Can't decide which University Computer Science course to take!
Okay I have gotten these offers:
Manchester CS Bsc with Yr Ind: AAB
Warwick CS Meng : AAA
Bristol CS Meng: AAA
York CS with Embedded Systems Meng with Yr Ind: AAA
Cambridge CS Bsc: TBC (interview 10th December!)
and I cannot decide which uni to accept when the time comes! I have no doubt I can get the grades btw.
I really liked Manchester's open day and they're rated higher than the other unis I've applied for (excluding Cambridge) on http://www.topuniversities.com/ for CS. But I have this nagging feeling (probably because they offer AAB and my interviewer told me that most people who go only just scrape the grades), that it won't be as good as others.
I absolutely loved Bristol as a city, but unfortunately their CS program isn't IET accredited (The IET are offering 1000 pounds to all students who take an IET accredited course and get AAA or higher in their A-Levels), but their CS and Electronics one is. I do like electronics (hence applying to do 'with embedded systems' at york), but I'm worried that the CS and E course and Bristol might not have enough CS for me.
I think I liked the york course/department the most (not much in it though), but the place as a city doesn't really appeal to me all that much.....
As for Cambridge, obviously the carrear prospects are amazing, but I'm not even sure if I would like the snooty/elitist atmosphere you hear it has. Also I doubt I'll even get an offer seeing how hard the interviews seem to be, nor am I sure if I'd except it even if I did get one.
Overall I really like programming, maths and lots of the cool CS concepts I've heard about, such as machine learning and the ideas behind optimizing algorithms etc. But my worst nightmare would be to get an IT job maintaing a server or something like that when I'm older...
I also really enjoy sciences and ideally would want to go back to and take a natural science course or something in the furture, although that will probably never happen :P.
Any thoughts guys, I just don't know what to do?!?!
Manchester CS Bsc with Yr Ind: AAB
Warwick CS Meng : AAA
Bristol CS Meng: AAA
York CS with Embedded Systems Meng with Yr Ind: AAA
Cambridge CS Bsc: TBC (interview 10th December!)
and I cannot decide which uni to accept when the time comes! I have no doubt I can get the grades btw.
I really liked Manchester's open day and they're rated higher than the other unis I've applied for (excluding Cambridge) on http://www.topuniversities.com/ for CS. But I have this nagging feeling (probably because they offer AAB and my interviewer told me that most people who go only just scrape the grades), that it won't be as good as others.
I absolutely loved Bristol as a city, but unfortunately their CS program isn't IET accredited (The IET are offering 1000 pounds to all students who take an IET accredited course and get AAA or higher in their A-Levels), but their CS and Electronics one is. I do like electronics (hence applying to do 'with embedded systems' at york), but I'm worried that the CS and E course and Bristol might not have enough CS for me.
I think I liked the york course/department the most (not much in it though), but the place as a city doesn't really appeal to me all that much.....
As for Cambridge, obviously the carrear prospects are amazing, but I'm not even sure if I would like the snooty/elitist atmosphere you hear it has. Also I doubt I'll even get an offer seeing how hard the interviews seem to be, nor am I sure if I'd except it even if I did get one.
Overall I really like programming, maths and lots of the cool CS concepts I've heard about, such as machine learning and the ideas behind optimizing algorithms etc. But my worst nightmare would be to get an IT job maintaing a server or something like that when I'm older...
I also really enjoy sciences and ideally would want to go back to and take a natural science course or something in the furture, although that will probably never happen :P.
Any thoughts guys, I just don't know what to do?!?!
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by cawthorne
As for Cambridge, obviously the carrear prospects are amazing, but I'm not even sure if I would like the snooty/elitist atmosphere you hear it has. Also I doubt I'll even get an offer seeing how hard the interviews seem to be, nor am I sure if I'd except it even if I did get one.
As for Cambridge, obviously the carrear prospects are amazing, but I'm not even sure if I would like the snooty/elitist atmosphere you hear it has. Also I doubt I'll even get an offer seeing how hard the interviews seem to be, nor am I sure if I'd except it even if I did get one.
If you do end up getting an offer from Cambridge, I would suggest taking it. There really isn't a "snooty/elitist" atmosphere there, excepting a couple groups of people, who you can just ignore. This is especially true for Computer Science.
Original post by cawthorne
Overall I really like programming, maths and lots of the cool CS concepts I've heard about, such as machine learning and the ideas behind optimizing algorithms etc. But my worst nightmare would be to get an IT job maintaing a server or something like that when I'm older...
Overall I really like programming, maths and lots of the cool CS concepts I've heard about, such as machine learning and the ideas behind optimizing algorithms etc. But my worst nightmare would be to get an IT job maintaing a server or something like that when I'm older...
If you're interested in machine learning, there are a couple places where you can take a peek already. Try Coursera, or even Caltech's class. Just give them a Google.
Superficially, I was interested in it as well, until I realized it's just applied statistics (K-means, PCA, linear / logistic regression, SVMs). If you're interested in statistics though, it could be very interesting for you.
If you're worried about job prospects, don't be! Job-wise, computer science is probably the best field you can be in right now. Although, if you're in CS for just the job prospects or the money, you'll be disappointed.
Original post by cawthorne
I also really enjoy sciences and ideally would want to go back to and take a natural science course or something in the furture, although that will probably never happen :P.
I also really enjoy sciences and ideally would want to go back to and take a natural science course or something in the furture, although that will probably never happen :P.
That's another reason to go with Cambridge. Take a look at this. You can take 50% CS, 25% natsci mathematics, then 25% natsci the first year.
Hope I helped.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by dvdhsu
If you do end up getting an offer from Cambridge, I would suggest taking it. There really isn't a "snooty/elitist" atmosphere there, excepting a couple groups of people, who you can just ignore. This is especially true for Computer Science.
If you're interested in machine learning, there are a couple places where you can take a peek already. Try Coursera, or even Caltech's class. Just give them a Google.
Superficially, I was interested in it as well, until I realized it's just applied statistics (K-means, PCA, linear / logistic regression, SVMs). If you're interested in statistics though, it could be very interesting for you.
If you're worried about job prospects, don't be! Job-wise, computer science is probably the best field you can be in right now. Although, if you're in CS for just the job prospects or the money, you'll be disappointed.
That's another reason to go with Cambridge. Take a look at this. You can take 50% CS, 25% natsci mathematics, then 25% natsci the first year.
Hope I helped.
If you're interested in machine learning, there are a couple places where you can take a peek already. Try Coursera, or even Caltech's class. Just give them a Google.
Superficially, I was interested in it as well, until I realized it's just applied statistics (K-means, PCA, linear / logistic regression, SVMs). If you're interested in statistics though, it could be very interesting for you.
If you're worried about job prospects, don't be! Job-wise, computer science is probably the best field you can be in right now. Although, if you're in CS for just the job prospects or the money, you'll be disappointed.
That's another reason to go with Cambridge. Take a look at this. You can take 50% CS, 25% natsci mathematics, then 25% natsci the first year.
Hope I helped.
Wow, thanks for that
.Thinking about it I do really like the course structure for the first year at Cambridge. I always thought it is a shame how we are forced to specialize at uni, so the 25% Maths, 25% Nat Sci is very appealing.
I started watching a Machine Learning lecture course provided by stanford and so far I am enjoying it
. Although I do prefer pure mathematics, to statistics.I better get preparing for my interview then!
If anyone else has any input on which uni I should go for, presuming I do/don't get a Cambridge offer your input is very much appreciated!
Original post by cawthorne
I'm actually the opposite, so I'm applying to Oxford instead.
Original post by cawthorne
. Although I do prefer pure mathematics, to statistics.Don't worry, the Coursera one isn't very statistics intense by itself; he glosses over many topics. I actually like it better this way, since those who are interested in the math can go off and learn it themselves (off the internet), while those who aren't quite interested can just watch the lectures by themselves.
By the way, if you want to take a look at some programming assignments, here are mine.
Good luck with your interview!
Original post by dvdhsu
I'm actually the opposite, so I'm applying to Oxford instead.
Don't worry, the Coursera one isn't very statistics intense by itself; he glosses over many topics. I actually like it better this way, since those who are interested in the math can go off and learn it themselves (off the internet), while those who aren't quite interested can just watch the lectures by themselves.
By the way, if you want to take a look at some programming assignments, here are mine.
Good luck with your interview!
Don't worry, the Coursera one isn't very statistics intense by itself; he glosses over many topics. I actually like it better this way, since those who are interested in the math can go off and learn it themselves (off the internet), while those who aren't quite interested can just watch the lectures by themselves.
By the way, if you want to take a look at some programming assignments, here are mine.
Good luck with your interview!
Thanks!
So are you applying to Oxford for the 2013 entry? When's your interview?!
I may have a look at those assignments sometime soon
.Not that you asked, but here's my website with some stuff I've done
. Look in the projects section!www.cawcoders.com
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