Ask HN: CS degree equivalent from MIT or Harvard with online classes, for free?

9 points by brunomiranda 5 years ago | 8 comments

Both universities (and many others) have made thousands of courses available online. Is it possible to obtain the equivalent to a CS degree without ever attending a class on campus?

Has anyone tried? How long would it take? How marketable would such education be? Could we argue that if you are the a self-starter kind of person you may get a “better” education this way?

Of course no diploma would be given at the end, and perhaps there are nominal fees.

giantg2 5 years ago |

The education itself would not be very marketable since there is no validation, accreditation, etc. The vast majority of places require an accredited degree to be hired. If you want to work for other people, especially at larger companies, then what you want to do would not be very helpful.

If you want to work for yourself, this could be a good option. If you gain a good reputation working on open source projects, then maybe you can get into smaller companies or startups that aren't as stringent in their policies.

giantg2 5 years ago | |

Why is this downvoted?

Nobody else has addressed the marketability concerns.

sterlinm 5 years ago |

I think that if you are extremely disciplined and self-motivated you can learn a lot these days from freely available resources on the internet. I think you miss out on two really big things.

The first is that most people can learn much more and more quickly when interacting with others and with good mentors. Depending on your personality, you might need this less or be able to get some of that from communities online (e.g. forums and open source projects).

The second part is basically the value of signaling and credentials. Part of the value of a Harvard/MIT degree is that it tells potential employers that you were able to get into Harvard or MIT. Since they're very selective that is a useful piece of information for them. A capable seeking person who comes across well in interviews but is self-taught might rationally lose out to an equally smart seeking person who also has a fancy degree.

You could consider Georgia Tech's OMSCS program. It's not free but it's pretty cheap and you get a degree from a well respected school. FWIW I'm an alum of that program.

muzani 5 years ago |

They are excellent resources and the people who have the self drive to do MOOCs often perform better than people with a degree. I'm not sure how many really complete a MOOC though. The ones from elite universities have been very tough in my experience, but worth the effort.

Online certifications seem to be a negative though. Doing a MOOC in itself signals you have the passion, whereas getting a certification implies you neither qualify to actually go to MIT or Harvard, nor do you have the passion to finish without being motivated by e-paper. While they are hard to get, I doubt the pain level it takes to finish is anywhere near that of a MIT degree.

asicsp 5 years ago |

See teachyourselfcs [0] and OSSU [1]

[0] https://teachyourselfcs.com/

[1] https://github.com/ossu/computer-science

gabrielsroka 5 years ago |

This sounds familiar, eg https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/

Jugurtha 5 years ago |

You can learn what you need to build something that helps you escape a world in which your degree matters.

batt4good 5 years ago |

Do it just for algorithms theory and practice! This is 90% of the value of a modern CS education.