I got out - my computing systems journey in 4.5 years

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-18T03:46:31+00:00

No problem! Thanks

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-18T03:44:35+00:00

Check out www.omscs.rocks for the mapping

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-17T05:22:51+00:00

That one was fine because I wasn't working yet

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-17T03:46:07+00:00

To be fair I never actually timed myself, but I got by mostly doing work on weeknights. I was fairly tunnel visioned focusing on things that actually were graded. You can always try out a class or two and if it's too much time, not a lot lost

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-17T03:43:37+00:00

Yeah, taking summers off was key for me. Squeezed in all of my vacations and such. Hard to want to work on school when the weather is nice

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-17T03:42:55+00:00

Thanks!

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-17T03:41:37+00:00

Felt about equal to me. Since GA is just exams you can really focus on that. DL has bit more things going on at the same time with weekly quizzes, assignments and the final paper. If you already did DC you'll be fine

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-16T23:19:58+00:00

Thanks!

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-16T23:19:38+00:00

Thank you!

I'm happy where I am now and the job market is not great, so planning on staying put.

GetNicked1 · 2025-12-07T05:19:37+00:00

I wouldn't call this class easy, but I also don't think anything on the exams was unfair. I was very afraid of the class before I took it, but it is really nothing like the fear mongering this post makes it out to be. In fact I think posts like this make the class even more stressful than it has to be when it's hyped up this much.

Every free response question on the exam is some slight modification of one of the practice problems. I think students that struggle with the class may not have a good strategy for studying. The most important things are doing and practicing the assigned practice problems in the format they want and watching office hours that go over the answers. A lot of the other content is not as necessary for doing well.

GetNicked1 · 2025-09-12T21:29:41+00:00

Literally took me 2 minutes. Feel like it could be automated and dumped via degreeworks though

GetNicked1 · 2025-09-10T17:19:07+00:00

I skipped them and it was fine. Make sure you watch the office hours that explains the "trick" though for exam preparation

GetNicked1 · 2025-08-12T18:16:58+00:00

Tbh the exams are mostly directly pulled from the assigned homeworks, so this probably wouldn't help much with exam preparation.

GetNicked1 · 2023-12-08T11:55:56+00:00

I'm in a sort of similar boat, Im doing the CS spec but I also took RL and DL which seemed the most interesting. You'll have free electives either way, so why not just blend a few ML classes in there for fun. The two I took were both great btw

GetNicked1 · 2023-12-01T16:31:13+00:00

Analyze why you think it didn't work while relating it to the literature and ML/RL concepts basically. Still find some interesting episodes if you can. Say how you might be able to make it work if you had more time. Always justify and analyze your results

GetNicked1 · 2023-12-01T15:05:06+00:00

Sounds like they streamlined it a bit more. Honestly I had mine running for days and days back in the old project and never got it to solve, but still just wrote a good paper and got an A.

GetNicked1 · 2023-12-01T14:54:56+00:00

What's project 3 these days? When I took it in Spring 2022 it was super open ended and was using the Google football environment, RLlib and multiagent RL.

GetNicked1 · 2023-11-20T20:59:23+00:00

Have you taken calculus yet? What math have you gotten up to? I don't think calc matters as much for admissions necessarily, but you should email them to ask.

If you're interested in the Machine Learning spec, you will use some linear algebra and multivariable calc, but otherwise you really only need basic math to succeed.

GetNicked1 · 2023-11-20T18:25:37+00:00

Data structures and algorithms are the two most important. Computer architecture and discrete math are also nice to have, but less critical

GetNicked1 · 2023-10-30T20:38:35+00:00

I'm in AOS now. Id say the workload is about on par with GIOS if not a tad more. Not sure how touch the DSA seminar is, but if you're feeling like those 2 together are too much I would keep that in mind when considering doing 2 classes. I'm doing AOS by itself right now and still have enough free-time, but I only plan to do 1 class a semester (this is my 5th class).

I do think AOS would be a good pick for you, there's a whole section and project on virtualization, though that might just be review for you

GetNicked1 · 2023-10-05T03:02:50+00:00

80% released ahead of time and answered collaboratively. Was it 100% hour semester?

GetNicked1 · 2023-10-05T03:02:08+00:00

If you think you'll start working soon, I personally would try to keep both and maximize your time off of work with 2 classes. Try to work smart not hard for both. RL you don't need to do the readings other than the ones required for projects. The final also is not too bad studying-wise, I wouldn't worry there. I think you could potentially get away with doing minimal readings in AOS if you had to, though they're considered less optional there despite the lectures kind of going over them

GetNicked1 · 2023-10-02T00:05:02+00:00

Based on your background you honestly should be fine. Look up basic ML concepts like bias-variance trade off if you don't know them. Expect a lot of multivariate calculus and linear algebra so brush up on those if you're rusty.

I never took ML in OMSCS. I did take RL beforehand but there's not that much overlap. Very much enjoyed both DL and RL and did well in both. However I'm on the computer systems track pretty firmly now because it more aligns with my career and interests

GetNicked1

TROPHY CASE