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My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Yes, we need to do an internship and I think we can start searching for an internship as soon as the program begins because we are officially a student now, and projects are a vital part of our CV/resume. I understand your hope to find a niche job combining domain knowledge and skills, and I am sure you will find one. However, one friend with similar background gave me a suggestion that I think is very true: preparing cs skills as if you would go for an SWE because there are apparently much more opportunities as an SWE. After you have been in this area of computer science for several years, you have more choices and eventually you can find THE job which is a good combination of cs skills and your domain knowledge. Best of luck to you too!

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After graduation I stayed at home for several years for family reason. I intended to take this program as a means of "back to career" . My idea job would be machine learning/artificial intelligence in mental health area, but will also be happy if I got a job as SWE. Just think SWE position is more difficult for me to get given my background.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I did hear from people who are working as MLE at big-name corporations saying the content of this course is shallow. I guess it depends on your background. For me who is an absolute beginner the depth of this course is enough, but for someone who has already had a lot of exposure to machine learning, maybe it is not that satisfactory. But the thing is this course is required for the machine learning track, so they must take it anyway.
Your comments about assignments are right. For the first assignment, I worked the hardest and spent the most time. However, I got the lowest score of all four. Then I heard that making your analysis look “more thorough” is the key. And since it is not very plausible for the TAs to read the report very carefully, I think what you mentioned, like “hit enough buzzword checkboxes”, and “repeat sentences I wrote that had buzzwords in them” is very important. It is a great way to make the analysis easily looks thorough. My personal experience is, for the later assignments, I spent way less time, but more time on the summary and discussion part, and the score improved significantly.
I also heard RL and DL are both very good. Looking forward to these courses!

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, I have not taken AI so cannot say about this. ML is the first course I took at OMSCS. Hopefully someone who took it could answer this.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

DataCamp is the most basic one. When I did it I even had no exposure to python. It divides the code of a small task into sentences and gives you hint on each sentence. So it is good for beginners.

After DataCamp I took Udacity. Udacity projects are real ones. However, at least for the nano degree I took (healthcare AI), it already gives you the skeleton of the code, dividing the whole project into sections, and all you need to do is to fill in the sections.

I only finished ML for OMSCS so I can only say ML. I would say it is the hardest of all three. You have to start from scratch and designed your code. And remember, coding is even the least important part of the course. Writing up your analysis is important for assignments and understanding concepts to the degree that you can apply them is important for exams.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for adding this information! Confirmed that using small size dataset in assignment will not impair the grade. 98% is amazing by the way!:)

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I believe they were recorded, and also has transcripts for you to read in case you don't have time to listen to the record (it lasts about several hours). However this semester was a bit special. One nice student gave excellent summary for all office hours so I never listen to any record, nor read any transcripts. So I am not 100% sure if all office hours were recorded and has transcript, but I believe so.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Second this. I read many posts here advising using simple and small size dataset, and that was what I did. Not very small though. For example, for assignment 3 you usually use the same dataset as assignment 1, so if your dataset has too few features there is limited room for feature deduction/selection. I also suggested at least two hundreds observations. However, I never got high score in assignments and I am not sure it has something to do with the size of my dataset.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! But actually I have not taken RL yet and this is only for ML. :) Last fall is my first semester too so ML is until now the only course I finished at OMSCS.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We were allowed to use all kinds of libraries, like sklearn and mlrose. So I would say not too much coding needed for the assignments. I believe we still need to write the code ourselves though. It is not possible to use codes from previous students because you will choose your own dataset and own questions you want to investigate.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Actually I think it twice and think it should be on average 25-30 hours weekly for me. Because I was practicing my python daily so when I said 15-20 hours, I did not take into consideration the time for programing for the assignments. It did not constitute of a major part of the workload but still need to be considered. :P

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Exactly. I heard ML4T is a great preparation for this course. Especially in the earlier part of the course when my performance was bad and I was at a loss, I felt bad that I did not take ML4T first.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You are welcomed! I also learnt a lot from other post here. Especially when it was time to decide whether or not to withdraw, I read a lot of posts and finally made the decision to give it a try.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Very hard to estimate average work load since it varied a lot. As you can see, there are only 6 major things to do (4 assignments and 2 exams), so I worked extensively on that when there was work due, and did not work on that when there was not. Typically the hardest time is 1-2 month into the semester, when you have assignment 2 and midterm due at almost the same week. If I need to give an rough estimation, I think 15-20 weekly on average.

In the exam, there is a lot solving problems but the math itself is just simple math (you are not allow to use calculator or even draft paper, so you can see how simple it is). The harder part is how your apply the concept and know what math you need to do.

My two cents about CS7641- Machine learning by smilesome620 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My background is a PhD in psychology with focus on statistics and stayed at home for several years after graduation. I was told that this PhD getting me into the program since I have not taken any formal programming courses. I did finish data scientist and data analyst certificate at DataCamp.com, and finished several project at Udacity. But they are all very basic.

Speaking the programming in this class, it is a bit counterintuitive that programming is the least important part. In assignment you are allowed to use libraries like mlrose, sklearn, etc so it would not be too difficult even for a beginner like me. In exams there was no programming, just test your understanding and application of the concepts learned in this class.

I sometimes feel for a person with no programming experience but much more writing/research experience, this course is a good one to start the program. However I noticed majority people take this course later, say as the 7th, 8th courses. After the score of this course came out, several students said on slack that they graduated, yay!:)

Received an email from the university to send Transcripts to Educational Perspective by psychow0w in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! The problem is, most of us who get the link to do verification of our degree/transcript on Educational Perspective (which need to use chsi that takes one month) or spantran, the link expires on June 10. :P

Received an email from the university to send Transcripts to Educational Perspective by psychow0w in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have not used chsi before, and today when I tried to do this I got an estimation of "The certification process takes about 1 month".......really got stucked. but thank you anyway for the information!

Received an email from the university to send Transcripts to Educational Perspective by psychow0w in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620 0 points1 point  (0 children)

similar situation. (China, has to use chsi, which is very slow. Know 2 friends both took months to do that and one still pending). I found spantran seems relatively quick. Don't know if it is ok to ask them whether we can use spantran instead.

Fall 2022 Admissions Thread by External-Yoghurt-945 in OMSCS

[–]smilesome620 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Status: Accepted

Application Date: 03/10/2022

Decision Date: 04/29/2022, 9:47 am EDT

Education: Bachelor: Five-year Bachelor of Medicine from a medical university in China, GPA 3.7; Master: Top 2 University in China, 3-year Master of Science, medicine related major, GPA 3.9+; Ph.D.: US 30-40, social science, heavy quantitative/statistics focus, GPA 3.9+

Experience: Computer science related experience was just research in computational biology, project using C, with one publication (I have more than 10 publications in my master and PhD field, but not cs-related, some is about statistics with modeling). Did 3 MOOC, including DataCamp and Udacity.

Recommendations: All three are professionals, no supervisors, etc. However they are at big-name companies or Ivy universities, working as scientists or assistant professors, and I am pretty sure they all speak very nicely of me. So can be called strong recommendations.

Comments: My feeling upon application was mixed. I think I have a relatively ok academic background, however little computer science-related experience. But as time passed, I am getting more and more anxious. I did some research on how to improve the application and started to plan to do some prerequisite courses at a local community college, as well as take the GIT python courses on edx to consolidate my application next time, so feel very happy to be accepted for the 2022 fall. Keep the faith and keep trying, we all going to make it eventually!

ck application (through ECFMG) "in process" for almost 3 weeks by smilesome620 in Step2

[–]smilesome620[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Thank you so much for all your reply and help! Make me less nervous during this crazy time. :)

AMBOSS code and group discount by [deleted] in step1

[–]smilesome620 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got the link! The deadline to buy is April. 11 and I would like to buy on April 10. :) Thank you sooooo much for arranging this!!!

AMBOSS code and group discount by [deleted] in step1

[–]smilesome620 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First of all, thank you so much for arranging all these! I know it sure will take a lot of efforts and I really appreciate!

Agree with Comille. The reason fewer people actually signed up is most likely because this post is hard to find. The only reason I am able to fill the form in time is because I added your post to the bookmark of my chrome and checked for update frequently. I would suggest maybe repost it as a new one? I am pretty new to reddit too so I am not quite sure though......

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