Starting OMSCS at GaTech

TL;DR:

• Spring Semester 2021 begins Jan 14th
• An overview of the registration process has been like
• An assessment of how prepared I feel after the last few months of studying
• What I hope to get out this Semester

I won’t be able to commit to any sort of regular schedule on the site. I would like to do some sort of update post-midterms and post-finals. Thank you for your understanding.

Spring Semester 2021

I am extremely excited (and extremely nervous) about beginning the OMSCS (Online Master of Computer Science) program at Georgia Institute of Technology. My feelings boil down to a concentrated mix of excitement, nervousness, and a heavy hand of imposter syndrome. My imposter syndrome feeling is further amplified by the way the program’s first year works: you are on academic probation until you finish two foundation courses with a GPA average of 3.0 or better (academic hunger games anyone?).

I’ve done a lot to try and prepare for this moment. I’ve prepped my schedule and studied to compensate for my weakest points (mathematics). I’ve picked up C/ C++ in order to avoid having to learn both the course material and the programming language simultaneously.

Registration

This went down more or less the way I expected it to: It was a mess. We were told, emphasized, that by 18:00 GMT -5, we’d be given a time ticket to register. 18:00 came and went. Some two hours later (and a few http errors) the system resolved itself and I was given a time ticket for 10:30 AM, the next day. I set two alarms and scheduled the time on my calendar. Gave myself a 30-minute head start, and I was devastated to find my ideal class full. The wait list was at ~800.

Both Machine Learning for Trading and Software Development Process were full to the brink. I made my backup selection of classes, a little disappointed. Quickly enrolling into Knowledge Based AI and Computational Photography. I wait listed a few other courses, but this was futile. GATech informed me that there is a policy of having a max of 6 credit hours without an approved waiver. In other words, I would either accept my schedule as is (reviews told me to expect a combined 30-hour commitment per week) or drop my schedule in favor of wait listing a class. I went with the latter, as I am just not confident enough to risk committing to two “medium” courses. I planned instead to have one “medium” course and one “easy” course according to reviews.

As of writing I am still registered for Knowledge based AI (KBAI) and on the wait list for Human Computer Interaction (The queue is shorter for HCI than for ML4T or SDP).

Overall, I am content with the way the Registration process played out.

Personal Assessment of my Readiness for the Program

Oh, let’s be truthful. I am more excited than I am nervous, but I still do feel nervous. I studied for the last 6 months focused on readying myself for the academic rigor offered by GaTech. My first 3 months were spent focused solely on programming languages and CS topics while the most recent 3 months were solely spent on hardening my math background.

Those first three months were mostly spent picking up Java and C/ C++. This included reading Bjarne’s book, JetBrains Academy, and exercism.io. I also familiarized myself with common software designs such MVC, factory methods, and singleton classes. I started 2020 focused on developing in Java. Once I finished my android app, I pushed myself into the C language world. After a few trivial projects I moved on to C++ just to be able to utilize their standard library.

I started the application process for grad school at around this point and realized I urgently needed to improve my mathematics background. Ideally, I thought starting from SAT level and building up to calculus and linear Algebra would work best. As time started running out, I decided to dive into Linear Algebra. I finished a textbook on the subject + the practice exercises and moved on to discrete mathematics. I was able to confidently finish around 70% of that material while also working on calculus I-III.

Overall, I think I did as best I could with the time constraints. I know for a fact my math is a lot more solid than it was a year ago and have kind of began to (shaves some parmesan) appreciate the beauty of mathematics.

What I hope to Get Out of Semester

More than anything I hope to get confidence out of the semester. I am diving sort of the deep end of the pull with 6 credit hours, but I had to do so to qualify for financial aid.

From the courses themselves, I hope to learn to make rudimentary AI in KBAI hopefully serving as a soft introduction to the program. I have read that the course is more writing than programming heavy, and what programming that is assigned is in Java or Python (both languages I am comfortable writing in). From HCI, I hope to really adopt a user-oriented mindset when writing programs. I think this class is very valuable to have early in the program (and early into my career) because this is a topic that is usually overlooked by many developers.

I will be letting you know with time my thought on the courses and my struggles and success.

‘Till next time Space Cowboys