Comments on: Harvard Online Master’s Degree

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 01:57:06 +0000

That probably depends a lot on your academic background. I wouldn’t say that it was easy. You’ll have to invest considerable time to complete the projects, but if you can meet the prerequisites it is probably doable.

By: Vassil Apostolowski

Vassil Apostolowski — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:37:24 +0000

IS it too demanding? you had to keep a very good GPA? how did you do it?

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:29:51 +0000

The program I did required 40 credit hours. Each course was 4 hours and cost between $1500 to $2000. Undergraduate courses are much less expensive.

By: Vassil Apostolowski

Vassil Apostolowski — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:19:42 +0000

Thank you for the info Mark. I just want it to ask you a question, how much does each course cost? do they charge per credit or class (master’s)? Thank you again for your time.
Best Regards
Vassil

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:26:04 +0000

There are some very good reasons for including a residency requirement if you are a school worried about maintaining a high academic standard.

By: carianin

carianin — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:25:15 +0000

Online degrees should not have residency requirements

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:53:22 +0000

Most of my classes were $1,600 for a 4 credit hour class. With 10 classes this comes to $16,000. I think the price is now closer to $1,800, but it may vary from class to class. The furnished apartment I stayed in during the summer semester was around $2,000 per month and we stayed there for 2 months. Books varied, but lets say $50 per class on average so there is another $500. Then we had food and transportation. Overall I it cost $20,000 to $25,000. It would probably be toward the higher end of that range today because some of the courses have gone up. However, if you look you may be able to find significantly cheaper housing–particularly if you are single.

By: Bojan

Bojan — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:35:51 +0000

Hi Mark,
Great article, and you have a point that we need the constant education, we have to evolve every day so to speak…
Would you be so kind to give a breakdown of total costs?
Thanks!

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:51:40 +0000

TC - If you want to see what classes I took, take a look at this post. In it I covered the details of each class. Keep in mind that there is a lot of freedom to choose courses so you can tailor things to your needs. At the time I was doing a lot of work with networks so I took quite a few courses in that area.

By: TC

TC — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:18:34 +0000

Hi,

Other than the diploma, would you mind let us taking a look on the transcript? Because I think it is more important.

Thanks!

By: Harvard Online Master’s Degree in Software Engineering

Harvard Online Master’s Degree in Software Engineering — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:58:15 +0000

[...] year. Most of my classes were taken online. I’ve written about what it was like getting an online degree, but I wanted to write up something a bit more focused on programmers who are looking at possibly [...]

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:09:39 +0000

I’m not as familiar with the Digital Media concentration. My concentration was software engineering. Keep in mind that what is difficult or easy for you will depend significantly on your background and previous experience.

Also, some of the classes are as difficult as you make them. Many classes that I took has a lot of leeway in what we did as our final project. I chose some very interesting projects as final projects which required a lot more work, but helped me learn the material at a much deeper level than I would have with an easier project.

I looked over the Digital Media concentration and it doesn’t look like there is any overlap between the classes you have available and the ones I took. It appears that there are some shared electives, but they are ones that I didn’t take.

You might check out: http://extensionstudent.com/ There are a number of current and past students that participate there and discuss classes and events related to the Extension School.

By: javajoe

javajoe — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 16:49:08 +0000

I was wondering which classes you took and what you thought of each of them individually. Or better yet is there an online site that describes what the students think of the class, professor, topic, workload, etc.
I am in my second term at Harvard exten. Digital Media Alm. I am having a hard time clearly identifying the hard classes from the easy ones. Any advise?

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:27:47 +0000

Thanks for the write-up. There are some pretty interesting online programs from some of the best liberal arts in the country. Getting a degree from Harvard online probably takes the cake. Hopefully you will be respected by your Harvard grad peers as that may be the most valuable part of the degree. Networking with alum that is. Thats a nice feature that they make you spend one section at the school, probably a fun summer.

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 19:42:26 +0000

A certificate is to a masters degree as an associates degree is to a bachelors. Well not exactly, but that is probably in the right ball park. I’d see if you can get a certificate on your way toward getting a masters degree. That will give you two things to put on your resume and if you don’t complete the masters you’ll at least have something.

Keep in mind that what is a “weed out class” for one person may not be for someone else. If you look carefully at the required classes and maybe take some preparatory class at another school before starting at Harvard, you should probably be ok if you are willing to work hard.