Applying to Harvard Extension School MLA in Data Science
In late 2020 I realised that my coding kind of sucked and it wasn’t getting better quickly.
I had failed to untangle 1700 reports from recently discharged psychiatric patients into anything useful, concluding that either the reports themselves would never make good research material, or the skills required to take free text and make good data were simply beyond me.
I tried to do a few exercises from Automate the Boring Stuff with Python but quit after a single night in disgust at how unenjoyable it was.
Having done the MITx MicroMasters in Statistics in Data Science, which was amazing, I’d become accustomed to a certain standard of teaching that was not being met.
I scoured the internet for a while looking for the next step, and came across Harvard Extension School (HES) twice.
The first time, I dismissed it immediately. I’d seen a lot of elite universities including MIT offering online courses or ‘professional development’ and the offerings aroused my suspicion. First, because they were too expensive. I had paid only a few hundred dollars for all my MITx classes, which added up to about a semester of classes if taken full-time at MIT. So I was disinclined to pay several thousand dollars for a 2-week “executive course” on data science. Even if I could get my work hospital to foot the bill, it didn’t feel right. So I was determined to learn for free, living the life of the online Beatnik, subsisting on only what I could gather from the land.
Me taking courses from USA Universities for free.
On second viewing, however, I did notice that Harvard Extension School made an offer to me that was not open to everyone. Since I had completed the MITx MicroMasters, I was able to qualify for admission to HES by taking only one more subject, whereas most people had to take two. That’s a cheap minimum viable product. I also noticed, with sly interest, that many of the subjects I would take with HES Data Science were similar to MITx classes I had already taken. Since I had to obtain a B average or above, it didn’t hurt to have a little prior knowledge to fall back on. After all, I could not rely on getting Gentlemen’s Cs.
So I did the value proposition and came up with the following:
Getting a MLA in Data Science would cost me 26000USD
Getting admitted would take me about 4 months of work on the entry subject, Advanced Python for Data Science. Finishing would take me 3 years.
I had a very good chance of doing well in the first subject, Advanced Python for Data Science, based on my performance in the MITx micromasters.
If I passed the subject, I would get in with a high degree of certainty
If I started, I absolutely must finish, or else I would have wasted a huge amount of money
I had to pay out of pocket, but it would be from my pre-tax income
If I completed the MLA in Data Science, I would be an alumnus of Harvard University, but the value of that was hard to judge since I already had a Doctor of Medicine from Melbourne University. Doctor is generally considered higher than Masters.
Moving to Boston would create the highest amount of leveraged value of the degree
How it feels paying for online learning
I scrutinised the above points for a long time, going over and over in my head all possible ways I could be getting screwed. I discussed it endlessly with my family, especially point 3. Was I good enough to get the B required in their entry subject. Why not? I’d done the MITx subjects. I’d gone to MIT for a visit to verify that the students in those classes were doing the same work I had done. I spoke to the professors, I answered questions in the tutorials.
Was I about to walk into an academic massacre? Could I accidentally crack my head on the ceiling of my intelligence?
Every time I got to point 3, I would say
You know, I bet there are a lot of people who delude themselves into thinking that they can do this, and pump themselves up about it, and tell everyone they’re going to Harvard, and then just aren’t smart enough to pass. But I’m not in that group, I’m going to be in the tiny group who actually finishes it. You know, the little group that everyone thinks they’re going to be a part of.
‘Sure, Woody’.
Half Dome in Yosemite, 410 m in prominence, roughly the size of my head as I write this.
One day (well into the course) I turned to my colleague at work and told him about what I was working on and how much time it was taking.
“Wow”, he said “I could never do something that consistently. I’ve tried a little bit of coding but I always give up”
You could do it. I responded. In fact, if I put you in my position, you’d absolutely do it. I’ll tell you why: you’ve just bet $4000AUD that you will pass. It’s amazing what you’ll do not to lose that bet.
In the end, that’s what prompted me to put down the considerable sum (to me, because I’m kind of poor) and go for it. I’m a bit of a financial risk taker. I love derivatives. I love a bit of crypto. But I always cringe a little at the gamblers who I treat (often treating them for their mania) for one reason: they don’t bet on themselves. They bet on horses, dogs, cars, elections, pokies, roulette balls. But I don’t see them betting on their own abilities.
The idea of betting on my own intelligence - well, let’s not dwell on it, but it worked.
So on course registration day I stayed up until midnight, then clicked furiously on the register button until my girlfriend sleepily asked me what was taking so long, and asked me when I’d stop clicking.
I’ll tell you one thing, darl. I said. There are probably a hundred people sitting here just like me, clicking this button, and causing the site to crash. One by one they’re going to give up and do something else. I’m not going to do that. If I have to sit here all night, clicking, until tomorrow morning, I actually will do that, and beyond.
Uunnnng. Wow. She said, and fell asleep.
I finally got access at around 1 o’clock in the morning to sign up for the class (with ⅔ spots already gone!). By that point, I was the only one awake. I could feel something change in the air around me. If it’s not too dramatic for the reader to hear this, I knew at that moment that I was going to be great one day, at this thing, data science. We all hope, but at that point I knew.
Sleep deprivation can trigger megalomania.
Registering for the HES classes takes place well, well, in advance of the classes starting. So I had weeks of waiting around for the syllabus to be released. Every little leak of material occupied me for days.
It reminded me of 2004, waiting for Halo 2 to come out, and I had a countdown of days scrawled in the back of my diary. On the day it came out, my friend Stephen bought a copy and I was rushing to get to his house so haphazardly that I caught my toe in the back of my razor scooter and gouged into the nailbed, spraying blood all over the wheel. I never arrived. I limped home in agony and sat in the bathroom disinfecting it whilst he told me about the game on the telephone.
Dude, awesome.
I messaged past students and got their take on it. I even chatted to Khalid Nawab, author of the popular medium article reviewing the first course.
I talked about making great discoveries and synthetic life, and he didn’t laugh at me, so I thought I was on the right track.
Conversation with my girlfriend became much more Harvard-centric.
When we get to Boston…
In Boston we could…
We’ll do that every day when we’re in Boston…
It got a little culty. But we’d actually been to Boston to visit Harvard and MIT and we liked it! So it was also a way of reminiscing about our trip.
…
Big fast forward to the point where I’d (almost) completed the first subject, CSCI E-29 Advanced Python for Data Science:
…
When it came time to do the actual degree admission application, I tried to account for all possible mistakes. I read everything twice, I organized advising appointments early, I confirmed that my documents were correct. I was working in May for an application due in November. There were a lot of hoops to jump through being an international student and also getting around Covid-19 restrictions (my university flat out refused to send my physical transcripts).
When I had my medical degree transcript and MITx MicroMasters validated by CED and sent to Harvard, I thought I was in the clear. After working through a ridiculous amount of stress and sinking huge amounts of time into the projects, I opened my application portal one day at work to find it saying to me:
Application Decision:
Your application for admission to the Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in extension studies has been removed from consideration because you did not submit required materials by the deadline.
Peck out my liver whilst you’re at it.
Ooof. I felt a hot rush to my head. Now I was going to have to explain to some people that the application I’d been so sure of had failed. I looked into the issue. All transcripts have to go to Harvard directly from my home University. When I checked the documents which had been ‘shared’ by Melbourne University, there had only been two shares, both going to CED. Whereas one should have gone direct to Harvard. I was kicking myself. This was exactly the kind of mistake I would make doing this application at night after work.
It also pissed me off because I was so close to finding out the truth. Were the admissions advisors being honest when they said ‘There is nothing stopping you from getting on the degree program’?
Fortunately, my marks were looking decent for the entry subject, so admission was likely (eventually), and there was one other consideration that kept my spirits up. Despite the fact that I was not admitted to the degree program, I did not have to stop studying. In fact, I could take another subject almost immediately that would count towards my degree.
As a bonus, when I shared this with a doctor who was encouraging me, he leaned back, held up a fist and said
‘YES! This is what it’s all about.’
It takes a lot of time and energy to get onto a training program in medicine, and the idea that I was not waiting around for permission to start was very appealing to him.
Of medical training he had, in fact, said this:
‘It’s the best five years of your life’
Oh, nice -
‘And they get completely effed by this effed (medical) training.’
He congratulated me on having the bravery to do something outside medicine (I’ve changed what he said slightly here, for reasons I might get into in a future post).
The next subject was COMPSCI 109B: Data Science 2: Advanced Topics in Data Science. Perhaps it would be even better than CSCI E-29 Advanced Python for Data Science, because it is taught at Harvard in person, and I will be following along online.
So...keep paying? Keep working? Keep learning? Keep telling people:
Oh, my application is in process, but one day, I’ll be admitted, you bet on it!
I’m good for it, I swear! Just give me a little bit more time.
One thing that could go wrong is a dramatic change in admissions criteria. No more Australians allowed? Or possibly an abysmal performance by me in the next subject. But, as my mum says, the best indicator of future performance is past performance.
So, yeah, I’m disappointed! I thought I’d be a student of Harvard University by now. From day one I’ve been plagued by an unavoidable doubt regarding this route. By all commonsense rules about education, this should turn out to be a scam. But what I’ve learned is great. HES shows no signs of radically adjusting admissions criteria. My classmates seem legitimate. My coding is going to the next level.
Thumbs up to HES for raising the standard of online learning.
Just don’t make a monkey out of me.
