Computing or JMC?

Hey guys, I was just wondering which course is considered 'better'? For example if I want to work for an investment bank would it be considered an advantage to have done JMC or would they not care? Or if I wanted to work for a tech company as a programmer/developer, would it make a difference to them which course I took?

Thanks

Reply 1

Little Wing

Bump

Imperial College London

London

Reply 2

Karoel

For investment banking I think the JMC course might be better, since you can choose to specialise in statistics. For programming and software developer I don't really think it matters whether you take CS or JMC. Don't take my word for it though, I'd listen to someone more experienced than me if I were you :-P

I've sent off my UCAS application today for JMC courses, including Imperial. Fingers crossed :-)

Reply 3

Little Wing

Original post by Karoel

That makes sense, good luck with your application!

Reply 4

Karoel

Original post by Little Wing

That makes sense, good luck with your application!

Thanks

If I can say something from myself personally, I wouldn't choose a degree based on the job prospects. I chose JMC because I love the areas where maths and computing overlap, especially the philosophical / theoretical stuff behind them. I figured that JMC would focus more on the foundations on which CompSci is based, and all the maths content would be more on proofs and rigour as well.

This really helped me decide: www3.imperial.ac.uk/computing/teaching/ see which course has better units for you. Also you can get the JMC programme specification from here http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/mathematics/students/undergraduate/programmeinformation I cba to find the computing one but it should be easy to find if you google it too :tongue:

Reply 5

Godel_Mark

Edsger Djikstra (I'm sure you've come across his eponymous algorithm in D1) famously said "computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes". What most people don't understand is that Software Engineering is just a sub-discipline of Computer Science.

Computer Science is basically the study of the manipulation of information - there is a lot of controversy at higher education institutions about what the field should be called, and this is why some universities in Europe call it informatics. CompSci and Physics are probably the 2 subjects with the closest link to mathematics and this is why Oxford even asks CompSci applicants to sit the Mathematics Admissions Test. Moreover, several Turing Award winners got their undergrad in maths and then went for PhDs in CompSci - or even PhDs in maths and then became computer scientists.

The 21st Century economy is a data driven economy and the world is in the midst of an 'Information Revolution', akin to the Industrial Revolution of 1750-1850 and the Agricultural Revolution of 8000-5000BC. Mathematics is basically the study of relationships between objects - school mathematics syllabuses do not represent what real maths is about - and it would be no doubt useful if you intend to go into investment banking.

With regard to what I've said, if you're into investment banking I'd strongly recommend Imperial. Imperial is a unique university in the sense that several students are poached by financial firms in London for their analytical, mathematical and logical reasoning skills. See LinkedIn's recent university rankings if you don't believe me and talk to anyone you know at Imperial.

I don't know about most unis, but I know that at Oxbridge and Imperial you are taught well about the mathematical foundations behind computing. A course like JMC is not simply half of computing and half of mathematics: the course will probably teach you how computers work at their most basic and abstract level - you'll delve deep into computational complexity theory, theory of computation, mathematical sets, mathematical logic, etc. Deep and abstract things like that. The mathematical content is high but I doubt you'll be allowed to specialize heavily (as much as other maths students) into things like mathematical finance and operations research. Similarly with computing, you will have a very strong command of the deep mathematical foundations of computing, but I doubt you'll be able to specialize heavily into things like computational finance, machine learning, data mining, complex systems, etc... which are highly useful in finance. Like I said, we are in the midst of an 'Information revolution', so lots of different computing practices can be applied to several different fields - including finance.

N.B: I'm on a gap year, I applied to Imperial last year during Yr.13 and got in for computing. I also considered applying for JMC, but at a highly ranked uni like Imperial, you will learn about computing in a very mathematical way, even if you are doing straight computing. Below is a link to papers by a final year MEng computing students at Imperial. As you can see, they are very high in mathematical content.

...Oh, and don't take my word as gospel, it is simply an opinion based my intuition and reasoning with regard to the information I have.

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/computing/teaching/ug/ug-distinguished-projects

Reply 6

Little Wing

Original post by Godel_Mark

Hey, thanks for replying. I think I'll stick with computing because I'm mainly interested in the computing side (don't mind the maths though!).

Reply 7

Enattente

Original post by Little Wing

Hey Little Wing,

I'm sorry if I am being indiscreet but I think I saw you on the thread for Chemical Engineering. Didnt you even get an offer at Imperial and then decide to go elsewhere? And now you are changing to Computing? Maybe I am mixing you with somebody else or you had a change of heart? Good luck any way!!

Reply 8

Little Wing

Original post by Enattente

You're correct..I just don't seem to be enjoying Chem.E all that much and think CS would be much better for me..better late than never eh.

Reply 9

Enattente

Original post by Little Wing

You're correct..I just don't seem to be enjoying Chem.E all that much and think CS would be much better for me..better late than never eh.

Maybe things will get better!! I remember looking at you enviously when you got your offer as I applied for Chem Eng and Computing at Imperial and didnt get chem eng, although afterwards I realized that it was really Computing I wanted to study (luckily) as I love maths much more than Physics/chemistry. Will you stay the year anyway just to get the experience?. Sorry, maybe I should not be asking you these questions.

Reply 10

Little Wing

Original post by Enattente

It's fine ^^, I'm not sure, I'll see what happens :smile:

You can ask me in a couple months time I suppose!

Reply 11

ihavemooedtoday

I am postgrad (doing MSc Advanced Computing at Imperial), so it may not apply 100%, but it is definitely very possible to do things like machine learning and data mining with a pure computing degree, and many people do that. Most of the people in my course don't have a lot of maths background (we have 12 people in the course this year - the smallest of all computing courses at Imperial I believe), and most of us are doing advanced courses in machine learning, AI, probabilistic stuff, pattern recognition, etc.

The highly theoretical stuff (that I imagine you would get more from JMC) is really only useful if you continue on into research/academia. I wouldn't do it unless you are really passionate about maths.

Sure, computer scientists should all have basic foundations in complexity theory, algorithms, statistics, etc. But many theoretical courses go way beyond what the vast majority of people will ever need in their career. A pure computing course would only teach you what you actually need in real world applications (which is a much smaller subset).