I began OMSA in Fall of 2020. I moved slowly — only one class per semester, skipping summers. I worked throughout my degree, so it was always a “nights and weekends” affair.
I started working on the degree unmarried, and ended married. I started the degree in one job, and switched twice prior to finishing. I started with one dog, and ended with two. I started without any kids, and ended with one. As it often does, “life” happened over the span of the three years I spent chasing the degree.
When I began, my job was already in data. My Chief Analytics Officer wrote a recommendation letter. One year out of undergrad and only knowing the treadmill of academic achievement up until that point, OMSA seemed like the next step. I found the material interesting. I thought it could be useful to have academic courses teaching material, and a professional outlet to use those skills — reinforcing each other, ideally.
I was excited to start the program. I felt that it would help further my career, qualifying me for more technical roles. I didn’t know exactly what “title” I was after. I still don’t; rather, I know the rough ratio of “doing work that makes my brain feel good” to “doing work that makes my brain hurt”. It seemed like the degree could help me do more of what I wanted, and less of what I didn’t.
Within one year of the program, this excitement started to fade.
First — I had received a promotion, and also jumped to a new job. As close as I could tell, I had the “title” I wanted. I was making more money, and most importantly I was doing more of the work I liked, and less of the work I didn’t. The degree didn’t play into me getting the role — rather, my experience had. So the necessity of the degree started to fade. The question of “Why am I doing this?” became common, and the answer increasingly was “sunk cost” — every semester was a little closer to completing the degree, so I didn’t want to lose that cumulative effort. Vanity, too, played a role. I wanted a higher degree.
Writing this now, I have finished the last course. I have to complete a practicum to graduate, but feel confident in that course being a good experience. The effort, time, and cost will pay off — at least in the sense that I will have the degree.
So what is OMSA?
Quantitatively, it is exceptional value — low cost, high prestige, high rigor. Qualitatively, it has all the shortcomings of a remote education environment, but can fall back on an unspoken(?) agreement of graduate programs to make up for it: a successful student will swim, all others will sink. The faculty ranges from passionate to checked-out. Material from cutting-edge to dated. Most of the latter (in both categories) can be avoided with a little work in navigating the course library. Georgia Tech seems committed to reworking disliked classes, though progress is understandably slow.
For me, I will take joy in the degree. It is an accomplishment, a marker of long hours spent on mostly-enjoyed studies. It is something to point to in my career — evidence of a technically rigorous body of work, signed off by one of the better institutions in the US.
But the biggest take away — time is not infinite. Progress is a function of cumulative effort. I spent a lot of effort on this degree; I’m not sure in my own case that the progress is commensurate.
My case is not supposed to be universal, nor negative. If you want the degree, and think it will be positive — go for it! There’s a lot of great students, TAs, and Professors involved that will make it worthwhile. But do understand that everything is a trade off. A large time commitment, like any rigorous graduate program is, means you will make sacrifices. Just make sure that the benefit, however that is defined, is worth it.
