Hi everyone!
I am part of a team of undergrad students at Georgia Tech currently researching accessibility in public transportation and how it can be improved. Right now, we're trying to gain a better understanding of how temporary/permanent disabilities can affect travel considerations through participant responses.
Here is the link to our survey: https://forms.gle/CJRgk2iDTyTxsPkX8
If you have any questions or would be interested in participating in a virtual interview, please contact [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). Thank you for your time and we look forward to hearing everybody's responses!

Hello All,
We know that you guys would like us to have your chances of admissions evaluated. Fine. We will now consolidate them in an evaluation thread automatically created around 6.30am ET every first day of the month.
First of all, read the entry requirements very carefully. They are found on the right hand side of the screen if you are using your desktop. No matter how good your SOP are, if you do not meet them, there is no way GaTech would accept you.
Also check out our Wiki and Hall of Fame too.
In the comments below, you can choose either to evaluate your SOP (Statement of Purpose) or, in a separate comment, your probability of acceptance.
Posting individual threads pertaining to the below will be removed. Repeated offenders will be permanently banned from OMSA.

Statement of Purpose

Yes, Statements of Purpose are deal-breakers. You need to craft them properly to increase your chances significantly in acceptance. More so if you lack either your GPA or working experience. You can check out some ideas and writing process provided by

• this student
• someone in the School of Computing

You can then show us your draft here for critique. To prevent people stealing your SOP, you can choose to edit/remove them after evaluation.

Probability of Acceptance

You must follow the following format. This is similar to the admissions thread with some slight modifications.
Any deviations from this format will have your comment locked.

* Education * Georgia Tech, BS, Comp. Sci., 3.00 / 4.00 * Community College, AS, Eng. Lit., 3.57 / 4.00 * Test Scores * 2021 TOEFL - 9 * 2020 GMAT - total 720, quant sub 52, essay 6 * Experience * 2018 - 2021; Microogle; .NEX * 2014 - 2018; Banana; Python 3.6, VBA; Math * Recommendations - 3 (My uncle, my auntie, my dog) * Comments - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, blah blah blah. 

Hello gatech!
This is a monthly meta thread that renews on the 1st day of each month @ 12:00 AM EDT.

• What is a meta thread?
  • A place where you can discuss the state of the subreddit and offer constructive feedback.
  • A place where the mods announce any additions/deletions/changes to the subreddit.

Please remember to follow all rules.

(made account to post)
Demographics
Race/Ethnicity: Asian 💀
Gender: Male 💀
Residence: Illinois
Income Bracket: Middle class 💀
Type of School: large competitive public school 💀
Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): no 💀
Intended Major(s): Computer Science 💀💀
Academics
GPA (UW/W): 3.98/4.59
Rank (or percentile): Doesn't rank
# of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 10 APs, multivar, lin alg
Senior Year Course Load: AP CSA, AP spanish, AP physics c (both), multi & linalg, AP psych, AP lit
Standardized Testing
List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.
SAT : 1550 (750RW, 800M)
ACT: 36 (34E, 36M, 36R, 36S), 11/12 essay
AP: all 5s
Extracurriculars/Activities
List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.
#1: archery - prez, captain, competed nationally, bunch of medals from all sorts of local/state/national tournaments. competed barebow and compound.
#2: cs club (prez)
#3: niche culture club (vp)
#4: math team, math tutoring
#5: cultural volunteer organization
#6: sociedad honoraria hispanica
Awards/HonorsList all awards and honors submitted on your application.
#1: did well at national archery tournament
#2: aime qual 2x
#3: national cyber scholar
#4: national merit semifinalist
#5: some volunteer awards (pvsa gold + other small ones)
Letters of Recommendation
history teacher - loved his class and he knows me really well + his recommendations are considered the best from any teacher at our school 10/10
math teacher - not sure if she really knew me that well, but i was generally a good student (i'd like to think so at least) and was active in class 7/10
edit: forgot my counselor rec...
counselor - i stopped by so many times that i think he may have gotten sick of me, so this rec could've gone either way. likely 6/10?
Interviews(Briefly reflect on interview experiences, if applicable.)
MIT - he was pretty nice, and we talked for a bit and i think i got to say a lot, but not as much as i would have liked to, 7/10
Stanford - so many similarities and we ended up talking for over 2 hours, 9/10
Harvard - interviewer was super young so we connected well. went on about just life in general for over an hour, 8/10
Essays
personal statement - talked about a disability that makes it extremely difficult to practice archery (think low vision of sorts) and my journey through archery. spent my entire summer writing and polishing it. Supplementals took ages as well, most of 1st semester was spent writing them.
Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)
Waitlists:
umass amherst (EA; WL -> R)
CMU (RD; WL -> R)
Cornell (RD; WL -> unknown)
Rejections:
gatech (EA)
university of washington (EA)
MIT (EA)
UCSD
UCLA
Northwestern (RD)
USC (EA)
Harvard (RD)
Berkeley
Stanford (RD)
Acceptances:
UIUC CS (EA; committed!)
umich coe + cs advanced selection (EA)
UIC (EA)
Purdue (EA)
UW -madison (EA)
Ohio state (EA)
UMD (EA)
ASU (as early as possible)
UCI
Reflections:
Had really high hopes to start, and even higher hopes when i was waiting for waitlists, but some things are never meant to be. (edit: title was sorta meant to be a troll). Still happy with how it ended :)

With the ACC in shambles, and FSU/Clemson wanting to either pull out, or force us to sign onto an unequal revenue sharing agreement. I'm interested in knowing what other Yellow Jackets feel about the situation - and how y'all think we should proceed forward!
If the ACC survives, but with an unequal revenue agreement - I'm seriously worried about the future of Tech's programs. Considering unequal revenue sharing is what doomed the Big East, I don't see Tech's already cash strapped programs doing any better here than before. Not to mention, what makes the SEC/B1G so successful is the fact that they don't do unequal revenue sharing.
I personally would love to see us return to the SEC, since our biggest historical rivalries (besides u[sic]GA) are with Auburn and Vanderbilt. And, geographically speaking, it would just make more sense for us to commute to teams the next state over - rather than across the country. There already seems to be some (admittedly) limited support from fans of the penal colony upstate to see us return to the conference we helped co-found. And the SEC could also stand to gain a lot with a new AAU school too, which could help to lessen their appearance of a 'conference of party schools'.
Unrelated - but the SEC could also send an invite to Tulane too! Which has the same possibility of also helping the SEC's reputation, and would be yet another co-founding member to return!
Besides the SEC, the B1G makes the next most sense as they're already the second most academically prestigious P5 athletic conference in the USA behind the ACC. Although, we would have the same issue with the ACC, of having to commute across the country to play teams we have no history with. At least if this were to happen we could say that we didn't have to sacrifice academics for athletics.
The Big 12 would be an okay middle ground, we would be playing teams we again have no connection with and are really far away - but at least we'd get paid more than we are now!
I hate to say it, but I think we also need to consider the possibility of getting downgraded to a G5 conference too. Tech hasn't done super well in recent years, thanks in no small part to the "minister of mayhem", but I'm hopeful that Coach Key can get us moving in a better direction quickly! If this is the case, and we do get left behind, my money is on the American conference - since they're probably looking to expand into a state they've got no footprint in already. I doubt the Sun Belt conference would want us considering they've already got both GSU's.
The last (and most unlikely) scenario I see as a possibility, would be the PAC-12 and (what's left of) the ACC merging into a super conference. One of my favorite Georgia Tech Sports Youtubers "Wreck-Talk" did a video a couple weeks ago about this possible megaconference - he made some really interesting arguments and moves so I'd highly recommend y'all check him out in case you're interested in what this would look like!
Regardless, I'm definitely worried about the future of collegiate sports - since it seems like everything has become about money these last couple years. And media corporations are willing to destroy historic rivalries between schools, just for the sake of making themselves a few more bucks at the end of the year.
​
TLDR:
Best case: SEC/B1G
Worst case: AAC
​
​
EDIT (05/24/23) - Seems like the ACC still has a little time left before the reaper comes knocking, so crisis averted?

https://www.reddit.com/useExcellent-Nose7627
https://www.reddit.com/EngineeringStudents/comments/13hma3v/why_are_weeder_classes_made_unnecessarily_hard/
https://www.reddit.com/EngineeringStudents/comments/13hlgyc/i_am_so_jealous_of_people_who_go_to_colleges_that/
https://www.reddit.com/LosAngeles/comments/13hkerm/does_anyone_here_get_jealous_of_people_who_went/
https://www.reddit.com/EngineeringStudents/comments/13gtna9/how_do_some_engineering_students_have_a_39_gpa/
https://www.reddit.com/EngineeringStudents/comments/13gqt4e/how_do_so_many_frat_boys_study_engineering_and/
https://www.reddit.com/EngineeringStudents/comments/13gnsl6/does_your_engineering_school_offer_honor_classes/
https://www.reddit.com/EngineeringStudents/comments/13gm35v/why_do_people_say_getting_a_job_at_the_defense/
https://www.reddit.com/EngineeringStudents/comments/13g6q8c/why_do_people_say_getting_a_job_at_the_defense/
https://www.reddit.com/autism/comments/13fl3j4/it_is_so_frustrating_when_even_the_most/
https://www.reddit.com/gatech/comments/13fl0v0/why_is_greek_life_so_hard_to_join_at_this_school/
https://www.reddit.com/EngineeringStudents/comments/13fklfi/it_sucks_to_go_to_a_college_that_does_little_to/
https://www.reddit.com/EngineeringStudents/comments/13fkgxl/it_is_so_frustrating_that_there_is_so_little/

Here is a research paper done by
Dr. Marc Papakyriakou Battery R&D Manager at Mullen. https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/67105/PAPAKYRIAKOU-DISSERTATION-2021.pdf?sequence=1 And here is a list of research done by him and in partnership with other scholars. https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=DifdSBoAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&citft=1&citft=2&citft=3&email_for_op=bluehen16%40gmail.com&gmla=AHoSzlUM_T1SwyfJJjwqvR1p-g7VwvUQrJTATSKU04PGLvbP7iwfDXbifhNSIZBI6yNieZpt5tJK2r90xPQX1DJSo6e4B9UcT5AhJPyQ5lcw5_NXublrAfEki3IE9CJpeAX5bnd5CUZX6M7SEgtYHDqfWvO1L9sOJfAZMpuGDoyL0eFQzHp9FAOAMX6XXLU-a2cLi2PYttki1zk1KvLRSPVWEY7wbPI1fP7NsTqc3myybBs

Hello All,
We know that you guys would like us to have your chances of admissions evaluated. Fine. We will now consolidate them in an evaluation thread automatically created around 6.30am ET every first day of the month.
First of all, read the entry requirements very carefully. They are found on the right hand side of the screen if you are using your desktop. No matter how good your SOP are, if you do not meet them, there is no way GaTech would accept you.
Also check out our Wiki and Hall of Fame too.
In the comments below, you can choose either to evaluate your SOP (Statement of Purpose) or, in a separate comment, your probability of acceptance.
Posting individual threads pertaining to the below will be removed. Repeated offenders will be permanently banned from OMSA.

Statement of Purpose

Yes, Statements of Purpose are deal-breakers. You need to craft them properly to increase your chances significantly in acceptance. More so if you lack either your GPA or working experience. You can check out some ideas and writing process provided by

• this student
• someone in the School of Computing

You can then show us your draft here for critique. To prevent people stealing your SOP, you can choose to edit/remove them after evaluation.

Probability of Acceptance

You must follow the following format. This is similar to the admissions thread with some slight modifications.
Any deviations from this format will have your comment locked.

* Education * Georgia Tech, BS, Comp. Sci., 3.00 / 4.00 * Community College, AS, Eng. Lit., 3.57 / 4.00 * Test Scores * 2021 TOEFL - 9 * 2020 GMAT - total 720, quant sub 52, essay 6 * Experience * 2018 - 2021; Microogle; .NEX * 2014 - 2018; Banana; Python 3.6, VBA; Math * Recommendations - 3 (My uncle, my auntie, my dog) * Comments - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, blah blah blah. 

Hello gatech!
This is a monthly meta thread that renews on the 1st day of each month @ 12:00 AM EDT.

• What is a meta thread?
  • A place where you can discuss the state of the subreddit and offer constructive feedback.
  • A place where the mods announce any additions/deletions/changes to the subreddit.

Please remember to follow all rules.

I am a prospective MS CS student.
I saw this post on gradadmissions and it has got me worried: https://www.reddit.com/gradadmissions/comments/12sghda/is_gatech_ms_cs_really_worth_it/ Tl; dr: Top faculty are leaving. They offer the exact same degree to both on campus students and OMSCS students (which are in thousands each year), the worth of the degree reduces.
Prestige: US News decreased their ranking of GaTech's CS from 6th to 8th position. Apparently it is projected to decrease further.
Maybe UCSD/Columbia are better choices then?

recently i got downvoted a bunch for correcting someone who misgendered me. i seemed to remember that happening before so i ended up going through my comments to find other times i resisted being misgendered on reddit. what are y'alls experiences with that like? do people react similarly to offline or is it different?
https://www.reddit.com/gatech/comments/12sfplw/georgia_techs_removal_of_student_journalists/jh06zq8/
https://www.reddit.com/scihub/comments/ssr2he/scihub_downloads_by_country_30_days_can_we_get/hx1aqh7/?context=3
https://www.reddit.com/libgen/comments/ex6rh1/politics_of_libgen/fg9qdq8/
https://www.reddit.com/CanadaFarLeft/comments/12cdvcnew_subreddit_against_klanada_all_eurocolonial/jf30e7n/
https://www.reddit.com/CanadaFarLeft/comments/12a0n1o/how_come_i_get_pushback_here_whenever_i_post_fajerpk8s/
https://www.reddit.com/libgen/comments/spyukb/there_are_5595_pages_of_request_in_zlibrary_that/hx0i47e/
https://www.reddit.com/AfroGerman/comments/13lzokn/can_we_have_a_rule_against_misgendering/

Hello, I know DataCamp is a good platform to learn R, SQL and Python but I don’t seem to find any similar websites to learn C++ that gives hands on coding instantly like DataCamp. I would hope to polish C++ before taking courses in C++ at Gatech. Anyone can give me some recommendations? Thanks!

https://www.reddit.com/gradadmissions/comments/12qry20/gatech_bioe_phd_funding_lette?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
Just reposting this since I did not get any response before and I am freaking out.

A recent post caught my attention (https://www.reddit.com/gatech/comments/12rvvek/does_ellucian_course_registration_have_an_api) not necessarily for the original question it was asking but because even if ellucian didn't have a proper API, I believe it would be possible to build a custom registration site by reverse engineering its API requests and sending them out from the custom site.

is it possible?

I know its possible to write custom applications sitting on top of Georgia Tech's SSO (SAML) sign in system (i.e. gradescope, but I've seen others too) so theoretically you should be able to build a clone of OSCAR with your own custom features/better UI. Looking into it further, it seems both degreeworks and oscar store "IDMSESSID" in their cookies so I assume its the one responsible for authentication. Haven't confirmed it but seems likely, as the other cookies can be obtained by sending empty requests to certain URLs like a post request to https://registration.banner.gatech.edu/StudentRegistrationSsb/ssb/term/search?mode=search (what the gt-scheduler backend uses for its crawling). I'm sure there is some documentation for interfacting with the SAML system or worst case you can reverse engineer it from how gradescope's requests look like during the auth process.
Looking into the requests that are made when registering for a course, it looks like the main request is a POST request to https://registration.banner.gatech.edu/StudentRegistrationSsb/ssb/classRegistration/submitRegistration/batch with a disguistingly long payload that does indeed contain the registration information of the course you want to register for, albeit with lots of other data.

ethics/difficulty to implement

So based on all this I believe it is most likely possible to create a custom registration portal based by reverse engineering these requests, since there does not seem to be a formal API apart from their internal one. The requests look quite complicated though and it is definitely no small task, and you'll have to account for edge cases like major restrictions, linked sections, and much more. Not to mention the ethics / implications of making such a service including whether or not is goes against ellucian TOS or whatever.
It's very much possible that I could've missed some glaring reason why this wouldn't be possible, but it looks like the registration system communicates in post requests that can easily be forged if need be, and worst case if authentication doesn't work out you could possibly make some kind of chrome extension that pulls the cookies from your SSO login and uses them, although I feel like doing it the proper way would work. Speaking of which, that could be another viable alternative: just creating a chrome extension that augments the existing interface to make it easier to use, although a custom one would be better.
It needs more discussion but is most likely possible in my opinion, although possibly unethical. After all, a tool like this isn't too far from a tool that just automatically registers for you.

potential features

The potential benefits of creating a custom registration site could include:

• A notification page that alerts you if you have moved up in any of your waitlist positions without you having to check them individually
• an easier to look at table UI with important notes added such as which courses are major restricted (ex: although the majority of MATH 3012 sections are major unrestricted there are currently two that are restricted to math majors) (these would be viewable without having to click around the UI like you currently have to), or where the section is located (again currently this involves clicking on a modal multiple times)
• for each section listed, the professor's corresponding RMP rating, difficulty, etc. and average course critique GPA baked into the same table UI.
• a prettier UI that's easier on the eyes, probably something similar to the design of GT scheduler that would also be responsive (viewable on mobile without significant cluttering of information)
• "real time" updates to the table UI to reflect changing seats (during times of rapid seat changes like when phase I time tickets open it would be useful to see changing seats without refreshing the page) (I say "real time" in quotes because there would likely be a ~84 second delay to refresh the data for all courses - I know this because I've coded up my own seat notification discord bot (if you can't beat em join em lol) and this is about how long it takes to scrape all ~12633 sections given a relatively modest request delay of 500 milliseconds and page size of 75 sections per request). Alternatively it would be possible to send the requests every x seconds from the browser directly instead of via a websocket from a backend scraper (kind of like grouch but in website form) for an almost instantaneous update, but sending that many requests repeatedly from potentially 100s of users would probably make the registration system shit itself lmao.
• course add/drop utilities: ex: if dropping a section and adding a new one simultaneously fails, then it automatically adds back the previously dropped section, etc. (edit: it's come to my attention this already exists in the new oscar)
• anything else lol

So those were some of my thoughts, although building such a thing would be an absolutely monumental task probably fit for a team of devs rather than a single one if it were to be implemented sooner than later. Just wanted to stir up some thoughts and discussion regarding the earlier mentioned post with some additional insights as a dev that's done some amount of fucking around with the registration system. Very much encouraging people to comment potential feature additions as well!

in response to my post about the censored website yesterday, someone helpfully pointed out that the georgia tech advisory board (gtab) has several representatives from companies supporting cop city. i went through the list & pulled their entries, adding some background on the connections:

• Roger E. Blythe Jr., MSCI 1978—Retired Chief Accounting Officer—Chick-fil-A—Atlanta, Georgia

connection:

Evan Karanovich, the chicken eatery’s Lead Advisor to the Chairman & CEO, serves on the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Young Executives Board. Prior to joining Chick-fil-A, Karanovich worked at the State Capitol in Atlanta where he served as a senior advisor to Senator David Perdue.

• Sarah B. Brown—Retired Global Customer Director—The Coca-Cola Company—Atlanta, Georgia

connection: coke has supplied over $1 million in funding for the APF.

• Anne Chow—CEO—AT&T Business—Dallas, Texas

connections: at&t sponsored a major fundraiser for the APF in 2021. at&t southeastern states president Venessa Harrison is on the APF board.

• Tye G. Darland—Senior VP and General Counsel—Georgia-Pacific, LLC—Atlanta, Georgia

connections: georgia pacific has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to APF. darland is also on the APF board.

• Sarah W. Hallac—Consultant—BlackRock—Scarsdale, New York

connection:

Vanguard Group and Blackrock are majority stakeholders in Norfolk Southern AND are funders of the Cop City project.

• Dana P. Hudson, ChE 1995—Merchandising Vice President—The Home Depot—Atlanta, Georgia

connections:

the Home Depot Foundation partnership with the Westside Future Fund…is also responsible for introducing “Westside Blue”, a security patrol program with the Atlanta Police Foundation and the Atlanta Police Department.” The home improvement retail corporation serves on the boards of both the Detroit Public Safety Foundation and the Atlanta Police Foundation. Vice President of Technology Daniel Grider represents Home Depot on the Atlanta Police Foundation Board of Trustees, serves on the Home Depot Foundation Board, and was previously a police officer in Arkansas for nine years.

• Nashlie H. Sephus, M.S. ECE 2010, Ph.D. ECE 2014—Tech Evangelist—Amazon Web Services—Atlanta, Georgia
• Kenneth "Ken" E. Washington—VP, Software Engineering—Amazon.com Inc.—San Carlos, California

connections:

Amazon’s Senior Public Relations Manager, Nikki Forman, sits on the board at the Atlanta Police Foundation. Previously, she worked for the foundation as their Director of Communications. [...] Amazon allows police foundations across the country to collect donations through their AmazonSmile program which has helped support foundations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Cleveland, and San Diego. The company also has a history of supplying police departments with tech and surveillance tools, including selling its cloud services, granting police access to private data without user consent through its Amazon Ring surveillance devices, and letting police use its facial recognition software, called Rekognition.

EDIT: had an issue with image hosting. Switched providers and it should be good now.
EDIT 2: I've maxed out on responses, so polling is closed now. Thanks everyone for your great responses!
I am a graduate student at Georgia Tech, currently working on a course called Human-Computer Interaction. I am doing a follow-up to a previous survey for potential improvements to the note-taking application Obsidian. In this follow-up, I have taken previous feedback and applied them to some changes to the interface which I hope could potentially provide a smoother, more intuitive experience for new Obsidian users.
I picked Obsidian for this project because aside from being a daily note-taker myself, I knew the dedicated and enthusiastic user community would be able to provide a lot of quality input.
This survey does not ask for any personal information other than age (optional), and does not require login or tracking of any kind. If you have any questions let me know.
If you are an Obsidian user, I would love to hear your feedback at the link below! Thank you.
http://peersurvey.cc.gatech.edu/s/5bc556ad5a4448be95ea5345f88797fc

Asking because of how expensive it is, and I cannot seem to find many people in the ECE program. Now, I am pretty sure I just didn't research hard enough, but it feels like there's barely any MS ECE people at all -- though I just think ECE people tend to have less of an online presence compared to CS people.
I am worried that CMU MS ECE is somehow weak, and that people know to "steer clear" of CMU for their masters in ECE when comparing to other colleges like gatech. Is this true?
Furthermore, I applied with the intention of taking classes in ML and computer vision, in addition to DSP and communications related classes. CMU seems to list different courses for ML and whatnot compared to the CS classes, so I am worried these aren't of the same quality the CS majors take, which makes CMU even less compelling of a college to look forward to.
Sorry for the rant-like post, and I know some of these questions could be answered better by the CMU community (which I've asked), but I am curious on what the ECE community thinks about the MS ECE program at CMU overall.

My profile is in my post history
The following are my results:

1. UCLA: Reject
2. UCBerkeley (MEng): Reject
3. Georgia Tech: Admit
4. Stanford: Reject
5. Columbia: Admit
6. UCSD: Admit
7. CMU: Admit

If anyone needs/wants a data point to gauge for subsequent admissions.
Edit: GaTech accepted me, but only on 22nd April. I took the lack of decision on 15th April as a sign of a reject, but I was wrong

I finished turning everything in and I'm guaranteed a passing grade, so instead of waiting until the final grades are out, thought I'd conclude with a post now.
Background & Motivations:
I graduated in 2004 with a bachelor degree (majors: computer science, philosophy, minor: mathematics) but spent most of the following decade pursuing a different career (audio engineer). The 2008 economic downturn killed my business and I took the first job that I could (aviation). I pursued that for a while until I hit a glass ceiling. I then decided maybe it was best to dust off that BA degree and use it. I found that I couldn't get an entry-level job without prior experience and I couldn't get an internship without being enrolled in a program. OMSCS filled the need due to cost and accessibility. Side note: I got a job about a year into OMSCS (OMSCS had no bearing on that) but I decided to continue due to why not.
Fall 2017 - Graduate Intro to OS (A), Machine Learning for Trading (W)
I didn't know what specialization I wanted to do, so I thought I'd take one class from each and then decide what interested me the most. The majority of ML and AI classes just didn't exist when I did my undergrad. I signed up for GIOS and ML4T since this sub said they were both good first classes.
Two classes was too much. I dropped ML4T since I was further along in GIOS. I had no C experience, so it was somewhat time-consuming. This class was far more rigorous than the OS class I took in undergrad.
Spring 2018 - Artificial Intelligence (B)
AI was the hardest class I took in OMSCS. I enjoyed it and once again, far more rigorous than the AI class I took in undergrad. If I was a different person in my early 20s, maybe I would have pursued going to a school like GT. This class was like another full-time job, but fortunately, I made it through.
Fall 2018 - Machine Learning for Trading (A)
I enjoyed this class but found it to be incredibly easy after AI. There was quite a bit of overlap in terms of content. I also decided that I'll just stick with index funds as far as investing goes for now.
Spring 2019 - Data Visualization & Analytics (A)
I enjoyed the visual part of it. I really disliked how they tried to cram as much tech in as possible. Like doing a "hello world" app for each assignment. I would have preferred that they stuck to 1 stack and focused on the application of those concepts instead. Our group project was OK.... the class combined both OMSA and OMSCS sections and my OMSA teammates didn't know how to code. I ended up doing DevOps and infrastructure since I knew how to do that from the day job and they only knew how to do modeling with scikit-learn. In hindsight, should have just been adamant about working on the things I wanted to learn but c'iest la vie.
Fall 2019 - Machine Learning (W)
After ML4T, I had planned on specializing in ML. Unfortunately, I had some health issues this semester (ended up in the ER). I'm totally fine, but dropped to focus on health. Moral of the story: life happens, it is ok to take the W.
Spring 2020 - Intro to Analytics Modeling (W)
I signed up for IAM since I thought it would be an easy way to become familiar with ML concepts before tackling that again. I really hated R. The TAs were not helpful either. At this point in my FT career, I'm 100% remote, I can work from anywhere in the world. I was taking time off from work to study (I'm hourly, so lost $$$). I was unsure if I wanted to continue with OMSCS or drop out. There were just other things in life that I was interested in and I wasn't sure if trying to pursue another career (in ML) was something I really wanted to devote all that time to.
Fall 2020 - Software Architecture & Design (A)
Covid happened. At the time, I lived about 2 miles from where George Floyd was murdered. I feel like I experienced a lot of history in a short time. I have a tough time with sunk cost (even if only 4 classes), but I figured I could at least get an elective out of the way and put off the decision of whether to drop out of OMSCS or not for a while longer.
I took SAD since I figured I could brush up and solidify some dev knowledge. This class is an easy A, but far too much UML, and the lectures are like watching paint dry. If I can learn all of the design stuff from a book, not much point in taking the class. The class is so easy that I was able to complete it while having an active covid infection and dealing with long covid symptoms (shortness of breath, chest pain, brain fog, etc).
Spring 2021 - Software Development Process (B)
I decided to switch to Interactive Intelligence since then I could skip GA and still finish the program. I was still suffering from long covid, the brain fog was brutal. I wouldn't take this class, even if you have no development experience. You'll learn all of those topics during the first few months on the job. The professor was active in the forums but had the expectation that you read every thread (back when it was piazza). All in all, not a class I would recommend.
Fall 2021 - AI Ethics & Society (A)
Not a lot in terms of II electives... I have no interest in IHI and EdTech would be fun if I had a project in mind, but didn't. It is interesting to think about bias, but this class was largely forgettable. I had all the work done around mid-October.
Spring 2022 - Game AI (A)
This was one of my favorite classes in the program and the only class where I feel I got the bang for my buck in terms of projects. I was a gamer when I was young and still play from time to time when I'm free (rare these days). I very much enjoyed the Prison Dodgeball and Self Driving Truck assignments. This class covered similar topics in AI, but something about having visual results made those concepts click like they haven't before. I appreciate Professor Wilson but the lectures really need someone with video editing skills to edit them in order to make them watchable.
Summer 2022 - Digital Marketing (W)
I signed up thinking that I would keep my momentum going in order to finish in the fall. Life got busy and I found myself not enjoying the class at all. I was just kind of done with taking classes to check off a requirement when I had no real interest in them. So I dropped.
Fall 2022 - Video Game Design (A)
Similar to Game AI, I enjoyed this class. Largely it was due to my teammates. Many had unity experience and had worked on indie games before. I don't know if I can say this is a good class since the lectures need a lot of help and everything I learned was from working on the group project. If my group was poor, I'm sure I'd have a different opinion.
Spring 2023 - Knowledge-Based AI (A)
The semester isn't done, but I've turned everything in and I should have a B regardless of what grades I get on the remaining items. I debated between this and ML. ML has more interest but would be a bit of a slog. KBAI has all of the previous assignments online. I had quite a bit of life stuff this spring and wanted to get a jump on all of the work. I started in December and had a good start by the time the semester actually began. I've posted my thoughts previously regarding this class. I know some people absolutely love this class.... it just wasn't my cup of tea. I wish there was more in terms of connecting the lectures to the projects and to tech in the real world.
Final thoughts
Was it worth it? Who knows. I've learned a lot and I know I've gained numerous skills along the way. I'll probably never work in AI or ML. I'm in my early 40s and I just don't have it in me to chase another career when the job I have now has the best work/life balance I've ever experienced. Maybe that fancy degree will come in handy if I ever need to find another employer.
My recommendation to GT.... invest in video content. I've found it to be rather lacking, as far as production goes. There is a lot that goes into learning by video in terms of visuals that just isn't happening here. Personally, I only learn by doing. Any topics that do not tie to some kind of coursework are almost immediately forgotten once the test is over.
There also needs to be some kind of reconciliation in terms of credit hours and course difficulty. It just doesn't make sense that some classes are like a full-time job and you have classes like DM, SAD, AIES that are a breeze; all of these classes are 3 credits. I don't think classes need to be artificially hard, but the "drinking from a firehose" that I've encountered leaves much to be desired. Imagine if you go on a trip to Italy and try to see the entire country in a week. It'll be a whirlwind. While you might enjoy some things, you'll gloss over everything and may not learn or remember that much. I think there has to be a better way in terms of pedagogy that would enable better outcomes instead of trying to cram everything in.
Lastly
I have nothing but thanks for Dr. Isbell, Dr. Joyner, et al for OMSCS. I think it is incredible what they have done in terms of making education accessible for nearly all.
Best of luck to all of you, regardless of where you are on your journey.
EDIT:
Thanks everyone.
KBAI links:
https://lucylabs.gatech.edu/kbai/
https://omscs.gatech.edu/cs-7637-knowledge-based-artificial-intelligence-course-videos
EDIT2:
Final grades are out. I got an A in KBAI. Class is super easy. You can get an A even if you do poorly on the exams (i didn't bother to put much effort into them).

I'm a recently admitted ME student and the only "real" resource I can find on the honors program is a thread from 2016 and I was wondering if anything has changed since then. Are there any legitimate benefits to joining the honors LLC vs. another LLC or does it make sense not to join one?

Statement from OIT (don't quote me!)

Source - https://www.reddit.com/gatech/comments/12j1np8/single_signon_sso_and_registration_updates_april/

Dear gatech Students and Staff:
We are making another post here to highlight that registration for summer and fall 2023 courses will now open April 17*. The message below from the Office of Information Technology went out to campus this evening, April 11.*
We thank you for bearing with us as we have continued to work on SSO and affected sites and services. We do understand just how much the outage has especially impacted students at this time and sincerely apologize for the inconveniences caused.
Registration questions should be directed to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
Please continue to bear with us while we work toward a full resolution.
Thank you.

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New Time Ticket Distribution Schedule for OMSCS

Source - https://registrar.gatech.edu/registration/time-tickets
For those who already have registered, they will still honor it unless otherwise announced.
Only count courses you have completed until Fall 2022. Spring 2023 doesn't count because it's still in progress. All time tickets start at 10am ET.

• 4/17 Mon - 9+ courses.
• 4/18 Tue - 8 courses
• 4/19 Wed - 7 courses
• 4/20 Thu - 6 courses
• 4/21 Fri - 5 courses (plus alumnis)
• 4/24 Mon - 4 courses
• 4/25 Tue - 3 courses
• 4/26 Wed - 2 courses
• 4/27 Thu - 1 course
• 4/28 Fri - 0 courses (those matriculated in Spring 2023)

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Impact on Predictions Tourney

Source - https://www.reddit.com/OMSCS/predictions/
As earlier registrations have been honored, they are considered to be resolved.
Those predictions which have not been resolved yet will be delayed correspondingly.