Eastern University

[bluebooger]

good thing is you will have a quiz, discussion, and assignments to determine your overall grade vs just quizzes with Eastern. Eastern is starting to add assignments but they are still similar to quizzes because they use an automated system to grade.

I hate discussions
they are absolutely useless

go here
https://www.amu.apus.edu/course-schedule...?c=MATH220

scroll down to
CURRENT SYLLABI
and under that
Evaluation
click on the +
and read the nonsense about forum posting
"for a total altogether of 20% of the final grade."

20% of the final grade !
for forum posts ? !
for a MATH class ? !

absolute garbage requirement

assignments would be ok, as long as they don't interfere with working as fast as you can
but some schools have the nonsense of "can't submit you're next assignment until your previous assignment has been graded"

[ss20ts]

good thing is you will have a quiz, discussion, and assignments to determine your overall grade vs just quizzes with Eastern. Eastern is starting to add assignments but they are still similar to quizzes because they use an automated system to grade.

I hate discussions                
they are absolutely useless              

go here                        
https://www.amu.apus.edu/course-schedule...?c=MATH220

scroll down to
CURRENT SYLLABI
and under that
Evaluation
click on the +
and read the nonsense about forum posting
"for a total altogether of 20% of the final grade."  

20% of the final grade !
for forum posts ? !
for a MATH class ? !

absolute garbage requirement

assignments would be ok, as long as they don't interfere with working as fast as you can
but some schools have the nonsense of "can't submit you're next assignment until your previous assignment has been graded"

When I was at CSU Global we had weekly discussions. It was soooo annoying! We had to cite them. The class that made me leave the school had cited discussions which also had to have headings. Who talks like this in a classroom? No one! No one pauses to cite anything in a discussion. We had minimum word counts as well. Then you had to do the same thing twice more for responses. They all had to be posts by specific days and times as well.  What is there to discuss in a math class? Either you understand how to do the problem or you don't. Discussions would drive me batty in a math class. 

[eleverson]

good thing is you will have a quiz, discussion, and assignments to determine your overall grade vs just quizzes with Eastern. Eastern is starting to add assignments but they are still similar to quizzes because they use an automated system to grade.

I hate discussions                
they are absolutely useless              

go here                        
https://www.amu.apus.edu/course-schedule...?c=MATH220

scroll down to
CURRENT SYLLABI
and under that
Evaluation
click on the +
and read the nonsense about forum posting
"for a total altogether of 20% of the final grade."  

20% of the final grade !
for forum posts ? !
for a MATH class ? !

absolute garbage requirement

assignments would be ok, as long as they don't interfere with working as fast as you can
but some schools have the nonsense of "can't submit you're next assignment until your previous assignment has been graded"

My bachelor's is from APU so I totally understand. They had me totally turned off from discussions and that is why I looked for graduate schools that did not have it. But this is the deal, Eastern grade is only quizzes and those quizzes mark you wrong very often. If you don't catch the wrong answer and make the department aware of it then you will not get the point. This method led me to hours of wasted time with how the test was designed and on the edge of failing. Discussions are super annoying but also a very easy grade.

[ifomonay]

I think it needs to be pointed out that eleverson turned in this assignment that brought the down the grade on the last day of the course; this has not been stated in any of the feedback eleverson has given here publicly. I feel it is a disservice to the forum readers here to not have that fact be known.  


With that said - I'm not as far along as eleverson had gotten yet - eleverson did speak to me through this messaging system about their troubles.  I agree it isn't perfect (no program ideal for everyone); however, I'm personally enjoying it.  I think the approach of the program is real world - vs just theory and programming (yes you get those too).  I love that it is self paced - it is totally my style of education - I plan out what I want to achieve in a given time frame (say each week) and give myself time at the end of the course in case I need to 'catch up' or 'make up/increase' grade points somewhere.  

In my opinion if you work well on your own they (Eastern) set it up as tough to fail (if you put in the work and manage your time well) - after the first course they provide you in advance all the material information and give you suggestions to get a head start before the next courses even begin. I can't think of any grad program that would be so generous with giving you a head start to prepare for what is coming.

I'm limited in what/when as I'm moving at the speed of employer tuition reimbursement; figure I'll be done Spring 2022.  It took me so long to finally complete my bachelor that I'm OK with the pace. I do  data management as a primary function for my work now - that doesn't mean that all these topics are familiar to me already.

I wish eleverson great luck in finding the ideal master program for them - it took me a few attempts to find the right fit for myself. This is my 4th (but final) master program - I had stared the MBA route (2 schools, neither WGU - as is so often talked about on the forum) and MS IT Mngt (WGU). The first MBA I thought was the school, but learned it was just the subject matter with the 2nd - the IT Mngt was just a twist on the MBA. I was so very bored; had enough of the business aspect with my BSBA.  I followed my personal interest(s) and what I believe will be a better fit for my career goals (long term) - which brought me to the Eastern program.  I've landed here and will see it out to the end, but as I said I am working at a casual pace due to the tuition reimbursement working the way it does with my current employer - fortunately I like my job a great deal, so I'm not feeling any pressure to 'get it done (quickly).  

I will say that in the end I do prefer this set up over the WGU - not that WGU isn't great for self pace, but at Eastern I literally don't have to talk to anyone if I choose not to; although they do have a good set up if you do want classmate interaction and such (at WGU you do have to meet regularly with your advisor). With WGU I always felt like I need to 'rush' to get the most bang for the buck - at Eastern I know what I'm going to get for my "X dollars"; one course, 3 credits, over 7 weeks (or 8 - depending on the term's holiday 'breaks'). I have a full time job - that keeps me very busy - so I'm preferring the agile sprints vs the marathon.

I'm also one of the people who AwardTour reached out to for feedback on the program; and I will return to provide more feedback on the program once I'm farther along (and my schedule allows) - but with all the recent chatter on this program I felt I needed to add my .02 cents ASAP.

You must be really bored today to come from out of nowhere and feel you should speak against what I have said about Eastern! Please point out what I have said was a lie. I remember in our previous private conversation you were in agreement with things I have said about them. The fact I turned in an assignment at the last min has nothing to do with anything I have stated about them. The assignment was still turned on time, the assignment still should have been given feedback on what I did wrong no matter what, which it did not. I'm not doing a disservice to these folks, I'm doing a service by speaking the truth. It is up to each individual if they want to go there or not. I'm providing factual feedback to them on what to expect. And yes, I have found a better school that will fully prepare me for my career as Data Analyst at the same low cost. And that is great it is working for you! Take more classes so you can fully provide real feedback before taking up for them!!

Where did you transfer to? I might consider there. I have already started the program, but I now have some serious reservations. There is a proctoring software needed for the quizzes now. I do like the idea of proctoring, because some students will try to cheat, so I definitely support requiring the webcam to be turned on and to have the screen recorded. This is my issue, however. The proctoring software will not launch unless you give it permission to access the files in your Downloads folder. Why is that? Suppose I have my health record there. Are they HIPAA certified? I bet not. I can move the files to another folder. So then that means the university is dictating which files I can put where on my own personal computer. I Googled it to see if others had the same concern. Someone on reddit mentioned it back in April 2020, so it's not a software bug, because it doesn't take a year to fix a bug. I think the usual rebuttal is, "if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about". I don't think that's a good argument.

Oh goodness, when I was there they did not activate the proctoring system. My new school has proctoring too. Not sure how it works since I don't start until Mar. 15th of next week. But the good thing is you will have a quiz, discussion, and assignments to determine your overall grade vs just quizzes with Eastern. Eastern is starting to add assignments but they are still similar to quizzes because they use an automated system to grade. Here is NWMSU https://online.nwmissouri.edu/programs/m...ytics.aspx

I might seriously consider that school. I applied to JHU yesterday and got my response in less than a day. At least pretend you seriously considered me. It was a short letter saying I didn't qualify for the program.

[mcjon77]

good thing is you will have a quiz, discussion, and assignments to determine your overall grade vs just quizzes with Eastern. Eastern is starting to add assignments but they are still similar to quizzes because they use an automated system to grade.

I hate discussions                
they are absolutely useless              

go here                        
https://www.amu.apus.edu/course-schedule...?c=MATH220

scroll down to
CURRENT SYLLABI
and under that
Evaluation
click on the +
and read the nonsense about forum posting
"for a total altogether of 20% of the final grade."  

20% of the final grade !
for forum posts ? !
for a MATH class ? !

absolute garbage requirement

assignments would be ok, as long as they don't interfere with working as fast as you can
but some schools have the nonsense of "can't submit you're next assignment until your previous assignment has been graded"

My bachelor's is from APU so I totally understand. They had me totally turned off from discussions and that is why I looked for graduate schools that did not have it. But this is the deal, Eastern grade is only quizzes and those quizzes mark you wrong very often. If you don't catch the wrong answer and make the department aware of it then you will not get the point. This method led me to hours of wasted time with how the test was designed and on the edge of failing. Discussions are super annoying but also a very easy grade.

Just going to add some additional perspective, before anyone gets the wrong idea.  Eastern's automatic quiz grading may have caused eleverson problems, but I had absolutely no issues with it.

For the quizzes/exams that I took, the fill in the blank answers were either a number or a single word.  The software even has a spellcheck option for the words.  The only time (out of 10 exams) where I was concerned was with two questions, where I didn't know if they wanted the function name or the name followed by ().  Looking at how other questions were worded, I concluded that it was just the function name, and I was correct.

Here is the thing, even if I had been wrong, I would have seen which questions that I got wrong when I got the results.  If I needed to retest, I could keep the error in mind.  While I won't necessarily get the same questions (the tests are generated from a question bank), they have the same theme/format.

Next point, eleverson was in the VERY FIRST term of the very first semester.  This is  now the fourth term and things are constantly changing (which is good).  Based on feedback, the traditional 3rd course "Data Analytics in R"  now has assignments and a final project, in addition to exams.  In fact, exams only count for 40% of the grade.

I say on this to remind people that with all of these new Data Science/Analytics programs being created, read everything you can about them and pay special attention to the most recent info, because these programs often change rapidly over the first few semesters/years.

[eleverson]

good thing is you will have a quiz, discussion, and assignments to determine your overall grade vs just quizzes with Eastern. Eastern is starting to add assignments but they are still similar to quizzes because they use an automated system to grade.

I hate discussions                
they are absolutely useless              

go here                        
https://www.amu.apus.edu/course-schedule...?c=MATH220

scroll down to
CURRENT SYLLABI
and under that
Evaluation
click on the +
and read the nonsense about forum posting
"for a total altogether of 20% of the final grade."  

20% of the final grade !
for forum posts ? !
for a MATH class ? !

absolute garbage requirement

assignments would be ok, as long as they don't interfere with working as fast as you can
but some schools have the nonsense of "can't submit you're next assignment until your previous assignment has been graded"

My bachelor's is from APU so I totally understand. They had me totally turned off from discussions and that is why I looked for graduate schools that did not have it. But this is the deal, Eastern grade is only quizzes and those quizzes mark you wrong very often. If you don't catch the wrong answer and make the department aware of it then you will not get the point. This method led me to hours of wasted time with how the test was designed and on the edge of failing. Discussions are super annoying but also a very easy grade.

Just going to add some additional perspective, before anyone gets the wrong idea.  Eastern's automatic quiz grading may have caused eleverson problems, but I had absolutely no issues with it.

For the quizzes/exams that I took, the fill in the blank answers were either a number or a single word.  The software even has a spellcheck option for the words.  The only time (out of 10 exams) where I was concerned was with two questions, where I didn't know if they wanted the function name or the name followed by ().  Looking at how other questions were worded, I concluded that it was just the function name, and I was correct.

Here is the thing, even if I had been wrong, I would have seen which questions that I got wrong when I got the results.  If I needed to retest, I could keep the error in mind.  While I won't necessarily get the same questions (the tests are generated from a question bank), they have the same theme/format.

Next point, eleverson was in the VERY FIRST term of the very first semester.  This is  now the fourth term and things are constantly changing (which is good).  Based on feedback, the traditional 3rd course "Data Analytics in R"  now has assignments and a final project, in addition to exams.  In fact, exams only count for 40% of the grade.

I say on this to remind people that with all of these new Data Science/Analytics programs being created, read everything you can about them and pay special attention to the most recent info, because these programs often change rapidly over the first few semesters/years.

Yes, I was at the very first cohort and dealt with many of the hiccups. Thanks to me speaking out to the dean and the professors, others after me are probably getting a better experience than I did. Wish you the best of luck!

---

I think it needs to be pointed out that eleverson turned in this assignment that brought the down the grade on the last day of the course; this has not been stated in any of the feedback eleverson has given here publicly. I feel it is a disservice to the forum readers here to not have that fact be known.  


With that said - I'm not as far along as eleverson had gotten yet - eleverson did speak to me through this messaging system about their troubles.  I agree it isn't perfect (no program ideal for everyone); however, I'm personally enjoying it.  I think the approach of the program is real world - vs just theory and programming (yes you get those too).  I love that it is self paced - it is totally my style of education - I plan out what I want to achieve in a given time frame (say each week) and give myself time at the end of the course in case I need to 'catch up' or 'make up/increase' grade points somewhere.  

In my opinion if you work well on your own they (Eastern) set it up as tough to fail (if you put in the work and manage your time well) - after the first course they provide you in advance all the material information and give you suggestions to get a head start before the next courses even begin. I can't think of any grad program that would be so generous with giving you a head start to prepare for what is coming.

I'm limited in what/when as I'm moving at the speed of employer tuition reimbursement; figure I'll be done Spring 2022.  It took me so long to finally complete my bachelor that I'm OK with the pace. I do  data management as a primary function for my work now - that doesn't mean that all these topics are familiar to me already.

I wish eleverson great luck in finding the ideal master program for them - it took me a few attempts to find the right fit for myself. This is my 4th (but final) master program - I had stared the MBA route (2 schools, neither WGU - as is so often talked about on the forum) and MS IT Mngt (WGU). The first MBA I thought was the school, but learned it was just the subject matter with the 2nd - the IT Mngt was just a twist on the MBA. I was so very bored; had enough of the business aspect with my BSBA.  I followed my personal interest(s) and what I believe will be a better fit for my career goals (long term) - which brought me to the Eastern program.  I've landed here and will see it out to the end, but as I said I am working at a casual pace due to the tuition reimbursement working the way it does with my current employer - fortunately I like my job a great deal, so I'm not feeling any pressure to 'get it done (quickly).  

I will say that in the end I do prefer this set up over the WGU - not that WGU isn't great for self pace, but at Eastern I literally don't have to talk to anyone if I choose not to; although they do have a good set up if you do want classmate interaction and such (at WGU you do have to meet regularly with your advisor). With WGU I always felt like I need to 'rush' to get the most bang for the buck - at Eastern I know what I'm going to get for my "X dollars"; one course, 3 credits, over 7 weeks (or 8 - depending on the term's holiday 'breaks'). I have a full time job - that keeps me very busy - so I'm preferring the agile sprints vs the marathon.

I'm also one of the people who AwardTour reached out to for feedback on the program; and I will return to provide more feedback on the program once I'm farther along (and my schedule allows) - but with all the recent chatter on this program I felt I needed to add my .02 cents ASAP.

You must be really bored today to come from out of nowhere and feel you should speak against what I have said about Eastern! Please point out what I have said was a lie. I remember in our previous private conversation you were in agreement with things I have said about them. The fact I turned in an assignment at the last min has nothing to do with anything I have stated about them. The assignment was still turned on time, the assignment still should have been given feedback on what I did wrong no matter what, which it did not. I'm not doing a disservice to these folks, I'm doing a service by speaking the truth. It is up to each individual if they want to go there or not. I'm providing factual feedback to them on what to expect. And yes, I have found a better school that will fully prepare me for my career as Data Analyst at the same low cost. And that is great it is working for you! Take more classes so you can fully provide real feedback before taking up for them!!

Where did you transfer to? I might consider there. I have already started the program, but I now have some serious reservations. There is a proctoring software needed for the quizzes now. I do like the idea of proctoring, because some students will try to cheat, so I definitely support requiring the webcam to be turned on and to have the screen recorded. This is my issue, however. The proctoring software will not launch unless you give it permission to access the files in your Downloads folder. Why is that? Suppose I have my health record there. Are they HIPAA certified? I bet not. I can move the files to another folder. So then that means the university is dictating which files I can put where on my own personal computer. I Googled it to see if others had the same concern. Someone on reddit mentioned it back in April 2020, so it's not a software bug, because it doesn't take a year to fix a bug. I think the usual rebuttal is, "if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about". I don't think that's a good argument.

Oh goodness, when I was there they did not activate the proctoring system. My new school has proctoring too. Not sure how it works since I don't start until Mar. 15th of next week. But the good thing is you will have a quiz, discussion, and assignments to determine your overall grade vs just quizzes with Eastern. Eastern is starting to add assignments but they are still similar to quizzes because they use an automated system to grade. Here is NWMSU https://online.nwmissouri.edu/programs/m...ytics.aspx

I might seriously consider that school. I applied to JHU yesterday and got my response in less than a day. At least pretend you seriously considered me. It was a short letter saying I didn't qualify for the program.

Sorry to hear that. Let me know how it goes for you with applying to NWMSU. I don't think the requirements are strict as JHU.

[eleverson]

good thing is you will have a quiz, discussion, and assignments to determine your overall grade vs just quizzes with Eastern. Eastern is starting to add assignments but they are still similar to quizzes because they use an automated system to grade.

I hate discussions                
they are absolutely useless              

go here                        
https://www.amu.apus.edu/course-schedule...?c=MATH220

scroll down to
CURRENT SYLLABI
and under that
Evaluation
click on the +
and read the nonsense about forum posting
"for a total altogether of 20% of the final grade."  

20% of the final grade !
for forum posts ? !
for a MATH class ? !

absolute garbage requirement

assignments would be ok, as long as they don't interfere with working as fast as you can
but some schools have the nonsense of "can't submit you're next assignment until your previous assignment has been graded"

My bachelor's is from APU so I totally understand. They had me totally turned off from discussions and that is why I looked for graduate schools that did not have it. But this is the deal, Eastern grade is only quizzes and those quizzes mark you wrong very often. If you don't catch the wrong answer and make the department aware of it then you will not get the point. This method led me to hours of wasted time with how the test was designed and on the edge of failing. Discussions are super annoying but also a very easy grade.

Just going to add some additional perspective, before anyone gets the wrong idea.  Eastern's automatic quiz grading may have caused eleverson problems, but I had absolutely no issues with it.

For the quizzes/exams that I took, the fill in the blank answers were either a number or a single word.  The software even has a spellcheck option for the words.  The only time (out of 10 exams) where I was concerned was with two questions, where I didn't know if they wanted the function name or the name followed by ().  Looking at how other questions were worded, I concluded that it was just the function name, and I was correct.

Here is the thing, even if I had been wrong, I would have seen which questions that I got wrong when I got the results.  If I needed to retest, I could keep the error in mind.  While I won't necessarily get the same questions (the tests are generated from a question bank), they have the same theme/format.

Next point, eleverson was in the VERY FIRST term of the very first semester.  This is  now the fourth term and things are constantly changing (which is good).  Based on feedback, the traditional 3rd course "Data Analytics in R"  now has assignments and a final project, in addition to exams.  In fact, exams only count for 40% of the grade.

I say on this to remind people that with all of these new Data Science/Analytics programs being created, read everything you can about them and pay special attention to the most recent info, because these programs often change rapidly over the first few semesters/years.

Yes, I was at the very first cohort and dealt with many of the hiccups. Thanks to me speaking out to the dean and the professors, others after me are probably getting a better experience than I did. Wish you the best of luck!

---

You must be really bored today to come from out of nowhere and feel you should speak against what I have said about Eastern! Please point out what I have said was a lie. I remember in our previous private conversation you were in agreement with things I have said about them. The fact I turned in an assignment at the last min has nothing to do with anything I have stated about them. The assignment was still turned on time, the assignment still should have been given feedback on what I did wrong no matter what, which it did not. I'm not doing a disservice to these folks, I'm doing a service by speaking the truth. It is up to each individual if they want to go there or not. I'm providing factual feedback to them on what to expect. And yes, I have found a better school that will fully prepare me for my career as Data Analyst at the same low cost. And that is great it is working for you! Take more classes so you can fully provide real feedback before taking up for them!!

Where did you transfer to? I might consider there. I have already started the program, but I now have some serious reservations. There is a proctoring software needed for the quizzes now. I do like the idea of proctoring, because some students will try to cheat, so I definitely support requiring the webcam to be turned on and to have the screen recorded. This is my issue, however. The proctoring software will not launch unless you give it permission to access the files in your Downloads folder. Why is that? Suppose I have my health record there. Are they HIPAA certified? I bet not. I can move the files to another folder. So then that means the university is dictating which files I can put where on my own personal computer. I Googled it to see if others had the same concern. Someone on reddit mentioned it back in April 2020, so it's not a software bug, because it doesn't take a year to fix a bug. I think the usual rebuttal is, "if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about". I don't think that's a good argument.

Oh goodness, when I was there they did not activate the proctoring system. My new school has proctoring too. Not sure how it works since I don't start until Mar. 15th of next week. But the good thing is you will have a quiz, discussion, and assignments to determine your overall grade vs just quizzes with Eastern. Eastern is starting to add assignments but they are still similar to quizzes because they use an automated system to grade. Here is NWMSU https://online.nwmissouri.edu/programs/m...ytics.aspx

I might seriously consider that school. I applied to JHU yesterday and got my response in less than a day. At least pretend you seriously considered me. It was a short letter saying I didn't qualify for the program.

Sorry to hear that. Let me know how it goes for you with applying to NWMSU. I don't think the requirements are strict as JHU.

I finished a quiz with NWMSU and they only use the Respondus to lock the browser. No request for files or my webcam. Did not see my webcam light come on. The downside is they only give you 30 mins for 30 questions and 1 tries to take the test. I managed to make it with a 29/30. Still way better than the hrs it took to take a test at Eastern to get an 80 and I end up with a 97 score within 30 mins. Furthermore, you are allowed to use your notes/textbook.

[nnahh]

I’ll wait until finished with the SQL class to give a review. My first impressions aren’t good, but we will see….

Anyone have any tips for the SQL class/ projects ?

[mcjon77]

I’ll wait until finished with the SQL class to give a review. My first impressions aren’t good, but we will see….

Anyone have any tips for the SQL class/ projects ?

I just finished the SQL class last weekend (Summer 1).  I have been working as a data analyst for a while now and had pretty solid SQL.  I also took two previous graduate level courses in Databases/SQL.

The module 2 (database design) is SUPER DRY and theoretical (lot of talk about relations and sets, with less real world talk), more so than necessary.  However he gives the notes that he reads from.  Honestly, I stopped listening to the lectures and just focused on the key points in the notes (it was nothing I hadn't seen before).  I wound up with a 93% on the module 2 exam and a 100% on the module 2 assignment (ER diagram and Schema Diagram).  Also, when completing your diagrams, the ER diagrams are best done in Lucidcharts.  However, I found that the schema diagram was much easier to build using a website called drawsql.com . As long as your schema is 15 tables or less, it is free.

I took the SQL class at the same time that I took his Fundamentals of Machine Learning class.  The machine learning class was much much better.  He did an excellent job presenting that information.  My biggest fear was that it was going to be a survey course, and while we would learn ABOUT machine learning models, we wouldn't learn how to DO a machine learning project.  Thankfully, that was not the case.  

We started off learning how to clean data and dig more into pandas (his coverage of pandas, using real data sets, was much better than the coverage in the first course).  Then we actually start applying models to data sets.  In fact, I am using the format I learned from the class to build a multiple linear regression model for work.  This was easily my favorite class of the program.  I am actually going through the second half of it again, because I kind of rushed through it, and I want to get everything nailed down for future data scientist interviews that I might have in a few months. 

So, if you find the lectures boring in the SQL class, focus on the notes, and walking through the code.  Also, don't be like me and get too cocky about knowing SQL and databases in general.  I wound up getting a B+ instead of an A because I procrastinated on the final project.  The A was completely doable.  I just screwed up.

[nnahh]

I’ll wait until finished with the SQL class to give a review. My first impressions aren’t good, but we will see….

Anyone have any tips for the SQL class/ projects ?

I just finished the SQL class last weekend (Summer 1).  I have been working as a data analyst for a while now and had pretty solid SQL.  I also took two previous graduate level courses in Databases/SQL.

The module 2 (database design) is SUPER DRY and theoretical (lot of talk about relations and sets, with less real world talk), more so than necessary.  However he gives the notes that he reads from.  Honestly, I stopped listening to the lectures and just focused on the key points in the notes (it was nothing I hadn't seen before).  I wound up with a 93% on the module 2 exam and a 100% on the module 2 assignment (ER diagram and Schema Diagram).  Also, when completing your diagrams, the ER diagrams are best done in Lucidcharts.  However, I found that the schema diagram was much easier to build using a website called drawsql.com . As long as your schema is 15 tables or less, it is free.

I took the SQL class at the same time that I took his Fundamentals of Machine Learning class.  The machine learning class was much much better.  He did an excellent job presenting that information.  My biggest fear was that it was going to be a survey course, and while we would learn ABOUT machine learning models, we wouldn't learn how to DO a machine learning project.  Thankfully, that was not the case.  

We started off learning how to clean data and dig more into pandas (his coverage of pandas, using real data sets, was much better than the coverage in the first course).  Then we actually start applying models to data sets.  In fact, I am using the format I learned from the class to build a multiple linear regression model for work.  This was easily my favorite class of the program.  I am actually going through the second half of it again, because I kind of rushed through it, and I want to get everything nailed down for future data scientist interviews that I might have in a few months. 

So, if you find the lectures boring in the SQL class, focus on the notes, and walking through the code.  Also, don't be like me and get too cocky about knowing SQL and databases in general.  I wound up getting a B+ instead of an A because I procrastinated on the final project.  The A was completely doable.  I just screwed up.

Thank you!!!!!  I had originally wrote a post about how horrible the class was, but deleted because it felt mean afterwards. I have no SQL experience so I’m definitely gonna have to try getting a better understanding elsewhere. I soooo appreciate all of the help with the project resources. I’m not looking forward to any of this lol. 


I’m happy to know the next course is better.