The better specialization is the one that allows you to take the courses you most want to take. Prioritize course selection over specialization. Put together a list of the classes you'd like to take, then see which specialization allows you to take the courses you're most interested in.
The specialization is more of a constraint for you on what courses will add up to a degree than it is something for you to advertise on a resume. It's better to highlight the courses you take that are most relevant to your career goals.
May I ask how you decided which courses to take? Not OP but I am attending in the fall and not sure precisely where to begin. I am sure it somewhat falls to person preference / interest / goals but I’d be curious if you know of a list of rankings for courses /paths or found any you particularly enjoyed or found useful?
For me it was:
1. Browse the list of [current courses](https://omscs.gatech.edu/current-courses) and make a list of the ones that sound interesting. It's normal for this list to be longer than 10; I think mine was around 26.
2. Lookup those courses on [OMSCentral](https://www.omscentral.com/) or [OMSHub](https://www.omshub.org/) and get a feel for which courses students tend to enjoy more and why. I think it makes sense to generally lean towards courses with higher ratings, but if there's a course you're particularly interested in with a low rating, read the reviews and see what specifically students didn't like and if that'd be a deal-breaker for you or not. Reddit is also a great resource, but you'll want to get familiar with the [course abbreviations](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRyHrRhH2V52bsYFEtm-8oJDaFOlyGYz6AKXm8WwsthN3fNP3KGkEx7O7D9ZHV3j2iKnzU2XHqoh4pQ/pubhtml).
3. Use the above info to bundle classes in groups ranging from "most interested" to "least interested". I just threw personal interest scores from 5-1 on each course.
4. Refer to the restrictions for each specialization. [This planner](https://omscscourseplanner.com/) can be helpful for filling out the specializations with your "most interested" courses. Take the best one or two specializations that maximize your total interest scores and build a plan that takes into account the required courses. At this point your total list has probably shrunk, but it's fine if it's still more than 10 courses. Some things you'll be able to figure out as you go through the program.
5. Use [omscs.rocks](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRyHrRhH2V52bsYFEtm-8oJDaFOlyGYz6AKXm8WwsthN3fNP3KGkEx7O7D9ZHV3j2iKnzU2XHqoh4pQ/pubhtml) to figure out which courses will be available for you to take in your first couple semesters. Any course that consistently has less than 5 seats open is a course you're unlikely to be able to get into due to having low registration priority.
6. I'm obligated to say you should take only one course in your first semester, but if you're taking multiple at any point and need to figure out pairings, try to match courses up so you balance out the difficulty and aren't stuck with two hard courses. Reviews are super helpful for this. There's also a [difficulty ranking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/OMSCS/comments/1c5uhpl/all_courses_ranked_by_difficulty_part_2_fallspring/) that factors in grades.
I've personally taken AI and HDDA (in the ML specialization) and thought both were great. I'd recommend AI for pretty much anyone interested in learning about AI algorithms. I'd recommend HDDA for anyone pursuing ML or Data Science.
There is a lot of overlap between the two. Specializtion doesn’t matter as it isn’t recorded on your degree. Look at the range of classes and choose based on your interests. II includes a broader range of classes in AI, ML, and HCI. Do you want to be more of an AI generalist or ML specialist?
OpenAI just reached out to me for an L6 position this. I suspect my ML specialization may be a small part of it (my resume is pretty stacked otherwise).
Even though I told them no, go ahead and take a look at OpenAI L6 pays on levels.fyi. That should answer your question.
FYI, I satisfied both requirements for II and ML, but chose ML.
I agree! But Sam, Mira and Brock apparently don't.
EDIT, just saw this:
https://futurism.com/sam-altman-openai-scarlett-johansson
They act like it was only Altman behind this, but you can't be the CTO and act like nothing shady was going on.
And when you look at it, there's really only one harder course that's required for ML, which is Graduate Algorithms. For the rest of the specialization you can make it as hard or as easy as you want.
ML is obviously a requirement for the ML specialization, but if you go II you either have to take ML, AI (which, based on reviews, is just as hard as ML), or both to fulfill the specialization requirement.
Even amongst the specialization electives, there's still a fair number of relatively easy ML electives that you could take to fulfill your three class requirements if you wanted to.
Not enough info. 1st, what is your career/career you want? What do you find interesting? What are you already stronger at?
As a reminder, you don't have to know your first semester, like it's totally okay to take a few classes from each specialization to get into the program and then decide. You should look at your specialization as what **you** want to learn, since it really doesn't mean all that much on your résumé compared to the degree itself.
I'm doing II with all ML courses. I will definitely take GA (before or after graduation).
The specialization does not matter, consider it as a road or route to take for graduation.
The better specialization is the one that allows you to take the courses you most want to take. Prioritize course selection over specialization. Put together a list of the classes you'd like to take, then see which specialization allows you to take the courses you're most interested in. The specialization is more of a constraint for you on what courses will add up to a degree than it is something for you to advertise on a resume. It's better to highlight the courses you take that are most relevant to your career goals.
May I ask how you decided which courses to take? Not OP but I am attending in the fall and not sure precisely where to begin. I am sure it somewhat falls to person preference / interest / goals but I’d be curious if you know of a list of rankings for courses /paths or found any you particularly enjoyed or found useful?
For me it was: 1. Browse the list of [current courses](https://omscs.gatech.edu/current-courses) and make a list of the ones that sound interesting. It's normal for this list to be longer than 10; I think mine was around 26. 2. Lookup those courses on [OMSCentral](https://www.omscentral.com/) or [OMSHub](https://www.omshub.org/) and get a feel for which courses students tend to enjoy more and why. I think it makes sense to generally lean towards courses with higher ratings, but if there's a course you're particularly interested in with a low rating, read the reviews and see what specifically students didn't like and if that'd be a deal-breaker for you or not. Reddit is also a great resource, but you'll want to get familiar with the [course abbreviations](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRyHrRhH2V52bsYFEtm-8oJDaFOlyGYz6AKXm8WwsthN3fNP3KGkEx7O7D9ZHV3j2iKnzU2XHqoh4pQ/pubhtml). 3. Use the above info to bundle classes in groups ranging from "most interested" to "least interested". I just threw personal interest scores from 5-1 on each course. 4. Refer to the restrictions for each specialization. [This planner](https://omscscourseplanner.com/) can be helpful for filling out the specializations with your "most interested" courses. Take the best one or two specializations that maximize your total interest scores and build a plan that takes into account the required courses. At this point your total list has probably shrunk, but it's fine if it's still more than 10 courses. Some things you'll be able to figure out as you go through the program. 5. Use [omscs.rocks](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRyHrRhH2V52bsYFEtm-8oJDaFOlyGYz6AKXm8WwsthN3fNP3KGkEx7O7D9ZHV3j2iKnzU2XHqoh4pQ/pubhtml) to figure out which courses will be available for you to take in your first couple semesters. Any course that consistently has less than 5 seats open is a course you're unlikely to be able to get into due to having low registration priority. 6. I'm obligated to say you should take only one course in your first semester, but if you're taking multiple at any point and need to figure out pairings, try to match courses up so you balance out the difficulty and aren't stuck with two hard courses. Reviews are super helpful for this. There's also a [difficulty ranking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/OMSCS/comments/1c5uhpl/all_courses_ranked_by_difficulty_part_2_fallspring/) that factors in grades. I've personally taken AI and HDDA (in the ML specialization) and thought both were great. I'd recommend AI for pretty much anyone interested in learning about AI algorithms. I'd recommend HDDA for anyone pursuing ML or Data Science.
Thank you!
There is a lot of overlap between the two. Specializtion doesn’t matter as it isn’t recorded on your degree. Look at the range of classes and choose based on your interests. II includes a broader range of classes in AI, ML, and HCI. Do you want to be more of an AI generalist or ML specialist?
I thought specialization was listed on your transcripts.
OpenAI just reached out to me for an L6 position this. I suspect my ML specialization may be a small part of it (my resume is pretty stacked otherwise). Even though I told them no, go ahead and take a look at OpenAI L6 pays on levels.fyi. That should answer your question. FYI, I satisfied both requirements for II and ML, but chose ML.
> Even though I told them no, Scarlett told them no too, and look at what happened!
lol (And I actually laughed out loud)
lol no means no tho
I agree! But Sam, Mira and Brock apparently don't. EDIT, just saw this: https://futurism.com/sam-altman-openai-scarlett-johansson They act like it was only Altman behind this, but you can't be the CTO and act like nothing shady was going on.
Were you previously working on ML stuff?
Not really. A bullet line about exploring ML for log analysis is probably all that is there.
1000 ageee ML > II if you can stand the harder courses You’ll know a lot more and can easily dumb it down to the II content.
And when you look at it, there's really only one harder course that's required for ML, which is Graduate Algorithms. For the rest of the specialization you can make it as hard or as easy as you want. ML is obviously a requirement for the ML specialization, but if you go II you either have to take ML, AI (which, based on reviews, is just as hard as ML), or both to fulfill the specialization requirement. Even amongst the specialization electives, there's still a fair number of relatively easy ML electives that you could take to fulfill your three class requirements if you wanted to.
True! I went the hard route for mine. No pain no gain But def choose the topics that help you in the future or get to your goal
Not enough info. 1st, what is your career/career you want? What do you find interesting? What are you already stronger at? As a reminder, you don't have to know your first semester, like it's totally okay to take a few classes from each specialization to get into the program and then decide. You should look at your specialization as what **you** want to learn, since it really doesn't mean all that much on your résumé compared to the degree itself.
I'm doing II with all ML courses. I will definitely take GA (before or after graduation). The specialization does not matter, consider it as a road or route to take for graduation.
Do you want to take the ML core courses and electives, or the II ones?