One Year Later, Graduate Student at Georgia Tech

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. -Lao Tzu
...and can only be taken one step at a time. -Stephen R. Covey

One year ago today, I began a new journey. A new experiment, if you will. Perhaps my most daring and ambitious yet! I realized that my career was going nowhere, and pushing forward with additional effort would only result in modest or questionable gains. If I continued trajectory, I asked myself, "will I be able to live life WITH my family to the fullest? And is it possible to support my family while I'm on this difficult path before I even reach financial stability?"

The alternative was to face the mountain of change in starting a new career. I knew I liked technology (who in their late 20's doesn't?), but was I willing to invest the time and energy to bend it to my will? Ultimately, in order to 1. increase my marketability now, 2. prepare for business ventures in the future, and 3. challenge myself again, I began a new dream: learning Computer Science, and laid out my goals as follows:

Goal 1: I will prepare for a Master's program in Computer Science.
Sub-Goal 1: I will work in IT.

Sub-Goal 2: I will prepare for applying to graduate school.

Then I promptly proceed to kick ass and take names as these goals were crushed in my fists. I'll save you the gory details, but here is The Outline as it stands today:

1. Earn IT certifications.
1. CompTIA A+ Training Birthline: Sunday, May 29
2. CompTIA A+ Training Deadline: Thursday, July 21
3. CompTIA A+ 220-901 Certification Exam: Friday, July 22
4. CompTIA A+ 220-902 Certification Exam: Friday, July 22
5. CompTIA Security+ Training Birthline: Monday, July 25
6. CompTIA Security+ Training Deadline: Sunday, August 14
7. CompTIA Security+ SYO-401 Certification Exam: Monday, August 15
2. Find an entry-level IT job (ideally with exposure to programming).
1. Job Search Birthline: Monday, August 22
2. Job Search Deadline: Monday, January 09, 2017
3. Take pre-requisite courses online while learning programming on the side.
1. Pre-req Birthline: Monday, August 22
2. Pre-req Deadline: Sunday, May 07, 2017
4. Apply to grad school.
1. Application Birthline: Sunday, February 12, 2017
2. Application Deadline: Sunday, March 12, 2017
5. Increase professional programming experience.
1. Fall 2017
6. Get Master's degree.
1. Program Birthline: Fall 2017
2. Program Deadline: Spring 2020
7. Profit.
1. 2020

After applying to three graduate school programs and thus reaching Goal 1, I'm surprised but excited to announce that I was accepted into ALL THREE! Somehow my crazy plan for programs to mitomeru me actually worked, with only 287* days of preparation (*ending on my application date). If I were a betting man, I would wager that doing well in targeted undergraduate courses and getting work experience in a technical field were likely the biggest factors in my acceptance, which would seem to justify my initial goals. Then came the difficult part: between Towson, Johns Hopkins (JHU), and Georgia Tech (GT), I had my pick of the litter.

As Towson was my safety school, this left JHU and GT. On the one hand, JHU is a highly-recognized (and highly-priced) institution that offers a large variety of in-person and online courses. On the other hand, GT has an unbeatable tuition cost of less than $7,000 and includes the latest in online course technology. This was not an easy decision, and I consulted current students of both programs to see how they compared. Well, there were spoilers in the title of this post: I chose the Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) program at Georgia Institute of Technology.

In support of GT:

• The program is among the top-10 in the nation (#9 U.S. News & World-Report, #5 THE World University Rankings)
• The university is reputable and well-recognized in the engineering field, providing valuable degrees
• The OMSCS program is accredited and utilizes cutting-edge tech, in order to maintain GT's strong reputation
• The estimated $6,600 tuition is not "too good to be true;" it's kept low to attract a wider applicant pool and to drive revenue indirectly, and the program can scale easier than traditional programs by using automation
• The online courses are of higher quality and more challenging than traditional online colleges, inspired by the MOOC platform to successfully merge theory with hands-on experience, providing plenty of feedback and support to students along the way
• OMSCS has a global presence and alumni community with supportive and enthusiastic students, rather than being centered in just one location
• From GT's website: "The College of Computing's goal is to have the OMS CS program reflect the on campus MS CS program. Thus, the OMS CS degree is designed to be on par with degrees received in traditional on-campus settings. The curriculum in the OMS CS program represents a subset of the on-campus curriculum, allowing for a full MS in computer science but with only some of the specializations available in the on-campus program. The OMS CS curriculum will expand as more courses come online."

Of course, this exercise was also intended to bring awareness to what I would be sacrificing by not choosing JHU:

• The name is universally recognized, especially when it comes to a career in healthcare
• The online and in-person courses number around 100 (over 3x as many as GT)
• It has a strong local alumni network that can be leveraged for future jobs in my area

Starting in August, I'll be taking online courses through Udacity for graduate credit at Georgia Tech. Until then, I'm brushing up on my programming skills and reviewing what I've learned through my undergrad courses at UMUC. This blog has only just begun!