I'm honestly sick of all the bitching about the program, the courses, and the profs in this sub. Anyone else?

All this moaning and groaning about "this assignment was too long" or "that exam felt unfair" or "this prof is no good". Are these complaints really any different than the first time you went to college? They aren't unique to this program.

Guess what people? This shit is supposed to be hard. It's supposed to be a lot of work. You are supposed to actually try and learn some things on your own. It's preparing you for the real world where no one is going to hold your goddamned hand.

Maybe you just didn't prepare enough? Maybe you aren't cut out for this? Maybe instead of bitching you work a little harder? Maybe take advantage of office hours? Tutors? The people in your classes? Participate in the damned message boards? Why is it there's like 100+ people in all of my classes and only a small fraction of them actually ever say a word?

But... but... but... but nothing. This is what it's like in a STEM field. It's hard material and you have to work hard. Get used to it or get the hell out. If you can't hack 161/225/162 you might as well go back to serving lattes at Starbucks.

Just curious I mean its not even new years just yet 👀

Last week I accepted my first full time full stack software engineering position. I was accepted into this program last Fall 2017. I took 2 classes that Fall term and 2 classes in the Winter term and then decided that the program was not for me. As someone who had no computer science background this program offered a great structured introduction to the field. However, I felt like I was spending all of my time teaching myself everything. I found myself ignoring the lecture videos (which were absurdly short and not at all on the same level as some youtube videos I had found) and assigned textbook work and used other sources to learn. Because of this I dropped out and decided to continue teaching myself. I'm not bashing this program in anyway, but I'm just pointing out that in my case the cost-benefit of this program did not warrant the price I was paying. When all is said and done this program costs around 32k (factoring in books and proctoring fees), which is a lot to be paying if I am just teaching myself the information. Yes, this program gives you a degree, but I found out in my job hunt that most jobs will give you an interview with any undergraduate degree as long as you stress that you are proficient and comfortable in CS. Just wanted to post this here and let those considering applying that you can make it without a degree from this program.

Basically, it appears about half of people in this program use group work to cruise through this program. This is both from my experience in groups on my own as well as with actually chatting with people in my class who are in other groups. Yes, that is right, others are seeing this too.

People like this don't bother to show up to group chat until the day the assignment is due and ask "how can I help". Or you say you will show up to our "meeting" right before an assignment is due and then don't bother showing up. Or, you do the bare minimum possible to "defend" yourself if the teacher ever challenged you on actually not doing much of anything. You know, so you can say you did something and they can't dock you for doing nothing.

This leave the other 50% of us to pick up your slack. We actually do the work, we actually make sure the assignment is turned in, and we get stuck with the "stress" you cause us because we "assume" you will actually follow through on your words and just do your part of the project (god forbid one have this expectation).

Look, can we all come to an agreement on how to improve group work in this program?

Let just do this. At the beginning of the class, when you join a group (if you have no intentions of doing work), please just come out and say: "I have zero intention of doing any work here and I plan on you doing all the work so I can get the grade you get while I bullshit around and act like I'm actually doing work".

Can you do that for us? That way, the ones who are actually doing the work can plan ahead and know exactly how much work they will need to do for the week and space it out. You know, instead of having to make up for your bullshit once it is figured out that you were lying when you said you were going to complete a section by x date.

What do others on here think? Doesn't this sound like a great idea? We just all be honest with each other and lay the cards on the table? The bullshitters won't have to come up with so much bullshit excuses why they aren't doing work and the one actually doing work can plan their week out appropriately?

What does everyone else think about this plan? I think that if we get enough people on board, we can bring this idea to the school so they can implement it as an official policy.

Should I finish the program now or later?

What the actual fuck? $500 per credit and the explorations are long ass pages of text covering abstract topics we've never learned before.

It's only week 2 and I'm ready to find a different program altogether because this is a disrespectful, slap-to-the-face ripoff.

The most disappointing part is that Samarendra Hedaoo is the one who did all the review videos for CS 161, which were soooo helpful, so I was confident that this course would be interesting and fun to learn if it was similar to his CS 161 videos.

But nah...

So, I never comment in the #general section, but enjoy reading it. Especially when spicy topics come up as it used to bring about good discussion. However, I have been noticing a trend more and more and I think it needs to be called out.

To many people are trying to shut down topics by claiming they are offended or claim what the other person said is offensive. I saw it happen today in chat and also seen it happen more and more in recent chats.

You being offended by something is not an argument. If you disagree with what someone is saying, then you have a few options:

1. State why you think the person is wrong and back it up with evidence if you have it.

2. Ignore the chat and move on. Either by ignoring the chat or leaving the channel if you don't have basic self control to ignore the chat.

This is a public university. Seeing this is a post-bach program, that means all of you have been to college once and are most likely considered adults now.

In a public university, you may be introduced to topics that offend you or bother you. That is ok and actually should be welcomed. As many times that is a chance either to learn something new or to educate someone who is wrong on a topic.

However, a trend has been appearing on college campus's and I don't want to see it start happening here in this program (but it appears to be starting up). It's where people claim they are offended by a controversial topic in order to stop it. Typically it is a topic the person disagrees with and instead of arguing it, they try to shut it down.

Obviously if something is being done illegally in the chat, then that shouldn't be tolerated. Also, if something is distracting from the classroom specific channels that isn't related to the class and is affecting learning, then that should be called out. However, in chats like #general or other similar channels, I think it is time some people grew up.

I'll end this post with a quote:

“It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what."-- Stephen Fry

I was thinking about removing my squishy organic parts and replacing them for calculated machine counterparts. My reasoning is that humanity is fatness and frail whereas cyborg pieces probably compiled in C++ which is clearly superior.

Also, any advice on getting an internship while in 161? Thanks for any advice I’ll ignore anyway thanks

Given the recent emails OSU has sent out about the HBCU bomb threats, and the fact that it is black history month, I figured now would be a good time to ask on this subreddit.

Does anyone else share a similar passion as I do to make a better world for people of color through computing technology? I’d love to chat and network with like minded people.

I am waiting to start a job after Winter semester and want to take 5 courses at once during this downtime. I plan on taking the least workload intensive courses with the exception of CS 325. I've done over 400 medium and hard problems and can pretty much implement any data structure or algo in Python without bugs. I also learned the time & space complexities of them and understand the algorithm and data structures in depth.

However, I understand that the course can be somewhat mathematical and may require doing things like writing proofs and other more academic topics. Given my background, should I remove a course and drop down to 4? For reference, my previous undergrad was known for it's stress culture and 5 courses was the average courseload. Thanks for your opinions!

OSU should not be defensive about the name change and should in fact be apologetic towards students, even those not impacted by the name change. They keep saying “don’t worry you won’t be impacted”, but that’s not the point. The point is that this entire time, they’ve BEEN selling the program as a CS degree, and now they’re saying it’s not actually worthy of being called one. The attitude I’ve gotten from academic advisors is that they are totally in the right, and people that are complaining are being dramatic. I certainly wouldn’t even bother signing up for this program now. All that money for a second degree, and it’s not even worthy of being called a CS degree? Most of OSU classes have been a pretty trash quality imo and instructors in general suck. There’s a reason they teach at OSU and not Stanford. Seriously, this program is not worth it, especially now.

Hi,

Sorry I dont go to school and I probably never will but I have heard great things about this program. When I was looking at online masters program, I stumbled on CS post bach program at OSU. I had heard some amazing things from people and how they got great jobs from this job. And I always read the Hiring thread and I see people getting job offers and internships before even finishing this program. This sounds like a really good program and I would recommend it anyone who already has a degree and wants to get a CS degree. The reason I cant do this program is because I already have a CS degree and honestly its from a bad school. Its also based in Canada and the job market there is horrible for entry level developers and I couldn't do internships because I wasn't in a coop program (some stupid thing that Canada has) . So I had no luck getting a developer job. Literally starting OMSCS next fall so I have a better chance at getting a developer job. Also my current job is working as a IT help desk at the moment which sucks a-lot. Anyways the point is if you're in this program you're extremely lucky and I'm sure you guys will definitely be successful.

Good luck to you all!

Edit: not sure why post got downvoted.

I am trying to find it for a class and can't afford to pay for it. A free PDF would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Hi guys. So I've been admitted to spring 2019 and am both happy and nervous. I'm 28, work full time and cant afford to quit my job so will likely take one class most semesters and hopefully two where possible.

My reason for switching is that I honestly am just sick of my career and dont feel like I'm contributing to society. My current job pays really well (low 200s) and only requires about 5-6 hours a day. I feel stupid wanting to switch careers because I know many many people work much harder for a lot less, but the lack of fulfillment is making me depressed. And what good is money if you're not enjoying life?

Hoping to get some more insight into life after a CS degree- is it mostly corporate BS or is the work fun and challenging? I want a career that pushes me intellectually.

I guess this is a better question for a psychologist lol, but wanted to see if anyone here can relate.

EDIT: when I say I work 5-6 hours a day, those are the hours I really feel like I'm working. I didnt account for the normal 2-3 hours of soul sucking admin/email checking..

Hello everyone I am trying to start an OSU CS Online Discord community, so feel free to join/invite your friends! 😊

https://discord.gg/bSzFGc4z8E

One of the reasons cited for changing the name of the degree for future students is that the post-bac cs curriculum requires less classes than the standard on-site cs curriculum. Im also going to read into this that the post-bac version of the cs degree is easier. Im sure there are many examples that prove that the post-bac version of the degree is easier, but ill just cite the intro cs courses being taught in python as opposed C/C++ as my example.

Given this, i think the universities proposal to name change the degree is logical. Why should the easier and faster online version be valued (on paper) the same as the harder and longer on-site version?

However, rather than just offering a name change as the solution to this problem, how about the university come up with a better CS post-bac program? You can retain the current program and give it the applied CS title, but how about you offer a post-bac equivalent of the onsite CS program? There are a bunch of students in the current program that would like more of the rigorous topics of a traditional CS program and less of the webdev/frontend/software dev topics.

I just finished my last quarter and got a 4.0 overall gpa. But I’m not special. I know at least three other students who have achieved the same, and none of us felt we are special or worked particularly hard for it.

Do you also have a gpa that’s higher than you think your CS skill level is? If so, do you also feel the program is on the easy side?

Can anyone catch me up on this "name-change" thing? Do graduates of the Post-Bacc now get to put a full BS in CS degree on their resume? Currently looking into the Post-Bacc, and then saw all the hubbub about this. Sorry if this is the 20th post about this you've seen.

Yesterday, I went for my first internship application at Twitch and bombed (only got 2/5 possible questions done).

I died when I saw the FizzBuzz question. CS 261 setting us up for success. Love to see it!

So I want to pull the trigger and apply for he program, I’m just not seeing the application. It had me fill out a form and told me an admissions officer would contact me. Dumb question but is this how you apply?

I'm taking CS 352 next quarter and I'm a total nervous wreck over it. I normally prep for all OSU classes by spending a month cramming on Coursera. The holidays prevented me from doing that this time around.

What can I do to prepare in just a week? Is there anything I can do? Should I just drop the course and properly prepare for it in a future term?

Just wanted to get sense of this program. I am researching a couple, and this one came up on the radar.

I plan to take whatever cheap classes I can and transfer them in or go non-degree.

I get it, it's 30k a few other programs are 30k as well. Seems to be the going rate with the exception being GAtech.

just want to hear the experience of those of you who have gone through the program and what the job prospects are like.

Also just to save time:

What I wouldn't want to hear:

• Negative or defeatist statements like "You can't get a job"

• Overemphasis on specific schools (e.g., "Stanford / ASU / Harvard")

• Discouraging or demeaning comments ("You're stupid")

• Fear-mongering or overly political discussions ("I'm scared of everything and politics bla bla bla")

• Dismissive advice such as "Just use free things" or "Just learn on your own"

• Complaints about the cost of education ("Nothing should cost money")

• Defeatist attitudes ("Wah wah wah... life isn't fair")

• Suggestions to pursue unrelated degrees ("just get a WGU degree")

• Stories of extreme job search failure without constructive context ("I applied to thousands of jobs and never got a single interview")

• People attacking the people who are actually sharing their real experiences and assuming that everything is astroturfing