University offers I've received

T...

Nice one.
I just had a look at the RH course and it looks fairly technical but very interesting, especially in years 2 and 3. Also sounds like they do a good range of programming languages; java, c++, prolog and matlab are all mentioned.

If it were me RH would be my first choice, especially with that very achievable offer..... and I would say it is the more respected university (being UOL), I would say it is probably above Leicester too, so no loss there.

I know I'm forever banging on about maths.... but if the Access is your only mathematical foundation then I would contact the admissions tutor and ask for details on the maths they teach, so you can prepare yourself in the couple of months you have off after the Access course. (I'm assuming your course is like mine was and only has 5 or 6 level three credits in maths).

How much programming are you doing on your course? - We did about 6 credits of programming with 'C' and although I've been doing JavaScript at Uni, I found knowing about data types, loops, functions, and some techy terminology was a real help. If you aren't doing any programming then it certainly wouldn't hurt to just explore a few basics if you have time, but it isn't essential as they will teach from scratch.

If you suffer IBS and anxiety to a level where it has an impact on your performance then I would say you should speak to your GP; get it on the record now. Next year you may well be entitled to DSA when applying for student finance (but they do need medical evidence).

DSA can get you equiptment or reasonable allowances made so that you can perform your best at Uni. For example, I suffer anxiety and I get a little extra exam time and to sit exams in a smaller room with less people, this is a real help. DSA can also provide funds for study skills or counselling support if needed.

Congrats on the offer :-)

Wow awesome, you really are knowledgeable BigV. That DSA scheme looks like it could be very helpful to me, especially since I have zero concentration due to obsessional thoughts/self judgement etc (anxiety). Yep my access course sounds exactly like yours. I myself am already worried that when the course starts I will be one step behind a-level maths students, so I will definitely get some form of practice in during the summer. By the way BigV which uni are you at? Was it Manchester? Sorry BigV but could you provide me with the link you found of the modules they do in years 1-3 I couldn't find it, god I feel stupid.

I was starting to doubt though because I can't really find any comments or reviews mentioning computer science at rhul. I guess it isn't that popular over there especially since I've heard from lots of ex students and current students that the male to female ratio is something around 30-70. One bad negative seems to be that the area is dead.

Hi, no I'm at Loughborough..... male to female ratio for straight computer science is heavily weighted towards male at most universities I believe.
Sounds like DSA could be helpful for you, so do get the medical evidence in place and apply when the time comes; a few minor adjustments can really help you to relax and perform your best in exams and what not.

The two links I found with info on the RH course were both in PDF format for some reason:
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/studyhere/progspecs/computerscience/ug/programmespecification-computerscienceundergraduate.pdf

http://www.rhul.ac.uk/studyhere/brochures/computerscienceug.pdf

There is also this link which gives details on some of the course modules/units:
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/computerscience/prospectivestudents/undergraduate/departmentcourseunits.aspx

To be honest their website isn't the best, you have to kinda of go around in circles to find the info. I'm lead to believe that CS maths is not the same as A-level maths anyway, so everyone is learning new stuff, it is just a case of how much background knowledge is required. The course info they provide doesn't waffle on and on about maths like some universities do, so I would assume they teach from scratch and it isn't a massive component of the course. Looks like they really appreciate any programming experience though, so the Access course will serve you well in that respect.

Ultimately a good uni like RH wouldn't let you in if they didn't think you were capable (they are not a bums on seats institution). Also, unistats data shows progression from year one to year two at RH is high (i.e. very few drop outs) and student satisfaction is high, so that would suggest that the teaching is good.

To be honest I'm quite jealous as the course sounds great. My course is about 50% computing with 50% 'Information Science', the computing is good but the information science stuff is much more business / social science oriented than I had expected.

Just make sure you get your merits/distinctions required now.

I shudder to think what you are taught in Computer Science these days it has moved on so much. When I did A level we had to do Boolean Algebra, and construct various standard configurations for full adders, half adders and binary coded decimal adders from NOR and NAND gates, standard fetch execute cycle, and programming in machine code and BASIC. We also studied computational mathematics such as solving polynomials with the Newton-Raphson method etc.
Back then many Uni's did not recognise A level Computer Science so 4 of my offers only asked for grades in Maths and Physics, Exeter was the exception. But it was worth me swapping to it from Chemistry at the end of year one in 6th form (I loathed the chemistry teacher ) because of the 11 people who did A level maths at the failing school I attended I was the only one who passed, I did the computational mathematics question as one of the "big ones" in part 2 of the 2nd big paper, this had not been covered by the maths teacher (it is questionable whether this individual covered anything at all!) but I had done it in Computer Science. I also had the pleasure of physically holding a piece of ferrite core memory, I bet they dont teach that any more lol.

Anyway I did not go to Uni for financial reasons, and started work programming on an IBM mainframe that had just been upgraded to 3 megabytes central storage.........those were the days....... We were still submitted a few jobs with punch card input. As a programmer I had to book one hour at a time in the central pool of 6 VDUs for compiling and testing the first cut of a new programme was hand written on coding sheets and keyed to disk by the punch room ladies. Disk storage management was also fun we decided which cylinders on which packs to put particular files on for performance, there was no cache, so delay for rotational positional miss was a real concern. I still have my course notes from the 1 week course I did on that........sad but true.

What a crazy tale about your Bath uni interview ES!! BSc (Eng) Nuclear Reactor Science and Technology eh? Crikey, I bet that was tough (although you didn't go?) Degrees were hard back then!! Of course many of the people doing a course like that today would be trying to get into investment banking!!