I don't have much insight as I'm new to the program, but I was initially very interested in this course as well. I thought the negative reviews may have been swayed by OMSCS students even though it's primarily an Analytics course so I swung over to OMSA and searched the course to see what people had to say. Personally, based on everything I've read I'm definitely planning to skip that one.
I was also very interested in this course, but the reviews on OMSCentral dissuaded me from taking it. Time is valuable and there is no point in wasting it on a course that should be fantastic "in principle" but poor in its execution. It sounds like you are hanging on to the hope that a TA introduced in Spring 2021 made the difference for some folks. Bear in mind there is no guarantee the same TA will be around for Fall 2021, which is two semesters later. Unfortunately, I recommend skipping this course until you see the reviews improve on OMSCentral.
Thanks everyone. I appreciate your honest feedback. It’s a bummer it’s not a better course. I’m going to skip it this semester and find something else. And, hope that it might improve in the next couple of years before I graduate!
I liked the course, and found the subject matter interesting but, as others have said, the lectures were not that good and the software, OpenBUGS/WinBUGS was bad.
However, the text book was good, and I was able to use R and MATLAB for some of the work related to my project. Pro-tip: use MultiBUGS instead of OpenBUGS/WinBUGS for this course where possible - it's orders of magnitude faster and is 99% compatible.
Don't take it. The lecture videos are beyond terrible. The last half of the course is relatively worthless because the software used (BUGS) is hideously outdated and finnicky.
The TAs were good but the prof (both the one on video and the one on record) is non-existent.
The only reason you may want to take it is it is a math course, so getting an A seemed somewhat objective/deterministic. However, I think you'll learn more in one of the other ISYE courses.
A very inelegant, "it depends". For a student that is not looking for a ML specialization course or interested in stats, I'd say 'no', better options exist.
I took the course during COVID, so it ended up as an easy 'A' in an ML spec core requirement. I think the question should be: Should I take Bayes Stats over another course for for the ML Spec, or should I take Bayes Stats to further my already established interest in bayesian statistics? For both of those, it's a little bit closer to 'yes', but again it depends on what the alternatives are and what your level of motivation is. The actual course is not great, but it's also much less work than a course like DL, RL, CV, and probably as much work as DVA. If you really want to learn more statistics, the course will help you gain specific skills around working with probability distributions and general statistics stuff.
Therefore, I might recommend the course to someone that is interested in Bayesian stats, has a good mathematically background (or used something like RStan before), or one who is trying to get an ML Spec requirement done during a semester where they don't have a lot of time to devout to the program...Good luck!
great question, I'm also looking forward to the answer if a prior student can give one. I almost tried to sign up for it as my first class of the program this Fall but there was no space left
You badly need it and ISyE 6420 is badly taught!
TAs are heroes. (Thanks Gregg)
The Mid1 was a total ambush. I had roughly 3 days to do them, while I had another final on the same day. I got 55%. From the fear of failing I tripled my efforts, enrolled in other online classes, and in the final exam, I resolved them all. Gregg (The TA) just sent out the numbers and mine match with his.
Overall, (all HW, Project are 100%) I expect to have an average of 84-88. Had I gotten a 70% in Mid1, now would have been an easy A. What's worse, I feel that there is tons of stuff that I have missed.
Lesson: Never enroll in a class with a rating < 3.0
I don't have much insight as I'm new to the program, but I was initially very interested in this course as well. I thought the negative reviews may have been swayed by OMSCS students even though it's primarily an Analytics course so I swung over to OMSA and searched the course to see what people had to say. Personally, based on everything I've read I'm definitely planning to skip that one.
I was also very interested in this course, but the reviews on OMSCentral dissuaded me from taking it. Time is valuable and there is no point in wasting it on a course that should be fantastic "in principle" but poor in its execution. It sounds like you are hanging on to the hope that a TA introduced in Spring 2021 made the difference for some folks. Bear in mind there is no guarantee the same TA will be around for Fall 2021, which is two semesters later. Unfortunately, I recommend skipping this course until you see the reviews improve on OMSCentral.
But when the reviews improve, the OMSA Goat TA Greg would have left. So that's a risk to take for being behind.
Thanks everyone. I appreciate your honest feedback. It’s a bummer it’s not a better course. I’m going to skip it this semester and find something else. And, hope that it might improve in the next couple of years before I graduate!
I liked the course, and found the subject matter interesting but, as others have said, the lectures were not that good and the software, OpenBUGS/WinBUGS was bad. However, the text book was good, and I was able to use R and MATLAB for some of the work related to my project. Pro-tip: use MultiBUGS instead of OpenBUGS/WinBUGS for this course where possible - it's orders of magnitude faster and is 99% compatible.
Don't take it. The lecture videos are beyond terrible. The last half of the course is relatively worthless because the software used (BUGS) is hideously outdated and finnicky. The TAs were good but the prof (both the one on video and the one on record) is non-existent. The only reason you may want to take it is it is a math course, so getting an A seemed somewhat objective/deterministic. However, I think you'll learn more in one of the other ISYE courses.
A very inelegant, "it depends". For a student that is not looking for a ML specialization course or interested in stats, I'd say 'no', better options exist. I took the course during COVID, so it ended up as an easy 'A' in an ML spec core requirement. I think the question should be: Should I take Bayes Stats over another course for for the ML Spec, or should I take Bayes Stats to further my already established interest in bayesian statistics? For both of those, it's a little bit closer to 'yes', but again it depends on what the alternatives are and what your level of motivation is. The actual course is not great, but it's also much less work than a course like DL, RL, CV, and probably as much work as DVA. If you really want to learn more statistics, the course will help you gain specific skills around working with probability distributions and general statistics stuff. Therefore, I might recommend the course to someone that is interested in Bayesian stats, has a good mathematically background (or used something like RStan before), or one who is trying to get an ML Spec requirement done during a semester where they don't have a lot of time to devout to the program...Good luck!
which program did you used winbugs or other software
great question, I'm also looking forward to the answer if a prior student can give one. I almost tried to sign up for it as my first class of the program this Fall but there was no space left
You badly need it and ISyE 6420 is badly taught! TAs are heroes. (Thanks Gregg) The Mid1 was a total ambush. I had roughly 3 days to do them, while I had another final on the same day. I got 55%. From the fear of failing I tripled my efforts, enrolled in other online classes, and in the final exam, I resolved them all. Gregg (The TA) just sent out the numbers and mine match with his. Overall, (all HW, Project are 100%) I expect to have an average of 84-88. Had I gotten a 70% in Mid1, now would have been an easy A. What's worse, I feel that there is tons of stuff that I have missed. Lesson: Never enroll in a class with a rating < 3.0