[jocro]

Anyone have experience with this program without an academic CS background?

As someone with a BS in Materials Science & Engineering (at best a tangentially related field via sparse EE coursework) who does some level of programming at a tech job now, I'm curious what my prospects for admission would be. I'm confident I could handle the coursework, provided I could get my foot in the door.

As a related question, they mention taking courses to fill holes - are they receptive to Coursera offerings?

[jsokol1]

Yes, many of our students come in with either tangentially-related backgrounds or even unrelated backgrounds -- we look for students with outstanding analytics potential, regardless of background.

And yes, online learning and/or self-taught learning is definitely fine as hole-fillers; we just want you to have the necessary background to succeed, and however you get that background is up to you.

[jocro]

Appreciate the feedback!