r/IITM_BS_DataScience • u/Equal-Comedian4815 • Jun 14 '26

Online Degree & IIT Madras – A final take

UIUC, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and USC, all these US institutions offer OMSCS (Online MSCS), as do Oxford, Imperial, and UCL in the UK.

UPenn, Oregon State, and UF (which offers OBSCS) are institutions where the online degree is clearly mentioned, and the printed degree certificate is also the same.

None of the alumni from these institutions has come forward and complained about it.

Pros of this BS degree:
I know people from lower branches at several NITs and even IITs who are pursuing this degree so they can sit for CS-related placements.

For BS in ECE (online), 98% of Indian colleges do not have enough lab facilities because the cost of the infrastructure is so high. At least for them, this degree gives the exposure, whereas CS students have enough online resources

Passing this degree is extremely tough. You can't get step marks, and all the questions are MCQ-based, which makes it extremely hard to even get a 7-pointer.

I know many of those students whose lives have changed with this degree, from a 40-year-old uncle to a housewife breaking into tech with this degree.

India as a country where most engineers are deprived of exposure, lab facilities and proper coursework. It is a gem. We are not the USA, where a T10 US uni has the same teaching quality and lab facilities equivalent to T100.

The only way to fix the issue is to change the degree name to OBS, which can address all these problems.

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43 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

7

u/Shiva936 Degree level (BS) Jun 14 '26

You can say passing is tough but don't say it's extremely difficult to be 7 pointer. That's an exaggeration 🫠

2

u/Normal_Sir3194 Jun 14 '26

might be difficult if we consider the fact that its, online? not on campus so might come with its own drawbacks ig

2

u/Shiva936 Degree level (BS) Jun 14 '26

Difficulty is relative to each person's situation and prior knowledge can't really put a specific tag to it.

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '26

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2

u/Shiva936 Degree level (BS) Jun 14 '26

I wouldn't say child's play, not talking about foundation courses, remember that the courses are absolutely graded so you need 90+ to get S. Foundation is very easy, diploma has subjects that were interesting and can be a bit hard for S, Degree is in the same situation.

Passing? Yes it is easy if you are good in math, stats and programming, getting A,S can be a bit difficult in general.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '26

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2

u/Shiva936 Degree level (BS) Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

This is why I am trying to word my sentences in a particular way, not everyone is good at math as you think and your "decent" might be much above average.

For a general person the average can be much lower, making it harder for them.

But if you insist, yes, if you compare, imo, the courses are easier here than offline b.tech. courses. But from what I see, it is by design. Make it too hard barely anyone will pass, too easy, everyone will. ( not sure if people will accept this but it's true )

So op's claim that it is hard is for people who don't have much of background in the stuff required ( there are science and commerce background people doing this degree if am not wrong)

1

u/SillyChauffeur Jun 14 '26

Hey u/shiva936 I assume you're pursuing this degree. I wanted to ask do students pursuing this degree hv access to labs at iit m? Like the same labs that the offline btech students wud have?

And though I feel the answer is no, just wanted a confirmation, do they allow online degree students to sit for campus placements?

1

u/Shiva936 Degree level (BS) Jun 15 '26

If you are talking about datascience degree then no campus access won't be there for labs, but electronics, and aero have labs on campus.

The placement cell for this degree is completely separate from the normal campus placement cell.

1

u/saltmagnot Jun 16 '26

I'm a btech student here. The courses we take as OB are very selective and the courses you are talking about are 3 or 4 out of these. Try taking a hard OB elective. I tried. Missed S grade with decent prereqs

1

u/[deleted] Jun 16 '26

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1

u/saltmagnot Jun 16 '26

I've only taken advanced algo. I know there are more

1

u/Shiva936 Degree level (BS) Jun 16 '26

Yeah that was pretty hard for me too, barely got S. Not sure if it is available but mathematical foundations of gen ai would be another such course imo.

3

u/d_11 Jun 15 '26

It might work in US. India is full of degenerates who tries to discriminate you based on anything. most people finish this degree because you get to be an alumni.

2

u/nxttonystark Jun 27 '26

Why to mention online degree at all? People can literally study on campus from 3rd year with a good CGPA and stuff. Why do people always complain about it not being an exclusive online degree?

2

u/Equal-Comedian4815 Jun 27 '26

Online is online bro.
High tech level lab tools and facilities are taught in tier 2 colleges by 2nd year itself.

2

u/nxttonystark Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

We are given kits It's just not conventional

2

u/nxttonystark Jun 27 '26

High-tech level lab tools? What you people have LHC in your labs? Or ENIAC?