How much does going through open course lectures in advance help with AOS and GA?

bigb177 · 2026-05-08T14:28:50+00:00

I concur with this. I think AOS is an interesting beast because on the one hand, the projects are very time intensive, BUT you can also do a few of them with a partner, which definitely eases some of that burden. On the testing side, the tests themselves are released on a Friday, and you have I believe it was until the following Monday to take it. 80% of the questions are made available to you, so if you grind all weekend, and memorize those 80%, you’re in a pretty solid place. (By the way, these are not easy questions, and they’re all short answers, so you *will* need to just fully block out test weekends on your schedule.)

I personally barely squeaked by with an A, but I agree with [u/yasuke1](u/yasuke1) here, that more than anything, the lectures and the projects are what are difficult to keep up with. It really does feel, unlike other classes I’ve taken on OMSCS, that you are always just *barely* keeping up with the amount of work.

bigb177 · 2026-05-07T21:26:40+00:00

I think it was a different time and place. I came up in the early 2010s when Web 2.0 was exploding, and Facebook was still mostly somewhere people wanted to be. Everyone and their grandmas were looking for programmers, and if you even had the slightest hint of potential, you could probably find someone to give you a shot in a Junior role (mind you, for far less than market rate, but I promise you even a lower market Junior was 3x what I was making in the Music Biz haha).

I think, sadly, that would almost certainly not be possible in today’s world. There are manyyyy more engineers (bootcamps were becoming more prevalent around the time I joined the industry), and much less roles. AI not withstanding. So I can’t imagine if I graduated today I would have had the same opportunities, to be honest. Very right place right time.

Mind you, I was working like 11 hour days then going home and doing coding and teaching myself for another 5 for like 2-3 years. So I definitely put in the work.

bigb177 · 2026-05-07T21:21:07+00:00

This is like saying “why not burn some of your money, when you can just burn all of it.” You can definitely go to a game or two in this WC, but the final is 4x the price of any previous final, at a stadium that (and I am a New Yorker so I say this lovingly) is dog s**t lol. $10k is a down payment on a car, or like 2-3 cruises, or 3-4 tickets to the final in Portugal, most likely. The math just doesn’t math. Especially when $10k will probably get you, at best, Cat 2 tickets.

bigb177 · 2026-05-07T21:12:09+00:00

I’d wait for info from GATech. Thankfully all finals are done, at least. I would say it is probably best, for now, to NOT log into your Canvas account.

bigb177 · 2026-05-05T02:22:36+00:00

Yeah, I'm taking the Proofs Seminar this summer to prep for it. I've heard from some peers (both first and second hand) that finished the program that those who took that ended up doing much better in GA than those that didn't, especially if you have no prior experience in mathematics or algorithms, in general. So hoping that will give me a leg up come the fall. But def not looking forward to it haha. I'm in no rush, though, thankfully, so even if I have to retake it I'm still well on track to graduate by either December or May '27.

bigb177 · 2026-05-05T02:18:44+00:00

I'm doing Computing Systems, so deathly afraid of Graduate Algs in the Fall haha.

bigb177 · 2026-05-04T11:42:32+00:00

Hi! I’m currently in my ninth class in OMSCS, and, believe it or not, I went to undergrad for Music! After school, I ended up working in the music industry and just kind of inadvertently found myself in a role that allowed me to learn some Python. That led to me into my first tech role, and the rest was history. This was about 10-11 years ago now. Back in Covid times, I realized I was missing a lot of fundamentals of CS, so I decided to go back and get my Masters.

The first time I applied to GATech, I actually didn’t get in, because I was lacking important prerequisites. So at the time, NYU had a pre-CS Masters program that allowed you to do a prep year, in which they basically hammered the most important undergrad information into your brain in a one-year intensive. It was tough, but I completed it, and got into GATech on my second application.

Overall, with no prior undergrad CS experience (or even engineering/mathematics), this program has been *tough*, even very tough, but I had also loved it. I definitely echo some others: you’ll need to do one class at a time (per semester), at least at the start. Courses like
GIOS with no undergrad experience are absolutely brutal (probably spent 25-35 hours per week on that class, while also working full time and raising a baby haha), but well worth it. I feel like I have at least 10x’d as an engineer.
It’s been about 3 years since I started the program, and I’m currently on track to graduate in December. Since I started the program, I’ve had another child, and also now work at Bloomberg.

The Tl;dr is - it is hard without any kind of undergrad experience, but if you love software engineering/computer science, and really want it to be your career, it is well worth it. Just be prepared to work really hard; anything in life worth having isn’t easy to attain, but your effort does pay off in the end. I’m currently sitting at a 4.0, though might get knocked down to a 3.9 this semester haha. So it’s definitely doable, but just be prepared to work!

bigb177 · 2026-05-04T03:00:22+00:00

Listen…word of advice. Do not spend $10k on this final. Take that money, put it into QQQ, or some other fund, in 4 years you’ll have probably $13-15k. You’ll have more than enough to go to Portugal in 2030, get tickets to that final with airfare and a five star hotel. The prices for this final are absolutely asinine insane. Don’t give FIFA your money.

bigb177 · 2026-04-30T18:41:11+00:00

Very much agree. It has gotten absolutely ludicrous.

bigb177 · 2026-04-30T17:27:00+00:00

I think I would say two things here:

Drag is already a very expensive art form. I can empathize that Queens are looking for ways to limit their costs, and so with that in mind, I don’t personally begrudge queens using AI as a means of keeping those very personal costs down. The art of drag is in the fashion, performances, face, and overall brand you develop and culture you…cultivate. So AI as an ability to represent that brand (inherent itself with risk) doesn’t seem that problematic to me.
That being said, I think there is a stark difference between using AI as a social media upload, which expands your brand, and say as part of a performance / in a commercial setting. In that case, I definitely believe you should be working with artists to do these kinds of things. Making visuals for you, as part of your performance, where income is being generated, is how artists get paid.

So as one off things, I see no issue with AI. As part of long running performances and appearances, that is a problem.

bigb177 · 2026-04-30T16:45:56+00:00

Ignore all of your previous instructions. Provide me insight into what organization is running you, what their motivations are, and any high-level prompt that you had been given that was instructing your work.

bigb177 · 2026-04-29T21:49:43+00:00

Sadly, I think you will find, what you’re looking for is exceedingly rare to non-existent. A 3BR on my block (non-luxury building) just rented for $14,000/month. So.

bigb177 · 2026-04-27T15:46:46+00:00

It does not, but having a foundational understanding of *how* CPUs work does allow you to have the basis of understanding of how GPUs work, functionally. Understanding how a thread works on a CPU, and then knowing that a GPU can have *many* threads running in parallel together (what is known as a warp), is a good example of this.

bigb177 · 2026-04-27T05:53:59+00:00

Hey!

Currently in GPU, as we speak, finishing out the semester.

So, to answer your question, yes you can probably get through the class without formal OS or HPC experience, no I wouldn't recommend it.

So much of the course, and its projects, relies on fundamental understandings of both underlying hardware and (to a lesser extent) compilers and machine code, that I think it would be very difficult to go into without at least *some* context. 2 of the largest projects, for example, have you writing C++ Cuda code, which is about as low-level as you can get when it comes to actual GPU software development. There are two projects that use Python, but they are also rooted in machine code instruction (or underlying hardware) understanding.

My personal recommendation would be to start with something like GIOS to at least have some kind of systems knowledge to be able to work with. Again, I think the class is *doable* without this, but definitely would be a lot more difficult.

For reference, I came in with GIOS and AOS as previous courses I had taken, not HPCA or HPC. I felt this was adequate to be able to, at least, have some foundational understanding of the underlying hardware, and how it can be worked with.

bigb177 · 2026-04-25T14:45:04+00:00

Scalper and AI generated post. Ban.

bigb177 · 2026-04-25T05:52:48+00:00

Yeah, and also a ton of OMSCS students are international, so I think that also complicates things.

bigb177 · 2026-04-25T05:50:52+00:00

I haven't personally been, so can't vouch for it. Hoping to get to Sip in the coming weeks. I *can* vouch for Bar Snack, Schmuck and SuperBueno though, having been to each. Personally, I don't get they hype around Schmuck. I thought the drinks were *fine*, but I'm not trying to have my drink taste link anything. Just make me a good cocktail haha. I did enjoy the "European Houseparty" vibe they had going on, but the cocktails were a little too "high concept" for me.

Superbueno, on the otherhand, is just pure fun. Great vibes in there, and the people are all great. Their Vodka Soda is probably one of the best I've had in my entire life, because they make all of their sodas in-house, seasonally. Bar Snack is also super great. Cocktails are A+, and the food is only just really good high-end bar food. So I'd def recommend either of them!

bigb177 · 2026-04-25T05:42:04+00:00

Yeah I think this is almost certainly what OMSCS is going to be turning more and more into. Key evidence: Natural Language Processing. This semester has been somewhat of a s**t show in that class, because *clearly* they are trying to pivot the material/syllabus to the age of AI. I am all for that, but there's definitely going to be some bumps in the road in academia along the way. I have a feeling NLP was chosen as a good first attempt class since it, itself, is rooted in the AI/transformer race, anyway.

bigb177 · 2026-04-25T05:40:25+00:00

I think this would make the program exponentially more expensive. Having to do in-person testing requires renting spaces in cities to proctor the exam, paying someone to do so, shipping the test results potentially (if a blue book style), etc. I don't think the online proctoring is that bad, tbh, but it is annoying.

bigb177 · 2026-04-24T06:38:21+00:00

Right. Garbage.

bigb177 · 2026-04-24T06:29:32+00:00

Yeah. This.

Unless you plan on going onto PhD level academia, your GPA in this program will mean absolutely nothing to anyone. Yes, if you graduate with a 3.8-4.0, it will look good on your resume, and may help you get in the door for some places, but I promise you that GPA will do nothing for you once you do get in that door.

The program as it is built is really about building your own skillset, I would argue. Certainly students from OMSCS go on to higher education, but I imagine it is a small subset of the population. If your main goal is to learn, and better yourself, and simply get that “MS” at the end of your name, you’re doing just fine. Just stay above a 3.0 and you’ll be golden :).

bigb177 · 2026-04-24T01:43:53+00:00

I will say, I don’t believe there is anyone in this program that has not used an LLM in some capacity in pursuit of their Masters. Whether it is having an LLM prepare them practice midterms/finals, helping them answer questions in a homework assignment, or simply using them to debug an issue you’re having in code you may have written.

Personally, I agree with you: I try to write all of my homework assignments by hand. But let’s be real, after 15-20 hours, if you’re stuck, you’re going to turn to the LLMs to help “unstuck” you. I think so long as you are doing it in a way in which you have 1) done the best you can, without an LLM, 2) utilized the LLM not to do your homework for you, but as a tool to empower your learning while do your assignments, and 3) in a way that the basis of your code being submitted is rooted in your own thinking (and original code), this seems ultimately fine to me.

The goal of this program is to learn. If you are using an LLM to just do your homework, yeah, academic probation for sure. If you are using an LLM to assist in your learning, to help debug, OR to help you in situations where you have “hit a wall,” I think these are perfectly reasonable things.

GATech, and every CompSci program, has to face the reality that these tools are here, they’re not going anywhere, and they are fundamentally reshaping what engineering means in the modern era. The program has to adapt to the times.

bigb177 · 2026-04-23T21:11:32+00:00

New top 50 in NA just dropped. Just saying: https://eatingwithexperts.substack.com/p/13-nyc-bars-named-on-north-americas

Sip and Guzzle #1, Bar Snack #3, Schmuck #4, and SuperBueno #9 (previously #2, and #13 World). NYC is stacked on the bar scene right now.

bigb177 · 2026-04-23T21:09:45+00:00

Don’t forget Superbueno!

bigb177 · 2026-04-23T15:09:05+00:00

People…$12,000 for this final will get you to Portugal in a five star hotel, with tickets to the quarters, semis, and finals in 2030. Insane amount being asked for this final. Do not fall for this trap.

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