reason they gave was that the applicants were very self selecting. The majority of my cohort had over 3 years of work experience, albeit in a different field. Some had 20 years. Most of the peers I talked to knew exactly what they were getting out of the program and only applied to 1-2 schools, the other being Georgia Tech OMSCS or a post-bacc program.
I specifically picked this program because I had to take undergrad courses at the school for 1-2 semesters. They were hard, and a lot of undergrads did drop. I ended up being a TA for two of these courses and saw first hand how some students were not cut out for university-level CS.
At the end of the day I feel like my decision was worth the time and money investment. In about 10 months from now, my income after expenses would have more than paid for the 2 years I spent in grad school, and I feel more equipped to pursue a PhD at some later time. Hopefully when I have a green card.
Important note: the author seems to not have a CS background. A solid undergrad CS experience covers a lot of the pluses mentioned.
Did that a few years ago, started when I was 47, completed with 50. Was easier for me. Distance Learning University in Germany. And I had the opportunity to do it at work. One could call it a side project.
Since about two years I try my hand at a bachelor in mathematics at another Distance Learning University in Germany. Guess I will pull that stunt around 2025.
Anyway, I was thinking maybe I should do a comp sci masters so that I can move on to comp sci PhD and keep going with my research interests.
Did you do your degree in English or German? I live in Germany, but my German is not quite good enough for advanced academic instruction.
Well, congrats. I finished my MS at 44, though I did it full-time in person, which itself was a weird and fun experience at that age.
Sorry, the website is just in German:
https://www.hochschule-trier.de/informatik/fernstudium/studi...
There is at least one non CS undergrad path to a master in Germany through distance learning at the Fernuni-Hagen. Website also not in English:
https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/mi/studium/msc_prinformatik/ein...
And I seem to remember a study opportunity for a master in informatics for people with undergrad in humanities at the TU Chemnitz, when I looked back then. In presence not via distance learning, so there probably are more opportunities out there now.
https://www.zfh.de/
https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/mi/studium/index.shtml
Sorry, both websites apparently just in German.
https://www.mygermanuniversity.com/studyfinder?p=1&pp=25&sor...
For about two years. 'Since' is not the same as 'seit' here.
(When I learned German native speakers would constantly correct me for using 'für' when I should have used 'seit' so I am repaying the favour)
How else can one improve and pay respect to a foreign language?
On the other hand, if they did, it would have been a lot of work.
Thank you!
I seldom can be bothered to read postings older than a day or so. Which is a bit rude, I think.
But, as the author said, doing something you choose, something that makes a better you, something where what you do is valued (instead of "soft skills") is extremely enjoyable, although exhausting and stressful... I'd do it again, but at maximum 35 years old :-)
Like many on here, I think I had a high potential - low discipline brain. I was never setting the world on fire, and even if as I age the potential ceiling of my cognitive capacity has come down, it was never an ceiling I was in danger of hitting, and now with a little more willpower I'm getting more out of the (possibly diminishing) total mental horsepower I have, than I ever did as a younger me.
Of course it's also true one's younger self had other distractions, so it can be hard to compare.
As a young er student, I had tons of "side projects" (like coding games) :-) So I was definitely not studying all the time. Nowadays I'm 100% focus so it means I work about 8-10 hours a day on my courses. I have very good sleeping habits, I eat well (vegetables but just too much chocolate), I walk 45 minutes 5 days per week and practice taichi about 20 minutes a day.
I tend to outperform students (about 2 standard dev above mean) in practicals but for examinations, where I have to memorize the whole course, that's another story, I perform just as the average BUT I pass half the exams so it means I'm really underperforming... The stress is a big issue but the memorization is the biggest one. It just doesn't work like when I was 20. It's super frustrating.
I have a master im compsci + 2 years phd preparation. But after 20 years, data science is totally foreign to me. It's just math math math, I don't recognize anything I know (so it's super interesting, but I'm really lost :-))
Also I chose data sciences because I was scared to see some COBOL programmers who didn't jump into the web/java/you name it track and who are now old and can't make the effort to switch). So I felt, business intelligence is moving outside the realm of application developpers (because many companies now know how to to business processes with IT) to the realm of data sciences (because that's where there is more room for improvements). I hope I was not too wrong :-)
On the practical side it makes total sense that you're better, because young people generally have not practiced long term productivity.
I've made it into a mantra to never accept this kind of sentiment (even if it were to be scientifically proven some day). It's dangerous and only serves to undermine motivation. Sure there is an overrepresentation of old people who are tired., but that doesn't mean you have to be.
The positive side is that I'm in the second year and things have improved. I suffer less from stress and many maths are now "restored" in my mind. So it gets better. But the price is high :-)
I guess that by the end of the thesis, which is less about emorizing an dmuch more about understanding, I'll feel much better and self confidence will be boosted...
There's also a use/abuse aspect. My older body creaks not necessarily because it's old, but because I have used (maybe abused - I started Jiu-Jitsu at 40) it physically for 40+ years. I suspect the mind is similar. If it's been abused through stress and/or drugs or let go out of shape by watching TV all day, then yes it's less sharp. But age isn't the driving factor in that case.
This is only if you let it. The human brain has something called neuroplasticity. If you exercise your brain, regularly and with variety, you can slow/prevent a degradation of neuroplasticity. Some example activities include doing coding in new programming language, learning a new spoken language, doing sudoku and other puzzles, doing painting if you are right brain dominant (or logic puzzles if left brain dominant).
The OP's statement also is one of the key reasons touted for ageism within our industry, and ageism is a major problem. The benefit of vast experience drastically outweighs the minor (or no) degradation in neuroplasticity if they've kept their brain active.
But as I kept learning, I saw that a certain set of people decided that they were just done learning new stuff the second they were done with college, and resisted any change that wasn't taught to them by their professors. This affected young and old people at roughly the same rate (at least from what I observed), but it's more apparent for the older people just because they've been half-assing the learning for longer (and because what they learned in college is probably more out of date).
This is also why I make it a point to attend conferences where I am the "dumbest guy in the room" like ICFP. These things are a bit intimidating (I do not like feeling dumb), but work as exceptional ways of highlighting gaps in my knowledge, and giving me a "path to google later".
To be clear, this isn't about IQ or number-of-wrinkles-in-brain or anything like that. If I were to talk to a carpenter about carpentry or Taco Bell worker about food preparation I would feel stupid since I know basically nothing about either of those subjects.
Just be careful as there’s no such thing as left/right brained people. It’s an old idea.
After that I can understand more complex stuff: GAN's, GLM's, SVM's, PCA, you name it... Things that were totally alien to me 1.5 years ago.
But well, just do it, in any case you'll be better! And proud of yourself!
How do you even quantify that?
For example, I went to school for a video game programming/design B.Sc. First couple of years were super basic programming to get non-programmers up to level, so to any of us who programmed since gradeschool it meant no studying/effort for a year while we breezed through simple loops/conditionals/Java stuff.
Obviously, things cranked up a notch when we finally got to new material.
I started my master's at 50 and finished it 2 1/2 years later.
> Your brain has slowed down by a factor of at least 2.
My brain has never been better. I had decades of experience to lean on, and was an unofficial TA in most classes. It was fun and challenging, and only one course gave me any problems due to my lifelong math disability (I love it, it hates me).
Work is full of ambiguities and complexities whereas academic work has straightforward success criteria and you're always starting from a blank slate. I enjoyed it, but I was also lucky to have the support of my family to spend my time that way.
It was my third time going to school. The first one was to take a undergrad+grad in CS when I was 18. I did not even know why I was there. The second one was I was 29 for grad school in quantitative finance, why? Because everybody in my professional environment was doing it. I definitely did not enjoy that either and did not learn much. My third time, well I clearly knew I wanted to learn becase I truly enjoyed the matter, no professional need but I simply liked it. And I knew about the math part.
Now I am almost 40 and I know almost for sure I am in the same shape or even better to go to school again and enjoy it. To me is just to do something because you like it, not because of social pressure, professional reasons or hype. Also, I think to have a good time while doing it you have to be aware of your personal situation. Mine was totally favorable.
So if someone says their brain is slower, they may be talking about how much harder it seems to be at learning new topics. I’d bet dollars to donuts they’re as fast a thinker on things they’ve been doing for 30 years as ever.
I note the older students (40+/50+-year-olds, with families, etc) getting their work in way ahead of schedule whilst actively participating in discourse, moreso (dare I say) than the significantly younger ones in our cohort.
I had to be very ruthless with my main job. Working strictly 9-5. This really annoyed my boss and I almost got fired, but I just powered through and held my ground.
I had to work every evening for about 3 hours. I developed the habit of working even when very tired. Turns out you can do calculus even when exhausted.
I had to be very disciplined in saying ‘no’ to nearly all social events. (But still saw my girlfriend/now wife).
This whole experience was great fun and I would recommend it if you like learning new stuff. Especially if you want to change career.
As a longtime coder I've found it interesting to dive back into some basic algorithms. Something about how it is taught to students makes it harder than just learning it as an already experienced dev. I find I can gloss over a lot of the stuff, but there are still details that I don't understand.
One thing that helps a lot is modern learning resources, basically websites and videos about the same topics, done by someone else. It's quite different from when I was in uni and you were stuck with the people you had around you and the same old books. Now if I don't quite understand insertion sort, there's a variety of explanations.
For those interested there's a number of UK universities that offer a remote master's. Takes a year full time and two part time, and you can often pay by the module. You might also be able to use the virus situation to get a "non-remote" master's remotely, which my wife managed to do last year.
Would you say it is worth pursuing Masters from the UK university? If you dont mind which university would you consider worth it?
For someone who's never done anything technical it's quite a leap, but not impossible. I can see she's increasing in confidence from learning this type of stuff, which is really positive.
If you're doing it to get a job, then it does seem likely that a CS master's will get you some interviews. Certainly the content is what you'd expect. It's a red brick (certain unis that were established I think in the 1800s?) she's studying at, so pretty good rep but not Oxbridge, which has its own aura. But worthwhile for sure, people won't look down on a red brick.
Yes, although they're not particularly well regarded for CS (not bad, just not better than other places). They have a reputation for being overly focussed on theory, and this is also a discipline that other universities do very well.
I really like the look of Oxford’s computer science courses, but that’s partly because of the theoretical/philosophical bent to them.
The Oxbridge aura extends to every course, nobody would really know anything other than that you went there.
Whether it's good or not, my guess is it's much the same menu as anywhere else in any established broad degree course. There'll be optional courses that take you more theoretical or more practical, totally up to you, but the content ain't gonna vary terribly much.
I thought about a master (my UG degree was electrical engineering) but I was wondering if it was just an ego thing that would take loads of time, cost loads of money and not really make any difference.
Both are valuable, but for different reasons. Whether pursuing a master's degree is worth it depends on your individual circumstances.
A job at Google won't bring you even close to be able to learn all of that on the job. The real world version of most of such projects are orders of magnitude more complicated, take years to develop and have tens to hundreds of people working on them.
Since you lack both the theoretical and practical knowledge of writing a kernel, for example, you will not be designing the solution for it at Google. At best you will learn to implement a piece of it, and it will take years (think of working on Fuchsia with no prior kernel experience).
A (master's) degree isn't an automatic ticket to becoming the lead developer on Fuchsia, but it gives you the chance to learn the theoretical portion of the domain and apply it in a controlled environment, at an accelerated pace, under the guidance of a person who specializes in teaching (not jaded Joe who's waiting for his RSUs to vest), so you have a large foundation on which to build the real world practical skills on the job.
Even if you switch teams every half, you will still not be able to cover the breadth of the material in a master's program on the job, not to mention having to perform to get a good enough rating to stay employed, while having essentially no prior knowledge of the topic.
You could supplement by taking some courses or reading books after work, but this would essentially be a diy masters without access to experienced professors, that would take much longer and be several times more stressful and inefficient.
In many classes I chose what project to work on and I chose to push myself to work on difficult projects (e.g. I could have chosen to implement a basic stack machine with a small instruction set, instead I chose to implement an ARM CPU, which lead to many overnighters to meet the deadlines; the 3D game was my choice as well - I could have picked to implement an easy visualization in opengl).
In all honesty some of the intro courses were not worth the price tag, but the advanced ones I'd consider taking again just for fun. If your employer covers the tuition, then I'd say that any course taught by instructors at SEAS (Harvard's engineering school) is absolutely worth taking.
> in your late 20s/early 30s, it pays off more to put in the hours at work and to start a family in what’s left of your days
Another reason why I'm not continuing with the part-time studies! I've joked with my wife that in my free time, we _could_ have kids, or I could do a part-time PhD for 5 years...
While I have a well paying job, part of me always wonders about going back and getting a better degree. I wouldn’t even know where to start. The article gives me a little hope for the idea however.
> A typical applicant will have at least two years' experience in a professional environment, and an undergraduate degree in a related subject. However, more extensive experience may compensate for a lack of formal qualifications