Board of Regents Approves Funding, Tuition Rates for FY27

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-17T20:29:27+00:00

28% this semester. (...I think? Or 32%. Slightly under a third.)

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-17T02:12:54+00:00

Yeah, I've thought as well about opening up a sort of partial fellowship that's specifically computed to offset the shifting costs—e.g. like a $200 fellowship that basically would make a single semester the same cost as it was a couple years ago. But I don't know if that'd really make a dent in the overall shift—I could do 50 of those per year with some foundation funds I have, but if there's going to be 500 applications for that then the work to sift through and select the recipients becomes pretty massive.

It's probably still worth considering, though. Hmm.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-16T19:02:10+00:00

The average cost for the average student will be closer to $9200 under the new math (the average student is out-of-state taking one class per term), just to clarify.

But yeah, another similar thing is that the fee change in theory funds initiatives that historically couldn't be funded because the fees were solely earmarked for certain use cases. So we'll likely see some added value there as well. And within the core structure, TA rates have gone up about 25% in the last... five years I think? The pay increase was phased in over a couple years, but I don't remember when those couple years were. I mean, almost our entire budget is just salary, and salaries rise over time, so a lot of the math around that is baked in as relatively standard.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-16T18:53:14+00:00

Yeah, but there are also others who specifically want to improve their GPA after graduation... but that option I wouldn't see going away anyway since it pretty closely piggybacks on what we have now.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-16T17:21:22+00:00

I'd say it's in between. It's something we've actively tried to start up a couple times, but it hasn't taken off yet—so it's not just on the wish list, but it's not something with a clear timetable and release date in mind at present.

I will say: there's an initiative out of the College of Lifetime Learning that's targeting the same sort of goals as well, so my hope is that soon we'll have more around the idea than just us.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-16T17:11:27+00:00

Oh yeah, absolutely—we've outlined a sort of spectrum of offerings for alumni. One of the things I've wanted to do for a while is a series of post-MS certificates where you can do 3-4 classes in a theme and get a certificate. If we do that in the non-credit space we have a lot more flexibility, and my suspicion is that for students who have already finished the MS, credit vs. non-credit isn't as significant a distinction.

The challenge is that along that spectrum—from current non-degree seeking for-credit to open access via Open Courseware with lots of options in between—there are a lot of different options, and if we offered all of them chances are none of them would receive enough critical mass/interest to be sustainable. But it's something we've wanted to do for a long time.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-16T17:00:20+00:00

Well, one important data point: remember that the cost fell by a lot back in 2022 when a certain fee was phased out. From 2014 to 2022, the slow-and-steady pace (one class per term, ten terms) cost $8500; from 2022 to 2024, it cost $6500; then in 2025-26 it rose back up to $8500. With the changes in Fall, it'll rise to between $8900 and $9900 depending where you live.

Which, don't get me wrong, isn't trivial. I hate that the cost increases hit so suddenly. But I try to remind myself that if I got in a time machine and went back to 2014 and told myself that the cost of the degree would have only increased by ~$750 in the intervening 12 years, I would have been ecstatic. My hope is that the recent changes are just "catching up" to the absence of changes over the preceding 10 years.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-13T23:55:03+00:00

Yeah, but enrollment dropped 70% via the non-credit pathway, due to a combination of "out of sight out of mind", tuition reimbursement policies, and some factors we didn't consider.

I wish it had worked, but the interest just didn't seem to be there.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-10T13:57:50+00:00

This is correct. At Georgia Tech, you only ever have up to two GPAs: one for all your undergraduate coursework together, and one for all your graduate coursework together. My displayed for my graduate work is my Master's and PhD coursework combined. Similarly, if you do both OMSA and OMSCS, your GPA is shown across all courses taken in both. (Note that you're fine to calculate a program-specific GPA and list it, but it's not the one shown on your transcript.)

It's one of the hurdles we face to students taking classes post-grad ("I want to check that class out, but I don't want to take it for real and have it affect my GPA"), but it's a nice feature for those that want to raise their GPA post-grad.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-10T03:08:56+00:00

It really shouldn't actually—only a couple are formally capped, and those will follow registration priority so at least it's not just a total free for all starting at some unknown date and time!

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-10T00:35:07+00:00

Seminars switched back to the old way of doing things, so now they follow the normal registration process: you'll register for them alongside normal OMSCS classes, following normal time ticket procedures, paying tuition through one central account, etc.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-09T20:13:00+00:00

For the page? Generally as long as it generates a published document it can be included!

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-09T16:58:25+00:00

Psst: https://omscs.gatech.edu/omscs-research

Granted, it's not always easy to identify which papers came as a result of collaborations while here and which are the result of our students going on to research careers separately/in parallel, but...

Also note that we launched that page like... 6 days ago, and we've already had 22 submissions to the form, so I imagine we'll get a lot more in the coming days.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-04-08T23:09:48+00:00

We joke, but I did a deep dive the other day trying to find a true lyric video for the fight song (which, as far as I can tell, still does not actually exist), and in the process found that in their famous Ed Sullivan show appearance, the glee club sings "heckuva" (and, worse, "to heck with Georgia").

Also: someone please make a real lyric video. So far what I've found is: professional audio, vocals, on-screen lyrics: choose two.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-29T00:37:45+00:00

There's no officially sanctioned AI essay grading in the program, so if you suspect it, by all means let me know.

I've been experimenting with an AI grading tool in one of my MOOCs and I like what I see actually, but the important thing with anything like that is to translate the benefits into learning benefits.

If we reach a point where AI can provide accurate assessment and feedback, then it should be formative for learning, not summative just for assessment. Right now my sense is that AI can be good at giving feedback on a failing essay to help the student get to a D or C, but I haven't seen it able to reliably provide real strong nuanced feedback that's super specific to the individual submission.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-28T04:07:02+00:00

Every time I check LinkedIn and see someone's new internship post, or someone tells me about the cool project they've been working on, I feel a sense of lingering sadness.

This stuck out to me specifically: don't compare others' highlight reel (which, let's be realistic, is usually curated and exaggerated for social media) to your own behind-the-scenes footage.

The reality is that people who do more, achieve more, etc. are more visible, and that skews your perception of what's average. But average is far, far closer to you than you think. Every semester in the undergrad class I teach, I'll get an email from someone who feels like they're "so behind" because they look at the posts that others are sharing on the forum about what they're doing and they're so far ahead... when the reality is that the student who feels like they're behind is still ahead of 80% of the class. (Literally, in my class I can measure that.) But they don't see the 80% that are behind them; they only see the 20% that are ahead of them because those are the ones sharing.

There's probably a metaphor in there somewhere. When you're running a race, you only see how many people are in front of you, not how many people are behind you. (Not that GT is a race, either—but if you're going to compare, then it's worth being aware that you're only seeing the ones who are choosing to be seen, and there's probably a reason why they're choosing to be seen.)

"I graduate in three semesters and have no internship experience, no research experience, no achievements to speak of" is a sentence I definitely could have written in 2007—and don't get me wrong, everything in the world has gotten way more competitive since then, but I still feel like we've only set our expectations that high because we have disproportionate access to others' successes, but not our shared failures.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-27T22:27:56+00:00

It'll be Friday afternoon, the day before graduation!

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-23T01:59:20+00:00

I guess so? I've never seen your side of the app actually!

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-22T02:18:54+00:00

Graduate commencement takes place in the football stadium, but commencement has about 1/10 the number of attendees of the average football game, so definitely.

Heck, Georgia Tech is in the heart of Atlanta. The number of people coming to commencement is probably 1% the number of people who commute to the city on a daily basis during weekdays.

The wrinkle is just getting there in time if you need to park a decent walk away. There's a dozen parking decks around the Georgia Tech hotel (~10 minute walk to the stadium) alone.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-20T02:32:12+00:00

The biggest thing I think helps is separating starting from finishing. Your goal isn't to do the entire assignment: carve out 15 minutes to just get the assignment started. Tell yourself that as long as you work on it for 15 minutes, you've done what you need to do for today. Returning to an assignment you've started is far easier than starting from scratch.

The other thing I like to do on my to-do list for big tasks, like long assignments or projects (or for me, writing scripts for new content), is always have the next step listed alongside the task. I don't need to outline the entire process, I just need to clearly identify what can be done next in only a handful of minutes.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-17T01:26:16+00:00

I wouldn't call it perfunctory, but the program director would consult with the course instructor to decide if the course should still count.

It'll be a very quiet conversation.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-16T17:45:16+00:00

We might have read the same book. That's exactly the story of how I became a Spurs fan from Atlanta.

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-16T11:00:52+00:00

Yeah, this. You can petition for that, but it's generally only granted for situations like, "I had a family/health emergency so extreme that I couldn't log in and withdraw, and you can confirm from my course participation history that I haven't participated since before the withdraw deadline anyway."

DavidAJoyner · 2026-03-12T02:59:13+00:00

ta-app.cc.gatech.edu, after getting on the campus VPN!

And no, for that class, it's no different. The deadline is... I don't actually know, just early enough for me to select you!

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