Online MSc Computer Science with Data Analytics at University of York

Haha exactly!
Every one of my bosses/colleagues have told me that they'll hire me - but i can't trust the idiocy of HR can I?
There are a lot of 'CS' students who can't program for ****, I replaced two of them. They're now project managers or similar.
Once people have experience degrees should be ignored but that's not the case. Even in a hot labour market they continue to have unrealistic expectations.

That's why networking is key in CS (the social kind of networking, not the CS kind of networking, but that's good too). The most important thing is getting out and meeting people. I've worked with plenty of talentless people with little relevant experience, but they got the job because they bought the manager a beer once or played golf with him. Once the manager sees they have some social skills, they offer them a job, so HR is bypassed.

The other thing I'd recommend to people is to join competitions. Any beginner's competition gives people the chance to meet other people and demonstrate they've got some skills. There are competitions for everything (cyber security, programming, data science etc). Winning is not important - just showing you've made an effort to show up and join in indicates you actually care about building tech skills instead of watching Netflix all day.

I'm doing my master's partly so I can tick the master's box, but partly also for vanity. In some industries, it is common to put your qualifications under your signature (Joe Bloggs, MSc). I want my signature to look good, because currently, I can only write BSc.

The best way to showcase all of this is to have your own portfolio - that way people can see your code.

Do you use Github for your portfolio, or did you build a website or something else?

Being a good Googler really is key these days. There were times when our class was given an assignment, and one person in my friendship group would Google the right key terms and find the solution quickly, and the rest of us would get results that weren't great, and then we'd spend hours longer trying to solve it 🤣 Everyone admires a good Googler. It takes skill and experience though, because you sort of have to know what you're doing to type in the write terms. 😂

I just posted this in one of the less busy threads:

I finished the program (not officially graduated yet).
All the negative feedback I read is about it being too heavy on theory. But that is what MSc is supported to be.
I think the problem is that it is marketed as a conversion course and people have wrong expectations.
In my opinion one should have solid background/ experience in some field of CS to enjoy or benefit from this course. It was very intense for me , and I have around 6 years of related practical experience.
I enjoyed it personally and learned a lot. I got promoted to engineering lead role because I became a much more well rounded and complete software engineer. I understand how all branches (infrastructure, networking, backend, frontend, security) work together, can design systems and coordinate work between departments.
What I did not like is that it was more data science focused, did not have compilers theory, crypto (personal preference), 8 months focused on research related stuff (but if you have an interesting topic, that might be good for you). Outdated technology from time to time (python tkinter for ui development). My favorite modules were Algorithms and Data structures and AI (mostly the algorithms part haha). Overall its quite standard CS Masters program I would say.
Also, indeed there is a lack of support (acceptable, fine for me), when i posted a question, it was always answered. Would prefer more engaging content. CyberSec started really cool with provided sandboxed environment which you hack around, followed up by more boring risk management plans, which ironically helped my career a lot . Again, i think its more or less standard cs degree course.

I just posted this in one of the less busy threads:

I finished the program (not officially graduated yet).
All the negative feedback I read is about it being too heavy on theory. But that is what MSc is supported to be.
I think the problem is that it is marketed as a conversion course and people have wrong expectations.
In my opinion one should have solid background/ experience in some field of CS to enjoy or benefit from this course. It was very intense for me , and I have around 6 years of related practical experience.
I enjoyed it personally and learned a lot. I got promoted to engineering lead role because I became a much more well rounded and complete software engineer. I understand how all branches (infrastructure, networking, backend, frontend, security) work together, can design systems and coordinate work between departments.
What I did not like is that it was more data science focused, did not have compilers theory, crypto (personal preference), 8 months focused on research related stuff (but if you have an interesting topic, that might be good for you). Outdated technology from time to time (python tkinter for ui development). My favorite modules were Algorithms and Data structures and AI (mostly the algorithms part haha). Overall its quite standard CS Masters program I would say.


Also, indeed there is a lack of support (acceptable, fine for me), when i posted a question, it was always answered. Would prefer more engaging content. CyberSec started really cool with provided sandboxed environment which you hack around, followed up by more boring risk management plans, which ironically helped my career a lot . Again, i think its more or less standard cs degree course.

Which university are you talking about though - University of York? There are many online MSc programmes that were mentioned in this thread, particularly in the last few posts.

I'm guessing you're not referring to Wrexham Glyndwr (WGU) in your post, because at WGU it is the other way around. The students who are experienced in IT are the most unhappy about the low quality because they know how wrong everything is that they're being taught. So the experienced IT guys complain the loudest on the forums.

Some of the guys in the class have worked in IT for 20+ years and they get 65% as a final mark (that's a B grade using US grades), even though they know 10-100 times more than the teacher. They get marked down because they complained about how bad the course is. It's crazy, because these students really know what they're talking about and the dimwits at WGU give them bad grades for complaining about the **** university. My advice is to just stay quiet and never participate on the forums and never complain. Just accept WGU is bad and get your crappy certificate to say you've finished the course.

Here in the UK, I have noticed most employers look down on these online master's degrees, so I don't know anyone here who got a promotion after completing one, but an online MSc does give people the right to tick the master's degree box on job application forms, which is the main reason people in the UK are enrolled into these programmes.

Which university are you talking about though - University of York? There are many online MSc programmes that were mentioned in this thread, particularly in the last few posts.

I'm guessing you're not referring to Wrexham Glyndwr (WGU) in your post, because at WGU it is the other way around. The students who are experienced in IT are the most unhappy about the low quality because they know how wrong everything is that they're being taught. So the experienced IT guys complain the loudest on the forums.

Some of the guys in the class have worked in IT for 20+ years and they get 65% as a final mark (that's a B grade using US grades), even though they know 10-100 times more than the teacher. They get marked down because they complained about how bad the course is. It's crazy, because these students really know what they're talking about and the dimwits at WGU give them bad grades for complaining about the **** university. My advice is to just stay quiet and never participate on the forums and never complain. Just accept WGU is bad and get your crappy certificate to say you've finished the course.

Here in the UK, I have noticed most employers look down on these online master's degrees, so I don't know anyone here who got a promotion after completing one, but an online MSc does give people the right to tick the master's degree box on job application forms, which is the main reason people in the UK are enrolled into these programmes.

Were you in the WGU course?

That's right - I chose WGU (unfortunately). I put a lot of research in first and saw it had a very low university ranking, but it was relatively affordable and I wanted to be able to tick that master's degree box. Plus, I don't believe in judging a university by its ranking (I can't stand pretentious employers who only hire Oxbridge grads).

The quality of WGU's online CS master's was so bad that students basically get halfway through and then realise they can either throw good money after bad money by finishing it off, or just quit cold turkey and abandon it. I was going to finish it off, but then I began to feel embarrassed at the thought of having WGU written on my CV and Linked In profile, so I haven't actually finished it (I'm taking a long break in the hope they'll miraculously improve the quality in the future). The credits are still there on my transcript, so I can go back to it if they manage to improve their bad name at some stage.

I do feel a little sad that I spent my hard-earned savings on something pointless, but you don't know until you try something. You should see the angry comments written on the internal WGU forum though - people demanding refunds and others demanding improvements to the poor quality of it. There are many unhappy campers at WGU.

Wow I didn't know that! There aren't a lot of reviews about it online. For me the read flags were it was run by their school of management which was sad as it had all the modules I wanted. I'm sorry you had to experience that/

There are actually loads of MSc options. Even if people wanted the name York isn't the only 'high ranked' one I'd say Essex and Keele are decent if not RG. Liverpool also has one. But for some reason York and Bath are the only ones with decent amount of reviews, a couple for Hertfordshire but nothing since they revamped their syllabus. There's literally no way of finding out how good or bad they are

One basic rule of thumb I'm using is that if they have lots of intakes they probably won't be of top quality. 6 intakes a year is too much. Which is why I'm going for UoL... I will duly report back. Not cheap though...

University of York. I'm based in NL. No one cared about my degree of course. I focused on things that I needed for my job when studying and dug deeper - software eng, design patterns and architecture, networking. Those modules helped me a lot.

Hi all.

I was just wondering how realistic it’s going to be to fulfil course work requirements within the 18 hours that the uni claims is necessary, per week.

I have no coding experience at present, and suspect that this will require considerably more hours of work.

I’m currently a full time teacher, and am considering leaving my job for a part time position, but want to establish if such a move is necessary at all.

Thanks for any advice

I found that ~25hours per week is more realistic, if you have no experience with the subject it could be even more.

Hi all.

I was just wondering how realistic it’s going to be to fulfil course work requirements within the 18 hours that the uni claims is necessary, per week.

I have no coding experience at present, and suspect that this will require considerably more hours of work.

I’m currently a full time teacher, and am considering leaving my job for a part time position, but want to establish if such a move is necessary at all.

Thanks for any advice

Depends on your goals; maybe you could pass most modules with 18hours/week, focusing only on what's relevant for the exams/assignments

I’ll handing in my notice to focus fully