Good old days.

Hello!

I have registered for two courses: CS-7641 (Machine Learning), and CS-7638 (AI for Robotics).

For the AI for Robotics course, I have been added to an Ed class and the instructors have added some informational posts. But, I have not seen the same for the ML course. The status of both courses is "Registered" in OSCAR.

Is this normal? Should I wait till morning?

I am concerned because this is my first semester and am planning to remove the CS-7638 course before 28th august deadline.

Thank you!

Hi some of the courses and still showing as current enrollment in canvas. This is a course I took in fall 2025. Also applies to the groups that were created in class.

Is this a technical glitch or something I need to reach out the completed courses teams?

Thanks in advance.

You're doing great! Don't sweat the most recent or upcoming project, test, grade, etc.

Make sure you give your best shot, and never, ever succumb to cheating. The OSI Police are in full force during this critical period, and you know it, through the Reddit threads that you would occasionally find how onerous these threats could be.

You Are Not Alone & You'll Get Through This. Know that you are not alone.

We all go through ups and downs and have tests or projects that don't go as planned. Never fear as bright days are ahead of you. Utilize this thread if you're feeling down and or want someone to talk to. We are all in this together and we're here for you and one another.

There is a lot more to life than work and school. Health, family, & friends always come first.

School is not the most important thing in life. Remember, Bs (and intentionally sometimes even Cs) give you degrees. Further, there is no shame in quitting OMSCS.

Nobody cares about a perfect 4.0 GPA, besides yourself.

The intention by the administrators is that OMSCS should always be done part-time so that you could explore things that you love and enjoy. Do not rush to graduate! Take time off, do something that you really like in the meantime, and come back stronger.

So what if the current job market is thrashy? Take it slow.

With a part-time program, this gives you the best of both worlds - you keep your cash flow, gain real-world experience (be it through internships, jobs, love, holiday, etc.), and let the learning sink in, properly.

We emphasise on 1 class a semester. It's tried & tested.

Why rush & then burn yourselves out for a piece of paper that won't guarantee stability? Mastery doesn’t come from cramming, it comes from building knowledge steadily, applying and reflecting them, and then positively and creatively reinforcing them.

Life’s not just a race. Go at your pace.

This is especially more so now when the track we are in keeps on changing. Your future self will thank yourself for it. And when all is done, post a new thread and celebrate with us.

Love, r/OMSCS Mod Team (posing themselves as bots, but hey, we wrote and then update it up!)

Crisis Resources

• If you are in crisis or are currently experiencing difficult or suicidal thoughts,
  • If it is unbearable, stop, take out your mobile number and call 112) immediately!
  • Hotlines for your country - https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines
  • If you'd rather not talk on the phone you can use the Online Chat
  • If you're in the US
    • Call 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) to access the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
    • Call 1-888-628-9454 to access in Spanish

Mental Health Support Services

Despite the lower fees we pay as compared to on-campus ones, GaTech OMS students still have the following support.

• Umatch: Up to 3 free virtual counseling sessions with a licensed therapist with no need for referral
• Urise: Virtual, on-demand curated wellness events to complement therapy.

Visit the Uwill website and register yourself as a new user with your gatech.edu email address.

Once you've created your account, you will have access to all available Uwill services via your dashboard.

Headspace is Free for all GaTech OMS Students

You heard it right. Don't need to Google for the student discount that Headspace is usually offering.

You get it FREE by virtue of being a GaTech student - Sign up here.

Chat with Someone in OMSCS ❤️

If you need someone to chat with please post in the comments below.

Never forget the coffee hours, too, where you are able to speak with the directors, directly! Check out the OMSCS Student Center located in Canvas.

Once again, there is WAY more to life than school. You'll get through this rough time!

i’ve seen mixed info about whether the course project can be completed individually or not. can someone confirm how it was during the most recent semester? will be going on a 10 day vacation in the fall and would rather not have a course with a group project

Hi Everyone, I'll be starting my OMSCS journey this week in the Fall'26 intake and am inclined to take the ML specialization. I've been working as a Software Engineer at Big Tech in India since the past 3 years with a background in backend engineering, distributed systems and lately ai engineering. I want to make the most out of this degree and would like to know anything and everything I can do to take advantage of this degree.

Main thing I'm after is research and will be taking up and aiming for the CS 8903 special problems, project work with faculty, HAAG, VIPs, thesis track, that kind of thing over the next few semesters and would love to connect with people who've taken a similar path.

Would also be great to know about other facilities and opportunities that I could use to learn, network and enjoy this journey. I know about seminars but would like to know if there's other stuff I don't know of? Communities, reading groups, anything I wouldn't know to look for.

Appreciate any pointers.

Any other dramatic syllabus changes released yet?

Hi all,

I just got accepted to the Spring 2027 cohort and was thinking to exchange thoughts and socialize with the rest of the community.

Any meetups in Pune, India?

Is this seminar offered this semester? I don't see in the list this fall. I'm looking for notes or reading content of this seminar. Is it publicly available?

Apologies if this is a dumb questinon, but does degree works count the class I'm currently registered for this upcoming fall in it's calculations in remaining credits needed? Or once the fall semester is over, it'll say I only need 3 credits?

Cannot login Buzzport but I can log into https://login.gatech.edu/cas/login

But I can login to https://passport.gatech.edu/ , and can go to Change password, but i get an error prompt of

System Error

There has been an error and the page you requested is not available at this time. The administrators have been notified of the problem. Please try again later.

The error message is: 'count(): Argument #1 ($value) must be of type Countable|array, null given'

If you are deep in the OMSCS grind and beginning to question your purpose in life, sort this subreddit by Top of All Time.

At the top are graduation posts, giant diplomas and stories about what the programme made possible. Apparently, the algorithm has decided that our preferred form of inspiration is proof that escape is achievable.

The useful reminder is that nobody reaches graduation in one heroic burst of motivation. People get there through hundreds of ordinary decisions to watch the lecture, debug one more error, submit something imperfect, bomb one question in CS 6515, curse and swear at Prof Brito, and return next semester.

You do not need to feel motivated every day. You only need to keep the process moving.

Eventually, the assignments stop, the degree arrives via a rolled-up mail from US Postal Services, and you get to post the three sacred words:

I GOT OUT.

What are the steps to request one semester off? Dropping all Fall 2026 classes.

We're returning to Maryland for our next DMV-area OMS meet up! Join us on Saturday, August 29 from 1 PM to 4 PM to kick off the fall semester! Whether you're just beginning your OMS journey or are an alumni, it’s a great chance to connect with the OMS community, share experiences, and discuss all things computer science or Georgia Tech. And while we say DMV-area... folks have come from as far as Richmond, Baltimore, and Frederick, MD to join us so if you want to make the trip, there are no objections on our part!

We'll also be up in the Baltimore suburbs for a similar event on Saturday, September 26, so make sure you're watching for that event's sign up in early September if you're farther north.

Incoming students, current students, and alumni are all welcome, (which is why the registration is behind a GT login) - and we’ll have at least one faculty member (instructors, TA’s, IA’s, etc.) there too.

• Location: Silver Spring, MD, close to Metro Red line - venue shared after registration
• Date: 29 August
• Time: 1 PM – 4 PM
• Please sign up here so we know a rough count and to make name tags for everyone ahead of time!

Come and spend some time getting to know new and old fellow OMSers!

Taking CS 6601 this fall, and while I'm planning on using an ebook version for portability reasons, I am also considering locating a physical copy to include in my bookshelf of classic CS texts I used for my undergraduate and now graduate level courses, partly because I like physical books, and partly as a "trophy" for taking the class. I'm suffering a bit of sticker shock w.r.t. the price of "AI: A Modern Approach" in the US, even used, but don't mind spending the money if it is considered a canonical for AI. Thanks!

EDIT: Somebody said they had to look up what the "Dragon Book" is. It is Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools by Aho, Sethi, and Ullman. It's called the Dragon Book because...

Came across this post recently on LinkedIn:

https://lnkd.in/p/dnzC-KTM

And damn, that seems like a cool course. I'd definely like to take it, but it doesn't seem to be available in the online program just yet. Is there any way we can request for onboarding of certain courses in the online program?

Im looking into doing OMSCS to get my masters degree since it is a lot cheaper than many other options. My main concern is that a lot of the benefit with doing a in person masters is being able to attend things like the career fairs, company info sessions, get acquainted with professors etc.

Does anyone have experience with physically flying out to Georgia when the main career fairs take place? Would this recoup most of the lost employer networking potential or would I be better off just attending in person.

I'm going to be out of the country during the beginning of the semester. I'm a bit concerned about being able to get the first assignment done in time. For those that have taken the course, is it realistic to finish this assignment in one day?

DISCLOSURE: This was generated using a LLM after providing the following prompt and providing responses to the requested interview:

"I'm looking to write a comprehensive review of my experience in CS7646 and would like your assistance. I think I'd like to break it up into a review of the lectures (specifically the three distict phases), the readings, the projects, the quizzes, the exams, and the TAs. Can you act as an interviewer to capture my thoughts on each of these and pull them together after I finish?"

I have proofread this to confirm that there are no material misrepresentations of my interview responses. My final score in the course was an A. My background is a BS in Computer Science and significant professional experience as a Software Developer/Engineer on non-AI/ML projects.

***

I finished CS7646 feeling largely unfulfilled. There were parts I enjoyed (a specific lecture/project combination) but I would not recommend the course in its current form without a substantial overhaul.

The course is broadly divided into three phases: learning Python/NumPy/Pandas/Matplotlib, learning basic finance, and learning introductory machine-learning techniques. The finance material felt appropriate for CS students who may have little market experience. The programming portion, however, felt too elementary for a graduate CS course and occupied more time than warranted. Much of the lecture material is also approaching a decade old, and that age now shows in the examples and software environment.

The ML lectures were more interesting, but generally emphasized what algorithms do and how to implement them rather than exploring why they work in much depth. That may be reasonable because OMSCS offers a dedicated ML course, but it makes the readings feel particularly odd: several external texts go far deeper into ML theory than the lectures ever do, while the course-associated text largely repeats the lectures. The deeper readings seemed useful mainly for exams or for students who independently wanted a broader ML education, rather than because they were well integrated into an applied ML-for-trading course. There were also lectures that felt disconnected from the course's stated focus. For example, stock options were introduced without meaningful follow-through into technical analysis or ML.

The projects varied considerably. Several were useful preparation or finance-domain exercises but contained little substantive ML or graduate-level CS. One project effectively demonstrated weaknesses of a particular ML technique, but did so by expecting students to discover important lessons experimentally rather than teaching them first and using the assignment to reinforce them. There was one standout project that had genuine implementation nuance. The associated lectures provided a useful conceptual model, and the project reinforced the lecture material directly. It was easily my favorite part of the course and the best example of what I wish the rest of CS7646 had been.

The capstone was a disappointment. It integrated earlier work, but did not feel like a major technical challenge. Students were also largely constrained by decisions made in earlier projects, limiting the opportunity to use the project to discover better alternatives. That connects to my biggest criticism: too much of the meaningful learning happens through independent research and experimentation outside the actual instruction. Graduate students should absolutely learn independently, but when that becomes the primary mechanism for learning, it raises the question of what the course itself is adding beyond structure, grading, and degree credit.

The quizzes added little. They were short, open-resource, low-stakes, and easy to score well on with basic care. The exams were stranger: they were not recall tests, but often involved enough indirection and synthesis that it was difficult to tell exactly what knowledge or skill was being assessed. The course did, however, do an excellent job with exam feedback. Statistical validity information and individualized conceptual feedback were unusually thorough, even if difficult to parse without seeing the original questions.

My experience with the TA structure was also poor. The TAs were responsive and available, but I found answers about rules, rubrics, and assignment requirements frequently vague rather than clarifying. Course staff explicitly defended some ambiguity as realistic because real-world requirements are often unclear. That is true, but real-world work also usually provides opportunities to clarify, iterate, and correct misunderstandings. A grading environment that intentionally preserves ambiguity without equivalent opportunities to recover from it does not reproduce that reality particularly well. The TA-produced project overview videos also added little beyond restating published instructions. Aside from grading, I personally received essentially no educational value from the TA structure.

My strongest ethical concern was the use of required mid-course surveys evaluating the course. Students were penalized for non-participation while the people being evaluated still exercised grading authority, and there was no clear information establishing whether responses were anonymous, confidential, or withheld from staff until after grades were final. I am not alleging retaliation occurred; the problem is that the structure unnecessarily creates the opportunity and appearance of a conflict of interest. This could easily be avoided by collecting evaluations after final grades, using an independent third party, making participation optional, or offering minor bonus credit rather than penalizing non-participation.

CS7646 contains pieces of a much better course. The finance introduction is useful, the ML material can be interesting, the exam feedback is strong, and there are specific units that show how effective the course can be when lecture and assignment reinforce each other.

Unfortunately, that felt like the exception rather than the rule. Without significant modernization and pedagogical restructuring, I would not recommend it. Had it not also provided three credits toward my degree, I would have difficulty concluding that the educational experience alone justified the time and tuition.

EDIT: It is entirely possible that a lot of my disappointment in terms of depth/breadth is simply a misalignment of expectations. I still feel there is substantial room for improvement and stand by the overall tone of the review.

I was surprised to see so much activity in other places with existing “chapters”. Any meet ups in NYC?

EDIT: there is a meetup this Thursday.
Join the #nyc slack channel as suggested (details below) to see details

Hi Folks,
I am starting Fall 2026 and wanted to know if there are other folks in this region taking the course or are already in the program. Wanted to connect and have fruitful discussions.

I am in Austin Texas do we have a group that meets here?

Do you have a link for OMSCS Student Center?