Now, i’m studying in the faculty of journalism and Mass communication for bachelor’s degree. But also interested about coding and computing science stuff, My question is "Is the certification in Freecodecamp can be used to apply to the Master’s Degree ? or Is there any advice for applying for Coding and Computer science stuff in Master’s Degree in case for people who are new for coding but they are interested in it ?
I have about 2 years before i graduated in bachelor’s degree. My question is "is 2 years enough for Amateur coding level or Intemidate coding level ? ".
These questions might be stupid because i’m kinda new in here, so i’m sorry about that.
Thanks for all advice!!
An FCC certification is just a piece of paper that says you have completed our self-guided, self-evaluated program. I don’t think it is worth that much, other than for a student to track their progress and have a sense of accomplishment. Don’t get me wrong - I was very proud when I got my certs. I included them on my resume. But I don’t think it “got me the job”.
So, I don’t think that a Master’s program is going to care too much about FCC certificates. I don’t know, maybe a tiny bit. But to get into a Master’s program, they expect you to have the base knowledge of a Bachelor’s degree. There is a lot of information in the Bachelor’s degree. There is a lot of information there that isn’t included in FCC. CS is a different (but overlapping) field of knowledge from web dev. There are a lot of things in CS that aren’t in FCC - they just aren’t very relevant to web dev.
I would talk to the Master’s program. They will have their own policies. When I went to grad school, I had to take an entrance exam, even though it was the same school, the same teachers. I would talk to the Master’s program directly and see what they say.
This is all just my opinion and conjecture. Get the real answer from the horse’s mouth - talk to the Master’s program.
In an abstract sense, sure, in that you have some knowledge, but it isn’t a certification, it doesn’t give any particular advantage when applying.
An Ma is necessary for a small set of jobs. For software, it’s not at all, and CS/Software Master’s are generally aimed at people changing career (or realising their undergraduate degree wasn’t what they wanted). So a way to add those skills without doing another Ba/BSc/BEng. In general, if you look at any given CS-related Ma prospectus, they aren’t normally at a higher level than undergraduate courses in terms of what’s taught, it’s just highly condensed and often somewhat cursory. This is a broad generalisation, but CS undergraduate to CS Ma doesn’t seem a super common path unless going into academia, and the courses tend reflect this – they start with basics, often assuming no background in the subject (or at least very little). So obviously it will help greatly to be able to demonstrate competency but it’s not essential: your Ba is the key thing here.
Edit: Same basic caveat as above: I’m talking in generalisations and specific universities will be different. And also strong caveat that I’m the son of a lecturer and inherited a lot of [extreme] cynicism about Ma programs from him, and they’re not always deserving of that cynicism, particularly as people get out what they put in.
Thank for the advice!
I just don’t want to get another Ba because I don’t think i have that much time
(I meant people usually studies in Ba for 4 years), so the idea for studying Ma came up because of my time condition.
and I see that there are a Pre-master course. is it worth ?
A masters program will generally require you to take any missing prerequisite coursework, so you’ll essentially take the CS bachelor degree courses, but often students in masters programs will be charged more.
Honestly, this is a situation where a second bachelors would be better and cheaper. You have two years left in your current degree; you could also change focus.
@ArielLeslie will likely have thoughts on this exact situation.
I wasn’t speaking about FCC’s advertisements or buzz. I was talking about my experience.
And just to be clear, I was saying that I don’t think that the certifications got me the job, the piece of paper. But the things that I learned and the projects I built while getting the certifications - that is what contributed heavily to me getting the job. So, I’m saying that I don’t think the piece of paper is worth a lot, but the information I got while earning it was invaliable.
I do find the “most people are able to find a job even before they finish Free Code Camp’s Front End Development certification” to be an odd statement. I’d have to know more about the context and the data on which that is based, but that definitely contradicts my perception. Granted, that was written 5 years ago and I wasn’t looking at the job market then, but that still sounds like a stretch. But 5 years is a long time in tech. But ultimately if you want an explanation for that statement, you’ll have to ask the person that wrote it. I don’t write PR, I just like volunteering my time to help people with coding problems.
I’ve heard of a few of these cases where people get a job that quickly, but not many. I don’t think that getting 80% though the front end section and nothing else is enough to reasonably expect to get a job. I tell people that after they finish the front end section they might start applying, but I advise to keep on, finish the backend section, the spend time building some fullstack projects and keep leaning.
Honestly, you are right and I respect your experience. And I think you are one of the most freeCodeCamp community leaders who help us solve coding problems and give people motivation.
If you are 2 years into a 4 year degree and considering changing to Computer Science, then I strongly recommend changing your undergraduate major instead of planning on graduate school. If your current field of study is completely unrelated, then this might result in taking an extra year to complete your bachelor’s. Even in that case, I think it’s probably a better investment of your time and money.
