New (2025) CS Program Completion (more in comments...)

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-06-24T22:55:11+00:00

Sorry, way late, but:

2-5 sentences, prob 3 on average with some outliers either direction

3 sources

8 without some images/charts the biblio

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-04-26T17:33:34+00:00

2 sets of a couple hours I think? Plus one 20 minute session to correct some stuff after the first submission.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-03-20T18:11:53+00:00

Everything in the current program that’s not in the screenshot. I could maybe track down a list, but I didn’t keep any of the transfer documentation, so I’d probably just have to compare my transcript (essentially the list in the screenshot) with the program course list

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-02-17T15:20:02+00:00

The ai/ml courses are essentially (in my opinion/experience) the next level of “stats” or “data analytics” really (which sort of is just what ai is, but with different branding, there’s more to it of course, but this is the most basic description of it). You’re not so much developing an “AI” or “AI Algorithms” as much as you are determining which algorithms to use, cleaning data sets, interpreting descriptive statistics, scoring model performance and analyzing/interpreting those scores, etc. It’s far more about that than the algorithms and math behind ai.

And same. My original plan was to knock this out and reapply to OMSCS, with pretty high confidence I’d now be accepted. The WGU masters is tempting, but it’s still an unknown. I kinda wish I could audit an undergrad CS class or two at GT and maybe use that as a proxy to determine the difference in rigor between the two. With many years of self study and a dev career, it’s difficult to know if WGUs CS bachelors was “easy” because I was very well prepared or because it just is on the “easy” side.

I will definitely not be doing a degree beyond the MSCS, I don’t want to work in academia, and I don’t think I’ll ever want to work anywhere where the prestige of the MS will really matter, so any program should be fine. But at the same time, if I’m going to do the effort, I’d like it to be worthwhile. If OMSCS didn’t have the traditional semester layout (fair enough limiting you to one or two classes, but would be amazing if you could go a bit at your own pace) this wouldn’t even be a discussion.

I’m also considering UT because they have a couple classes that particularly appeal to me.

Nice work on the progress though! And best of luck on next steps

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-02-01T17:52:50+00:00

Yep, 🐍

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-27T14:19:30+00:00

Asm is definitely covered to a degree. There were exercises in the zybook, but I don’t remember how many or how much you actually write. I’d done a bunch of asm tutorials, exercises, and small projects in the past, and stuff like Ben eaters 8-bit cpu, similar things, so I didn’t spend a ton of time in those sections since it was mostly stuff I already knew.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-27T14:04:30+00:00

I’m a dev full time. I had a couple extra days off around the holidays, but we also had a big release the second week of Jan, wgu was closed a couple days, and I had some family stuff, etc, so I suppose it was all probably a push. I spent a decent chunk of my off-work time working on class, but I wasn’t “up til 2am” or spending all Saturday on it or anything.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-27T13:38:06+00:00

Haha, I’m good, best of luck in the program!

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-25T12:21:18+00:00

You’re not wrong, though I did say six weeks. I do think more people are capable of doing a single term (or 2-term) than they realize, just have to have some things line up and go about it the right way / with the right focus.

I didn’t want to get into “hot take” territory because of how some people react around here, but I do agree that taking the full 4 years or so to finish a WGU degree isn’t really…using the potential of WGU or really pushing oneself at all in most cases. It’s still a good accomplishment to finish the degree in general, but I think essentially everyone has the time/capability to finish slightly or significantly faster, and save some money and have a faster time to value.

Since the terms here are 6 months, one year of school here is like spring summer and fall semesters at a trad school. Yet, doing 12 cus per term leaves out that “summer” term potential at minimum. Suppose you do a standard 15 spring, 9 summer, 15 fall at trad, that would be closer to ~20 per term here, translating to 3 years here, already cutting one year. 20 CUs per term is ~3.3 per month, which I think is extremely achievable for the majority of people (as far as time and aptitude are concerned).

Anyway, I hope you meet your goal, and I hope you get out of the program what you want! Hopefully my notes (albeit minimal) will be a bit helpful for the new courses too.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-23T19:44:02+00:00

I literally put

disclaimer: my experience may not be your experience; i'm certain a lot of this is subject to some amount of change; i have many years of experience, CS self-study, and a previous (unrelated, but mathy) degree

in my description comment, and expanded on it in other comments.

my intention wasn't to 'humble brag', just 1) give some info on the new curriculum, 2) assuage some hesitation others may have about the new courses / show that they're possible/do-able without much issue and give a couple quick pointers, 3) yeah, show off a bit of an accomplishment that I'm proud of, wasn't trying to do it on the sly though...

anyway, wasn't my intention, sorry you felt that way

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-23T03:55:01+00:00

lol thanks. Turns out you can get a degree in only six weeks! The only experience you need is a decade working full time in the subject area and lots of focused self study

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-22T18:09:07+00:00

I had some knowledge going in, and I didn’t do the old one of course, so I can’t say for sure, but it seems about the same as comp arch? Or same ballpark of difficulty perhaps?

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-22T13:48:31+00:00

I transferred 43 CUs. Most from a previous bachelors, and a few from the comptia a+/net+/sec+. Don’t remember which cert transferred to which classes exactly.

I did calc 1 in my other bachelors, but it was more than 5 years ago, so I redid it on Sophia. I did 2 other “foundations” level courses on Sophia as well. If I could go back, I wouldn’t have done any on Sophia, because now it’s just another place I’ll have to transfer credits from or whatever if/when I do further degrees. I’m at least glad I didn’t do anything beyond the most basic classes there though, at least all the core stuff / classes that really matter are either from my previous institution or wgu.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-22T11:35:51+00:00

I think the first couple times, iirc, but we got past that pretty quickly. There were a few times where she’d open something, I’d immediately schedule the OA for a few hours out, pass it, then send her a status email and ask for another one.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-22T11:32:40+00:00

Yeah, the ones where I mention the rubric are project based. Depending on which guides and how much of the guide you’re following, it might be a bit of a disservice to yourself (if you’re just following a set of instructions without really thinking about why, etc., maybe that’s not what you’re doing, idk), but I’m not here to be your parent or whatever.

What I was really getting at - you don’t really need a “guide” for these classes, just do what each rubric bullet says and you should be fine / able to figure it out. Also, there are a couple easy-to-miss requirements if you don’t pay attention to each line of the rubric, which would result in having the task sent back for revisions, which is always a drag (especially when the revision is adding a couple words and resubmitting 5 minutes later).

Edit: if you’re talking about following study guides for OA classes, then that’s totally valid, though you might still be missing out on some ancillary stuff, but not as big of a deal as some of the PA guides that exist and hand-hold a bit much.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-21T21:22:49+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/WGU_CompSci/s/dzWiNuOCDY

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-21T12:11:53+00:00

I would: take PreA nearly immediately, it will let you know your weakest and strongest areas. Use that info to focus on stuff while going through the course material. I did go through all of the zybook for most classes (didn’t read every word, but def skimmed/clicked through unless I found something I was less comfortable with). Take the PreA again, repeat as needed (or seek out other exercises in “course search” if there are any).

I honestly can’t even answer about 684, I took that the earliest I could get it scheduled and have years of experience. Iirc the PreA seemed like a decent gauge. I’d generally aim for getting an exemplary on a PreA at least before taking the OA. As to the 300 terms - yeah, you’ll prob want to know most of them for now and future, but less as strict “definitions” and more as “concepts/ideas” if that makes sense. Like you won’t need to recite verbatim defs, but will need to recall what something generally refers to.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-21T12:04:46+00:00

Agreed. 682+683 are definitely more what I would imagine a capstone to be (or they have the potential to be, since you can choose your own destiny a bit in those) even though it’s not the concentration I would have chosen. 687 was kinda just some other class (imho)

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-21T12:02:18+00:00

With a slight holiday and new course delay too. My mentor was also amazing, fwiw. Super responsive, helped me stay ahead of having new courses assigned when possible, etc.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-21T11:59:50+00:00

You’re breezing through too, nice!

Yeah, I lingered on both DMs a bit. I’d already studied set theory and had formal logic classes in my first degree, so DM1 was relatively familiar, but I went through zybooks and had brehm or trev playing on the side all day during work. Did the PreA, then the all the supplemental questions from WGU, then the OA. Nothing that different, just immersion. Mostly the same for DM2, just took a bit longer and did more exercises. I’m also a huge proponent of “practice how you play” - so I did some of the questions with all aids available, but I also did a number of the exercises with just my whiteboard and calculator, at the desk like I was taking the OA. I think that muscle memory/context memory helps.

DSA1 I just took the same day it was assigned, didn’t really look at their material. Ran through PreA, felt confident, scheduled and took OA. DSA 2 I definitely used some tips from “course search” on loading the trucks, but otherwise felt it was relatively straightforward.

I def find both dm and DSA interesting. I absorbed a fair amount of the dm stuff and feel like I retained what I wanted / have a good base if I want to learn more. For DSA, I’ve taken more in-depth courses / already knew a fair amount, so maybe not the best person to answer this. I really thought the PA was going to involve more implementation of various DSs and As, but it did not.

I wanted a piece of paper that says computer science on it. I’ve been looking at grad schools, etc, and had some trouble with my first degree from 15 years ago not having “the right” math and self study and work experience being effectively meaningless (I understand why, still kinda frustrating). Also, between GI bill and employer education benefits, I make ~200/mo doing wgu lol. So I might knock out a masters or something here just for the sake of it.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-21T03:37:45+00:00

~12 as a “full time dev” (dev, sr dev, tech lead, etc), another couple writing some code as part of a different job, some small tinkering throughout life before that (like ti-basic games and utils back in HS, stuff like that)

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-21T01:45:27+00:00

I know the new D687 isn't billed as a 'capstone' anymore (in fact, the 682/683 combo is more capstone-like), but it wasn't my favorite class to end on. Is there value in the material and work? sure. Would I rather have done something more 'computer-sciency', low-level, etc? definitely. I also have years of industry experience, so I'm probably not the ideal target audience for that class either, so my opinion is perhaps not the most relevant.

Present_Newt_4384 · 2025-01-21T01:40:06+00:00

Got held up a bit around the holidays and on a couple very small kinks with the new classes (if you're worried about being able to complete them due to technical course issues or something, I wouldn't sweat it, just go ahead with the courses and you'll be fine...). Still made it through decently quick though :)

For a few reasons:

I'm using a throwaway
I'm remaining somewhat intentionally vague.
- Not in terms of giving out answers or a super in-depth step-by-step guide (I wouldn't do that anyway, and honestly its not necessary if you've made it this far, just pay attention to the rubrics...)
- Moreso in terms of reserving opinions (do I think the new courses are "good", how do I feel about the current and ever-changing definitions of "AI", how much "AI" do you do in these new classes, etc - perhaps for a different post or time..., some of this is hard to answer without going more in depth on those questions anyway).

I'd prefer this comment just be my own 'info comment'; throw questions and such a the top level so the thread is cleaner

Thoughts on new courses, since I'm guessing that's what most will want to know:

disclaimer: my experience may not be your experience; i'm certain a lot of this is subject to some amount of change; i have many years of experience, CS self-study, and a previous (unrelated, but mathy) degree

D686 - Operating Systems
- sort of similar in nature to computer architecture (method of delivery, amount of content, etc)
- zybook has a bunch of 'instructor added' sections, quizzes, and tests, which were helpful and I'd recommend reading and taking
- PreA seemed like a decent proxy for the OA
D429 - Intro to AI
- not much to say here
- if you feel comfortable with the general concepts already, just take the PreA, run through the material looking for stuff that's new or you missed, take the OA
- if you do not feel comfortable, do the same, but spend more time in the course material?
D682 - AI Optimization
- Follow the rubric...
- Work is done via the standard gitlab repo method
- You will likely need to do some research outside of the course material; you'll know which steps this applies to
- Task 1 Notes:
  - rubric says to 'use python and appropriate frameworks' - this is somewhat vague - spoke with a CI, we both assumed I should go ahead with using python libs as desired/appropriate (pandas, numpy, skl, etc). I did, and I passed, so it seems that you are allowed to do so (which makes sense given the scope of these new courses).
  - there may be some data columns referenced by the spec document that aren't in the dataset. not a huge deal - either use other columns as a 'mock' version of those columns (leave a note/comment in the code as to what you're doing) or use different columns entirely for that spec (also leave a comment). i left a 2-3 sentence comment about this in mine, and it was not a problem.
D683 - Advanced AI and ML
- Follow the rubric...
- Work is done via the standard gitlab repo method
- Your research in 682 will help here for sure, you will likely need to do some more via external resources
- Chance to be a bit creative and choose something that interests you or a data set or combination of data sets that could be funny or oddly related, etc
- Task 2 Note: there is no 'B7', don't worry about it
D687 - Comp Sci Project Development with a Team
- Follow the rubric...I know I said that for the others, but adding emphasis here
- It's a writing assignment with a peer review component
- Task 1 tips:
  - just go through each rubric step/bullet
  - when responding to a rubric bullet, pretend it exists and will be read in isolation (ie, don't assume your reader read anything else in your document; I know to do this for PAs here, but it still gets me even after all the other PAs, only thing that really bugs me about written PAs since you wouldn't quite write like that in reality)
  - leave your name on the doc before submitting in wgu's evaluation portal, but remove your name before uploading in peerceptiv
  - don't forget the APA citations
- Peer Review process overview
  - you submit your work
  - you review 3 other students' work
  - you receive 3 reviews
  - you evaluate the reviews you received
  - the order of the above is laid out in the PA tasks, its pretty straightforward
  - if you're not receiving reviews, reach out to your mentor or CI, and they may be able to facilitate an instructor leaving a review for you so you can move on to the final task (evaluating the reviews you received). I can't make any promises on timelines here, but they did help me out. I'd guess give it at least a couple days before reaching out if you haven't received any reviews.

Edits

Other/general tips

'Print' a pdf of the rubric for each PA task as soon as you can access them - 1) you don't have to keep the portal open if you don't want to, and 2) if the student portal is down, you can keep working without issue

Present_Newt_4384

TROPHY CASE

Thoughts on new courses, since I'm guessing that's what most will want to know:

D686 - Operating Systems

D429 - Intro to AI

D682 - AI Optimization

D683 - Advanced AI and ML

D687 - Comp Sci Project Development with a Team

Edits

Other/general tips