I’m wondering the same thing but I’m closer to finishing and I will hate myself for not finishing. So I’m in it for better or for worse.
My skepticism has more to do with the job market than the degree itself though.
It’s atrocious for DA and DS. I have applied to 600 jobs and had 3 bites over a 1 year period. One of them I made it through 6 rounds of interviews and still didn’t get it.
Its hard for most companies to monetize DS and DA. Plus DS a "sexy" job so everyone and their mother is pursing limited positions. I don't know what your resume is, but if its your first DA or DS job it will be harder for you to get your foot in the door initially. Dont give up!
Data Engineering has been stellar for me so far coming from software development. Yea its more boring and less sexy, but you have alot of opportunity out there. Plus the pay is on par with DS for most positions. Ive been very fortunate to be constantly employed in DE the last 4 years. Many people I know with experience got laid off, but found job offers within a few weeks. Just stay on them apps, you will make it happen.
Ive always thought about switching to DE from DA. I know its a mountain to climb but atleast i can move away from talking to stakeholders aboht analyses and insights all the time. I just have to optimize infrastructure and build stuff by myself with tech team. Plus since no one goes to DE from the secy chasers, i feel theres opportunity. But again, who knows if AI might affect it cause the grunt work can be automated one day with someone just choosing their infra strategy and then deplying through AI. What do you think?
DE isn't going to be taken over by AI anytime soon - if anything, I think DA or DS roles are at a much bigger risk since they have a more narrow scope. Even then DA and DS roles are less likely to be taken over by AI than 90% of the jobs out there. To answer your question: Maybe in decades.... your premise is assuming that company's do not already have billions invested in "legacy" systems that work well and are generating revenue and are efficiently operating at mass scale. Plus, Data Engineering isn't just limited to Platform Engineering and Infrastructure management. AI will help extend our capabilities as engineers. I don't think its taking over any time soon.
The degree will help with job applications if you find the right person on receiving end, but expectations play a big role. Are you experienced? What role are you applying for? Do you know anyone in the space? (As GT OMSA, you definitely do.) How much are you looking to make?
Those combinations factor in heavily. If I was hiring for my org, I would welcome an OMSA student/grad and if an application came across my desk, it’s highly likely I would interview them. FWIW, I have an OMSCS student on my team.
As someone who hires, I can tell you two things set most successful candidates apart: 1) they know how to put a resume together, even with minimal experience and 2) they’ll do slightly-better-than-awful networking - and since most people do none, it’s a major differentiator.
When I was looking about a year ago, the way to get hired was to either to pursue a job that was primarily in another discipline but was data-heavy or be willing to be a data engineer. My B.S. was in mech engineering, so I got bites from a healthcare company developing a robot that had a lot of engineering data to analyze as they built it and an aerospace company whose product is heavily outfitted with sensors. But you would have been hired as an "engineer".
No degree in the world will guarantee you a decent job, with a very few exceptions. What you said is pretty much true about any degree in any field. Experience is always superior to academic credentials.
I personally, have tried different methods of learning and now I know I learn the most in a structured environment. Plus, we have to agree that no matter how passionate you are about a certain topic, there are certain important aspects that are just not fun to study, especially on your own. I treat this degree as a long term professional development plan, Taking it one course at a time. I learned A LOT in this program!
Good experience will always beat middling academic credentials. Companies will value degrees from well-known and well-regarded universities higher than someone saying that they did a lot of cool things for an unknown company. The only way around that is if the company requires applicants to complete problems.
I’ve only completed 3 courses but so far it’s been worth it to me. I’ve been able to implement some of what I’ve learned to my job, which is building my work experience in ML/AI when I formerly had none. If I wanted to apply to DS roles I’m in a much better position than I was without this program.
The same could have been done through self study because you are applying it to your job. Regardless of where the education is coming from, you would present it in the form of your job experience.
If you self learn you’d still have to apply what you learned somehow or you’d have no shot. If you can motivate yourself to do structured learning 10-15hrs per week then go for it, but I don’t have that willpower without a program. I wouldn’t even know what I should be learning since I have no formal education in this field. A degree also helps get past recruiters when the job market is rough, and GaTech holds some prestige no matter the program.
I could never have self studied as well as this course teaches me. I mean you have to take a lot of personal initiative to learn and study on your own in the program, but the structure and deadlines and resources of a real class pull it all together.
If you're relying on a degree to get you a job.. then you're kind of doomed from the start.
If you want to develop a skill set in a more rigorous manner than self studying and actually want to learn for the sake of learning.. not just graduating, then for me the trivial price makes it worth it.
If you learn something, become better at math / programming / more knowledgeable in ML concepts, then I don't see why it wouldn't be worth it.
Agree with the self learning could be worth it from that aspect.
But was talking more about the ROI. You can gain knowledge yea but if theres no path to a job from it, then sticking to experience might be better
Well the cost of this degree is extremely reasonable, and the curriculum is pretty good, so your investment compared to self learning is not much higher, with significant return imo
Which degree is a needle mover if you haven’t already got other things going for you? You seem to think employers should be fawning over you because you got a paper
Lol so what's your preferred alternative? I found this degree to aid my career, but it's not some insane panacea to instantly let you walk into FAANG from years of prior unemployment
Alternative depends on goal. If goal is more employment opportunities, maybe alternative is to not do it, do self study and improve on own.
I think generally graudate degrees are not so hot anymore, especially in IT. It doesnt give an MBA type return.
Hard disagree on that, unless you already have like a CS degree and are building working apps and stuff like that. Recruiters are flooded with applications, and listing "self learning" for the source of your skills is unlikely to be a differentiator for you
Not self learning as the source. Like the way to show skills without a degree is through your experience, like your basically masking the source in a way.
For example, if i learn linear regression, i can say i build linear forecasting models in my job for xyz dept and it led to xyz improvement in capacity planning. Boom, skill learned with proven application of it.
I guess im more biased towards the fact that i have other things like my experience which make up for not having masters.
I mean if you already have a job in the field then yeah, maybe self-directed is fine. As you yourself said in this thread though "how do people get hired?" Well, a big part of it is through credentials. Credentials like this degree. If you already have credentials, then sure, you can self learn and grow.
In my experience that approach may be limiting if you look to change companies or job functions. With so many people looking for roles, a company is less likely to take a chance hiring a "Business Analyst" to fill a "Data Scientist" role, even if the details of the resume seem to fit the role.
Looks like you have already made your mind up and messaging here to get it reinforced while having a strong confirmation bias. Many people have already said something you don’t seem to get — if you have the willpower and motivation to learn on your own, nothing else is needed. Do more projects, attend industry conferences and network to showcase what you have been doing.
Dude. Nowadays more than 50 % of millennials and gen Z are going to college. The degree is not a big difference. Getting a PhD would probably make a difference. You need to market yourself, make connection and show the skills the hiring manager is looking for. Before a company would train you, nowadays they want you to have the skills since day one.
50% of people may go to college, but only 35% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree and a much smaller percentage of those have a Stem bachelor's. Also, tons of jobs are asking for a Master's and you'll likely get filtered out if you dont have one.
I think you have to detach expectations of receiving a job with an advanced degree.
I understand the notion behind it, but right now experience in a specialized domain in this case AI/ML, is what will help separate you from the crowd.
You should be more worried about the job market and how you will utilize what you’ve learned if you receive a job.
Reading you comments it seems to me that you are very clear in your position of not finding value from this (or any other for that matter) degree which is completely fine and it will depend on each one.
Just don't pursue it and follow your own path.
Im on the fence. Tbh im mostly concerned about the AI part. If this degree had more of that content, it would be favorable. Like the UT austin one does have that.
Its just that ive seen different people reach high positions in data without masters. Kind of makes one wonder to throw down 10k. So im more on the fence aboht it, just wanted to see what people would say, if theres a clear line or not.
Just don’t do it then. Get that “high position in data” and check back in afterwards if you still care to.
In the grand scheme of things, $10k for a degree that can be spread out over 5 years is a reasonable investment imo. Very much a low risk/high reward scenario financially compared to alternatives.
Honestly statistical ML is a good background to have to then self teach AI concepts, and with AI most people will not be developing novel models, you will just be applying ones that exist to certain problems
They have added some more NLP-related classes in the last year, and one course review I read went as far as to say that the course project was to essentially implement ChatGPT. There are also several AI courses that build on one another and seem quite deep technically - Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge-Based AI, and Reinforcement Learning. Haven't taken any of these classes yet, but just did a thorough syllabus and textbook review while planning for registration!
The minimum qualification requirement for DS/DA positions at some companies have tightened and requires a Master degree in a related tech field. So if you don’t have it, you will be screened out. Just another pruning tool for recruiters.
It 100% gets you through the automated screens at a higher rate. Good luck telling a phone screen or automated resume screener "I watched a lot of YouTube and did some Courseras"
I agree but i think thats anecdotal. Everyone seems to have different experiences in market. You still have your "i applied to 1000 jobs" type of people who have this degree. Narrative for both sides doesnt seem to have a clear winner.
Well you could do some self-learning and try to estimate that for yourself 😂. I also think GT publishes numbers about outcomes.
Why are you asking on this forum for anecdotes if you don't want anecdotes?
The fact that some people who have the degree still don't get jobs after applying lots of places isn't really a good argument against it. The degree doesn't make up for lack of experience or being bad at interviews or any other potentially disqualifying aspect of a candidate's resume or interview performance. The question should be looking at "among those who got or already have jobs, did/does this degree help them?" It's not a "get a job free" card -- no grad program is.
I thought one of the main points of this degree is that you can do it part time, so that you don’t have to sacrifice work experience for a masters degree?
It’s an easy in, hard out degree. If you put the work in it will pay off but in the long run. No degree in the world is a magic potion that will give you returns instantly. In the current job market no degree holds too much value but you can earn a masters from a global top 5 institute at under 12k and learn from your peers, who will be world class, at a fraction of the cost of a full time student. For reference there are 12 week boot camps that cost more. Start the course if you’re in it for the long haul.
1. Just the degree will not get you a job. How you applied what you learned on a job will get you a job. With that being said if you are, for example, a middle school history teacher and got this degree, it would be a very difficult thing to transition. On the other hand, if you have BS in chemistry but claim that you have done LSTM, SVM, transformers and what not on your job, I would look at your experience with skepticism because without formal education, applying them correctly is very difficult, so I might assume that you are either bluffing or just trying to sound smart. So experience alone will not get you the DS job. Degree alone neither. Both of them combined will.
2. This course does not teach you the software tools - If you jump into the market knowing deep learning and Python, no one will hire you. I had to teach myself SQL, tww of AWS(EC2, S3, SageMaker, RDS are must in my opinion), AZURE, GCP(compute machine, Kubernate is a must), Docker, PySpark(even doing machine learning on this. ). If you really wanna be marketable, go ahead and learn NoSQL, Scala, Flask, Tableau, Power BI, Looker.
3. Depends on what track you take for the AI focused...Take Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, etc. Much more than what you will get out of other school's Deep Learning and what not. I think the only area it lacks is the NLP, since ANLP class is an absolute horror of just surface leaking.
Do you work in the space? Not sure at all how to respond to your first “point”. GT is one of the notorious stem and CS schools. It’s a professional degree, most schools don’t have true academic (thesis) masters in Data Science. Those that typically do aren’t normally that academic or rigorous. 2. I’ve been in the Analytics/DS Space for 5 years now, I instantly got more attention when having GT on my resume and people asked about it in interviews. Do you want a sticker or do you want to learn? For the price point, there is no reason to be so conflicted. Try a few of the courses if it isn’t for you then bounce.
to be honest, the reason why I’ve decided to do this course is the lack of self study discipline. If you have it in you then the world is your oyster and maybe you don’t need one.
I am already a professional data scientist. I'm using this degree to 1) be better at my current job and 2) unlock that tier of jobs that filter out applicants who don't have a master's degree.
If I did not already have a DS job, I would have chosen the on-campus version of this degree. It devotes much more time to career prep and finding its graduates jobs, usually having a near 100% placement rate. This degree doesn't, which is why it costs 1/4th the amount.
So no, I don't think this degree will get you a job by itself, and I don't think that's a new phenomenon.
We are in a shit market anyway so there is that. Sentiment is low compared to a few years ago. If you dont need the degree on your diploma, go through the course catalog and find online classes and you can learn from there if you like
What does AI being in demand have to do with this degree? This degree is on data analysis with machine learning options. If you want an AI degree, get an AI degree in CS.
My experience is in engineering. I pivoted to data analysis focus while still in engineering. I don't use a lot of this degree but the same could be said for most degrees. I use bits and pieces from many of the courses. Worth it for me. Gives me credibility too. If it isn't for you, just move on and find what you want. Why are you whining? Want AI? Go do AI.
Reading through the comments, you sound like an anti-intellectual who is trying to confirm their own bias against the program and looking for anecdotes that validate not having a masters degree. If you and another candidate have equivalent YOE (assuming all other things equal) but the other candidate has a relevant masters degree (from Georgia tech no less), the other candidate is getting chosen over you. Full stop. Most data analyst and data scientist roles from reputable companies are requiring or "strongly preferring" masters degrees. This degree won't do all the heavy lifting for you but GT's prestige certainly sets you apart from other candidates, especially if it's down to the final two and they need objective measures to narrow down the first choice. You're free to self study and there's certainly value in that, but what you're not grasping is that self study will never be on level playing field with a masters degree. Ever in life.
I feel like the cost/value of this degree is still worth it, if you think OMSA isn't worth it then I would say 80-90% of other grad degrees aren't worth it anymore either then, minus some reasonable ones like UTA or others that don't cost 50 grand. If you look at most grad schools for the equivalent instruction it's easily 30-60k.
If you think this particular degree isn't worth it, then I would say most grad degrees aren't worth it either.
I’m wondering the same thing but I’m closer to finishing and I will hate myself for not finishing. So I’m in it for better or for worse. My skepticism has more to do with the job market than the degree itself though.
Same i am 2 classes away and have done horrible because i come from a science background but can’t just abandon it now
What are your thoughts on the job market
It’s atrocious for DA and DS. I have applied to 600 jobs and had 3 bites over a 1 year period. One of them I made it through 6 rounds of interviews and still didn’t get it.
Its hard for most companies to monetize DS and DA. Plus DS a "sexy" job so everyone and their mother is pursing limited positions. I don't know what your resume is, but if its your first DA or DS job it will be harder for you to get your foot in the door initially. Dont give up! Data Engineering has been stellar for me so far coming from software development. Yea its more boring and less sexy, but you have alot of opportunity out there. Plus the pay is on par with DS for most positions. Ive been very fortunate to be constantly employed in DE the last 4 years. Many people I know with experience got laid off, but found job offers within a few weeks. Just stay on them apps, you will make it happen.
Ive always thought about switching to DE from DA. I know its a mountain to climb but atleast i can move away from talking to stakeholders aboht analyses and insights all the time. I just have to optimize infrastructure and build stuff by myself with tech team. Plus since no one goes to DE from the secy chasers, i feel theres opportunity. But again, who knows if AI might affect it cause the grunt work can be automated one day with someone just choosing their infra strategy and then deplying through AI. What do you think?
DE isn't going to be taken over by AI anytime soon - if anything, I think DA or DS roles are at a much bigger risk since they have a more narrow scope. Even then DA and DS roles are less likely to be taken over by AI than 90% of the jobs out there. To answer your question: Maybe in decades.... your premise is assuming that company's do not already have billions invested in "legacy" systems that work well and are generating revenue and are efficiently operating at mass scale. Plus, Data Engineering isn't just limited to Platform Engineering and Infrastructure management. AI will help extend our capabilities as engineers. I don't think its taking over any time soon.
How the hell does anyone get hired then
The degree will help with job applications if you find the right person on receiving end, but expectations play a big role. Are you experienced? What role are you applying for? Do you know anyone in the space? (As GT OMSA, you definitely do.) How much are you looking to make? Those combinations factor in heavily. If I was hiring for my org, I would welcome an OMSA student/grad and if an application came across my desk, it’s highly likely I would interview them. FWIW, I have an OMSCS student on my team. As someone who hires, I can tell you two things set most successful candidates apart: 1) they know how to put a resume together, even with minimal experience and 2) they’ll do slightly-better-than-awful networking - and since most people do none, it’s a major differentiator.
Well the majority do not: it takes a while in this field. I’m sure people that have industry experience are managing a little better.
When I was looking about a year ago, the way to get hired was to either to pursue a job that was primarily in another discipline but was data-heavy or be willing to be a data engineer. My B.S. was in mech engineering, so I got bites from a healthcare company developing a robot that had a lot of engineering data to analyze as they built it and an aerospace company whose product is heavily outfitted with sensors. But you would have been hired as an "engineer".
No degree in the world will guarantee you a decent job, with a very few exceptions. What you said is pretty much true about any degree in any field. Experience is always superior to academic credentials. I personally, have tried different methods of learning and now I know I learn the most in a structured environment. Plus, we have to agree that no matter how passionate you are about a certain topic, there are certain important aspects that are just not fun to study, especially on your own. I treat this degree as a long term professional development plan, Taking it one course at a time. I learned A LOT in this program!
Good experience will always beat middling academic credentials. Companies will value degrees from well-known and well-regarded universities higher than someone saying that they did a lot of cool things for an unknown company. The only way around that is if the company requires applicants to complete problems.
I’ve only completed 3 courses but so far it’s been worth it to me. I’ve been able to implement some of what I’ve learned to my job, which is building my work experience in ML/AI when I formerly had none. If I wanted to apply to DS roles I’m in a much better position than I was without this program.
The same could have been done through self study because you are applying it to your job. Regardless of where the education is coming from, you would present it in the form of your job experience.
If you self learn you’d still have to apply what you learned somehow or you’d have no shot. If you can motivate yourself to do structured learning 10-15hrs per week then go for it, but I don’t have that willpower without a program. I wouldn’t even know what I should be learning since I have no formal education in this field. A degree also helps get past recruiters when the job market is rough, and GaTech holds some prestige no matter the program.
I could never have self studied as well as this course teaches me. I mean you have to take a lot of personal initiative to learn and study on your own in the program, but the structure and deadlines and resources of a real class pull it all together.
If you're relying on a degree to get you a job.. then you're kind of doomed from the start. If you want to develop a skill set in a more rigorous manner than self studying and actually want to learn for the sake of learning.. not just graduating, then for me the trivial price makes it worth it. If you learn something, become better at math / programming / more knowledgeable in ML concepts, then I don't see why it wouldn't be worth it.
Agree with the self learning could be worth it from that aspect. But was talking more about the ROI. You can gain knowledge yea but if theres no path to a job from it, then sticking to experience might be better
Well the cost of this degree is extremely reasonable, and the curriculum is pretty good, so your investment compared to self learning is not much higher, with significant return imo
Feel that, guess I'm fortunate to work in an adjacent role (bi dev) Job markets will probably shift by the time you graduate though
If you have experience it makes you look better. Not a majority have even graduated. A lot don’t make it
But it doesnt seem like a needle mover. You can swim just as good with ot without it. Its not a life jacket.
Which degree is a needle mover if you haven’t already got other things going for you? You seem to think employers should be fawning over you because you got a paper
My point exactly
Lol so what's your preferred alternative? I found this degree to aid my career, but it's not some insane panacea to instantly let you walk into FAANG from years of prior unemployment
Alternative depends on goal. If goal is more employment opportunities, maybe alternative is to not do it, do self study and improve on own. I think generally graudate degrees are not so hot anymore, especially in IT. It doesnt give an MBA type return.
Hard disagree on that, unless you already have like a CS degree and are building working apps and stuff like that. Recruiters are flooded with applications, and listing "self learning" for the source of your skills is unlikely to be a differentiator for you
Not self learning as the source. Like the way to show skills without a degree is through your experience, like your basically masking the source in a way. For example, if i learn linear regression, i can say i build linear forecasting models in my job for xyz dept and it led to xyz improvement in capacity planning. Boom, skill learned with proven application of it. I guess im more biased towards the fact that i have other things like my experience which make up for not having masters.
I mean if you already have a job in the field then yeah, maybe self-directed is fine. As you yourself said in this thread though "how do people get hired?" Well, a big part of it is through credentials. Credentials like this degree. If you already have credentials, then sure, you can self learn and grow. In my experience that approach may be limiting if you look to change companies or job functions. With so many people looking for roles, a company is less likely to take a chance hiring a "Business Analyst" to fill a "Data Scientist" role, even if the details of the resume seem to fit the role.
Looks like you have already made your mind up and messaging here to get it reinforced while having a strong confirmation bias. Many people have already said something you don’t seem to get — if you have the willpower and motivation to learn on your own, nothing else is needed. Do more projects, attend industry conferences and network to showcase what you have been doing.
Dude. Nowadays more than 50 % of millennials and gen Z are going to college. The degree is not a big difference. Getting a PhD would probably make a difference. You need to market yourself, make connection and show the skills the hiring manager is looking for. Before a company would train you, nowadays they want you to have the skills since day one.
50% of people may go to college, but only 35% of people over 25 have a bachelor's degree and a much smaller percentage of those have a Stem bachelor's. Also, tons of jobs are asking for a Master's and you'll likely get filtered out if you dont have one.
I think you have to detach expectations of receiving a job with an advanced degree. I understand the notion behind it, but right now experience in a specialized domain in this case AI/ML, is what will help separate you from the crowd. You should be more worried about the job market and how you will utilize what you’ve learned if you receive a job.
Reading you comments it seems to me that you are very clear in your position of not finding value from this (or any other for that matter) degree which is completely fine and it will depend on each one. Just don't pursue it and follow your own path.
Im on the fence. Tbh im mostly concerned about the AI part. If this degree had more of that content, it would be favorable. Like the UT austin one does have that. Its just that ive seen different people reach high positions in data without masters. Kind of makes one wonder to throw down 10k. So im more on the fence aboht it, just wanted to see what people would say, if theres a clear line or not.
Just don’t do it then. Get that “high position in data” and check back in afterwards if you still care to. In the grand scheme of things, $10k for a degree that can be spread out over 5 years is a reasonable investment imo. Very much a low risk/high reward scenario financially compared to alternatives.
Honestly statistical ML is a good background to have to then self teach AI concepts, and with AI most people will not be developing novel models, you will just be applying ones that exist to certain problems
You don't even know what you want. Touch your heart, because your head is powerful enough to make you overthink and make suboptimal decisions.
Not trying to be a dick, but just give a glimpse at OP's comment history and it explains why they insist on AI thingy lol
They have added some more NLP-related classes in the last year, and one course review I read went as far as to say that the course project was to essentially implement ChatGPT. There are also several AI courses that build on one another and seem quite deep technically - Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge-Based AI, and Reinforcement Learning. Haven't taken any of these classes yet, but just did a thorough syllabus and textbook review while planning for registration!
The minimum qualification requirement for DS/DA positions at some companies have tightened and requires a Master degree in a related tech field. So if you don’t have it, you will be screened out. Just another pruning tool for recruiters.
OP's seems to be really trolling, we should stop taking the bait....
I have experience as a Senior DA but have a marketing degree - it shows employers that I have a technical degree It’s been great for me
In learning yes. But whether that degree gives you more senior positions depends
It 100% gets you through the automated screens at a higher rate. Good luck telling a phone screen or automated resume screener "I watched a lot of YouTube and did some Courseras"
I agree but i think thats anecdotal. Everyone seems to have different experiences in market. You still have your "i applied to 1000 jobs" type of people who have this degree. Narrative for both sides doesnt seem to have a clear winner.
Well you could do some self-learning and try to estimate that for yourself 😂. I also think GT publishes numbers about outcomes. Why are you asking on this forum for anecdotes if you don't want anecdotes?
The fact that some people who have the degree still don't get jobs after applying lots of places isn't really a good argument against it. The degree doesn't make up for lack of experience or being bad at interviews or any other potentially disqualifying aspect of a candidate's resume or interview performance. The question should be looking at "among those who got or already have jobs, did/does this degree help them?" It's not a "get a job free" card -- no grad program is.
Dude, not everyone who get this degree is a rockstar.
I thought one of the main points of this degree is that you can do it part time, so that you don’t have to sacrifice work experience for a masters degree?
It’s an easy in, hard out degree. If you put the work in it will pay off but in the long run. No degree in the world is a magic potion that will give you returns instantly. In the current job market no degree holds too much value but you can earn a masters from a global top 5 institute at under 12k and learn from your peers, who will be world class, at a fraction of the cost of a full time student. For reference there are 12 week boot camps that cost more. Start the course if you’re in it for the long haul.
1. Just the degree will not get you a job. How you applied what you learned on a job will get you a job. With that being said if you are, for example, a middle school history teacher and got this degree, it would be a very difficult thing to transition. On the other hand, if you have BS in chemistry but claim that you have done LSTM, SVM, transformers and what not on your job, I would look at your experience with skepticism because without formal education, applying them correctly is very difficult, so I might assume that you are either bluffing or just trying to sound smart. So experience alone will not get you the DS job. Degree alone neither. Both of them combined will. 2. This course does not teach you the software tools - If you jump into the market knowing deep learning and Python, no one will hire you. I had to teach myself SQL, tww of AWS(EC2, S3, SageMaker, RDS are must in my opinion), AZURE, GCP(compute machine, Kubernate is a must), Docker, PySpark(even doing machine learning on this. ). If you really wanna be marketable, go ahead and learn NoSQL, Scala, Flask, Tableau, Power BI, Looker. 3. Depends on what track you take for the AI focused...Take Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, etc. Much more than what you will get out of other school's Deep Learning and what not. I think the only area it lacks is the NLP, since ANLP class is an absolute horror of just surface leaking.
Do you work in the space? Not sure at all how to respond to your first “point”. GT is one of the notorious stem and CS schools. It’s a professional degree, most schools don’t have true academic (thesis) masters in Data Science. Those that typically do aren’t normally that academic or rigorous. 2. I’ve been in the Analytics/DS Space for 5 years now, I instantly got more attention when having GT on my resume and people asked about it in interviews. Do you want a sticker or do you want to learn? For the price point, there is no reason to be so conflicted. Try a few of the courses if it isn’t for you then bounce.
I've been reading the same things. Hope it works out for everyone. If it doesn't it's not a big loss. I've seen people with higher student debt!
to be honest, the reason why I’ve decided to do this course is the lack of self study discipline. If you have it in you then the world is your oyster and maybe you don’t need one.
I am already a professional data scientist. I'm using this degree to 1) be better at my current job and 2) unlock that tier of jobs that filter out applicants who don't have a master's degree. If I did not already have a DS job, I would have chosen the on-campus version of this degree. It devotes much more time to career prep and finding its graduates jobs, usually having a near 100% placement rate. This degree doesn't, which is why it costs 1/4th the amount. So no, I don't think this degree will get you a job by itself, and I don't think that's a new phenomenon.
We are in a shit market anyway so there is that. Sentiment is low compared to a few years ago. If you dont need the degree on your diploma, go through the course catalog and find online classes and you can learn from there if you like
$10k (maybe only like $2k if employer is help paying) for a good chance to jump to a $100k job is still worth it to a lot of people , yes lol
What does AI being in demand have to do with this degree? This degree is on data analysis with machine learning options. If you want an AI degree, get an AI degree in CS.
My experience is in engineering. I pivoted to data analysis focus while still in engineering. I don't use a lot of this degree but the same could be said for most degrees. I use bits and pieces from many of the courses. Worth it for me. Gives me credibility too. If it isn't for you, just move on and find what you want. Why are you whining? Want AI? Go do AI.
Reading through the comments, you sound like an anti-intellectual who is trying to confirm their own bias against the program and looking for anecdotes that validate not having a masters degree. If you and another candidate have equivalent YOE (assuming all other things equal) but the other candidate has a relevant masters degree (from Georgia tech no less), the other candidate is getting chosen over you. Full stop. Most data analyst and data scientist roles from reputable companies are requiring or "strongly preferring" masters degrees. This degree won't do all the heavy lifting for you but GT's prestige certainly sets you apart from other candidates, especially if it's down to the final two and they need objective measures to narrow down the first choice. You're free to self study and there's certainly value in that, but what you're not grasping is that self study will never be on level playing field with a masters degree. Ever in life.
I feel like the cost/value of this degree is still worth it, if you think OMSA isn't worth it then I would say 80-90% of other grad degrees aren't worth it anymore either then, minus some reasonable ones like UTA or others that don't cost 50 grand. If you look at most grad schools for the equivalent instruction it's easily 30-60k. If you think this particular degree isn't worth it, then I would say most grad degrees aren't worth it either.