I have decided to do computer science at university - I'm certainly applying to do it at Cambridge, and I may apply for Imperial, UCL, and Warwick. Does anyone have any good advice on universities (in the UK) that do computer science? Has anyone been to any of the above universities or does anyone have a good opinion about another uni that I haven't thought about? Applications for Cambridge/Oxford/Medical-rubbish need to be at their destinations by the 15th of October, so I need to decide which other universities to apply to pretty quickly...
good luck man.....I hope you get into whichever uni you want
Well, I want to get into Cambridge, but what are the chances of that? Around 1 in 10 people who apply to do Computer Science there actually get in, and I don't think that anybody who isn't due to get at least 3 A's at A-Level would bother applying...so that's why I need advice on the other universities, a level down - effectively the Golden Triangle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Triangle_%28UK_universities%29) and Russell Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Group).
I am here in Canada and I dont know where u live but......if you want, I can tell you everything about universities and colleges here.....
Ok, this may seem like a strange recommendation, but you should apply for Abertay in dundee...It's a good university, and Universities in scotland are free!
Quote from: zionner on September 18, 2007, 02:29:51 PM
Universities in scotland are free!
WHAT?????....tell me a good uni for animation in Scotland and I am moving there.....
Well have a look on Abertays site: http://www.abertay.ac.uk/ all the courses are on there, I will be going there once I have the grades for a degree in Computer Programming
To dhavalmistry: I did mention the UK in the first post.
To zionner: Wha...? Scottish Universities are free? When did that happen? Why has nobody told me until now? Is there any university on the English/Scottish border that is half free? ;) Are Welsh universities free too?
I've just read through the Abertay website. The entrance requirements are worryingly low...
They're not low! at least i dont think so....for my course i need an AABB in higher! (which is diffrent from A levels if u live in england)
also..No i dont think welsh uni's are free..Its a thing the scottish government introduced
Meh. The A-Level requirements are BBC. So far (half way through) I have AAAB and I'm dropping the subject I got a B in (Music Technology). That should leave me with 3xA. Do you have to live in Scotland for the free university thing?
now that, I dont know....
does anyone know about VFS?
Uum...No? lol
I've just typed VFS into Wikipedia and this is the result (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Film_School) that seems most relevant to this topic. If it is what you're talking about, Will, I knew nothing about it until about 5 minutes ago, and now the only information I know about it is from that Wikipedia article.
Back to my questions though please:
- Does anyone have any good advice on universities (in the UK) that do computer science?
- Has anyone been to any of the universities in the first post or does anyone have a good opinion about another uni (in the UK) that I haven't thought about?
- Do you have to live in Scotland for the free university thing?
Thanks your your replies so far! :D
Is there anybody who can help, or did you all go to university in different countries? ???
I'm guessing it could just be a simple lack of brits who have significant knowledge about CS programs at their various universities. I think the internet's various college/university sites would be a better help than this forum.
I've been on most of them already. The main problem is that a lot of universities are very ambiguous about where on the CS/IT scale their degrees are. I want to get a degree that is as pure CS as possible. I was just hoping that somebody on this forum would have random useful information.
That bit about Scottish universities being free was sort of useful, but I'm pretty sure now that you have to live in Scotland for Scottish universities to be free...
Hum. I seem to have applied to three of the world's top 10 universities (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7083292.stm)...And they all want to interview me in the next month. :D
I don't think I'll be on the forums for a while... :'(
Congratulations. Remember us when you're famous. Or remember us, no matter what.
You never know what TG2 could do for your future. ;D
Quote from: Dark Fire on November 08, 2007, 12:50:02 PM
Hum. I seem to have applied to three of the world's top 10 universities (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7083292.stm)...And they all want to interview me in the next month. :D
I don't think I'll be on the forums for a while... :'(
Quote from: Dark Fire on September 18, 2007, 12:31:32 PM
I have decided to do computer science at university - I'm certainly applying to do it at Cambridge, and I may apply for Imperial, UCL, and Warwick. Does anyone have any good advice on universities (in the UK) that do computer science? Has anyone been to any of the above universities or does anyone have a good opinion about another uni that I haven't thought about? Applications for Cambridge/Oxford/Medical-rubbish need to be at their destinations by the 15th of October, so I need to decide which other universities to apply to pretty quickly...
Southampton is a decent one (I'm there now doing a straight Bsc in Comp-Sci), when I applied (last year) they ranked 2nd in the country for the course in the guardian league tables, beating Cambridge into third. the lecturers are good and friendly, the course is well-balanced and if you stay in halls you'll have the time of your life (go Monte!). However UCL ranked higher, and if you can get into Cambridge by all means go, since the name itself will guarantee a job. Durham is quite nice and you might want to try St. Andrew's or Edingburgh.
Not to mention they'll have rebuilt their silicon fabrication labs (world's highest insurance claim for a university) with tons of new kit too.
Oh and if you do a web-based project in the third year you can get help (not like a small chat, but full on help) from a little known man named Sir Tim Berners-Lee (he lectures there occasionally too).
Quote from: Dark Fire on November 08, 2007, 12:50:02 PM
Hum. I seem to have applied to three of the world's top 10 universities (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7083292.stm)...And they all want to interview me in the next month. :D
I don't think I'll be on the forums for a while... :'(
congrads man and good luck, remember show them why you want to go there and why you think getting an education there if for you.
Quote from: Will on November 09, 2007, 02:55:54 PM
congrads man and good luck, remember show them why you want to go there and why you think getting an education there if for you.
Thanks. Indeed, I shall show them exactly why I want to go, and why I like CS - it's easy when you're sure you've applied for the right course at the right universities. :D
Interestingly, I was talking, this evening, to somebody who went from my school to Cambridge last year, and he was telling me the same sort of thing...
Quote from: ProjectX on November 09, 2007, 02:33:15 PM
Southampton is a decent one (I'm there now doing a straight Bsc in Comp-Sci), when I applied (last year) they ranked 2nd in the country for the course in the guardian league tables, beating Cambridge into third. the lecturers are good and friendly, the course is well-balanced and if you stay in halls you'll have the time of your life (go Monte!). However UCL ranked higher, and if you can get into Cambridge by all means go, since the name itself will guarantee a job. Durham is quite nice and you might want to try St. Andrew's or Edingburgh.
Not to mention they'll have rebuilt their silicon fabrication labs (world's highest insurance claim for a university) with tons of new kit too.
Oh and if you do a web-based project in the third year you can get help (not like a small chat, but full on help) from a little known man named Sir Tim Berners-Lee (he lectures there occasionally too).
I've applied to Southampton - I have an 'open day' with an 'informal interview' there in a few weeks. The other 'non-top-10-universities-in-the-world' university that I've applied to is Nottingham, and they sent me an offer virtually straight away, which is handy because I can do the interviews for all of the rest of the universities I've applied to without being too worried.
Thanks for the info on Southampton. :D Exactly which university I will eventually choose depends a lot on the precise nature of the offers I get, which I won't get until after the interviews (all in the next few weeks). Obviously I'm planning to accept any offer from Cambridge, but I really doubt I'll get one - I'm sure there are people out there doing an inhuman number of A-Levels.
I did consider Durham, but I decided against it, as it's in a pretty depressing-looking city. Scotland is just too far and cold, so I ignored all of the Scottish universities.
Oh, wow, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. That's awesome. I'd definitely like to see what he says in his lectures...
Quote from: calico on November 08, 2007, 03:13:49 PM
Congratulations. Remember us when you're famous. Or remember us, no matter what.
You never know what TG2 could do for your future. ;D
Thanks. I doubt I'll be famous - things like that can be more to do with luck than real work. I'll remember Terragen forever, as I wrote my first decent software for Terragen (the now-obselete Emptosoft Rendering Tool for Terragen (v0.9)). If I can, I might try to do some Terragen-related stuff in in a project, or maybe just to keep my programming skills up-to-scratch. I'll definitely remember these forums and the people who use them - I've had quite a lot of fun discussing things here since I joined...
Make sure you lot don't forget me over the next few weeks! ;)
Then make sure you come back. ;D
Quote from: Dark Fire on November 09, 2007, 03:11:40 PM
Make sure you lot don't forget me over the next few weeks! ;)
Sir Tim isn't a pemanent member of faculty, he comes and goes and drops in occasionally.
One of our lecturers is head of the British Computer Society though. Well, you're pretty much guaranteed a good degree no matter where you go, so my advice is choose a uni that has lecturers you really like.
Oh and that southampton uni interview doesn't actually change your offer in any way, it's just a chance for you to chat with the lecturers. I turned up on the wrong day and had a long chat about computer graphics with the senior tutor here (a legend, by the way).
Quote from: calico on November 09, 2007, 03:49:32 PM
Then make sure you come back. ;D
OK, OK. However, I think this is the last time I'll be back until December.
Quote from: ProjectX on November 12, 2007, 02:44:39 PM
Sir Tim isn't a pemanent member of faculty, he comes and goes and drops in occasionally.
That's better than not having him at all...
Quote from: ProjectX on November 12, 2007, 02:44:39 PM
One of our lecturers is head of the British Computer Society though.
Now that's something interesting that I didn't know. BCS accreditation was something I was watching out for when choosing universities (most of the good universities have accredited courses anyway).
Quote from: ProjectX on November 12, 2007, 02:44:39 PM
Well, you're pretty much guaranteed a good degree no matter where you go, so my advice is choose a uni that has lecturers you really like.
I will - that's why my mind isn't made up yet. Most of my interviews are built into an open day, which should give me a chance to find out more about the lecturers themselves (the prospectuses already explain the courses pretty well, so I don't need to worry about finding out about the areas of the subject I'll have to study).
Quote from: ProjectX on November 12, 2007, 02:44:39 PM
Oh and that southampton uni interview doesn't actually change your offer in any way, it's just a chance for you to chat with the lecturers. I turned up on the wrong day and had a long chat about computer graphics with the senior tutor here (a legend, by the way).
Really? Are they witholding my offer at the moment just to put me under pressure? Maybe they want me to do the MEng course - I wasn't sure whether or not to apply for the MEng course because no university seems to make it clear exactly what makes an MEng applicant different from a BSc applicant...
Turning up on the wrong day almost seems like a good idea because, as you said, you got to have a long chat...
Anyway, next week I'll find out about Southampton - this week is Nottingham week.
Have you already got you grades? If so, then you should have an offer within 3 months (ish) of sending off your UCAS, if not then you'll have to wait a bit longer before you get your unconditional. Actually, the unconditional one might hinge a bit on the interview, but it's not like they ask you to answer maths questions or anything. Just chat with them, seem interested in the course, get to know the modules and languages available, that sort of thing and it'll be easy.
Oh, and good luck with Nottingham!
Hi Dark Fire,
seem to have joined this discussion late - but I'd push my own University - Manchester. It has an excellent CS school (one of only 6 to be rated 5* in latest evaluation), here's the link - http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/
Having said that, if I remember correctly Matt did CS at Nottingham. (correct me if I'm wrong Matt), and he seems to be doing rather well!
Either way good luck.
Kevin F
Quote from: Kevin F on November 13, 2007, 08:58:27 AM
Having said that, if I remember correctly Matt did CS at Nottingham. (correct me if I'm wrong Matt), and he seems to be doing rather well!
Who, me? Nah, I did joint CS+Maths at the University of York. I didn't get the most out of the course (not really a fault of the university), but it was a great place to be.
Matt
Quote from: ProjectX on November 13, 2007, 05:29:02 AM
Have you already got you grades?
Oh, and good luck with Nottingham!
No, I haven't got my grades yet, and thanks.
Quote from: Kevin F on November 13, 2007, 08:58:27 AM
Hi Dark Fire,
seem to have joined this discussion late - but I'd push my own University - Manchester.
Either way good luck.
Sorry, but I had to apply by the 15th of October, so it's a bit too late. I did consider Manchester, but:
1. They ask for high grades, and yet there are more prestigious universities that ask for the same grades.
2. I think that Manchester is the furthest north I've ever been.
3. Thanks.
Quote from: Matt on November 29, 2007, 09:29:37 PM
Quote from: Kevin F on November 13, 2007, 08:58:27 AM
Having said that, if I remember correctly Matt did CS at Nottingham. (correct me if I'm wrong Matt), and he seems to be doing rather well!
Who, me? Nah, I did joint CS+Maths at the University of York. I didn't get the most out of the course (not really a fault of the university), but it was a great place to be.
Matt
Again, I considered York, but I chose universities that are further south, more famous (in my opinion) and that I consequently know better.
Anyway, it's all over now...except for Cambridge, which should be fun.
Oh, by the way, at Southampton I was interviewed in the office of Sir Tim Berners-Lee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee) (he wasn't there, so I didn't meet him).