Can an old dog learn new tricks? Do new graduate-level educational models offer a chance to answer that question?

I'm going Back to School...but unlike the 1986 documentary starting Rodney Dangerfield, I'm not doing it to shadow my college child (who needs no such encouragement). I've been accepted to the graduate Computer Science program at Georgia Tech.

I won't be moving either. GTech is the first top-10 graduate school to offer a full master's degree in computer science online. Other schools have put courses online (MIT, Stanford, etc.), but Georgia Tech started last year actually admitting students and granting credit for an exclusively online program. As soon as it was announced, I knew this would be a game changer. The entire Master's program costs 1/10th of one year of what I'll be paying for my daughter's top-tier college. It is indeed a brave new world.

I already have a master's degree (Engineering in Operations Research), and as I explained on my application, I don't need this to get a promotion at work. I'm doing it because...well, I actually like learning. And part of me wants to know if I still can. Shesh, there are other students literally half my age. Can my brain still work, or is too full of junk?

As part of the application (www.omscs.gatech.edu), I had to create a "Statement of Purpose detailing your academic and research goals as well as career plans. Include your reasons for choosing the College of Computing as opposed to other programs and/or other universities." Perhaps this this statement will resonate with some of the "old dogs" out there:

There are three main reasons I am applying to the OMSCS program at Georgia Tech.



First and foremost, I want to learn, regardless of immediate practical benefit. I have a deep and lifelong fascination with computer science. Of course, software development and managing developers has been my profession, but the science and progress of computing has been my hobby. And while reading and "playing" with new tools and technologies is interesting, without the motivation of specific measurable goals, tests, and collaboration it's like my gym membership - sporadic participation with the danger of a gradual erosion of skills.



Second, while I don't need an MSCS to get a job, new approaches and techniques will help me do my career better. It's one thing to develop software (or lead developers) for industry. But to push the boundaries of innovation requires deeper background and growing knowledge. My career progress has afforded me the opportunity to "jump back" to the things that attracted me to the field in the first place - solving novel and complex problems.



As to career plans, I'm ready to leave the corporate track and jump back into the entrepreneurial. But the continual explosion of computing power has reset the tools and the scale of what is possible. I was doing Big Data (decision system, warehousing) before it was cool, but the distributed model has completely changed what counts as "big". AI for a while was a dead-end, but the growth of knowledge-based systems and data scale has resulted in solutions to problems that were thought near impossible - facial recognition, autonomous navigation, machine translation and so on. This is where I want to be as I start the next phase of my career.



Lastly, I want to be part of this radical experiment in online education. As soon as Georgia Tech and Udacity announced this OMSCS program, I knew this would be the game changer. Other Universities - some decent ones even - have put courseware online. But this is the first program to boldly put not just a degree program online but a top-tier graduate degree program at a model-bending price. I believe this is the future of education in a connected world, and to be part of the pioneers is an amazing opportunity.



To the extent there's a "typical" OMSCS student, I'm probably not it. I'm not taking courses to get a pay raise or to put a cap on an undergrad degree. But that's why this program and the way it is delivered is so amazing. It scales so that graduate-level education isn't limited to the young and foolish, but can extend to the seasoned professional and lifelong learner. Thank you for your consideration.