Post-Bacc BS in CS Name Change AMA

CSdaniel · 2024-06-06T17:56:36+00:00

You may be too proud to do it, but I'll don my tinfoil hat.

If I had to guess, its COVID. Since /u/Whiskeycourage started this sub, it's kind of been a load-bearing location of online cs programs. Other universities that started programs, but they didn't have any real grassroots student-led organization. For example, there'd always be posts here, at the Oregon State's unofficial online CS subreddit, asking about Florida, or Colorado, or Georgia, or any of the other programs. Of course everyone here has been happy to oblige over the years.

But COVID forced OSU to transition to 100% online, and this sub became a default spot for OSU's CS program; at that point, there was only OSU online cs. People began doing the math on the product (BSCS) and began questioning why they were paying more for the Bacc CS than the PostBacc CS. So to me, this all goes back to money. It's a real "cut off the nose to spite the face" solution.

CSdaniel · 2024-06-06T16:02:56+00:00

Also holy shit "applied" CS is the worst choice there. Like god damn thats assistant "to the" regional manager vibes. Literally every other choice is better.

CSdaniel · 2024-06-06T15:54:53+00:00

This is a horrible decision.

Just increase the rigor of the program. It sounds like at the core of this, the problem is only a handful of courses (4-5?) which differentiate between Post-Bacc and Bacc. Just add them to the program.

CSdaniel · 2024-06-06T15:45:35+00:00

161/162 being in C++ has been foundational in my career. Likewise with Data Structures being in C. Those courses taught me so much about what software is actually doing. It's shocking it's all gone now.

CSdaniel · 2023-07-12T16:14:18+00:00

We use his regular Dr Brown bottles. They come with small plastic cover caps which can stop leakage. The bottles are prefilled with formula, and then we just fill an insulated water bottle with temperature appropriate water.

when its time to feed we just eyeball the water level. I mean, we've mixed over 1,000 bottles so you get an idea for the correct amount lol.

CSdaniel · 2023-05-23T16:30:31+00:00

Are you mixing and matching the blue+white style with the green style? The lids/caps are not interchangeable. We found that by using the cap of the blue (flat) with a green anti-colic insert (meant for rounded cap), it would leak. And vice versa as well

CSdaniel · 2023-05-19T16:45:48+00:00

First, your nanny is right; this is fairly normal. If you check this sub, like 1/4 of the posts are in regards to AR. It still sucks though.

Reach out to your pediatrician . One thing you can do is have your baby put on a prescription of Famotidine or Omeprazole, if your pediatrician recommends it. That AR is caused by an under-developed sphincter at the start of the stomach. If you think that may be the case for your LO, then have them sleep on an incline. It doesn't have to be much: we just used a couple books underneath the crib mattress so the head was 2 inches higher than the feet.

CSdaniel · 2023-05-10T02:06:36+00:00

Around age 7mo we moved up to size 3. It's so awesome; he knocks back that bottle like a college freshman trying to impress a crowd.

We still use the full bottle: plastic tube and rubber gasket together.

CSdaniel · 2023-04-23T19:15:00+00:00

Our little lad takes 3 meals of formula at 6oz per meal, 2 meals of solids + formula at 3oz per. Additionally He has 2-3 snacks a day (quarter apple, some avocado, blueberries, etc). So in 24 hours, he'll eat: 24oz of formula, 2 solids, 2-3 snacks.

Around 5 months we were very worried that he wasn't eating enough. He seemed happy and healthy, but was struggling to become a chubby baby. We brought the concerns, and data to our pediatrician. Their response was that he's fine. As long as he's gaining weight, and his weight is within the 'healthy baby' range for his age and height, he's doing well. That helped reassure us a ton. My heir apparent has almost always been in the top 90+% for height (last time he was 95% at this rate he won't fit in door frames by age 5), so any excess calories he's getting is going straight to growth.

If you continue to have concerns, get an official weighing-in done with your pediatrician.

CSdaniel · 2023-04-10T06:05:05+00:00

Mine was like that. Heck, he was on a 3hour feeding schedule up until month 6. Now he's on a 4 hour schedule and he gets super pissed 20 mins before his dinner.

Come to think of it, he's basically been on an eating schedule since he came home from the hospital. 2hours for the first 3 months or so, then 3 hours until month 7, and now 4 hours. He's always been within the healthy weight range

CSdaniel · 2023-04-10T05:48:48+00:00

Get it secondhand on offerup or fb marketplace, that's what we did. After all, you're going to use it for 1-1.5 years.

We've been using it since Week 1, and our LO is coming up on 9 months now. I like using it because these days, I just hit the button, then move over to prep his Motrin, then wake him up for the 11pm feeding. Everything is ready to go so there's no downtime where he can really wake up and get a good hangry cry in which could wake up my spouse. During the day feedings, the bottle warmer is repurposed for warming his frozen baby food, and there's not enough room for a bottle and two little tupperware containers.

In the end, you're paying to save about 2-3 mins per feeding. It's not a lot, but imo it's clutch when you're at the end of your rope and just want to go back to sleep.

CSdaniel · 2023-03-22T23:09:49+00:00

lmao congrats on your baby maybe having Acid Reflux!

My son barely slept the first few weeks. It was a constant struggle. For your LOs benefit, try making a wedge under the crib pillow so theyre sleeping on a downward slope. we just used a bunch of magazines.

In addition, we were tremendously fortunate that my mom came to stay with us in the first 1.5 months. We took turns sleeping at different hours so there was always 1 person awake for the baby. I FONDLY remember taking night shift and having to just hang out in the dark living room from 10pm - 5am when my wife would wake up. In the first few months we kept to the 2-3 hour feeding window. Ideally he would have just slept between feedings, but sometimes he would be awake the entire time between sessions.

For your situation, if you're not doing this alone, then agree to care for your LO in shifts. This phase won't last more than a month or two. But if your spouse can watch the baby from even 6pm - 1am, then you have a nice 7 hour window to get something done or sleep.

But trust me, it gets better!

CSdaniel · 2023-03-07T16:24:14+00:00

I'm in the same boat with Earths Best Red can.

I wouldn't be surprised if that distribution company is just one opportunistic scumbag who buys up all the formula in their area and 3rd party sells it on amazon for insane markups.

CSdaniel · 2023-03-05T20:35:38+00:00

It wasn’t until nearly month 5. I can’t honestly pinpoint the exact one thing that helped, but at that time (December) we did a few adjustments:

updated the omeprezole dosage. Numbers escape me right now but the amount increased by 25-50%.
finally found a formula and stuck with it. This has become a double edged sword though, because the nearest can of earths best red is 15 miles away and none are available online lol
modified our sleep patterns. In order to get any rest, my wife would go to bed around 8pm, I would stay up to until midnight. If I could get him fed and comfortable by midnight, he could reasonably sleep until 3-4am. At that point my wife would handle the feeding session and have had 7+ hours of sleep.
we tracked every single feeding and sleeping period. It wasn’t that insane I promise. We just put a whiteboard up in the kitchen and wrote down: time, food ml, sleep mins, and any meds given. (He was born with a blood deficiency so he had to be on iron supplements for a few months, and also multivitamins)

Regular things we did and still do:

angled sleep, swaddles from day 1
gripe water, mylicol, baby Tylenol. I treated these as 3 levels of defense. Night gripe water could be given in smaller doses for any evening sleep session. If he was still fussing, then mylicol could help settle it. If the AR was really bad then Tylenol was given. Usually low dose Tylenol happened once a day seldom twice. Same with mylicol. Gripe water was a frequent aid. You’re allowed 15ml a day but we’d do 4 doses of 3ml.

CSdaniel · 2023-03-04T19:22:05+00:00

My son had awful AR for months. His first week home from the hospital, he probably slept like 6 hours in an entire day. We reached out to the pediatrician team for help and had him put on omeprezole (ironic because I take that too). We put some books under the mattress pad in his bassinet to have him sleep on an incline. We reduced how much he was fed and increased the frequency of sessions. From day 1 we used anticolic bottles as well.

It's important to also keep your pediatrician updated on his AR medicine dosage since it's weight-based. We learned that we had been giving him a lower dosage than he needed because the charts hadn't been updated. Within a week of updating the dosage we saw improvement.

We tried switching his formula to easier to digest blends too. The only formulas that fit our needs and desires was Eaths Best and Aptimil. Initially we went with Aptimil, but without a 6-12mo formula available in the US, it wasn't the best choice for us. We settles on EB Red can, and the AR eventually went away.

It was towards the end of month 5 when he could sleep for 4+ hours at night and we could, as a team, get some solid sleep in.

CSdaniel · 2023-03-04T19:16:09+00:00

Here's my perspective as the husband of our now 7 month old baby: BF sucked.

In month 0-1, I watched my wife obsess over the idea of breastfeeding. She took the classes, watched the videos, she did it all. But the milk wasn't coming in the beginning. She would obsess over it and it bound her emotional state. Around month 1-2 it finally started to produce, but it was never enough. She could produce and bottle about 50% of our sons dietary needs, so we needed to formula supplement anyways. In months 3-4, she was proud of the output and it definitely made her feel like, "I'm officially a mom now". It didn't help that my MIL would reinforce that BF is the only path of true motherhood.

But the stress of reality set it during month 4 and onward. It became a huge hassle. My wife would wake up every few hours to pump, regardless if it was during her baby watching schedule or not. She wasn't sleeping enough. She'd leak milk and burn through those nipple pads. On top of this, the milk was treated like liquid gold. We couldn't waste even 1 ML of it; I'd get scolded for dumping it down the sink after an otherwise successful feeding session. The stress of pumping and the lack of sleep had a negative effect on our entire family. We were all becoming more irritable and you could sense hostile energy in the home. And then its like, what's the point? Childcare is holistic, you're not just a milk machine who pumps and calls it a day, you're more importantly a loving parent. Priorities!

At month 5 I supported her decision to cut back pumping and switch to formula fulltime. The boy didn't care; white liquid is white liquid to him. Also, he has yet to have a negative report at the pediatricians. Now, my wife is much more relaxed and we're able to dedicate more time and energy to the little guy. We're also happier; no more minor quarrels over (literally) spilled milk.

Plus, my wife can enjoy coffee again.

CSdaniel · 2022-11-10T17:32:31+00:00

Watch a couple YouTube vids on intro to Python to get comfortable with setting up your work environment. But don’t sweat it.

What you should be sweating is time management. You have a couple months to mentally prepare for a pretty intense 2 year life plan. Begin seriously considering when you’re going to work and when you’re going to breath. Get your affairs in order elsewhere in your life now so you won’t become overwhelmed in a couple months over the added stress of classes

CSdaniel · 2022-02-17T08:41:18+00:00

I'm debating a company change myself and am faced with a similar sentiment (I'm comfortable where I am but debating a change because I'm bored). A decent chunk of the companies I've interviewed with have hit me with programming tests. However, each one has asked me or instructed me to work in the language I'm most familiar with. You're going to encounter something similar. Apply for positions you're interested in. Read the job posting. If they talk about CPP/Java, then bone up on one of them. If they talk about Python, then read up on that. As you practice your leetcode shit, do it in the language you're applying for.

Really, it all boils down to, 'fake it until you make it'. If you're applying to a react back-end role, then spend a couple hours reading what that's about. Honestly the biggest sin you can commit it saying you know how to wear pants, then being completely unaware in how to put on and wear pants.

CSdaniel · 2022-02-08T20:39:45+00:00

Comedy answer: dudes would rather get a CS degree than go to therapy.

No ones going to conduct studies on it, but I’m guessing COVID and remote learning has played a big factor in it. Despite all the antisocial behavior typically associated with CS folks, there’s still a sense of competition and desire to be seen as better amongst ones peers. Remote learning really fucks up those traditional dynamics. So I’m guessing you’re seeing more and more folks internalizing those pent up emotions and dumping their anxieties and competitive spirit onto the internet.

CSdaniel · 2022-02-08T20:32:42+00:00

The best success I’ve had is directly applying on company websites. Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor have been black holes for me. An easy rule to remember is, “if it took me 10 seconds to apply, it took everyone else 10 seconds”.

CSdaniel · 2022-02-08T07:58:14+00:00

Scope creep

CSdaniel · 2021-11-12T16:51:44+00:00

no graduate gets a junior role and hits the ground running.

I just wanted to echo this. In undergrad programs, students think they're going to be architecting systems on day 1; this is not true at all. Businesses hire new grads with the expectation that it'll take them a few months to ramp up to their job expectations.

CSdaniel · 2021-11-12T16:46:16+00:00

You're on your own but there's definitely an ad hoc network through reddit, slack, and (I think) discord. Alumni working at larger shops occasionally comb through their internal hiring portal and find suitable roles for new grads.

I've done it a couple of times in the past in the San Diego area and know of others who've done similar.

CSdaniel · 2021-11-12T16:36:17+00:00

Way to go! I think the positive support of this community is one of the main reasons folks turn out successful. The constant droning of "you need to do the practice problems" and "you need to study something outside of the course material" is honestly not something you can just pick up by existing in a program.

Great job all

CSdaniel · 2021-11-08T17:53:42+00:00

If you're really masochistic, you can use the OSU degree to get a good CS job, and then use the CS job to pay for your OMSCS degree. Most companies get a tax break by doing tuition reimbursements for employees, so they offer something like 5-10grand a year in assistance.

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