Coursera courses relevant in the application?

[libertyy]

Hi everyone!

 

I am a happy user of coursera in order to learn new things within and beyond computer science. 

 

What do you think, how do admission committees look at coursera courses, if you state them in your application?

Do you think that good grades in relevant courses (maybe offered by top universities), have a weight in your application?

How about if you apply to work in the group which offered the course you took, and you got a certificate signed by the instructor?

 

Does anybody maybe already have some experience with this?

 

Looking forward to hear peoples' thoughts on this!

[Pauli]

What do you think, how do admission committees look at coursera courses, if you state them in your application?

 

Don't list Coursera courses in your application. Better to state the skills that you have from taking those courses without mentioning that it was through Coursera.

 

Do you think that good grades in relevant courses (maybe offered by top universities), have a weight in your application?

 

It's relevant for your application to be considered, but not to be accepted. It'll have to be balanced from the strengths of the other application components.

 

How about if you apply to work in the group which offered the course you took, and you got a certificate signed by the instructor?

 

You can mention it as prior research experience. They'll care more of what you actually did in the group, not that you happened to be in the group.

Edited October 18, 2013 by Pauli