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Ask HN: Affordable online university for a 32 year old wanting to go back?

by tsingy on 1/14/23, 12:09 PM with 1 comments

Hi, I'm 32 and after studying programming on and off for the past 3 months I realized I love this and feel excitement again in learning and building things. The problem? All the cool stuff are really technical (looking at you Chat GPT and Stable Diffusion), with lots of prerequisites that I do not have. So I decided after discussing with my fiancée that I will be going back to university to study either Computer Science or Mathematics (which I always wanted to be more knowledgeable about but never really had time to invest in). The goal is to get into machine learning before I turn 40. I'm now looking for an online university, hence the question. It would be really helpful and if anyone has attempted something like this please speak up and share your experience. I found The Open University (https://www.open.ac.uk/) that seems good but want some reviews. Also it has to be online and in English so I can study from Madagascar to keep my COL as low as possible. Bonus point if it can be accelerated.

  • by brudgers on 1/14/23, 4:11 PM

    Western Governor's University is the generic HN answer.

    Comp Sci: https://www.wgu.edu/online-it-degrees/computer-science.html

    It offers Math Education Degrees, but not straight up math.

    But, one of my opinions is the really technical stuff is almost certain to require more commitment than an online degree.

    Another of my opinions is the way to learn machine learning is to learn machine learning and pick up what you refer to as "prerequisites" as needed along the way.

    A third of my opinions is taking classes in person works better for a lot of people...because who you know is important and learning communities are important. Hence your local community college might be the best option.

    Good luck.