Hello, Tristan
Everybody, wants to say hi and where they're from, where they're from, where they're
Where they're connecting from, that's always fun to do in the chat window
thanks
Chicago, Saskatoon, Tampa, Portugal
Siberia, here we go
San Francisco, Netherlands, Kolkata,  Philippines, ah, Kazakhstan
Moscow, Morocco, New York -- excellent
And New Jersey exit 117 do not zoom while you're driving. Pull over
and
place the car in park.
Australia, some folks are what logging in super late
Well there's still plenty of time here
okay, we're halfway to breaking Zoom
halfway
The goal is to break Zoom today
It is John's goal.
Let's see. If you go ahead and enable everybody's video stream will that do it?
Bogota, welcome.
Okay, so it looks like we're at 2:52, um shall we give people a couple more minutes or do, we want to start?
Okay, let's do a couple more minutes
Christie can, you send me the link please so I can start answering, some of the questions
Yes.
I think, you should have gotten your own link Viveka.
Let me see if i can
So I think Christine will mention this in a little, while but
We'll use chat for to get everybody logged in and see where everybody's
calling in from and then the questions go into the q&a section so make sure you, don't, ask questions in the chat box.
 
And so i'm going to answer live all of these questions from
People saying they're from Atlanta and Chicago
There we go.
Okay. Okay.
We're at 278 attendees and yes
We are all muted. Somebody has a baby with them and you can let that baby cry, as much issue here she wants to cry
Because i believe all the participants are muted. Yes they are. And babies are welcome.
Okay, there's Viveka.
Okay. Okay, very good, so we're at
11:04 Central Time.
Justin asks if we can see the attendance and no we can only see the the names of people in the chat window
We can't see anybody through your webcam so rest assured. Right.
No, we can't see you?
Okay, great. So um we're five minutes after, let's go ahead and just get started and people will filter in and
so as John mentioned let's go ahead and do quick introductions first of all um
So John and Viveka do you, want to go ahead and introduce yourselves and then i'll go ahead after sure
Welcome everybody, my name is John Hart and i'm a professor and the director of online and professional programs
in the Department of Computer Science here at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Good morning, everyone. My, name is Viveka Kudaligama
and i'm the coordinator for computer science graduate programs. Okay, great. Um, good morning, everyone.
My, name is Christine Martinez and I'm an academic advisor with MCS-DS and so how
we're gonna go ahead and start start off. I'm going to go ahead and share a slide deck to give a brief overview
Of how the program works, and what are the requirements and some frequently asked questions
And then after that we'll go ahead and answer some questions or answer your questions that you will drop into the q&a
Drop into the q&a not into the chat box please
So i'll go ahead and start the slide
And please let me know, when you can see it. Yeah, I can see it. Perfect.
Okay, and then John do you, want to go ahead and just address these slides as we go? You an Viveka? Yeah. Okay, perfect.
Then moving on to the first slide. Yes welcome everybody, and thanks for your interest in
in our online MCS program, we have a Master's of Computer Science degree
and
We started that, we rolled that out as a um
With a focused track in data science that's called, MCS-DS and
So the MCS-DS is a Master of Computer Science degree in Data Science
Meaning you get a, you get the degree of Master of Computer Science, which is our professional degree that we've offered for
decades
But through a, focused track of classes and that focuses on data sciences
And we are now rolling out additional classes beyond our data sciences track of classes so that you can get the
Master of Computer Science now in a broad
Range of areas across a broad
Array of topics
Some focused in data science but, some focused outside of data science. So for data science
The courses that even focus, on would be data mining, data
Visualization, machine learning, and cloud computing
And then you can, take, some additional classes
But you would have at least four courses in those four core areas of data science
And it would satisfy the requirements for the Master of Computer Science. We also
[clears throat] Excuse me. We also
are our offering
new courses in the coming year. Courses in software engineering in
Parallel programming and in numerical computing,  scientific computing
and and other classes
Programming languages and so on. So other areas of computer science that, that work, alongside data sciences
That are broader and you know into other areas of
Of computing, like, high performance computing a parallel programming and so on
So i just wanted to start out
By, making that distinction you can
Still get the same MCS-DS degree. It's just a Master of Computer Science that you're satisfying with data science classes
Your degree will be MCS the Master of Computer Science but if you if you satisfy
The degree with
with those particular
Classes from that focused core of data science classes then
You got an MCS-DS and you can list an MCS-DS
or an MCS data science on your resumes and LinkedIN and everything else but if you, want to, if you
Want to focus on some other area of computer science beyond data science then the entire array of classes for a Master of Computer
Science is available for you now
good
So what are we looking for in our applicants?
We get a wide array of applicants?
The Master of Computer Science has been offered for you know for quite awhile now we've offered it online since the 90s
and
Largely our audience for this degree has been computer scientist so a
Student would get a bachelor's degree in computer science and then they would get a master's degree in computer science and that's a
Professional to create it consists of coursework and its
Graduate level course work on top of a bachelor's degree in computer science
Now, we are finding an increasing number of students that want to add a master of computer science on top of a
Bachelor's degree in some other discipline so we get a lot of other engineering students that
want to work in what's called computational science or computational
Engineering, where you're using
Computer science and an engineering discipline
We have an upcoming, scientific computing classes, numerical
Computing class that's really focused on that and so we get a lot of applicants that, went to add an MCS
On top of an engineering degree or an MCS on top of a science degree to do computational science to use computing and data
For a particular scientific discipline like chemistry or
Or biology. We also have a
We have students that are coming in from the humanities and the arts
Tom Siebel, we're right now sitting in the Siebel Center for Computer Science. Tom Siebel started up Siebel Systems a
major, database system for
connecting with people and
employees and managing connections and the
Tom Siebel got his bachelor's degree in history and
Then he added on top of that a uh master's degree in computer science
So, and as, well as an MBA. So we're starting to see people use an MCS similar to how you
Use an MBA or a law
Degree where you get a degree in some discipline and then you have the MCS
On top of that the same way that would add an MBA on top of a disciplinary degree
So we're open to that and we've been getting a lot of applications a lot of successful
MCS students taking that route and
we will
Look, for all of
We'll welcome those applications and that's a perfectly good use of the MCS in addition to being a professional
Capstone degree for somebody
That's working in computer science directly
If you're, coming to us with a degree not in computer science or not in a computing related area
Like computer engineering or software engineering you have a bachelor's degree in some other area of science
Engineering, humanities, the arts or any other area
we have to have certain prerequisites for those degrees and
So, you'll need to know some programming because, you'll be taking graduate courses in computer science and we are a top program
And these courses are considerable so you need to come them with some programming experience
That programming experience needs to be data structures that's a key prerequisite for us, we have a
Course here at Illinois called CS225 and you can, google UIUC and then CS225
and find that course that's our data structures course
In order to get into this program you at least need to have that because all of our graduate level classes
List data structures as a
necessary prerequisite so
You have to have a class in data structures and hopefully you've already taken a class in data
structures for our grade and it's on your transcript when, you apply and you'll check the box on the application
that says data structures and then you'll enter the name of the course the number of the course
when you took, the course
Where you took the course and the grade you got from that course i just put them in the little text box on the
Application and we'll check that off for you
If you haven't taken a data structures class then i'd encourage you to take
Some programming classes, take a data structures class at a community college or
online or
In some manner it's its strongest if you can
Take, these classes for a grade in some transcript double matter that's, that is the strongest
Way you can represent your computer science knowledge on your application if you don't have a degree in computing already
In addition the data structures it's helpful to have, some experience with algorithms and
object-oriented programming
Typically students will have taken a class that's used c++ or java and if you haven't had c++ or java it's it's
Useful to have some experience with
One of those programming languages those are production
software engineer programming languages
Almost everybody, has some experience with the scripting language, like python or r
It's helpful to know one of those object-oriented production languages like c++ or java
Typically, we like to see students have at least two or three computer science classes that they've taken
You know usually it's an introductory a programming course and a data structures course it's really helpful if you've taken
Some you know upper level
Undergraduate course in computer science and you have a grade to show with that
If you, have that then
That can, be that can be really helpful to show. How. You'll perform
Taking graduate level classes here at the University of Illinois so all of that is really helpful if you if you've got
If you've got that make sure to put that on your application
In addition to that programming background, where
The degree is a master's degree a
Master's Degree of Computer Science and so you have to have a bachelor's degree in order to get a master's degree
graduate degrees are focused
Bachelor's degrees are often multidisciplinary and we have to have that
Representation of bachelor's degree knowledge in order to confer a master's degree
and
Typically, we look for a GPA of 3.2. Or higher on a 4.0. Scale
If your GPA is calculated differently at another institution, we have formulas that will convert it to a. 4.0 scale
And we look at the last two years of your GPA and especially
We look at your grades in your computer science classes
So the grades are important in those classes and more time to look at. Those, also, we use a holistic
Method for evaluating
Applications, we don't just look
At that specific individual items we look at the application as a whole and so there may be additional materials that that you have
And we will consider everything, we can in order to
Admit you into the program but at the same time
We want to make sure that if we admit you that you have everything you need in order to be able to succeed
in our graduate classes to complete the degree
and then finally
For many of our classes it's good to have linear algebra, and some basic statistics and our probability class
and we have some additional statistics and probability classes as well but linear algebra specially is
Is important for for many of our computer science classes so we look for that as, well anything to end
okay
Back slide Christine, Okay?
so before we go to the next slide and just real quickly don't forget to submit your questions in the QA and
Also, the recording link
For this, webinar will be sent out to everybody who registered
Okay, next slide great so the applications requirement there is a application
And if you click the apply now it will take it'll take you directly to the application
I believe this webinar is intended for domestic students that are applying and those students, would pay $70 for the application
International students that would have bz considerations have to be a little bit extra for that processing, so that's $90 and
That those fees are
Required to pay for the processing of the applications and so we can't consider any of the applications without
Without that application, fee being paid
On the application the most important thing to have in your application is the application itself make
Sure you fill out every single
Text box for your background and data structures and algorithms and
Object-oriented programming and linear algebra and statistics and probability, we'll be looking at those very carefully, and make sure you've uploaded your transcripts
You can upload an unofficial copy of your transcripts for your application, and then if you're admitted and then we will need your official
Transcripts uploaded in that first semester
So, and make sure that when you upload your unofficial
Scan of your transcripts that it's legible i've seen some
Applications, where the transcript is so tiny and the resolution so poor that
We weren't able to fully evaluate that so make sure it doesn't have to be ridiculously
High resolution just make, sure it's legible that you can read all of the elements there
There are standardized tests that you can, take the GRE and the GMAT and so on it's great if you take, those but
We did not require those over any of our graduate programs
We don't require those for the MCS or the master's degree or our PHD Program
and
The, same love letters are recommending, we use letter for letters of recommendation a lot for our PHD
program, when we're matching students up with advisors but for the MCS it's a course, worth program here it consists of eight courses
that are kind of a capstone a graduate capstone professional degree
You, don't write a thesis. You, don't work directly with an advisor and there's no pairing with an advisor
So for the for the MCS will considerable as a lens recommendation but they're not required
The letters of recommendation are helpful if you've taken you know if you don't have coursework in an area and you want to use some
Some work
That you've done in an area
In general that doesn't it's not very helpful to have only that it's much better to have
Coursework in data structures and algorithms and objectivity programming but if you do want to list
Some work that you've done for that in lieu of a course then it's it's
It will help if you have a letter of recommendation from a manager that can speak specifically to your work, done object during
Their program in their data structures and so on?
But that's that usually isn't as helpful as if you have a course a graded
transcript of all course of the
Area and then a statement of purpose and a resume are always helpful refer to those
if we have any questions on the applications
I do want to add a little bit
So the webinar is for domestic students but, we have in our student population many students autistic students but
Who may have completed there for example undergraduate degrees outside the United States
So if you are
one of those potential applicants you
there are some ways to request an exemption from standardized tests because you would be
required otherwise to
Submit scores depending on when your
Education completed so there are there are details that are kind of very clearly in there if you have questions please let, us know
We just to bring to your attention that some of the domestic students may need to provide some extra documentation
yeah
And then one thing to add about the transcripts in addition to them being, you know, legible and clear
Just make sure that the institution's name it is
Is listed on the transcript and your confirmed agree conferral date is listed as
Well at all making sure that information is on there will help expedite
Things a little bit difficult it and also one other thing of the grading scale
Yes, before the grading scale, we need, to see what classes you have taken and what grades were earned and
What the grading scale that your institution used so you can find it sometimes in the back of the transcript page or
Sometimes it comes as a separate page at the end of the end of the transcript
some institutions overseas institutions
Would provide great sheets or mark sheets for example
From India you would see mark sheets and those are acceptable as as long as we can see the scale
Okay, I think that is all we have for these slides i'm going to go ahead and advance it
How much talk about tuition effective financial aid that yeah so
Tuition is for the MCS-DS track and also the the general MCS program is
$600 per credit hours so if you take one class which is four credit hours it's going to be
$2,400 for that course and
That counts up to $19,200  for a total of 32 credit hours
There is there are some additional fees that you would
directly page works for sarah because you are you taking the courses on their platform and
There's, also, some additional fees for the classes that would have exams for proctored exams all our exams are proctored
So that we can?
show integrity of the exam process
So there are some additional fees that you would interpret that information we will show
A link at the end of this slide, but the details
For financial aid appearances this is for domestic students
This is an accredited program
it's accredited, by the higher learning commission and
You are eligible to apply for federal financial aid and you can
Do that by completing the FAFSA forms there is a link on this slide, where you can go on our website
website to get those details
The department does not offer
Assistantships research or teaching assistantships to students in our online programs in any of our online programs
Including the data science track and the overall comprehensive Masters of Computer Science program so
But then there are, also so the going, back getting to the next bullet point
So there are several of our students, who are sponsored by there
For example employers there there can be tuition reimbursement programs that can be outright
financial aid programs
So if you are able to receive that type of assistance there is a
Process where your employer or the sponsor can be likely
Pay your tuition bill to the university
So that it doesn't have to go through you or
It could be that you would have to be leavers at the end of the term and if you
Do, want to be part of this third-party billing process there's some more information again
For which the link is provided there
No, I think -- I think you are aware fine i'll just emphasize that we do not have
Any financial aid or scholarships
Or assistantships that are available for students in this program
and
Part of our ability to offer this program to a much broader
Cohort of learners to be able to get the Masters of Science or Computer Science degree especially in this format
We haven't been able to extend any of that
Tuition waivers or anything like that to to students in this program it depends on the tuition dollars nothing to be able to run
the program
and
It's also very affordable it's under $20,000 and tuition
With a few extra
Additional fees you have to pay for the individual MOOCS they take, along with the courses and so the
Videos are on the Coursera format and MOOC format and so that's similar the
Lectures that you would go to for a class and so there's about $160 for each class
In MOOC fees that you pay on top of the
$2,400 per class that's
$600 per credit hour in each classes for credit us as long and
Then there's this proctoring fees and a few other, some cloud computing fees if you, use additional cloud computing resources
so
It's a small amount of fees on top of the
$19,200 but altogether a much more affordable than our students are paying to get this degree on campus for example
And also much more flexible you're paying by the credit hour so that if you need to take a break
and
take your
Hope, you're taking classes and then something comes up at work or something comes up at home and you need to take a semester off
Or the couple semesters off you don't have to pay a thing if you take these classes if you're
Non-campus students you would still have to pay tuition even for those
Semesters that you were missing or taking off so
we try to keep the the price of the degree program' fixed and
So the total tuition is under
$20,000 and so if you're not taking classes you don't have to pay if you decide not to take classes for a semester
Just send us a note because you'd like to keep track of all of our students making sure everybody's making progress degree
And so that's that's useful but. You won't be charged anything for that semester
Okay, what would go moved in the next slide christine
There we go great?
And there's some some links the program website the the quick link to that is
cs.Illinois.edu/mcs-ds
and that gives us -- and then you can apply
by
Going to MCS-DS/appy we're in the process of broadening the degree to a full
MCS beyond data sciences but we're, still, using that -DS link
So that will that will always work but you can, use that link even if you
Want the regular MCS instead of a data science focus
And then you can, check on your application. Through the
Link there and you can look, for financial aid we have a financial
Aid office here the department doesn't provide any financial aid the university there might be some programs
That that website will point you to but really your best chance at a scholarship or financial aid is
Is to kind of is the take a look
At your employer your state in the organizations you belong to they have financial
Aid available for you for that the website there can help I'll point you to those but
There won't be anything available directly through the university it's often printing you have those
Organizations and there are opportunities for financial aid that are independent so
I see somebody, ask the question, any financial aid in the chat room one that should go in the Q&A box but you
There is financial aid available
not through the university but independently
College loans and other opportunities let me, also mention that the Master of Computer Science that
We offer online is a Master of Computer Science degree there's no distinction upon the theme online it means the same
Requirements as our on-campus
Degree the classes meet the same requirements as our on-campus classes do the taught by the same professors
From you know from the same set of requirements
With that said the MCS that we offer online is also accredited, by the HLC
And that makes it eligible for financial aid the same as
Our Master of Computer Science on campus so there's no barriers to financial aid we just don't need to
We just don't offer any financial, aid for this program through the university, there's there's nothing available directly through the university put that
Okay, great so that concludes the slides I'm going to go ahead and stop sharing
We did get some
Questions submitted and advance so if we could just
Maybe go through, these first and then start addressing the questions that have been dropped in the Q&A
Okay, okay, so first question
And you briefly touched on this already, but the question
Is what is the difference between the masters of between this Master of CS and a Master of Science of CS
A very good question so
Those are both master's degrees the Master of Computer Science is a professional degree it's a course
where faced degree and
it consists of eight courses and the degree
Screen, went black and I think we're, still transmitting and so
That means that
You come in you take your classes and you graduate we've got students graduating in just a
Couple of weeks here i think it's the next week they'll
Be I'll be here when you graduate with this degree you are more than welcome to come to campus and walk for your
For your diploma and you get a degree that says Master of Computer Science
From the University of Illinois it won't say online or anything like that
online and on campus
And mixed modes are all different ways we teach but
We're all teaching the same thing so that's a Master of Computer Science a Master's Science degree is the same number of courses
Except some of those courses are
Considered thesis research and you're paired up with an advisor and you have to do research which being estimates some
some new
contribution to the state of the art and
That's a very difficult program to get into you have to have research experience
the
Professor's will go through each application individually and look for students to work with on those things and so
It takes generally longer to get a Masters of Science degree
It's harder to get into you have to have research experience
And that's because
You're, going to have to work with an advisor and advance the state of the art with that said
We have Masters of Computer Science students advancing the state of the art and there's nothing to keep you from you know
Publishing papers and doing
Any of these things but for the Master of Computer Science is designed for professional preparation
And so the focus of that is coursework
some of the courses that we have one of the courses is a capstone and
You're not required to take a capstone but
We offer capstone's currently in cloud computing and in data mining so if you take two of the data mining
classes or two of the cloud computing classes then you satisfied the prerequisites for a capstone and
the capstone project is
It's not writing a thesis but basically
it's reading groups for
Four papers at the state-of-the-art in that particular area and then you make
Presentations of those papers that other students can benefit from in your class and so you're leading
And presenting the most up-to-date state-of-the-art
Cutting-edge work in cooperating or data mining and also completing a project in data mining or cloud computing
So, so those options are available to you
- to bring you up to speed into the state-of-the-art
But that's the difference between the Masters of Computer Science and a Masters of Science I will also say that
When you have a Master's of Computer Science most those people tend to take that degree
And then work in industry treating that degree as terminal
You ca, always get a PHD if you
Typically a student will get a Masters of Science degree and then can go on and get a PHD
Students can get a phd they can, they can apply for and be accepted into the PHD
Program without a Masters of Science degree so you, don't need, a master's degree to apply for a PHD
And if you get an Master of Computer Science degree you can
Always later on go for a. PHD and apply for a PHD and get a PHD so there's nothing to
Prevent you from doing that but the Master of Computer Science doesn't really help you towards applying for the phd because you're not making
You're not writing a thesis, you're not getting that research experience so the Master's of Computer Science doesn't have that research component
It's just based on the same coursework but doesn't have that research or thesis writing component to it
Great very good. Thank you, John. Let's see next question
Are the material of the course is completely similar to the one taught on campus or is it simplified version
For it to be on the online experience yeah it is not simplified
Our online courses are taught at the same levels our on-campus courses, we have some of our professors have
Offered the same exams to our online students and on-campus students. And we've seen the same performance from the students
And in many of the cases, we are teaching the classes concurrently, so that the students can
Help, each other out
With that said
We have some differences in focus areas all of our online classes meet the same requirements as our on-campus classes
But for example the MCS in Data Science
On campus, we might offer a class that is in general distributed computing or would offer an online
Through the data science track
That that class is offering us cloud computing concepts. And that's because we're teaching distributed computing but we're
Focusing all the exercises on cloud computing examples so there are differences between classes both
We offer the same, we may offer the same class on campus in two different forms we offer
Classes in different forms focusing on different things online and on campus it's unfairly up to the instructor
but they are all taught at the same level and
you know
We also have our on-campus classes available videos from our on-campus
Classes available to students that and their online students have referred to that to make sure that
What they're being taught in their online class is the same as the on-campus class
You're, welcome to sit in on any of our classes but
The students that have done that verified that we're teaching the same material in all of our classes
Okay, great
Next question how much interactions will be offered needed by the course so i guess how
Much interaction is available yeah
so
Even for our on-campus classes I would teach a class of 200 students the students who show up i would lecture they rarely
Ask a question they go back to their dorm rooms you know, whatever they're doing and then they'd
As, a bunch of questions on piazza, but the same is true for our online students so our online
Students will watch a video
The videos are in MOOC format so they're broken up into little 5-15 minute segments and so you can you can
Grab a segment, while you're commuting to work or you can binge watch the whole week's worth of lectures over a weekend
afternoon
designed to focus on particular
elements of the class and
And then there's opportunity to discuss the material with the TAs, the instructor, and other
Other classmates and we actually encouraged a lot of discussion between classmates both in our on-campus classes
And in our online classes there's a lot of peer to peer learning that's that's been shown, to be really helpful for learning
And so there's that interaction plus each of our class will have
sets of office hours
And we try to offer the office hours at different times of day because we've got people all over the world: Australia
Siberia and everywhere and so we
we try to offer the office hours at various times of the day and  night
For students to come in and ask the instructor or the TAs
Specific questions about the material and so there's that level of interaction as well
Okay, great all right. I'm going to go ahead and jump into the Q&A
forum
Let's see first question is there a tuition break for Illinois residents
So the good thing is in the online programs there's no tuition differential
regardless on where
Sorry regardless of where where you are a resident of it is the same $600 per credit hour
tuition assessment
Okay
Great but it is a very manageable
Tuition rate compared to what our on-campus students will pay
And even compared to some of the tuition rates that our previous online students have been exists
Yep so know what our students are paying the lowest rate we offer for this program so
Everybody else we designed this program to try to keep the costs as low
As possible so there's there's no differentials. Okay, while in Illinois
You know one if you're enrolled in this program you are a University of Illinois student the same as anybody else
So you have access to campus to the libraries if you are in Illinois and you want to come visit campus
You can, take advantage of student discounts and everything else if you're enrolled in this program and that's true of everybody
Okay, great. Okay next question how long will a session take so perhaps that's how
long is a class the duration of the class
We offer our classes on the same semester timetable as our on-campus classes and in many cases some of our classes will be offered
Concurrently with our on-campus classes
And there's interaction between the on-campus students and the online students
That's been helpful for both in other cases they're they're separated
And we're offering a separate section on mine and maybe offering it a different time of that class on campus
But it's always on a semester timetable so there's a fall, semester that's the ten, weeks long a spring
Semester that's 15 weeks long and then a, summer term that's about 12 weeks long, we offer classes and all three of those terms
Let me also say that in the summer, we have fewer classes that are offered
So it's something take into
Consideration as you're mapping out what classes the date that you've got fewer classes offered in the summer than than the fall in the spring
And also I noticed in teaching classes in the summer that
Many students actually go on vacation
Have family vacations and other work breaks and so that's often a really good time to take a break from your studies
And to focus on the hall in the spring but in some of our cases the data
Visualization class for example is only offered in the summer and so there's opportunity to take that
Let me also
Add that all of our classes are offered at least once per year so that you can
Complete the degree in as little as one year
But you need to map off the classes between the fall semester the spring semester of the summer job
Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, next question
By anonymous attendee the BS degree that I have received
From the university that is nationally accredited not regionally accredited, will i be disqualified from admission
From MCS online program
from the U of I
Because question, yeah please so it is the graduate college does require regional accreditation
While it is not
Completely ruled out in the past, we have had students who came from
Nationally accredited institutions for denied admissions by the graduate college
Okay
Okay, oh can i use mathematica for machine learning and data science
That depends. So I believe currently
Our machine learning class our client machine learning class has been
The assignments have been in R and I think there's python versions of these so in general no
In the past, also the there's been you know. People have used mathematica matlab
But we've look, we've largely switched to python for many of our segments there so those tools are good
But for many of the assignments
For this many students one of the important things is for us to for our
Teaching assistants not to spend all of their time grading, we want our teaching assistants to be spending time helping you complete your
Assignments giving you advice and not grading so, we have to be very rigid on the assignments that we had so
In many cases you have to use a particular programming language that the class is using or
Particular infrastructure that the class is using to hand in the assignments so you're free to use
Mathematica and it's a great way to learn a lot of areas of data science and machine learning but for the assignments
You may not it may be the case that you won't be able to use mathematica for that particular site
We try to be as flexible as we can but
We, also, want to make sure that we're, using the
teaching resources we have
As best we can and if we have an open-ended assignment where you can, use any language at all it tends to
Occupy a lot of teaching assistant time, and that's less, time they have to help you
Okay, thank you, John. Next question. Do I explicitly need a four-year undergrad degree to qualify i have a
Three year degree a three-year comp sci diploma at the college level and work experience would this be fine
it depends on the degree
The grad college website has some information on this do anything more specific
Yes so if you, go to the graduate college website and search for your for the country
Where your bachelor's degree is awarded then you can check the
Requirements there are some countries from where three-year degrees may be accepted and he
Also said that you a post graduate diploma
Suppose graduate diplomas can be considered if they are awarded by a
Creditor these critical universities or colleges if they will offer it by
general private
Agency or an institution then those will not be considered so if
There are nuances in answering this question
You can also look at the graduate college website to see if your three-year degree is approved
Perfect. Thank you, Viveka. Next question should iIhave data structures course in my undergrad degree is this a requirement
Yes, data structures itself is a requirement it's best if you've taken it as a
As a credit bearing graded transcripted course so it appears on your transcripts if you've taken it in your undergrad that's great
If you haven't you can, take into the community college or you can, take it through another online program
It's always helpful to show a transcripted graded version of that course because, we not only look that you've taken the course but we're
Also, want to make sure that you've got a
Good grade in that course we look at grades as, well as the fact that you've taken classes
and making sure you can, get through the computer science graduate level coursework
You can, also take the take it as a MOOC sequence there are
San diego at Stanford and Duke and others
offer
Data data structures classes as a
Specialization sequence of MOOCS and so you can take that and we will consider that it's not as strong as
Having grade on the transcript, because the
specialization sequences don't result in in
Actual, letter grade it's just a binary pasture that so
So that's an option if you, do that make sure you get a
Certificate that you've completed the course and include the url for that certificate for your completion of that course in your
Application material and the text box of your data structures
If you, use data structures at work you can
You can, mention that but that is an uphill battle it's better to be able to show. Proficiency
With an academic course that
shows that we've got comprehensive
Coverage of all the data structures instead of just a few data structures you have no prevented
So that's that that's been a strong requirement, we need to make sure that you've got
Coverage of all the basic fundamentals of computer science to make sure you can get through those graduate classes
Okay, very good. So I know, we have quite a few people from Illinois
and Matt Sweeney is asking does this program accepted employee tuition waiver for the University of Illinois at Chicago
employees
That's the first time we've gotten that question
Yes it does so the tuition that is assessed, by the university will be under the employee of benefits
but the other fees and
Other fees that you would that a student needs to pay closer and the proctoring fees those are not assessed
By the university and will have to be born out of poverty, yes
Yeah, so so
$19,200  in tuition
We would be eligible for that employee program the additional couple hundred dollars per class
proctor
Okay great
Let's see Lina is wondering
The course area link doesn't have the curriculum for the Master of Computer Science where can i get a list of the courses
So for MCS the list of course is not yet posted to our website
But the list of courses for MCS-DS is available on the MCS-DS website yep
It'll be rolling courses out. Through, through the year
So if you, go to the MCS-DS you'll see the list of courses that
We have available in addition to that some of the courses that will be rolling out this year of course in guerrilla programming
Of course in software engineering
I believe of course in programming languages and of course in scientific computing
And there's even more in the works that will rolling out
great
Andrew is asking, I've read you can start the program through Coursera before officially being accepted can i get more details about this process
sure
so for example our data mining courses and our cloud computing courses were
Developed based on the MOOCS that are part of the data mining and cloud computing
specialization sequences available on the Coursera platform
so the lectures
Are used for those MOOCS and there's some you know
Some assignments and quizzes that
Experience is similar to auditing of course the basically sitting in on a course so you can
Just show up on campus and you can come into a classroom and listen to a lecture
if you want
And that's the experience you you get from a MOOC there are some some assignments that are peer graded or auto graded
That are kind of day-to-day assignments but
Not the level of projects of proctored exams that would require for credit so you can
Certainly see the lectures that, we'll be using for the classes and you can
Use some of the day-to-day assignments the week to week assignments in those MOOCS to make
Sure they you know you can understand the material enough to succeed in the program if you then
Take the class for credit you don't have to sit through all that video again. You've got the you know
So you classic and if you've already been through all the video
But you, would still need to complete the class projects the programming projects, and take the proctored exams
So there's a pathway that you can you can try the MOOCS online
Before taking the class for credit for most students if you you know
It's a good pathway if you're not sure you can handle the material that's a
Big way of listening for the lectures to make sure that the level that
That you feel comfortable with
For most students it's always best just to take the class and to see the lectures at the same time
Maybe doing the projects that but it's the best way to learn if possible but
Both options are available to you great thank you john the next question I think should address a lot of the questions coming through
And it's with regards to GPA
Does GPA criteria really affect the selection procedure given I have almost four years of it industry experience so maybe, we can
Address the minimum required GPA by the graduate college and then what is the threshold for incoming MCS students. Sure
so
we've posted a
GPA of 3.2or higher for an admissions but you know, we use a holistic admissions processwe will consider everything
Including GPA. If your GPA fell below
You know that's your four-year GPA, we the graduate college specifically looks at
Your GPA in the last two years of your classes we're
Going to look very closely at your grades in your computer science classes so we look at the whole application
With that said you know, we are a
Top-five program in computer science and we get a lot of applications we're only able to admit a quarter to a third of the
Applicants that we get
but sometimes
You know there are surprises that
students
You know felt that their application wasn't a strong but it actually was strong and we found something that
We found very interesting in the application project. You did
a
Particular sequence of course is a thirst for knowledge the things that
We look for when we're planning for a student the main
Criterion we're looking for is success that you get the tools you need to be able to succeed in those eight classes
For your Master's degree in Computer Science and be able to take that degree
And the your great performance in prior classes in computer science especially taking the
Senior level computer science classes at undergraduate level is a really good indicator of your ability to get through those
graduate level classes
Great so you have a lot of questions with respect to how. These courses
How students sign up for courses how student how
The courses are related to the MOOCS on Coursera and Coursera specializations so maybe you can just talk about
how you have to apply to the program
How you know, okay great, yeah, yeah thanks Christine so the MOOCS on the
On the coursera platform are the lectures from our classes and those are open enrollment anybody can. Take those
We've put them out there, we have an obligation to educate the world
To the extent we can and the Coursera platform is a great way for us to do that
In addition to that if you, if you, want a
Master's degree in Computer Science you have to apply for the degree then make sure you have the necessary
prerequisites a bachelor's degree and so on and then we're offering these courses for
university credit for conferring
Accredited university credit for these lab courses and so that means in addition to the lectures that you get on the Coursera platform
there are programming projects
And other assessments there are
comprehensive examinations that are proctored
and the proctored through an online proctoring service and
And you know and you can give a
Transcripted grade and that leads to a degree so and part of getting through those assignments
those additional assignments and examinations is
is the advice and interactions and
Lessons that you learn from the teaching assistants and from the instructors through the interactions on the
Discussion groups and in office hours so those are available to help
You get through the additional material you need, but those are only available to students that are admitted to the degree program
Perfect. Thank you, John and this one I'm gonna
Ask iIm gonna put out there because i think it's kind of funny. Kevin, Kevin says: Hi I'm an old person he's 36
Been in the industry for a long time, well i fit in this crowd, what's the average, age in this program
interesting
On campus, we have a lot of students not all but, we have a lot of students that are of course
College-age students 18 to 22 and then our graduate students
It's a much greater span, but you know students in their 20s our online programs
We have a much wider range of students i don't have the
Demographics in front of me but I think 36 might be younger than our average student
very good thank you
Let's see ah
How frequently can candidates re-apply if not admitted the first time
You can re-apply and as often as you want
we try to give feedback, we can't
Given the number of applications we do we can't give personalized feedback for every application
but
If you, don't get in it's best not to send the exact, same application
if you, send the same application in
You'll get the same answer back you should look at the prerequisites the questions that were asking and making sure that you've got
Transcripted course credit for each of those courses that we're looking for in data structures and
After doing the programming and algorithms and linear algebra and
probability and statistics
So sort of trying to try to
Improve your application, each time you re-submit it
It's not just a roll over the dice the I want to go back to Kevin though
Kevin said he was working in industry and
One of the other opportunities you have in this program is Slack and so in addition to
individual course discussion groups, we have a discussion group of all of our MCS
Majors in this and these are amazing discussion groups because, we get students posting all sorts of interesting
Anecdotes and information about the computing industry
on these
discussion groups somebody, said I'm 22, so I'm a dinosaur i
Think I think I think 30 I think 36 was under the average, age looking to chat room so
Are part of the beauty of this program is the interaction we're seeing from the students in this program through that Slack
Discussion group a wide variety of opinions the students get very close to each other they form their own little project
groups
And discussion groups and so on a lot of really useful information there and across the whole world across all the age groups and
Across people with computing backgrounds as well as other disciplinary backgrounds it's a it's a great place to
Go, for advice and and find you know. Any other information you want to about the
about computing in general
Okay, great so that brings us to the end of the hour
Do, we want to answer one more we good I mean there's one more let's see?
there is a question on here
Let's give this a, stab how, does this program different or better than the, Georgia Tech
program so yeah, we designed this program with Georgia Tech so
Georgia Tech and in the University of Illinois are in communication with each other all the time we are more interested in having
Degrees in this format based on scalable MOOC delivery of the information through the
video lessons
Being able to offer and also asynchronously so you can work ahead and of course arbitrarily far ahead
To be able to make time if you need to take some time away
From the course in the middle of course we're, more interested in making that work than in competing with each other
so we're cheering Georgia Tech on, Georgia Tech's cheering us on
We have some different emphases in our degrees and we started our degree out with the strong emphasis and data sciences and a building out
With our departmental strengths and high performance computing
Software engineering parallel programming and scientific computing and programming languages
And and so you should take a look at each of the programs and how they're offered
and
And make a decision based on that
Okay, great.
So, I think that concludes this webinar, again, the recording will be sent out to everybody
Who registered so expect that within a day or two it'll come from the same email where you were sent the invitation to register
So thank you everyone for your time. Thanks you, John and Vivkea. I'll go ahead and end this and everybody have a great day
Thanks, Christine
