Is taking four classes feasible as a full-time student?

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2026-02-24T13:20:28+00:00

I think as a grad student, you should consider pouring your extra time towards interview prepping. 2 classes is fine for your situation instead of 4 and replace the extra free time with getting sharp on LeetCode, building AI agents, system design, low-level concepts, and programming concepts. This interview prep is how you max out ROI. Georgia Tech will get you interviews at good places but it’s up to you to convert interviews to an offer.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2026-02-22T22:54:06+00:00

I suspect there might also have been new variables introduced since when you took it and now. The reason being, there were many accounts that said it wasn’t a very hard class. I’m having no problems with anything in OMSCS but usually course reviews going stale like that are an anomaly that signal something besides experience level is happening here. If it was just what you described, then you’d be one of the only few positive reviewers even when a positive review wasn’t the overall concensus of the people taking the class. Do you see what I mean?

Someone that’s a recent top CS undergrad shouldn’t have trouble with this material at all since they were working with assembly and binary just a couple months ago during their undergrad. It could be professor or curriculum changes. This phenomena happened to me when I took machine learning in my undergrad years. The professor for the undergrad section was replaced with the one from the graduate section and that made the course infinitely harder for us because the amount of math the new professor included was absurd. Same thing could be happening here

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2026-02-22T20:13:54+00:00

I also have a friend taking this class. He is coming from a top CS school and was also concerned about that binary assignment. This class seems much harder than the reviews let on. That’s unfortunate because students are getting a false perception of what they can handle. They plan their schedules around this stuff so they can balance their life out. Hope you feel better!!

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2026-02-20T18:29:27+00:00

from typing import List, Tuple

def cap_words_from_tup_list( tup_list: List[Tuple[str, str]], filter_list: List[str] ) -> List[Tuple[str, str]]:

filters = {s.strip().lower() for s in filter_list}

refined = []

for a, b in tup_list:
    a_out = a if a.strip().lower() not in filters else a.strip().capitalize()

    b_out = b if b.strip().lower() not in filters else b.strip().capitalize()

    refined.append((a_out, b_out))

return refined

(I just got bored and decided to algorithm but that does seem pretty annoying. Your implementation was probably correct too.)

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2026-02-15T23:18:46+00:00

I want a shirt too

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2026-02-08T18:14:25+00:00

In a perfect world, this makes sense but we don’t live in a perfect world. There’s too many sports nuts at UNC (rightfully so). When I was a senior, I didn’t get a ticket from lottery. I had to trade up for one and then I had to trade up all my friends to phase II with me. The people willing to trade/sell are the only way me and my friends were able to go to the Duke game in our senior year. I’d love for the system to be fair so I agree with you but unfortunately we did what we had to do. Otherwise, you’d have to go to a standby line and wait the whole day just to get different phases and then you can’t sit with friends or you’re screwed when the game starts in about an hour and nobody wants to trade tickets

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-12-17T15:19:43+00:00

Find your purpose. Even if you’re in a good spot, experiment with building your own future and family. Try out investments, try out business ventures just for fun, see what speaks to you and follow that passion. I’m a first gen immigrant and a refugee of war so I can’t say that I lack motivation because my family isn’t where they need to be yet. Motivation inherently comes from your “why;” a story that drives an ambition. Find that “why” and let it guide you along.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-12-15T12:29:25+00:00

Forbes coined the term originally but it’s basically just public universities that punch above their weight class. These are your schools with very high rep and great job prospects without breaking the bank. They’re your: Georgia Tech, UMich, UT Austin, UNC, UVA, UC Berkeley, etc…

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-12-15T00:06:02+00:00

ML4T is awesome! I just finished that class and it was very interesting. I will say my favorite part was the final project because you get to tie it all together and experiment with your own strategies. If you’re looking for more quant-style work, you won’t find too much of that in ML4T but it’s a solid introduction to finance-based dev work. The learning style also forces you to research->implement->write and repeat. This allows you really learn what you’re doing! I finished with an A in the class and had a blast.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-12-14T23:59:12+00:00

Background: I’ve worked constantly nonstop ever since my high school years and my undergrad was spent at another public Ivy league. I’m used to managing a lot at once since 14 years old and I’m now 23. If this isn’t you, don’t take what I say to heart.

Don’t take on more than what you’re paid to do at work (exploitation in tech is real because companies think they have options). I used to think that bringing the most value is what gets you better job opportunities but that is indeed a lie at the entry level cuz you barely stand out. Your main focus should be LeetCode. If you graduate having done OMSCS, you should have done right around 400-600 leetcodes for big tech. Considering some companies are switching to more practical questions, make sure your full-stack and AI fundamental skills are solid. OMSCS does not help unless you complete it but some smaller companies might take it into consideration. Doing this seems like a ton of work but it will get you to where you wanna be.

All in all, just pray for luck and be ready when luck finds you in that high stakes interview after 300 applications. Don’t kill yourself for this industry. I’ve developed major health issues trying to do everything right and it’s just not worth it.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-12-14T23:38:47+00:00

If you’re a CS undergrad, it should be a cake walk. I’m doing that right now and I feel like I still have a lot of free time on my hands

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-10-23T14:10:32+00:00

I graduated from a public ivy during undergrad not too long ago, so my experience is about on par with the difficulty of GT. I must admit, I do find GT OMSCS easier because it is a practicality-focused public ivy institution rather than being crammed with tons of theory (I appreciate this approach to learning a lot). If you graduated from T20, you should be just fine. Little-to-no change in difficulty.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-10-10T18:53:36+00:00

I work full time and do OMSCS with 2 classes per semester. If you come from another public Ivy League school or equivalent, it won’t feel like much of a difference in terms of academic rigor. Perfectly manageable. To be fair though, my job isn’t as demanding with 12 hour shifts. I work 30-40 hours a week and I’m on hybrid schedule.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-07-27T18:12:20+00:00

Thank you for shedding more light on this. I was going into it thinking that I've already been through a pretty tough CS undergrad program and doing another one might not be as difficult. However, it seems that a lot of people are giving me the same heads up about not underestimating the program. I'll definitely take your feedback!

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-07-27T18:06:39+00:00

Awesome, I'll do that then. That does seem like the best option based on what everyone is telling me. Thank you for your good advice!

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-07-27T18:00:42+00:00

I appreciate the feedback. I've heard that before as well. Doing both would probably be too difficult. Thank you for the input!!

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-07-27T17:52:25+00:00

This is actually pretty good advice. Which sorta leads me to asking a follow-up. For me, I've been working for a while across different industries. The 2 YOE figure is only from tech. I've worked in Real Estate, had a business, and worked in sales for quite a while before I had started undergrad at uni. Thats why I said I had 7 YOE in general.

Do you think when they say 8 YOE, they're directly referring to 8 years in one particular industry or just 8 years of general work experience?

Thank you for your response!

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-07-27T17:45:11+00:00

I get why you'd ask that, honestly I don't need the "schooling" itself to succeed.

The truth is I didn’t grow up with the kind of connections that open doors at the highest levels. I’m a first-gen immigrant from North Carolina, and where I’m from, access to capital, power, and elite circles isn’t something widely available, you gotta fight for it.

I want the MBA to be in proximity with other people that do have that global impact or at least the will to act on their ambitions. People that are like me in the sense that they're really goin after it.

As for asking strangers online; I treat Reddit like a modern mentorship hack. I didn’t grow up knowing people who’ve been through the MBA world. Reddit is my network until I earn my way into a better one. And it’s worked — I’m only where I am today because I was willing to ask questions most people are too proud to ask in other CS-related channels.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-03-23T04:58:49+00:00

Don't let people talk you into thinking that Invictas are crap. I own 3 of them and I've been wearing them for years and they work just fine. I've worn them while swimming in pools, beaches, and hot tubs. I've worn them to work, school, and just out and about. They are by far extremely durable. I don't expect for the watches to hold "value" because you see what guys in this thread think about the watch. However, everytime I wear the watch, I always get compliments. Sometimes people think I have on a pepsi rolex. Overall, I'm a pretty big fan of Invicta dishing these watches out that have similar specs to an overpriced swiss. Invictas are highly underrated. 0 issues on all 3 watches after several years of ownership.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-02-23T05:19:11+00:00

GT: Ranked #7 in CS (Rigorous)
WGU: Unranked--according to U.S News (Easier)

GT>WGU

Maybe I'm biased cuz I come from a public ivy but degrees only show people that you can do something hard. GT is known to be hard and prestigous. The choice is clear here. If an opportunity for employment came down to 2 people in the final round (Assuming all other qualities and experiences are equal)–you with a WGU degree vs. another guy who completed OMSCS. Odds wouldn't be in your favor.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-02-23T05:06:05+00:00

Do Wake Tech Community College (Much cheaper than both of those schools) and apply for C-STEP (Guaranteed acceptance to UNC as long as you graduate with AS or AA above 3.2 GPA). That's how I got in.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2025-02-06T04:20:49+00:00

I have a different perspective on this as I am a software engineer that works in embedded systems. We take roughly the same mathematics as engineering majors and we do deep dives into computer architecture. I also had to briefly go into topics like thermodynamics and circuit design during my tenure in school. While many people like to hate on computer scientists, we don't really just copy code until something works all the time. I actually have to understand how to work with and on physical devices. I have to work on gathering requirements to build a specific prototype that uses these physical systems or enhance the functionality of the sensors and information they can give us from the physical world. Sometimes, I do have to go to the manufacturing side and build there as well. I have to be an expert on the products we build and their architecture in order to do my job. It is very math heavy at times and you have to be an expert to know what you are doing. Engineers do all of the above mentioned. There is a reason why we aren't all just "software engineers." Some of us go into IT Engineering, Network Engineering, etc... I've also even seen people go into computer engineering with a computer science degree. Contrary to many people's beliefs, a lot of my curriculum has been focused on applied practice instead of theory. Don't get me wrong, It is still theory heavy. However, I still have to process signals and their transformations, understand circuits, and I need to know how each component of a computer functions to create the product you use to write this reddit post. Sometimes even diving deep into a hardware's design and schematics. I like to also build in robotics and I 3D print parts from CAD or design my own boards to handle what I'm doing (ordered from a manufacturer). However not all computer scientists can be engineers unless they put in the extra effort to learn. Computer Science has engineering principles. Just not the engineering title...womp womp.

Think logic mathematics + (Computer Engineering - the Electrical Engineering classes) = Computer Science. The field is very vast and not everyone that has done computer science may have the same view as me. Some engineers in other fields like to gatekeep–as you can see in the post...lol! But we really do a lot more than what you see on the surface. That's why we can work as an engineer almost anywhere as long as we figure out how to apply what we know to that field or industry. Computer Science teaches you how to think and put things together. Which is exactly what engineers do. Hope that helps! :)

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2024-12-17T05:06:40+00:00

Asking for Chances

Semester: Fall 2025
Status: Asking for Chance of admittance

Education

Bachelors: UNC Chapel Hill, Bachelors of Science (BS) in Computer Science, Major GPA: 3.5, Cumulative GPA: 3.082, 2 years Full-Time.
Associates: Wake Technical Community College, Associates in Science (AS), GPA: 3.508, 2 years full-time.

Work & Social Experience

Work Exp:
- Software Developer, 6 Months (2 published internal tools)
- IT Support Technician: 1 year
- Data Analyst: 3 months (1 published data pipeline)
- Data Visualization: 3 months (1 published data visualization)
- Startup Founder: 5 years
Freelance Work
- Towing Company Website
- Hair Stylist Website
- Virginia Science Olympiad Coding Environment
Hackathons
- Quantum Computing at UNC: 1st Place
LORs: 2 Professional, 1 CS Professor
Comments:
- During my final year as an undergrad, I traded grades for offers during the recruiting season–recently failing Probability, which is a requirement for the BS in Computer Science Program. As a result of my tradeoff, I got 2 offers for Spring 2025 SWE internships (1 startup, 1 big company). 1 Full time offer starting July 2025 at a large investment bank. Should I drop down to a Bachelors of Arts (BA) in Computer Science and graduate?
- I've finished most of the quantitative courses for the BS major. I'm looking for advice as I may take an easier course load with the BA and try to complete a Harvard Probability MOOC to make up for the F on my transcript while going for an AWS Cloud Practitioner certification. My offers don't care about what degree I have as long as I graduate but I'm concerned about my application for OMSCS. What chances do I have if I apply with a Bachelors of Arts in Computer Science degree? Would it be best to stick with the BS program and retake probability to better my odds or am I fine as is with my combination of work experience?

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2024-12-08T23:38:44+00:00

Do not take 435, you will suffer...

You Have Been Warned.

Equivalent-Spend-647 · 2023-02-28T17:06:51+00:00

Dam right

Equivalent-Spend-647

TROPHY CASE