OMSA Program @ Georgia Tech

This post is about my experience with the OMSA program (Online Masters in Analytics) offered by the Georgia Institute of Technology. I finished the required classes in 2 semesters and plan to enroll in the final practicum in the upcoming semester.

I applied to the program in July 2020 for the Spring 2021 semester. Admission results were announced in October 2020. I was confident of getting into the program given my undergrad in computer science and work experience at Microsoft. No standardized test scores were required in the application process (TOEFL may be required for students with no English background).

Following reasons why I applied to this particular program:

1. Being an international student in the US, having a master's degree helps with visa applications such as H1B.
2. Due to covid induced lockdowns, almost all universities were conducting courses online. Georgia Tech is a veteran in the online teaching domain and has established excellent workflows and curriculum.
3. The total program cost of $10,000 is an attractive point compared to expensive programs such as MIDS offered by UC Berkeley.
4. Flexibility to participate in master's program without giving up full-time software engineering position. You get the best of both worlds since you do not miss out on the opportunity cost of working in the industry.
5. I chose to apply to OMSA program over OMSCS since OMSA includes a practicum component along with the traditional 10 courses each of 3 credits requirement. As an OMSA student, you could take CS classes you are interested in as well as management courses offered by Scheller School of Business. This is a great option for those interested in dabbling in the management space without directly committing to MBA.

There are a total of 10 courses (30 credits) + 1 practicum (6 credits) to be done in the OMSA program. I took 5 courses in my first semester Spring 2021 (Jan-May) and I took 5 remaining courses in my second semester Summer 2021 (May-Aug). The traditional guidance is to take 1–2 courses per semester so an explicit advisor override is needed to enroll in 5 courses. I decided to pursue the Computational Data Analytics track. I opted out of CS 6040 Computing for Data Analytics.

There is no point in rushing to take multiple courses only to perform in average manner across all courses. My recommendation would be to take as many courses as you are comfortable with to balance with work and try to get the highest grade, knowledge, contentment possible. Knowledge to absorb and contentment to reach are difficult metrics to gauge by hence final course grade is a rudimentary alternate to use.

I rate the courses below based on cognitive effort, writing effort and viewing effort.

FIRST SEMESTER SPRING 2021

I enrolled in the following courses (received A in all coures):

1. CS 7642 Reinforcement Learning (Difficult course, heavy writing, long videos)
2. ISYE 6501 Introduction to Analytics (Easy course, weekly assignments, engaging crisp videos)
3. ISYE 6669 Deterministic Optimization (Moderate course, weekly homework, exciting domain)
4. ISYE 6420 Bayesian Statistics (Difficult course, biweekly homework, hard to grasp and follow)
5. CSE 6242 Data and Visual Analytics (Moderate course, intensive coding assignments, lectures not required)

SECOND SEMESTER SUMMER 2021

I enrolled in the following courses (received A in all courses):

1. MGT 8803 Business Fundamentals for Analytics (Difficult course, 4 exams, information dump)
2. MGT 6203 Data Analytics Business (Easiest course, 3 homeworks, least effort)
3. MGT 6311 Digital Marketing (Easy course, weekly reading &writing assignments)
4. ISYE 6740 Computation Data Analytics (Moderate course, intensive coding, mathematical acuity needed)
5. CS 6750 Human-Computer Interaction (Easy course, most writing-intensive course, wrote 100 pages of content)

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions on the overall program or any of its courses. Happy to connect on LinkedIn as well https://www.linkedin.com/in/viswajeeet-b-66a90010b/