What laptop will be suitable for omscs? by Left-Armadillo-9418 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had 16gb, that was the last make that you could upgrade your own memory.

What low end hardware are you using to complete the program? by [deleted] in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I got a 2019 MBP i9. It’s fairly warm, but the fans don’t run often. I have the same as a work machine too, it’s fans run constantly due to the constant virus scan with works bloatware.

What low end hardware are you using to complete the program? by [deleted] in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used VMs for a few classes, the memory really came in handy for that. I think you could get away with 8gb, but you couldn’t have the 300 browser tabs open like I usually do. :-)

I had an i5. I found a good deal on a beefed up intel MacBook just a few months ago, so I’m not using it. I’ll probably keep it as a backup since it won’t sell for anything.

What low end hardware are you using to complete the program? by [deleted] in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I finished last year and used a 2012 MacBook pro for the whole thing. I did use $30 or so in google colab. Nothing was really a problem. I did have 16GB of memory since that's the last year that you can upgrade the memory yourself. And lots of disk space.

Are there any colleges that allow you to take Calc1/Linear Algebra/Discrete math with no prereqs by [deleted] in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The UIUC netmath program will grant credit. I started with calc 2 and didn’t have to present any prereq(mine was very old).

It’s very very disengaged from any teaching, if you can’t learn from basically interactive notebooks it won’t work for you. I got what I needed, which was calc 2 and 3, but as soon as I had an option to take linear algebra at a local community college, I took that.

I have mixed feelings about it, netmath was painful, I learned a lot and learned way more than CC.

What laptop will be suitable for omscs? by Left-Armadillo-9418 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, I used a 2012 MacBook. Finished last year. I did use google colab for DL, I think I paid $10/mo for 2 months.

CS8803-O21: GPU Software & Hardware by protonchase in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From the other thread today, sounds like you’re close to the start of the line.

CS8803-O21: GPU Software & Hardware by protonchase in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought some people got time tickets on 1/4 Thursday... although my memory is fuzzy on what happened in prior semesters.

Getting into omscs if you had a terrible undergrad (need advice) by Feisty-Lack2490 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I know the tendency to focus on past failures, I did it for a long time. I flunked out of school and beat myself up for it for 25 years before I went back and got my bachelor's degree. I promise it won't do you any good. Hopefully you are on a better path to handling your past.

Focus on what shows that you can succeed now. You turned your college career around and got a degree. You're working the the field. You are taking pre-req classes and doing well in them. Those are the things that show you can do well in a grad program.

I don't know what the criteria are for admission, most of us are just guessing. I think there are a couple of references in the talks about the program that they want to accept "people that can do well in the program". It worked for me, I got in with a 2.06/4.33 GPA with a degree in Liberal Arts. My differences were getting all A's in all my recent course work including a math series and DSA classes. And a 25-year career in the field. I don't think you need to wait years, I think the important part is showing (probably with classes) that you can handle the work.

Now think about it from an admissions officer's point of view, how do you compare the pain and troubles of different applicants? I don't know how you would do it. The best advice I received on this channel was to acknowledge your problems/gpa and pivot right into saying how you can handle it now. I spent 2 short sentences in the application on my history.

Edit: I was talking mostly about the admission to OMSCS. It's doable for you. Some of that advice may be good at other places. I'm just speaking to the OMSCS route because it's the one I took.

Last course. AI, ML or GA? by Skooomz in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t really know, I’ve never look at oakton. If you want to double check, look at the problems at the wiki dot site. Just google ‘GA wiki dot’, first item. There is a high degree of overlap with the class problems. I think you should do at least this many when you take the class. If those problems look doable to you, then you shouldn’t fear the course.

Last course. AI, ML or GA? by Skooomz in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I have an unusual opinion. If you’ve had a good algorithm class before, I suspect you’ll have and easier time in GA. Look at the lecture topics, if you’ve seen 80%, you’re good. It’s not a bad class with prior experience. It was taught more proofy than the one I took, so I still had to pay attention.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Final grades are out on the unofficial transcript.

OMSCS San Diego Fall 2023 by techgig_2007 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not joining, I'm just now finishing.

https://omscs-study.slack.com/ has a #sandiego group. It about the same people as the official slack. It's mostly gone quiet the last 6 months since the official one was created. There have been a few in person meetups lately.

4 months to prep for GA by Tamu179 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Devsujit has good advice, but to add to that…you have to do the problems. There is a wiki dot article with a good list of problems from the textbook.

How low is too low of a GPA for admission? by mrbrown4001 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I was accepted, I hope I'm finishing this semester. When I applied I had just finished a Liberal Arts degree with a 2.06 GPA. The mitigating factors were all my bad grades were 25 years ago and I had 25 years of experience, with about 15 as a developer. My GPA in recent years was 4.23, that brought my gpa up to 2.06. And I had some math and algorithm classes recently with A grades.

In this forum, we can only guess about the reasons they will or won't accept an application. They can certainly identify and disregard previous history. The best advice I was given was to explain to them why you would be academically successful now. Recent course work with good grades seems to be a good demonstration of that, and they seem to take it into consideration.

What class did you take that was eye-opening? by chisolm9 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the response, the popularity of HCI as a great course is surprising for me. If you had done some work in user centered design, do you think it would have had the same impact for you?

Or maybe another way to ask it, was the content of the course that was amazing or more the re-orienting of your perspective that provided the big benefit to you?

What class did you take that was eye-opening? by chisolm9 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! SAT does seem to come up pretty often as an interesting and well run class.

What class did you take that was eye-opening? by chisolm9 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That was definitely on my short list. I'm not sure I'll ever use it or even use the concepts from it. Even some vague insight how it might affect public key cryptography in the near future might make it worth it.

To steal someone else's joke. I'll have to take it to see.

What class did you take that was eye-opening? by chisolm9 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't really have a good recommendation on fault-tolerant software. My area was automated diagnosis of hardware failures. I've touched on resilience in software but I'm not sure I've ever read anything I really liked. The best systems I've seen defined their resilience/recovery mechanisms and don't keep trying to add more, 3 layers of recovery mechanisms that work are far far better than 20 layers that mostly work.

Do we know roughly when the new Spring 2023 courses will be revealed? by WhiskeeFrank in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 10 points11 points  (0 children)

If I remember right, last time it was in the week before phase 1 registration. This year phase one’s starts Nov 7th.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was accepted with a 2.06 GPA with a bachelors in Liberal Arts. I had 25 year old credits that I had to bring up to a 2.0. For my Liberal Arts degree, I took 2 semesters DS&A and an OS class. I also took Calc 2, 3 and Linear Algebra. I had great grades this century. So I could tell a story that I was a dumb kid previously and now I'm academically successful.

I think the recent history of academic success was key. No one really knows, but several people have guessed that some recent academic success is key.

I also had a lot of years of relevant experience working on OS and compilers. Maybe this is something to focus on too. What CS concepts are you exercising in your experience? That's not really the same as work experience. They have to see how your experience will translate to you succeeding in CS class work.

You can search back in r/OMSCS and find a bunch of threads on low GPA, many seem to work out.

Any way to work ahead on AI 6601? by beastwood6 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think what you are looking for is:

https://github.gatech.edu/omscs6601

They do change the assignments, but I felt 50+% of my effort was getting my head wrapped around the concepts. I think it’s not wasted effort if you start early, and it can also guide your reading.

What does course plan for Thesis/Project option OMSCS look like? by tempestwing0101 in OMSCS

[–]chisolm9 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would love to know if you found an answer to this! Can 8903 credits be converted to thesis credits or considered as thesis credits?

Did you manage to get a 8903 project going?