Good place to study BSc Computer science

Hi,

Does anyone know the top 5 universities to study computer science. Which unis have good teaching/facilities etc.

Thanks for any help.

With an MEng you can take more specialist units than in previous years and there's also generally some kind of project involved.

Given that with a BSc in Compsci from a top uni you can generally walk into a job paying 30k/year though, the cost of continuing studies is quite high (factoring in as well another £9000 + living costs).

From what I've heard, employers aren't too concerned about BSc vs. MEng.

I would not recommend doing a MEng, it's not worth it and employers really don't care about it. They'd rather you have 1 year of experience than an extra year at school tbh.

Which is why I think it's really good to take an industrial placement year as part of your course if you can. Lower tuition fees than an MEng, industrial experience, and an income during your placement year.

I definitely agree with this. I see so many people going into CS thinking they're easily going to get a job, the truth is that without experience, employers don't really want you. I have numerous friends who are CS graduates who have said that employers have turned them down straight away due to lack of work experience, without even enquiring about where they got their degree from or what classification they received.

Hoping to do Comp Sci at uni this year. So do you advice doing placement year or a year abroad? And If I do go for placement is that enough to impress employers? Will there be anything else to do?

A year abroad isn't really necessary, nor will it impress employers (unless you got significant work experience whilst abroad).

A placement year is a much better option and I'd highly recommend it, but I'd also recommend trying to get a part time job/internship in IT throughout all of the years you're at uni, even if it's unpaid. Employers like knowing you have consistency with work experience and you'll stand out a lot more if you can impress them with several years of work experience as well as a degree. If you can't find a job, do summer internships every year. It's getting more and more difficult to get a job in IT because so many employers are reluctant to train graduates due to costs, so try to work out what field in IT you want to go into and if you pick a particular field that requires more training after your degree, try to get the relevant BCS qualifications. Some of the qualifications won't help you in getting a job, but some are definitely necessary so do some thorough research, maybe not right now, but certainly in 2nd or 3rd year.

Just do internships every summer. Don't do nothing during a summer and you will be okay. All of this counts as work experience. It's worth considering a longer degree, like a MEng, to have more summers to do internships. You really shouldn't have a problem getting a job if you have work experience through this, and I still think people over emphasise the importance of work experience in getting a graduate offer.

Thanks guys, will definitely remember this advice. Anymore other tips for CS in general?

Hi,

Does anyone know the top 5 universities to study computer science. Which unis have good teaching/facilities etc.

Thanks for any help.

have you looked at the unis I posted?

I have indeed. Thanks. I'm just trying to get as much information as possible.

I haven't got to apply for a few years. (I'm just coming to the end of year 10). However, I'm doing a lot of my GCSEs a year early and wanted to know what sort of gcse grades and then A level grades I will need to get into a decent uni.

Top 3 - A*AA minimum - A*A*A desirable
GCSEs aren't as important (as long as they're mostly above C grade, with maths, english and the sciences as high as possible) unless you're going for Oxbridge (in particular Oxford).

It's not really accurate that Oxford require you to have outstanding GCSEs for Computer Science. Of course, we'd rather see excellent results, but they're not a particularly good predictor of how well you'd do on a CS degree -- I know lots of excellent students who don't have particularly great GCSEs. We would expect to see a good grade in Maths, however.

Gavin