Computer Science (thoughts on the course and 2016 entrants chat)

Hey there,

I've just finished my first year at Salford and I was absolutely pleased with the course. All of the lecturers I've had throughout my first year were committed to their teaching and it didn't feel as daunting as I'd expected, some of the lecturers even knew me by name which is pretty impressive considering the amount of people they must deal with on a day to day basis.

In terms of content, the modules I've studied this year are as follows (they assume no prior knowledge in all of the first year modules and will teach you almost everything you need to know from scratch):


In terms of the facilities, Peel Park (where the course is based) is a great campus that is being completely redeveloped as we speak. There's a huge new building opening at the heart of the campus and brand new accommodation recently built too. Even the library is being completely redeveloped over the coming months. The campus is literally in a park which makes it glorious to enjoy in the spring and summer months. To be honest, the building that our subject is based in is quite aged and looking a bit dreary in most places. However, the top floor computer science foyer and surrounding labs have been completely overhauled this year and you genuinely wouldn't believe you're in the same building. In addition, 99% of my lectures were in the recently refurbished Chapman building which is completely modern and up to date and so it really does feel like quite a modern environment, despite my concerns at first.

Finally, I'll just say that our programme leader is one of the most passionate people about the subject and your education that you'll meet. He knows everybody by name and does a huge amount of teaching despite his probably numerous other responsibilities, he goes the extra mile by creating things such as video walkthroughs of classes and tests. I believe he even does his research on education! He's a great guy.

I hope I've given you a little insight into my time at Salford, if you can't already tell, I've loved it!

How much did the computer system internals take up of the course?

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20 Credits.

All of the modules in the first year are worth 20 credits except for programming which is worth 40.

Any other questions feel free to ask

Oh so they're all sort of equal time between them, except more emphasis on programming? Are there any other courses that deal with computer system internals more?

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Yeah, the idea is that you get a good knowledge of how computers actually work so that everything that you learn in the other modules is underpinned by a good theoretical understanding. But the degree is primarily programming based.

You could expect more to do with computer internals from courses at russel group Unis such as Manchester or Liverpool, but obviously there is a lot more theoretical thinking required to understand computer internals in depth and therefore greater entry requirements such as A Level maths. You also start to get into the realms of electrical engineering if you have a bigger focus on computer internals.

So far I would be pleased doing compsci then. I'm just a bit iffy on the management project group work bit. Databases are alright, as I've covered that a lot at A-level ict. I love maths and especially the fundamental side of computer science and I've seen some combined courses, one being Maths and Computer science at Leeds Beckett. UCAS only gives sort of general information basically saying it's maths and then computer science haha. Do you have any insight on what the combined course works like? I'll have to look at the Russell unis then as well

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Honestly, I've got no idea what a combined course would be like, although if you're not sure what you want to do after university I'd imagine having a course combined with Maths would also give you a lot more generalized opportunities that aren't all necessarily computer science.

The professional development and practices module was honestly my least favorite part of the first year but funnily enough the one that I got the best marks in, haha. I HATE group work and I wasn't really looking forward to it, but we basically had a class together every week and did the rest on a facebook group chat and so it wasnt that bad. Any course will have some element of professional development practices because they need it to be accredited by the British Computing Society. It's pretty much things like gantt charts and the software development lifecycle and stuff like that which you've probably covered in ICT (I did ICT too). On the bright side, there's none of that rubbish in the second and third years where it counts!

Apparently in the second and third years the course gets a lot more mathsy. There's modules in algorithms and data mining and things like that. In the third year there's a computer graphics module which is actually an option on the Salford Maths degree! We all had to do a pretty basic maths exam in the first week of this year to determine whether we need to do extra maths classes before our second and third years.

Hope that paints a better picture of what's involved

Thanks so much for all the info! I picked Salford as one of my options because of the more mathsy modules later on in the degree. I do A-Level Maths, Computing and Chemistry, so I'm happy to see a lot of familiar stuff in the first year modules (I actually taught myself SQL and used it in my coursework, which was essentially a DBMS for my year group).

If you don't mind, I'd also like to ask what modules are you looking to pick and why (if you've decided)? It'd just be interesting to know. And how did you find Salford for socialising? I've booked accommodation in the PPQ and I have a friend who lived their this year for her first year in BioChem, but I'd like to know from a CompSci person whether you had any difficulty making friends/what your cohort was like.

In our second year we all do the same modules which are Data Structures and Algorithms, Server Side Programming, AI and Data Mining, Networking, Software Architectures and Software Projects with Agile Techniques.

In the final year we do a project, computer graphics, software quality management and then two modules from Advanced Web Dev, Info Security, Mobile Development, and Virtual Reality/3D games. I'm quite undecided still about the optional modules in my last year, I used to be all for advanced web dev and mobile development, but I'm also leaning more towards the info security module too because apparently there's big money in that!

Also we have the option to do a placement year between our second and third years

I live at home and drive into Salford every day during term time, and I have a group of friends of about four of us but you get to know and speak to various other people on the course too. My original friendship group came from a groupchat we made from a Salford Freshers facebook group though, so it may be worth checking that out and you can even ask to be put in the same workshop groups on the first day! There's also the computing society that meet weekly and do all sorts of interesting stuff. I've had a drink with them a couple of times but plan on getting more involved in my second year.

Finally I'll just say that my original offer for salford was conditional but it then got changed to unconditional. The only thing I can put that down to is the fact that I attended both the open day and the applicant day, I didn't even study computing or maths at A Level!

Hope this helps

Hi!

Just wanted to say thanks for all the information! Salford was my insurance choice, but I pretty much knew I wasn't getting into my firm haha. All of your comments really helped me make peace with not getting into my firm and I'm super excited to start! Re-reading this thread has helped make me less upset about my less than expected grades and has reminded me why I chose Salford in the first place.

Thanks for all the info and advice!