When I first started this program, I had a lot of expectations, and some of them I was pretty sure about. For example, I was pretty sure that my free time would evaporate, and that the program would begin to stress pretty much every part of my life. I was also pretty sure that I’d learn a lot, and I was hopeful that I’d grow enough over the next two years to transition into a new career. However, one thing I hadn’t considered at all was the possibility of discovering, and becoming a part of, a community while pursuing an online degree.
First Exposure
My first exposure to the OSU Post-Bacc CS community was on Reddit, and it’s there that I actually first learned about this program. After reading through a few threads of some alumni and current students and seeing that even despite some criticism they recommended others check it out, I was intrigued enough to apply. While waiting to hear back on my application, I found myself browsing the subreddit from time to time and noticed a post about an unofficial slack open to current and former students.
I really enjoyed using slack at work and figured that if nothing else it would be a great place to ask questions as I started up this new degree. So, after my application was accepted, I quickly used my new school email to get access to that slack and found myself in huge channels filled with thousands of different people.
Getting Acclimated
I spent the first few months in the slack as a quiet lurker – the channels were so large that I didn’t feel like I should just announce my presence directly, and I felt like it was appropriate for me to get a feel for the community and its culture first. What I discovered was something that surprised me – I began to notice several regulars on many of the channels, and I started to develop a familiar feel with the kinds of discussions that would spring up from time to time.
Gradually, I started to join in on those discussions, and all of my initial hesitations started to fade away. I found myself on some of the major channels of the unofficial slack conversing (and sometimes arguing, looking at you #politics) with many of my peers in this program. While there were only a handful of people that I ever actually had a class with, I’ve really felt like I’ve gotten to know a lot of people on the unofficial slack – something that’s made easy by the fact that we all share a common theme of uprooting our lives to pursue another degree. There are many people who I’ve never directly interacted with, but know a lot about, just because of the reputation they’ve built for themselves in the community.
Final Thoughts
Over these past two years, I’ve always felt that the unofficial slack was the place I could go to with any question about a class, about the program, or about computer science and software engineering in general. I even found my current capstone project team in this community – two guys who I’d seen post on the unofficial slack on and off again for the past two years, but never had more than a passing conversation with. Needless to say, while the unofficial slack wasn’t something that I expected, it is something that I’m deeply thankful for and plan to stay a part of after I graduate in December.
