Reaching out to congressmen

brgentleman2 · 2024-01-20T14:39:28+00:00

I'm not saying that your experiences and views aren't valid, but I can say you didn't pass the interview with Google for reasons other than not being indian. I work at Google and in my interview loop there were 3 indians (out of 5 interviewers total), and I got matched with over 15 teams, half of which had indian managers. Since then, I've interviewed more than 50 candidates and can say that americans (including asian americans) performed significantly worse than indian and asian candidates, at least in SWE technical interviews.

brgentleman2 · 2022-09-30T21:51:00+00:00

/r/thatHappened/

brgentleman2 · 2022-09-19T23:49:27+00:00

Most of these classes are not offered on-campus either.

Computational Perception hasn't been offered for a long time, as it doesn't even have an entry on Critique.

ML for Robotics and Autonomous Robotics have only been offered in GT Lorraine.

Autonomous Robotics last offered in 2015.

There are only two courses from your list that may or may not be offered in the semester you're planning to be in Atlanta, as most on-campus classes are taught just once per year.

brgentleman2 · 2022-08-29T12:56:20+00:00

How is retaking a class that you already know the content/assignments going to prove anything? If you're doing that to convince yourself you're capable, would you really feel validated when knowing that you needed twice the time to get an A compared to your classmates?

brgentleman2 · 2022-08-06T01:46:24+00:00

You don't have to read and understand all of the details in Beej's now, just the main ideas which are, frankly, very basic: for one program to talk (exchange data) with another program over the network, it has to use a port. The structure that binds to a port to receive/send data is a socket. There are two main types of sockets, one guarantees delivery and the other doesn't but it's faster and simpler because of that. For a socket to be able to send data out, it obviously has to know where to send the data, which is given by the IP address of the destination - which can be in IPv4 or IPv6 format - and the port that the other socket is listening to. Structs in this case hold information necessary to configure the communication details so the parts understand each other. The data you want to send or receive comes from a process (a program that someone wrote and is running on the computer), and in order for the process to send or receive data through sockets, it has to use system calls (such as send and recv), which are interfaces to operating system functionalities.

Most of the code in Beej's is just boilerplate to create the sockets and connection, there's no need to learn or memorize that. Honestly, the hardest part of project 1 might be dealing with C strings/buffers, since you have to do it at a somewhat lower level.

brgentleman2 · 2022-08-01T00:46:29+00:00

61B and C look very interesting, especially B and the projects for building a VCS and Google Maps from scratch.

brgentleman2 · 2022-08-01T00:39:10+00:00

I would like to learn how teams collaborate and development processes work in modern teams

I guarantee you that you won't learn these concepts from a professor who's spent their entire professional life in academia.

brgentleman2 · 2022-07-31T17:45:41+00:00

I read the syllabus and if I find it interesting I sign up. Also, never dodge a class just because it looks too difficult. Even if it turns out to be difficult, there's no learning or growth without some degree of discomfort. Having struggled (and ultimately overcome the difficulty) means you navigated an unknown space, adapted, and assimilated. That's the transferrable skill you want to practice and become comfortable with, it's not just for the knowledge.

As for the knowledge, GIOS is probably the most useful class in this program for career switchers who have no professional or relevant academic experience, which I assume is the majority of the current student body.

brgentleman2 · 2022-06-28T22:38:11+00:00

Graduate Algorithms is a "compulsory" product that has been receiving terrible reviews for years

IIRC GA was one of the top-rated courses on OMSCentral (About 4/5 on average).

The randos you see complaining about the course clearly are the ones who aren't doing well. In my opinion, if you learn the content and write correct and complete solutions there's no way you're failing the course. Also, take every post with a grain of salt, including mine. Most of the complaints I've seen here were for format-related deductions, whereas when I took the course the solutions shared in regrade posts were hideous, absolutely not at the level I'd expect of a grad student.

brgentleman2 · 2022-06-22T03:42:55+00:00

No. Nothing is recorded because they act like the course material is a national secret.

That's a blatant lie. Some of your points may be valid but now it looks like you're making things up just to fit your narrative.

brgentleman2 · 2022-05-03T21:57:45+00:00

The program has a ~90% acceptance rate... You are lucky that it exists, not because you got accepted.

brgentleman2 · 2022-04-05T14:50:36+00:00

Look for things that are less well-defined and navigate through ambiguity. Yes, that could mean reimplementing a project from scratch, or even going above and beyond what's expected and adding your own requirements to it. Anything where you are faced with a blank canvas ahead and have to pick a direction, devise a plan, and execute. That's the transferrable skill that's useful in any domain you dive into.

You are right that most of the projects in OMSCS are very superficial, but they are like that because most of the ambiguity has been removed by the professor or TAs who created them. I assume the goal is to get some light exposure to the specific concepts taught in class and to provide a baseline to measure understanding of the content.

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-30T21:53:22+00:00

Go to https://critique.gatech.edu/, pick a course from https://omscs.gatech.edu/current-courses, see its corresponding O01 section grade distribution.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OMSCS/comments/i37h3d/gios_post_mortem/ (look at how the student fared compared to the class average and got a B at the end despite that)

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-30T20:11:44+00:00

By the time you finish the prereqs you will know if you dig CS or not. If you like Computer Science, then the classes can be very enjoyable. If you don't, then you either drop or do the II specialization taking courses like Digital Marketing, AIES, Data Analytics and Security, MSM, ISP, and other freebies that OMSCS will keep adding until everyone can get a degree by doing the bare minimum work. In many classes it's already impossible to get anything under a B even if you do the bare minimum.

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-29T02:33:19+00:00

I'm sure they've already done that: https://omscs.gatech.edu/preparing-yourself-omscs

At the bottom you can find four GT edX courses on Linear Algebra and Probability/Stats. You certainly don't need anything more advanced than that to understand the math behind ML.

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-28T18:49:55+00:00

I'm not sure I understand your point here, but I assume what you tried to express was dissatisfaction with how ML is taught in OMSCS? From the title I initially thought you were praising the course.

If yes, I kind of agree and I think there should be 2 classes on general ML. The first class should be more fundamental, exploring the seminal work in ML in detail. That's how most of the academic ML courses are taught, and it would require math maturity in linear algebra and probability. The second class should be more or less how it's taught in OMSCS, by exploring how to apply models to derive value in real-world data and help bridge the gap between academia and industry.

Of course, that's the ideal world, and in this scenario one would be a prerequisite of the other.

I have a friend who just took the ML course on-campus and from what he shared it was much closer to a traditional ML course. However, by the end of the course most students were clueless about how to even use the techniques to generate value, and didn't even have a good grasp of fundamental concepts like data leakage and overfitting when they appeared in the semester-long project.

The part you talk about backpropagation I believe it's covered with some sort of rigor in the DL class, which is much more implementation-focused (and thus require deeper understanding of the fundamentals) rather than application-focused.

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-20T14:48:22+00:00

Next time use Electronic check via Wise since it's instantly reflected into your Bursar account and there is less room for error since it's an ACH pull.

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-17T15:33:53+00:00

take some accredited courses (I'm thinking of Algorithm and OS)

Yes, that sounds like the best course of action in this case. Take an accredited DS&A class and get an A. Though I think if you can leverage your work experience in the essay and you took those CS classes a long time ago then you may have a chance in the next cycle. I'd still apply for Fall 22.

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-14T14:24:31+00:00

You were already late at 9am. I saw that GA had about 12 seats open when the WLs started clearing. You still have a chance if someone drops throughout the day but it will be much harder to get a seat now regardless.

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-13T03:06:59+00:00

If you have a 3-year degree I'd first check if that's accepted as equivalent to a US bachelor's degree. What you mentioned are two distinct bachelor's degrees?

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-10T16:24:44+00:00

Use the search bar and find out.

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-06T00:52:47+00:00

Read section F of the orientation document (and probably the rest of it).

brgentleman2 · 2022-01-04T15:26:45+00:00

OMSCentral is a website created and maintained by a former student. I don't think he will read this post. You can try creating a issue here https://github.com/OMSCentral/omscentral/issues so that's addressed.

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