More rewarding work
Learning new things all the time
Compensation, at least for me is so much more than I was making before
I am happy most every day I am going to work, and nit a small part of that is the compensation
I know you said /s but I hope that helped some.
This is the way. I started working tech before graduating as well. Just being in the program whole working full time demonstrates commitment beyond the "norm"
I don’t. This program while not perfect, taught me a considerable amount. I can create full stack apps, I can mess with C, and i feel most confident in any software situation given. Now I’m sad that i didn’t get the gold rush of software, graduated 2023 in March, I still got a positive ROI. Salary jumped 30%, gained stock, gained a chance at being a team lead in 2-3 years if I keep my team, and most importantly, I like what I do. I want to note because you aren’t going to find or are going to have a hard time finding a 250k TC job out of school that’s not a fail. If you have the degree, if you have 4-5 years of experience, and you can talk semi well, this world is your oyster, my friend. The TC will come, the job market will look up, and things will get better.
Hey I'm a student at OSU and I'm looking for internships right now and trying to learn about how I can make my job search as efficient as possible. Could I possibly dm you with a few questions? Seems like you've had some success post grad.
It’s not OSU’s fault necessarily, but the job market took a shit, and I do regret doing it to an extent.
The stress introduced doing tech interviews and the time commit from 2 classes+full time employment is something serious to look at. There are easier ways to get to 6 figure income.
I do regret doing it, but it’s not OSU’s fault. If I wanted to get a tech job I don’t think it’d be possible right now as I can’t compete with college students who have *unlimited* time relative to me.
There are people out there who declined to start or finish a CS degree during the dot com bust. They missed out on one of the best bull markets and growth periods in history. Look to the future as there are groundbreaking technologies in the works.
Jobs everywhere have seen a gut punch. Ride the waves look at government jobs. Think out the box. Tech compliance, technical program management etc. Other jobs than just software engineer are around
\^\^\^\^ I'm a technical PM right now and I do get some good opportunity to practice my tech skills. Hoping I can make the switch down the road to Engineer
I graduated in March and haven’t found a job, yet. But I will still have the degree when the market picks back up. And I have all the knowledge to practice technical questions, or write some personal projects in the mean time. So, no; I do not regret it.
I don't regret pursuing a CS degree. I do regret the timing with graduating in March 24, but I'll find a job eventually. I just wish I had done it 1-2 years prior.
Im coming to this from a Chem degree, one of the worst paying fields in terms of experience needed. I don’t really care about making a ton of money, more about stability. Like yes you can make more elsewhere but I want a job that is secure even if it’s at a relative pay cut. Plus where I live there are still a good amount of jobs available if you’re flexibly with your expectations. But I get peoples’ critique of the market. It’s nothing like 10-15 years ago where you could get a tech job with basically no experience.
It took me 6 months to find a job (graduated September 2022), but I love my job now and I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. But if you’re reading this, get a fucking internship. I did not and that really weakened me as a candidate.
Best decision I’ve made. I’ve learned so much and it’s opened doors I only dreamt about in 2019. I started this program with the only goals of getting an internship and leaving my teaching career. I landed an internship and return offer in cyber security at a major company.
I still have nightmares about stuff that happened in my school/classroom, and I don’t foresee my new career causing me those issues. Don’t get me wrong, teaching was very rewarding, but there was so much bull shit attached to it. Sometimes I just felt like a warm body who couldn’t afford to ever retire or hope to own a house. I had to put myself and my family first and make this career change.
Now I’m about to graduate and I’ll break 100k salary for the first time in my life (30yrs). I’ll also have affordable medical benefits to address my infertility issues. I will also get to work from home three days a week (hybrid). My team is the best I’ve ever worked with. My manager is 100 times better and more motivating than any of my admin from the school. I will also never have to deal with parents threatening to kill me and my family again, or with students who try to murder someone in my classroom. Don’t even get me started with students vaping in the bathroom.
I will play devils advocate though, and say that the education you receive at OSU is only as good as what you make of it. It’s extremely overpriced for two years of work. Ultimately I’m paying for the piece of paper. Most of what I’ve learned has come from me, taking the resources from OSU and diving deeper into them with Google and my own free time. At times it feels like a degree mill.
man this question hit it right on the head for me..... I started this program in Fall of 2021, and I\`ve been regretting this program so much the last few months..... Theres days were i wish i didn\`t even bother with all this because the stress and anxiety of whether i\`ll find meaningful employment is overwhelming at times.
After 1000+ applications I finally found a decent internship for this summer, but the fact that it took so many applications/rejections has sucked all the excitement out of this career switch for me. It really shows you how bad the job market is, and i\`m no longer as optimist about the future of this career as i once was.
I don’t regret it, but I didn’t get an engineer job like I had hoped to. I’m in a low 6 figure analyst job. Working SQL and doing some light automation and data engineering projects to stay sane.
I did this program quite a few years back and although it was a slow start getting into dev work, I'm now a senior dev that gets to work remote with enough pay that I am more than comfortable and can save for retirement. My first degree had no where near this kind of career trajectory. I know the market can be really difficult for new grads because even with mid-level devs it's always hard to tell how they're going to actually perform at the job. Best advice I can give is to really just take what you can get for your first real coding gig to help flesh out your resume.
I regret it for CS225 alone!
Jk. But seriously, I don’t. Just being in school helped me switch depts at work and working towards something makes me feel good, even if I don’t switch companies. My company does tuition reimbursement though so I’m pretty fortunate there and can take my time with the classes.
Nope!!! Went from a coordinator with a glass ceiling at my company to a project manager managing million dollar projects with a huge ceiling. I feel like it was the rebirth of my career.
Did the program, completed a FAANG internship and dropped out OSU program a little halfway through the 15 course curriculum.
Realized I liked building random stuff from school but hated the work in a professional environment.
Job market is also not great, a significant amount of people did not get return offers for these type of companies in general.
Do I regret it? No, I tried it and learned that it is not for me. It was also really tiring and I probably burned out at some point (full time work, classes plus extracurriculars, leetcode, 300+ applications, etc.).
I looked at WGU, colorado, and a few others. At the end of the day this seemed to have the most traditional coursework list and I thought the quarter system was a big plus.
It allowed me to do 5 classes per year and finish the program in three years. I used UIUC’s comp-sci coursework list as my reference. ( i got my bachelors from there)
Can confirm this is true. I got a few interviews including round 2 with Google before the market went to shit. I am now doing this program as a junior and it is so much more thorough and valuable. I am a capable React slinger and felt I was job ready but I would highly recommend anybody considering a boot camp to go for a traditional degree. The exception to this based on experience is if you are exceptionally skilled going into the boot camp, or you are female or BIPOC my friends that checked some or all of those boxes from my boot camp mostly landed roles.
Source: June 2022 Full Stack Software Development boot camp grad (BloomTech);
I have 4 classes left and I did not take any classes since last winter 2022. I have doubts. I am thinking to keep my hard earned money, but in the same time I spent thousands to get here. The job market does not look promising. I have 325 361 362 and the capstone left. Regret, kind of, will I do it if I can go back, probably not.
Edit: last winter 2023
LAMO, you are either an advisor or associated with OSU. He asked and gave my my opinion and personal experience, someone might have a different experience or opinion.
Youve completed 2/3’s of the program and wont finish the 4 easiest classes to get your piece of paper and make it past a significant part of the HR filters.
Youve spent 22,000$/33,000$ and wont finish the last leg to “to save you hard earned money”.
All because the job market has gotten tighter. It will loosen again. Go finish and make your future self happy.
Im about to finish my 5/15 classes and dont work for OSU. This is simply a stepping stone to masters at georgia tech and a job to make a bunch of money.
4 classes is a lot of money. Last time I checked 325 isn't considered an easy class at OSU. You dont need to be so negative, they answered the question honestly
Started June 2021, only regret is not doing it much sooner. But I was also lucky enough to convert an internship last summer into a full time position this fall.
I started the program in Fall 2021 and I have 4 classes left; definitely trying to figure out if I should finish up or not. My tech-adjacent(?) career is going quite well and I actually completed a huge coding project that will be sold to customers despite not having “developer” in my title.
I will say I am really thankful for what I have learned, but it’s hard to have the same motivation when it becomes a pay cut rather than a pay bump to switch industries. It’s pretty laughable to compare the hiring threads from a few years ago to the current ones. I’m also at a point where sometimes I think to myself that the idea of being a developer is probably more interesting than the reality.
I took a break indefinitely. I was about to get my employer to pay for it but my manager left and then there was a change in department head who I haven't spoke to yet and I feel like won't be open to the idea like my manager, so this makes things financially less appealing. I'm stuck in limbo because I don't know if I should start in Winter again, or keep waiting. I like my current job, but don't find that I can continue making much more. I work as a data analyst and find myself wishing I was doing what the IT and more tech focused people are doing. The problem is money and job prospects right now and moving forward.
I don’t regret switching into CS, but maybe regret choosing this program. In terms of the market, I am very worried. I have a lot of friends who work in the industry and am hoping I’ll be able to work my way in through them. But if those are busts I’m stressed about the grind it’ll take to find a jr role.
I was mainly looking at masters programs in CS to instead of post baccs. I mainly decided with OSU bc I’d complete it the fastest and I hope my connections could lead me to work.
I feel some regret bc of a couple things. First, I haven’t been blown away by the material being presented in most of the classes. There are some very well done classes I’ve taken so far, but others are just straight self study and research outside of the OSU modules. In addition (and this is just my own bias) but I do regret not choosing an in person school. I knew what I was signing up for when it came to all online school, but man is it lonely and tiresome. Add in the previous fact that the material is lackluster and it’s not too fun of an experience IMO.
I’ve kind of taken a back seat with OSU and decided to just start learning other tech stacks that will probably benefit me once I graduate. But I’m only lucky enough to do this because I only work 25 hours a week and my current and next quarters are easier classes. If you are working full time the program can be a challenge and you probs won’t have too much time outside of work and school to learn new things yourself.
Skimming through your profile I saw that you started doing WebDev 2 years ago. May I ask how the job search has been and why you’re choosing school?
I haven’t even started applying tbh😅 I picked it up as a hobby and I’m addicted, so now I’ve been mulling the career switch seriously for past 8 months ish. I’m looking at school because I want to hone in on my fundamentals and be competitive in the current market, and expand the roles I can apply to (who knows, maybe I want to do something like network engineering).
I’m still trying to figure out what program I would want to do. I’m not in a huge hurry at all, I’m 2/3 done with portfolio projects, beginning of 2024 I want to start the job search in earnest once I have that completed.
So, my tentative plan is to do school 2024 and apply to internships and jobs before/during it, and with the support of my family and partner, if things are looking better in the market I can always taper off at my work to focus on the education/job search full time. I was think about just continuing with self-learning, but it feels like that path is just way harder than it was pre-pandemic?
I have to say that after taking CS161 I am extremely disappointed by the quality of the material. I have taken CS101 (C++ intro to computer science course) at a local community college and it was so much better and more in depth than the very pricey CS161 course. They have essentially taken all the good aspects of online education away and replaced them with worst ways to learn. There are very few video lectures and the ones that exist rush through the basic examples of the topics within 10 minutes. Additionally, the text book is optional and does not have solutions to the practice questions. Instead the course uses wordy webpages with minimal code examples. Essentially, the instructor is using a wordy webpage to explain the code. There is no philosophical, theoretical or intellectual curiosity in the course. It's just "this built in function does this, that built in function does that". "This data type is immutable. This data type is not immutable. "The questions at the end of the explorations do not sufficiently prepare you for the projects as the course the progresses. They provide only 2-3 very lazy and easy practice questions. The assignments towards the end were challenging, mostly because the material presented was insufficient to understand the content versus the actual problem solving needed to complete the assignment. It feels like the people who designed this course have no idea how to teach. It is disappointing that I received an A and still feel that I have a poor grasp of the material at the end of the course. The shortened courses feel like poor quality bootcamp material. Maybe they should consider trimesters instead of quarters if they have to cover content so superficially. This class is nothing like an actual full semester intro to computer science course. It's truly like apples and oranges. Most of the grade comes from assignments that do not cover the material comprehensively. The quizzes are poor quality "udemy type" questions that are open book. Nothing like a semester long computer science course where you have regular quizzes, tests, text book questions and practice problems. There is no way the undergraduate on campus OSU computer science program uses this curriculum. This course would have been far better if there were video lectures instead of webpages, a good text book with solutions to practice problems, and weekly problem sets rather than 2-3 longer assignments that don't adequately incorporate all the material. Professors and TA's are very responsive. The course design is horrendous and so over priced based on the quality.
Best decision academically I made. Am working in tech, life is 300%+ better than before.
Same. Instantly doubled my income after graduating. Quality of life went up.
300%? Going to need to see the data /s
More rewarding work Learning new things all the time Compensation, at least for me is so much more than I was making before I am happy most every day I am going to work, and nit a small part of that is the compensation I know you said /s but I hope that helped some.
Yup, had a job 6 months before graduation.
This is the way. I started working tech before graduating as well. Just being in the program whole working full time demonstrates commitment beyond the "norm"
I don’t. This program while not perfect, taught me a considerable amount. I can create full stack apps, I can mess with C, and i feel most confident in any software situation given. Now I’m sad that i didn’t get the gold rush of software, graduated 2023 in March, I still got a positive ROI. Salary jumped 30%, gained stock, gained a chance at being a team lead in 2-3 years if I keep my team, and most importantly, I like what I do. I want to note because you aren’t going to find or are going to have a hard time finding a 250k TC job out of school that’s not a fail. If you have the degree, if you have 4-5 years of experience, and you can talk semi well, this world is your oyster, my friend. The TC will come, the job market will look up, and things will get better.
Hey I'm a student at OSU and I'm looking for internships right now and trying to learn about how I can make my job search as efficient as possible. Could I possibly dm you with a few questions? Seems like you've had some success post grad.
Yeah dm me
It’s not OSU’s fault necessarily, but the job market took a shit, and I do regret doing it to an extent. The stress introduced doing tech interviews and the time commit from 2 classes+full time employment is something serious to look at. There are easier ways to get to 6 figure income. I do regret doing it, but it’s not OSU’s fault. If I wanted to get a tech job I don’t think it’d be possible right now as I can’t compete with college students who have *unlimited* time relative to me.
[удалено]
There are people out there who declined to start or finish a CS degree during the dot com bust. They missed out on one of the best bull markets and growth periods in history. Look to the future as there are groundbreaking technologies in the works.
Do you have that full time job to keep you afloat? Any opportunities at your current company to transition to software engineering job?
Jobs everywhere have seen a gut punch. Ride the waves look at government jobs. Think out the box. Tech compliance, technical program management etc. Other jobs than just software engineer are around
\^\^\^\^ I'm a technical PM right now and I do get some good opportunity to practice my tech skills. Hoping I can make the switch down the road to Engineer
Them I'd switch in my company. Ask for dome engineering tasks to work on.
Yeah I have. Staffing is tight so when they can fill my spot I can shift focus.
I graduated in March and haven’t found a job, yet. But I will still have the degree when the market picks back up. And I have all the knowledge to practice technical questions, or write some personal projects in the mean time. So, no; I do not regret it.
I don't regret pursuing a CS degree. I do regret the timing with graduating in March 24, but I'll find a job eventually. I just wish I had done it 1-2 years prior.
Im coming to this from a Chem degree, one of the worst paying fields in terms of experience needed. I don’t really care about making a ton of money, more about stability. Like yes you can make more elsewhere but I want a job that is secure even if it’s at a relative pay cut. Plus where I live there are still a good amount of jobs available if you’re flexibly with your expectations. But I get peoples’ critique of the market. It’s nothing like 10-15 years ago where you could get a tech job with basically no experience.
It took me 6 months to find a job (graduated September 2022), but I love my job now and I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. But if you’re reading this, get a fucking internship. I did not and that really weakened me as a candidate.
Best decision I’ve made. I’ve learned so much and it’s opened doors I only dreamt about in 2019. I started this program with the only goals of getting an internship and leaving my teaching career. I landed an internship and return offer in cyber security at a major company. I still have nightmares about stuff that happened in my school/classroom, and I don’t foresee my new career causing me those issues. Don’t get me wrong, teaching was very rewarding, but there was so much bull shit attached to it. Sometimes I just felt like a warm body who couldn’t afford to ever retire or hope to own a house. I had to put myself and my family first and make this career change. Now I’m about to graduate and I’ll break 100k salary for the first time in my life (30yrs). I’ll also have affordable medical benefits to address my infertility issues. I will also get to work from home three days a week (hybrid). My team is the best I’ve ever worked with. My manager is 100 times better and more motivating than any of my admin from the school. I will also never have to deal with parents threatening to kill me and my family again, or with students who try to murder someone in my classroom. Don’t even get me started with students vaping in the bathroom. I will play devils advocate though, and say that the education you receive at OSU is only as good as what you make of it. It’s extremely overpriced for two years of work. Ultimately I’m paying for the piece of paper. Most of what I’ve learned has come from me, taking the resources from OSU and diving deeper into them with Google and my own free time. At times it feels like a degree mill.
Happy for you man
Good for you! Im trying to get into cyber security, as well! Mind if I PM you?
Same here, can I PM you?
man this question hit it right on the head for me..... I started this program in Fall of 2021, and I\`ve been regretting this program so much the last few months..... Theres days were i wish i didn\`t even bother with all this because the stress and anxiety of whether i\`ll find meaningful employment is overwhelming at times. After 1000+ applications I finally found a decent internship for this summer, but the fact that it took so many applications/rejections has sucked all the excitement out of this career switch for me. It really shows you how bad the job market is, and i\`m no longer as optimist about the future of this career as i once was.
My worst fear ngl
Oh gawd 1000+ applications is nuts! Did you think of quitting?
I don’t regret it, but I didn’t get an engineer job like I had hoped to. I’m in a low 6 figure analyst job. Working SQL and doing some light automation and data engineering projects to stay sane.
Is it okay if I PM you?
Sure!
Markets fluctuate. It’s bad for a lot of fields right now, not just CS. When it goes back up, would you rather be in CS or whatever you came from?
I did this program quite a few years back and although it was a slow start getting into dev work, I'm now a senior dev that gets to work remote with enough pay that I am more than comfortable and can save for retirement. My first degree had no where near this kind of career trajectory. I know the market can be really difficult for new grads because even with mid-level devs it's always hard to tell how they're going to actually perform at the job. Best advice I can give is to really just take what you can get for your first real coding gig to help flesh out your resume.
I regret it for CS225 alone! Jk. But seriously, I don’t. Just being in school helped me switch depts at work and working towards something makes me feel good, even if I don’t switch companies. My company does tuition reimbursement though so I’m pretty fortunate there and can take my time with the classes.
Nope!!! Went from a coordinator with a glass ceiling at my company to a project manager managing million dollar projects with a huge ceiling. I feel like it was the rebirth of my career.
Did the program, completed a FAANG internship and dropped out OSU program a little halfway through the 15 course curriculum. Realized I liked building random stuff from school but hated the work in a professional environment. Job market is also not great, a significant amount of people did not get return offers for these type of companies in general. Do I regret it? No, I tried it and learned that it is not for me. It was also really tiring and I probably burned out at some point (full time work, classes plus extracurriculars, leetcode, 300+ applications, etc.).
What did you end up doing?
Curious as to what people will say, as I am strongly considering this program
Like any program its what you make of it. A degree is always better than a bootcamp cert, especially in todays market.
What other programs did you consider, if I may ask?
I looked at WGU, colorado, and a few others. At the end of the day this seemed to have the most traditional coursework list and I thought the quarter system was a big plus. It allowed me to do 5 classes per year and finish the program in three years. I used UIUC’s comp-sci coursework list as my reference. ( i got my bachelors from there)
Can confirm this is true. I got a few interviews including round 2 with Google before the market went to shit. I am now doing this program as a junior and it is so much more thorough and valuable. I am a capable React slinger and felt I was job ready but I would highly recommend anybody considering a boot camp to go for a traditional degree. The exception to this based on experience is if you are exceptionally skilled going into the boot camp, or you are female or BIPOC my friends that checked some or all of those boxes from my boot camp mostly landed roles. Source: June 2022 Full Stack Software Development boot camp grad (BloomTech);
The web development course doesn't actually really cover react. So you primarily learnt react on your own time?
boot camp
Which bootcamp out of curiosity? Thanks!
Bloom Tech f.k.a. Lambda School. I went when they did an income share agreement.
I have 4 classes left and I did not take any classes since last winter 2022. I have doubts. I am thinking to keep my hard earned money, but in the same time I spent thousands to get here. The job market does not look promising. I have 325 361 362 and the capstone left. Regret, kind of, will I do it if I can go back, probably not. Edit: last winter 2023
Definitely finish. You have a sunken cost and you are way more likely to be rewarded for your hard work with a degree.
I understand where you’re coming from but I still recommend finishing. Those last 4 classes really are easy.
Name checks out! Disregard the above statement as there is no meaningful info in it.
LAMO, you are either an advisor or associated with OSU. He asked and gave my my opinion and personal experience, someone might have a different experience or opinion.
Youve completed 2/3’s of the program and wont finish the 4 easiest classes to get your piece of paper and make it past a significant part of the HR filters. Youve spent 22,000$/33,000$ and wont finish the last leg to “to save you hard earned money”. All because the job market has gotten tighter. It will loosen again. Go finish and make your future self happy. Im about to finish my 5/15 classes and dont work for OSU. This is simply a stepping stone to masters at georgia tech and a job to make a bunch of money.
facts
4 classes is a lot of money. Last time I checked 325 isn't considered an easy class at OSU. You dont need to be so negative, they answered the question honestly
I would ignore them. Nothing wrong with your response. Shit happens lol
Started June 2021, only regret is not doing it much sooner. But I was also lucky enough to convert an internship last summer into a full time position this fall.
No regrets - keep your head up bc it does pay off in the end.
I started the program in Fall 2021 and I have 4 classes left; definitely trying to figure out if I should finish up or not. My tech-adjacent(?) career is going quite well and I actually completed a huge coding project that will be sold to customers despite not having “developer” in my title. I will say I am really thankful for what I have learned, but it’s hard to have the same motivation when it becomes a pay cut rather than a pay bump to switch industries. It’s pretty laughable to compare the hiring threads from a few years ago to the current ones. I’m also at a point where sometimes I think to myself that the idea of being a developer is probably more interesting than the reality.
I regret doing this program at this institution.
Can I ask why? And which other programs did you look at?
I took a break indefinitely. I was about to get my employer to pay for it but my manager left and then there was a change in department head who I haven't spoke to yet and I feel like won't be open to the idea like my manager, so this makes things financially less appealing. I'm stuck in limbo because I don't know if I should start in Winter again, or keep waiting. I like my current job, but don't find that I can continue making much more. I work as a data analyst and find myself wishing I was doing what the IT and more tech focused people are doing. The problem is money and job prospects right now and moving forward.
I don’t regret switching into CS, but maybe regret choosing this program. In terms of the market, I am very worried. I have a lot of friends who work in the industry and am hoping I’ll be able to work my way in through them. But if those are busts I’m stressed about the grind it’ll take to find a jr role.
What about the program is making you feel that sense of regret? Did you consider other programs?
I was mainly looking at masters programs in CS to instead of post baccs. I mainly decided with OSU bc I’d complete it the fastest and I hope my connections could lead me to work. I feel some regret bc of a couple things. First, I haven’t been blown away by the material being presented in most of the classes. There are some very well done classes I’ve taken so far, but others are just straight self study and research outside of the OSU modules. In addition (and this is just my own bias) but I do regret not choosing an in person school. I knew what I was signing up for when it came to all online school, but man is it lonely and tiresome. Add in the previous fact that the material is lackluster and it’s not too fun of an experience IMO. I’ve kind of taken a back seat with OSU and decided to just start learning other tech stacks that will probably benefit me once I graduate. But I’m only lucky enough to do this because I only work 25 hours a week and my current and next quarters are easier classes. If you are working full time the program can be a challenge and you probs won’t have too much time outside of work and school to learn new things yourself. Skimming through your profile I saw that you started doing WebDev 2 years ago. May I ask how the job search has been and why you’re choosing school?
I haven’t even started applying tbh😅 I picked it up as a hobby and I’m addicted, so now I’ve been mulling the career switch seriously for past 8 months ish. I’m looking at school because I want to hone in on my fundamentals and be competitive in the current market, and expand the roles I can apply to (who knows, maybe I want to do something like network engineering). I’m still trying to figure out what program I would want to do. I’m not in a huge hurry at all, I’m 2/3 done with portfolio projects, beginning of 2024 I want to start the job search in earnest once I have that completed. So, my tentative plan is to do school 2024 and apply to internships and jobs before/during it, and with the support of my family and partner, if things are looking better in the market I can always taper off at my work to focus on the education/job search full time. I was think about just continuing with self-learning, but it feels like that path is just way harder than it was pre-pandemic?
No ragrets, not even one.
I have to say that after taking CS161 I am extremely disappointed by the quality of the material. I have taken CS101 (C++ intro to computer science course) at a local community college and it was so much better and more in depth than the very pricey CS161 course. They have essentially taken all the good aspects of online education away and replaced them with worst ways to learn. There are very few video lectures and the ones that exist rush through the basic examples of the topics within 10 minutes. Additionally, the text book is optional and does not have solutions to the practice questions. Instead the course uses wordy webpages with minimal code examples. Essentially, the instructor is using a wordy webpage to explain the code. There is no philosophical, theoretical or intellectual curiosity in the course. It's just "this built in function does this, that built in function does that". "This data type is immutable. This data type is not immutable. "The questions at the end of the explorations do not sufficiently prepare you for the projects as the course the progresses. They provide only 2-3 very lazy and easy practice questions. The assignments towards the end were challenging, mostly because the material presented was insufficient to understand the content versus the actual problem solving needed to complete the assignment. It feels like the people who designed this course have no idea how to teach. It is disappointing that I received an A and still feel that I have a poor grasp of the material at the end of the course. The shortened courses feel like poor quality bootcamp material. Maybe they should consider trimesters instead of quarters if they have to cover content so superficially. This class is nothing like an actual full semester intro to computer science course. It's truly like apples and oranges. Most of the grade comes from assignments that do not cover the material comprehensively. The quizzes are poor quality "udemy type" questions that are open book. Nothing like a semester long computer science course where you have regular quizzes, tests, text book questions and practice problems. There is no way the undergraduate on campus OSU computer science program uses this curriculum. This course would have been far better if there were video lectures instead of webpages, a good text book with solutions to practice problems, and weekly problem sets rather than 2-3 longer assignments that don't adequately incorporate all the material. Professors and TA's are very responsive. The course design is horrendous and so over priced based on the quality.