Ask HN: Accept offer to apply free online courses to CS degree if I continue it?

1 points by crawfordcomeaux 14y ago ↗ HN

This past week, an unsolicited offer was made to me while hunting for cofounders at the university I went to:The administrator I was speaking to offered to let me apply free online courses as transfer credits to me degree, as well as test out of courses in their dept. On top of that, he offered to speak to instructors from other depts who teach courses courses I need to seek similar flexibility.I have about a year to go to complete a CS degree, but have been out of school for 3+ years & essentially taught myself most of what's left for the degree. I quit my job in December to pursue my own startup & have a potential investor. I highly value education, but feel degrees from most schools don't represent attained knowledge, so much as the ability & desire to graduate by any means possible.Plus, it feels as though my desire to become a serial entrepreneur is steadily moving forward. I've lead teams that have placed at or won Startup Weekends, am a "buspreneur" for the Louisiana StartupBus that leaves Tuesday & afterward, I'll have some initial funds (ie. won't need to get another consulting gig for a while after I finish the current one).I've approached friends and family members for advice & the majority opinion is, as it always has been, to finish the degree. I'd rather start a discussion with the administrator about implementing a general system that others can take advantage of. So far, the advice has been to complete the degree for credibility to start that discussion, but I don't think that's the only way to get that cred.What's the HN take on this?

4 comments

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waivej 14y ago ↗

Trust your heart on this one. Education is good because it forces you to fill in gaps that you wouldn't normally want to take. If you have opportunities open now that won't come up later, go for them.

Could you pursue both at the same time? Twelve months isn't very long and you might be able to knock out a degree without much effort and not lose momentum on your startup. The structure might be good and you might make good connections. What would you lose if you started down the path of doing both and bailed after a few months?

crawfordcomeaux 14y ago ↗

I think I'd risk losing local credibility if I bail again, unless there's some highly visible progress being made with the startup.

Also, while I'm confident I can manage my ADHD to do one or the other, I'm just not sure if I can handle both. I suspect doin both could also be a hinderance to getting investors, but I'm not sure. I'll definitely be meeting with him after SXSW to examine the options & estimate how much time can be shaved off from the degree. I also want to explore what, if anything, he's willing to do on a larger scale.

NonEUCitizen 14y ago ↗

Take the offer. It might come in handy 15-20 years later, e.g. you might decide to get a graduate degree in some other field, and you don't want the lack of a degree to be the obstacle.

I'm going to see I this is a one-time offer or if we can revisit it in the future or maybe even set a date in the future for when I'd begin. Having that explicitly defined goal would probably help prep the startup for when I do go back.