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I am a student pursuing a bachelors degree in IT currently in my third year. I am an average programmer and Java is my base programming language. I wan't to pursue MS in Computer Science. I do not have a very catchy profile/resume. I want to improve it before I apply. I'll be giving my GRE soon.

Will it help me if i give the various certification offered by oracle. They are listed here.

If yes, which all should I give and how do I prepare for them.

I will repeat that I am an average programmer, in the sense, haven't worked on big projects, but can do small bits pf programming which is required by my courses.


thanks in advance

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possible duplicate of Are certifications worth it? –  gnat Sep 15 '13 at 5:18
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closed as off-topic by MichaelT, gnat, World Engineer Sep 17 '13 at 0:50



4 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Since you mentioned GRE, you're probably asking about your chances of graduate school admission and how they may be impacted by your Oracle certification.

If that is the case, then the answer is simple: it won't have any impact.

I met quite a few students at my alma mater (I have MS in Computer Science from RPI) who had spent some time in the industry after getting their BS. So, I guess our admissions committee gave some weight to their experience. But, they would certainly not care for any kind of certificate from Oracle or Microsoft or whatever. Also, there were many students at the same time who went to graduate school right after finishing their bachelor's degree.

Your time and money would be much better spent on:

  • studying for your GRE to improve your scores
  • taking GRE Subject test (if your desired university requires it)
  • current coursework (and possibly increasing GPA)
  • researching universities, their CS departments and professors so that you can find the right places to do the research you're interested in.
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Thanks a lot @azheglov... –  shahensha Nov 2 '10 at 17:29
Actually I wasn't able to properly frame my question...but your answer has actually answered all my doubts...thanks a lot.. –  shahensha Nov 2 '10 at 17:31
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I have a very hard time believing that any college admissions board is going to have the slightest regard for an Oracle certification.

Instead, work on becoming an above-average programmer. If you can't work up enough passion about software engineering to work on big projects and to do much, much more than the 'small bits of programming' for your classes, you will probably not enjoy it as a career, nevermind spending even more time in academia.

"Should I get an Oracle certification?" is the wrong question. "Why am I bothering to do this if I don't want to be great at it?" might be the right one.

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American university admission committees don't care about industry certifications in general. I don't know of many tech certs that are worth much in the US. Possibly CISSP, but you need 5 years of industry experience to get it.

Get a 3.5+ GPA and have some research experience.

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Admissions won't care at all about how well you can program, or what certifications you have. They are looking at your grades, GRE scores, and recommendations. Working on interesting research projects as an undergrad or as an intern will help. Major contributions to an open-source project may help.

One place where being an above-average programmer will help is after you get in, when trying to get a Research Assistantship. Professors are looking for students they don't have to train in the fundamentals of programming, so they (the student and the professor) can concentrate on the research question. Even here, certifications won't help much. Getting an A in the course they are teaching will.

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Thanks a lot KeithB –  shahensha Nov 3 '10 at 8:05
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