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Anyone have experience with Georgia Tech (GT) Online Masters (MS)?

IKE

Nerd Whirler
pilot
I'm contemplating an online MS in OR from Georgia Tech. I'm curious if anyone has experience with GT specifically, especially in a technical major.

The program advertises 18-20 hours/week for 6 credit hours/semester, but I don't think I ever spent that much time per credit in undergrad (or my NPS MS).

It seems like a great program, but I'm always worried about lecturer quality and academic rigor with online courses.
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
I got my undergrad from GT. Getting that degree is still the hardest I've ever worked. GT takes its academic reputation pretty seriously so I imagine that the courses will be rigorous and challenging.
 
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Hair Warrior

Well-Known Member
Contributor
I heard about a $6,000 (total tuition) GT cyber MS delivered via MOOC, with open enrollment (accept anyone). I recall hearing that less than 10% of the enrollees actually finished the curricula.
 

jenli

New Member
I got my undergrad there in industrial engineering last spring, same school the MS OR is part of. I know rankings shouldn't be taken too seriously but there's a reason that school has been ranked first in the field for, what, 30 years in a row now? Professors really know their stuff and most are great lecturers too, just do some research and ask around when setting up classes.

You will definitely be working hard at GT, probably much more than those 18-20 hours advertised; we like to say it's "a drinking school with an engineering problem" instead of vice versa because the coursework will really challenge you and beat you down. People also say we "got out" instead of graduated, because obviously we enjoyed a nice easy 4-5 years lol. So with that reputation, I would not worry about lack of academic rigor. I don't see any reason why GT should spare online students from the experience. ?

It will be a challenging program, but you will more than get your money's worth and be proud of that degree.
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
The program advertises 18-20 hours/week for 6 credit hours/semester, but I don't think I ever spent that much time per credit in undergrad (or my NPS MS).
That math doesn't sound too far off to me.

I remember about 30~ish scheduled hours (lectures plus labs) for 18 credit hours/semester for my undergrad engineering, plus a comparable, additional time commitment for homework and study. 15 of those credit hours were technical courses and the other three hours a humanities elective (a graduation requirement for each of the first three years; time spent on homework varied quite a bit). So, no kidding 50-60 hours/week for 15 credit hours; I tried to get by with much less time spent on homework and my grades reflect that.* 18-20 for 6 sounds pretty reasonable to me.

For a graduate engineering degree, it sounds damn respectable in an age when a lot of "graduate level work" out there is only slightly more rigorous than high school level and prep school level work from a few decades ago.


* kids, don't do what I did
 
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IKE

Nerd Whirler
pilot
For a graduate engineering degree, it sounds damn respectable in an age when a lot of "graduate level work" out there is only slightly more rigorous than high school level and prep school level work from a few decades ago.
Agreed. My NPS MS was 1/2 good and 1/2 garbage (low rigor, OJT-esque nonsense). I am hoping it's good, because I don't want to waste my time and GI bill on something weak.
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
Agreed. My NPS MS was 1/2 good and 1/2 garbage (low rigor, OJT-esque nonsense). I am hoping it's good, because I don't want to waste my time and GI bill on something weak.
I have a BSME from GT and an MSAE from NPS. I did the NPS program in residence. GT was far more challenging. Or perhaps GT was so rigorous it made an NPS MSAE seem easy. And the NPS classwork was legit technical coursework. But NPS was far more collaborative between the students and the professors while GT was much more "message to garcia" type education.
 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
I'm contemplating an online MS in OR from Georgia Tech. I'm curious if anyone has experience with GT specifically, especially in a technical major.

The program advertises 18-20 hours/week for 6 credit hours/semester, but I don't think I ever spent that much time per credit in undergrad (or my NPS MS).

It seems like a great program, but I'm always worried about lecturer quality and academic rigor with online courses.
Study history like me...then you’ll know the true meaning of “job search.”

All kidding aside, my nephew just finished an online EE program at GT and was very happy with it. His employer paid for the education.
 

taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
Out of curiosity I checked the GT site. Looks pretty interesting.

I'm betting there is a lot of model building and programming in the classes, which would layer on the extra time. Not that many classes look strictly mathematical or theoretical.
 

IKE

Nerd Whirler
pilot
Out of curiosity I checked the GT site. Looks pretty interesting.

I'm betting there is a lot of model building and programming in the classes, which would layer on the extra time. Not that many classes look strictly mathematical or theoretical.
I saw the same. Seems like my time will depend on my coding skills. NPS OR has this same feature, but 80% of the coursework is Math vice Math-y
 

wavehunter2014

New Member
I'm contemplating an online MS in OR from Georgia Tech. I'm curious if anyone has experience with GT specifically, especially in a technical major.

The program advertises 18-20 hours/week for 6 credit hours/semester, but I don't think I ever spent that much time per credit in undergrad (or my NPS MS).

It seems like a great program, but I'm always worried about lecturer quality and academic rigor with online courses.

Data Analytics, Data Science, Business Intelligence Hiring Manager Here

While I don't have experience with the Georgia Tech MS in OR, I have experience 1)with advanced degrees (possess an MBA) and Online Technical Degrees/Certificates (took and possess a Data Science Certification) and 2) possess the private sector technical hiring manager perspective when evaluating candidates with either degree or lacktherof

My on-campus MBA experience was great b/c 1) 75% of my tuition was paid by the university due to a high GMAT + Graduate Assistantship, so my ROI was spectacular, 2) I learn better in a classroom, 3) The academic "rigor" felt more intense since I was surrounded my classmates that could challenge me in person during the experience 4) I was given access to the alumni network.

My online technical degree/certificate was similar to my on-campus MBA experience with a few exceptions: 1) The academic rigor was the same, if not more difficult, b/c essentially I was learning how to program in python, ML, etc. (all technical things that were glazed over in my MBA stats/economics classes), 2) I had to get used to being "self-directed" in my studies (carving out time at night/weekends) in between working full time and personal life, 3) Do all communications via video conference (which is pretty normal in today's pandemic environment), 4) Not be given a true "alumni network" in the traditional sense.

Having done both and serving as a hiring manager for technical/data/engineering roles, I surprisingly glaze over degrees in the resume and go straight to someone's github, Tableau Profile or website to review personal projects where they used technical methods (research, engineering, machine learning, data visualization). Some of the most talented people that I hired didn't possess all of the fancy "named" technical degrees from traditional universities, rather they took online MOOC classes (for the low-low price of a couple hundred or thousand dollars) and applied that knowledge to a technical portfolio that I could evaluate. For example, one software engineering candidate hoping to transition to Data Science with just an undergraduate degree + a MOOC certificate added not only a link to a Kaggle.com data competition that he won, but also gave me the code in a Jupyter notebook file for me to review. I definitely moved this candidate to the next round!

From a hiring manager's perspective, it doesn't matter where or how you get the degree. What matters to me is a candidate demonstrating his/her research, engineering, machine learning, data visualization, etc. skills in an online portfolio for the entire world to see. So, depending on what you want to do with that degree, the degree won't matter to a technical/engineering/data science hiring manager like me unless I see the portfolio.
 

snake020

Contributor
"Academic rigor" and "MBA" do not belong in the same statement.

For my engineering degree I spent far more time on class than the advertised hours for a 3 credit hour course.
 
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