Udacity Nanodegrees are a total game changer!!!

Hey, IT experts.
I have a question about a potential risk I might take if it actually pays off (besides just gaining knowledge).

Here’s the situation:

https://www.udacity.com/nanodegree
https://www.udacity.com/course/data-...odegree--nd002
http://www.quora.com/Reviews-of-Data...degree-Udacity
http://blog.udacity.com/2015/03/udac...-answered.html

I am ready to pay up and put in the work to finish these courses, but how much will they actually be worth in the real market? Am I just throwing a few thousand hard-earned dollars down a drain that's deeper than the current state of the American economy?

Anyone have experience here? What do you know? What's the verdict?
How much are you all going to gatekeep and talk down to me? I'm interested. 🍿🍿🍿

Learn stuff like this—and pay for it—if you’re actually planning on working for a major US corporation somewhere.

Nah, I'm good, thanks. Honestly, I just get the feeling that everything is totally cooked 😁

Look, investing in yourself is always the smartest move, but you don't need to go broke right out of the gate. Start with some free courses online, or check out what's being offered on Collective, Black Egg & Co. They have some solid options at decent discounts if you're interested. Once you've leveled up, if you still can't land a job with those new skills, it's never too late to pivot into something like this.

But dropping that much cash right at the beginning? I wouldn't do it...

https://www.udacity.com/course/intro...odegree--nd000
Program Structure
Project Goals

Throughout this Nanodegree, you'll document your progress by building a custom website from scratch. By the finish line, you’ll have a live, functional site ready to show off to anyone. Your site will:
Look High-End

You'll master CSS, a styling language that lets you customize the look and feel of your site instantly. Through CSS, you’ll also grasp a core pillar of American computer science: using abstraction to stop repeating yourself.
Host Video Content

Beyond just taking notes, you’ll learn to use Python to embed videos—whether they're from YouTube or other platforms—straight into your pages. Learning Python means mastering procedural thinking, a fundamental logic used in every single coding language out there.
Provide a Great UX

Even if you know how to tweak the underlying code, your visitors won't. You’ll build a submission form that lets users contribute content to your site (on your terms). Handling user input will give you a real-world look at how the internet functions and how developers build massive systems by leveraging existing code libraries.
The Learning Path

This Nanodegree is broken down into five distinct courses. Each one introduces new, versatile technical skills. To wrap up each course, you’ll hit a project milestone where you apply everything you've learned to your website, then submit it for professional feedback.
Phase 1: Web Fundamentals and Layout

You'll start with the basics of internet architecture and learn how HTML serves as the foundation of the web. For your first milestone, you'll combine HTML and CSS to give your site a polished, professional appearance.
Phase 2: Programming Logic

This is where actual programming begins. You'll dive into Python to write commands that a computer can follow. Once you clear this stage, you'll have serious leverage: the ability to automate nearly any repetitive digital task. Your milestone will involve writing a script that generates web pages automatically.
Phase 3: Mastering Abstraction

Next, you'll shift your mindset toward Object-Oriented Programming. This approach allows you to build complex software by repurposing or tweaking code written by others. As part of your project, you'll learn to embed YouTube videos directly into your layout.
Phase 4: Full-Stack Development

Until now, your site has only lived on your local machine. In this phase, you'll learn how the internet actually connects people. You'll write code for "servers" to handle requests, eventually launching your site to the public. You'll also build a "back end," allowing anyone in the US or abroad to view—and potentially edit—your content.
Phase 5: Advanced Programming Concepts

By this stage, you'll have mastered the core essentials of software development. This final phase provides a high-speed overview of advanced topics, such as:

JavaScript: basically the backbone of the internet.
APIs: These let developers pull in external data streams effortlessly to power their apps.
Recursion: One of the wildest concepts you'll encounter in code.
Parallel Computing: Using massive clusters of machines to crush heavy workloads faster.
Solving Complex Issues: Real-world hurdles start popping up once you move past basic scripts into actual large-scale software.
Responsive Design: Ensuring a site doesn't look broken whether it's on a MacBook or an iPhone.

For the final project milestone, pick one of these topics and dive in by adding custom features to your site.