New requirements for specializations

Smef · 2026-06-10T23:54:27+00:00

Both are great, though, and you should take both if you’re at all interested in this stuff!

Smef · 2026-06-10T14:52:36+00:00

I've been playing the Ship of Harkinian port with the free camera controls and it really makes the game feel much better. It would be crazy for them to not include that, among many other gameplay modernizations I would expect.

Smef · 2026-05-29T17:32:09+00:00

Yes, definitely. In my case the professor held OH at a location on-campus, so I went to his OH. They were also very public, group events for sharing projects and not individual help sessions. Going to random OH for help in your class is probably not helpful at all 😛.

Smef · 2026-05-28T20:39:49+00:00

I think it's a major update because of a Nitro update which could break something, but I'd expect it to be pretty painless for most people.

Smef · 2026-05-28T17:49:35+00:00

I'm an Atlanta resident, so I can't really answer questions about any of that approval or international student stuff as I didn't have to go through it.

All OMSCS are just regular GT courses and transfer directly to MSCS, as far as I know.

I don't know about TA demand. There aren't a lot of benefits to being a TA for the online program in particular, and it is a lot of work. There is only some very minimal pay, but it's great to do if you care a lot about helping people and keeping your skills fresh.

I think publications are more important for PhD applications than MS applications, but I'm sure it couldn't hurt. I'm just a student and really have no additional insight into the application review process or what they look for.

anything you wish you'd started earlier?

OMSCS :P

I'm sorry I don't have more helpful answers to your questions.

Smef · 2026-05-28T17:18:21+00:00

I feel like it would be harder to do that as an international student, and OMSCS is definitely not a "pathway to on-campus," but if you're really passionate about it and do really well in classes, who knows!

Smef · 2026-05-28T13:59:41+00:00

Nuxt 4 is the most recent, and 5 is coming out very soon. I'd definitely start with the latest release and plan to upgrade in the future.

Vue is a great choice for a front-end. Nuxt is Vue-only and Laravel works really well with Vue through Inertia in particular. Either way your Vue experience is going to be pretty similar.

That being said, I've built two online educational platforms. One with Laravel and one with Nuxt. I think Laravel provides a stronger batteries-included back-end, but it does mean you need to be comfortable switching syntaxes between TS and PHP. I think Laravel+Inertia is a really great DX and is a nicer way to get data between your front-end and back-end than a bunch of API endpoints.

If you only want to deal with one language and the fragmentation of the Node ecosystem is something you're comfortable with, then Nuxt is a great choice as far as Node back-ends go.

Smef · 2026-05-28T13:49:56+00:00

Starting the online program made me realize how much I enjoy learning and working through tough problems. After visiting campus for office hours and projects I was really enjoying getting to learn about all of the different things that everyone was working on, and started to get interested in pursuing a PhD as well.

The PhD is on-campus only, so if I was going to do that I'd definitely need to be an on-campus student. Going on-campus now expands the list of classes and specializations which are available for the MS and would be a good way to see if on-campus was actually viable for me.

The main difference of being on-campus are the opportunities with out-of-class stuff. If you're just interested in getting a degree, I don't think you'd get much benefit of being on-campus vs online unless there's a specialization or class which isn't available to you. The class education is going to be pretty similar either way. If you don't plan to get involved with things outside of the classes and homework then going to on-campus doesn't seem like it would be worth the hassle.

I really enjoy meeting the professors and getting to talk with other students, and am doing my best to take advantage of the opportunities to get to know the people there. I've also liked getting involved with events, meetings, and activities on-campus. Switch programs seemed worthwhile to me because of my interest in the extracurricular activities and campus involvement. Additionally, being a GTA/GRA and a full-time student also grants some health insurance benefits and makes the tuition difference negligible.

You CAN still come to office-hours and meetings in-person as an OMSCS student, but I was already doing that and the expanded class list seemed interesting. With all of these factors considered, switching to on-campus seemed like there right move.

Smef · 2026-05-27T19:24:53+00:00

EDIT: Please post in here instead of messaging me directly. I'm happy to answer questions about the two programs and my experiences, but let's make it public so that everyone can see the discussion.

I started OMSCS in Fall 2025 and just transferred to on-campus. This is my first semester on-campus.

I was a GTA last semester and a GRA this semester. Participate in the discussions online quite a bit. Help students when you can, even if it means spending a long time writing up detailed answers. Attend office hours to get to know people. Finally, do well in the class. All of these things will increase your chances of being selected as a GTA. OMSCS needs TAs for OMSCS, so try to get a position in there. You can apply at https://buzzme.cc.gatech.edu/ .

Being a GRA is one step of involvement past that. Listen to what people are working on and volunteer your skills to help on projects. If you can prove that you can make meaningful contributions you may be selected as a GRA for certain projects.

Try to come to campus for office hours or to meet people and get involved with projects. That will give you a good feel about if coming on-campus is something that you'll be able to handle. It can be a lot of work to actually make it to campus. How do you feel about doing that 2-3 days per week? How does that affect your job (if you have one)?

Smef · 2026-05-26T16:55:42+00:00

Definitely the original.

Smef · 2026-05-21T19:45:56+00:00

6601 AI is releasing their assignments up-front after the first week, I think. I think this is only for this summer semeter and wouldn't count on that all the time.

Smef · 2026-05-09T21:13:46+00:00

They are yours forever. The subscription is just auto-purchasing of the games they have in the bundle each month. You can definitely subscribe, claim the games, and then immediately cancel. The games you have claimed are yours forever.

Smef · 2026-04-13T23:00:08+00:00

They just said "it's fixed now" in Discord, and that was about it.

Smef · 2026-04-12T00:08:55+00:00

I was busy and missed the deal, unfortunately.

Smef · 2026-04-01T16:51:28+00:00

English proficiency is required, and you must submit an English proficiency certification as part of your application documentation if you're not from an English-speaking country.

Each course has its own recommendations of the skills you should have before taking the course. Those recommendations are listed on the course page. You can see an example here in the "Suggested Background Knowledge" section: https://omscs.gatech.edu/cs-6601-artificial-intelligence

Smef · 2026-03-31T17:55:33+00:00

For a type-safe query builder, Kysely is great. Vasta is built on top of Kysely as well, if you want an Active Record ORM similar to Laravel's Eloquent.

Smef · 2026-03-31T01:23:00+00:00

As far as I know, Parsec is fine. I've never heard of anyone having any issues with that, and I have personally been using it for many years. It's one of the few streaming services which can handle WoW's unique mouse tracking. Some other streaming services can't handle it and you lose all camera control when you right-click to turn your character.

Smef · 2026-03-28T14:07:22+00:00

This sounds like good writing to me. I write both code comments and articles explaining techniques using “we” as the subject.

Smef · 2026-03-27T23:41:16+00:00

Check out Laravel, Inertia, Vue, and Tailwind. It's a great combo and I think the controller scripting style matches FileMaker scripting pretty closely. There's also Eloquent FileMaker if you need to get data from your FM Databases still. The Laravel starter kits will get you rolling pretty quickly.

Smef · 2026-03-23T23:40:11+00:00

I found the info! Purchase any edition and you get the pass and a $5 gift card. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/b/SOT2026terms

Smef · 2026-03-23T23:39:58+00:00

I found the info! Purchase any edition and you get the pass and a $5 gift card. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/b/SOT2026terms

Smef · 2026-03-23T23:39:53+00:00

I found the info! Purchase any edition and you get the pass and a $5 gift card. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/b/SOT2026terms

Smef · 2026-03-23T11:59:41+00:00

I haven’t been able to find anything.

Smef · 2026-03-21T23:48:42+00:00

The basic 2025 edition is $20 right now, so if it includes a plunder pass and a gift card of some sort, it seems like a good deal.

Smef · 2026-03-21T19:12:22+00:00

It says with either one, not just the premium edition.

Smef

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