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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

Especially if you're willing/able to pay some money there's still a lot on edX etc., both individual courses and the various MicroMasters programs.

But, yes, totally free content is somewhat limited at this point and, generally, MOOCs have to be seen as a disappointment to anyone who saw them as a radical free substitute for a university education.

Perhaps interestingly, when OCW launched, MIT presented it as very much not a substitute for an MIT education but rather as raw materials for educators to assemble their own courses. Which I'm sure was at least in part a matter of internal politics but still. (And, of course, ubiquitous video of lectures wasn't a thing at the time anyway.)

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Is it possible to piece together a full undergrad of coursework, self-study and then pass a subject GRE?

That would be a more recognizable credential than a "micromasters".

No one (except a grad school) cares what you get on a GRE test. GREs aren't that different from SATs.

Even if that were true, which I don't believe, it's still highly useful. E.g. if someone passes a GRE Physics test, they may be able to enter a graduate program with an entirely unrelated undergraduate degree instead of spending 100k getting another.

You may be different, but I'd have increased confidence in someone's general comfort with mathematical problem-solving if they posted good scores on a test covering this: https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/about/content/physics/

For computer science specifically, that's unfortunately not possible because the GRE for CS was discontinued in April 2013.

That's really a shame for ambitious learners trying to achieve more with less time, wealth or pedigree.

It completely makes sense from the university's perspective, though.

Many if not most MOOCs certainly lack depth, maybe the problem is in M part? Sometimes they feel like an ad

Many of them are fairly faithful representations of the lecture components of courses from "elite" universities. There are certainly many MOOC courses I would struggle with. But, discussion boards are mostly a tire fire (in part, because of the M part as you suggest), problem sets/assignments are limited even if they're not behind a paywall, there are no recitation sessions, etc. So even if someone is motivated, which can be hard in the absence of meaningful certifications, they're just more limited than taking an actual university course.

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