Oxford Computer Science (CS) Students and Applicants

This thread is quite empty...but I have some questions:
- What building are most/all lectures held? Is it the Wolfson building?
- Why is the acceptance rate so low? It one of the lowest out of all the courses so are there plans to increase the number of CS offers given out anytime soon?
- What colleges have the greatest quota for the number of CS offers they can give out? I assume St Catherine's would be up there but any others?
- I've gotten interested in CS and programming very late so how do I display my interest in the subject? Should I learn the basics of some programming concepts or go further and actually learn a language over the summer and create something from it?

EDIT: Also, why is the Oxford Computer Science rep/user on this forum banned?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 161

fluteflute

19

Original post by KingKumar

This thread is quite empty...but I have some questions:
- What building are most/all lectures held? Is it the Wolfson building?

Hi

:waves:

Yes that's right. (You'll probably get about eight lectures in total in the Mathematics Institute, but the vast majority are in the Wolfson building complex.)

Original post by KingKumar

- Why is the acceptance rate so low? It one of the lowest out of all the courses so are there plans to increase the number of CS offers given out anytime soon?

Primarily because the number of applicants has increased dramatically (I think the number tripled over three or four years), partly driven by a general increase in interest in CS (i.e. in schools and the media), and partly more applying for Oxford CS.

Note though that not everyone who applies has a fighting chance: quite a few apply without realising how mathematical focussed the Oxford course is, and without a strong mathematical foundation wouldn't enjoy the course even if they were given an offer!

But yes, the issue is ultimately a lack of spaces. It's tricky because more-or-less every extra CS place means another subject giving up a place. And the Oxford organisational structure means you can't get one committee to decide to (say) reduce the number of places for Classics across the university, but instead you have to get each college to individually decide to redistribute a few spaces. And it's also dependent on having sufficient teaching staff (obviously tutorials of two students with one tutor is harder to scale than just sticking extra people in a large lecture theatre). But I understand some exciting progress is being made here (and it needs to be!)

Original post by KingKumar

- What colleges have the greatest quota for the number of CS offers they can give out? I assume St Catherine's would be up there but any others?

St Catz and Keble are the largest (if I remember correctly). But more people apply to the colleges with more space, and all the colleges can look at all the applicants, so don't base your college choice purely upon where you think you'll get in - it really doesn't work that way. On the other hand, you might like the idea of having more CS students around in your college.

Original post by KingKumar

- I've gotten interested in CS and programming very late so how do I display my interest in the subject? Should I learn the basics of some programming concepts or go further and actually learn a language over the summer and create something from it?

Most simply: talk about what has interested you! And as for anything more to do: well do whatever takes *your* fancy.

Original post by KingKumar

EDIT: Also, why is the Oxford Computer Science rep/user on this forum banned?

TSR suddenly decided it wanted them to pay to use the site, so they're gone :frown:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 162

Xabier

14

Original post by fluteflute

St Catz and Keble are the largest (if I remember correctly). But more people apply to the colleges with more space, and all the colleges can look at all the applicants, so don't base your college choice purely upon where you think you'll get in - it really doesn't work that way. On the other hand, you might like the idea of having more CS students around in your college.

OK thanks for all the help! :biggrin:

My main reasoning for looking at the colleges with more CS students was really so (if I do go) then I would have some help from others doing the same as me maybe with problem sheets or something.

Reply 163

gavinlowe

11

FluteFlute has given an excellent response to most of your questions. But to add one thing (seeing as you asked about Catz :wink:

)

Original post by KingKumar

- What colleges have the greatest quota for the number of CS offers they can give out? I assume St Catherine's would be up there but any others?

We expect to have a quota of eight full-time-equivalent places for 2016, probably made up of six straight CS and four joint school students. I believe that will make us the largest college.

As FluteFlute said, Keble are probably the next largest, followed by Worcester.

Gavin

Reply 164

Xabier

14

For Computer Science, would my chances be worse if I dropped Chemistry (I find it boring) and only did Maths, Further Maths and Physics for A2? I imagine the majority of applicants do 4 or even 5 A2s and doing only 3 may look bad in comparison.

Reply 165

fluteflute

19

Original post by KingKumar

For Computer Science, would my chances be worse if I dropped Chemistry (I find it boring) and only did Maths, Further Maths and Physics for A2? I imagine the majority of applicants do 4 or even 5 A2s and doing only 3 may look bad in comparison.

No that would be fine :smile:

More applicants do 'only' 3 A2s than you'd think.

Reply 166

NoTreason

9

According to 'thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk' (http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?s=Computer+Science), the entry standard for Oxford and cambridge students to Computer Science was 618 and 584 respectively. I would expect Oxford students for the course to acheive higher than that. Can you shed light on why the average is there, so considerably behind Cambridge, and why have the dropped from 647 the year before?

Thanks

Reply 167

fluteflute

19

Original post by NoTreason

According to 'thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk' (http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?s=Computer+Science), the entry standard for Oxford and cambridge students to Computer Science was 618 and 584 respectively. I would expect Oxford students for the course to acheive higher than that. Can you shed light on why the average is there, so considerably behind Cambridge, and why have the dropped from 647 the year before?

Thanks

560 is the equivalent of getting A*A*A*A* at A level. Not really sure why you would expect Oxford students to be higher than that? Sure, you can get higher, but having more is hardly necessary to thrive at Oxford or Cambridge. I think I had 870. Which shows how tiny the gap between 584 and 618 is. (e.g. a points difference of 42 might just mean getting a graded qualification for playing a musical instrument)

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 168

username1831327

2

Any other CS 2016 applicants finding question 1 the hardest on the MAT out of 1 2 5 6 7???

Reply 169

Xabier

14

Original post by lordyP

Any other CS 2016 applicants finding question 1 the hardest on the MAT out of 1 2 5 6 7???

Parts of 1 for me. I come across some parts of Q1 which I can answer almost immediately but then the next one maybe takes me 10x the amount to figure out what method to do exactly - I guess I should skip these in the exam and come back to them at the end?. I'm finding 6 and 7 surprisingly straightforward so far, but I've only done a few papers.

Reply 170

CSLady

11

Original post by KingKumar

Parts of 1 for me. I come across some parts of Q1 which I can answer almost immediately but then the next one maybe takes me 10x the amount to figure out what method to do exactly - I guess I should skip these in the exam and come back to them at the end?. I'm finding 6 and 7 surprisingly straightforward so far, but I've only done a few papers.

What did you think of this years computer science questions I thought the standard who's lying, who's telling the truth question (vamps and werewolfs) a bit confusing. Question 2 did not go very well at all

Reply 171

such_a_lady

16

Hey,

My blog is currently running a guest series on applying to Oxford for various subjects. Today's post is about maths and computer science - I know this thread is just CS but hopefully it should be useful anyway :smile:

I'll create a separate thread for the blog links but thought I'd post it here too in case anyone was interested :smile:

https://carambalache.wordpress.com/2016/09/05/applying-to-oxford-maths-computer-science/

Reply 172

bigmansouf

20

what are the reading list for computer science at oxford?
and where can i find them?

Reply 173

gavinlowe

11

Original post by bigmansouf

what are the reading list for computer science at oxford?
and where can i find them?

The suggested reading list is at
http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/why_oxford/background_reading.html.

Gavin

Reply 174

bigmansouf

20

Original post by gavinlowe

The suggested reading list is at
http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/why_oxford/background_reading.html.

Gavin

thank you

Reply 175

Sporeray

7

If i bump this will it come back to life?

Reply 176

Sporeray

7

I'm applying for Computer Science and Philosophy and i was wondering where the best place would be to find computer science style interview practice questions. (other than oxford's website)

Oxford Computer Science (CS) Students and Applicants

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