Computer Science or Web Development?

Hi Guys,
I will be putting in my UCAS application on the 12th December but I'm having difficulty deciding what course I want to do as it can be quite vague on course content.

My main career choice is website development/programming and I have decided I want to attend uni for the degree and experience rather than becoming self taught through online resources.

The difficulty I'm having is there is only 7 universities that offer adequate undergrad courses in website development specifically and half of which are a considerable distance from my current location (my first choice being 350miles away).

Would really like opinions from people currently completing a computer science course on whether the content is relevant to my goals and contains good content on things such as PHP, ajax, CSS3, HTML5 etc.

Overall opinions on CS welcome as well, thanks in advance :smile:

Reply 1

gmahapatra

Do CS, it's a more credible degree. Web developers go into a tough market where they have to compete against cheaper, more efficient workers in third world countries.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

BinaryJava

CS seems to be the big thing you need to get anywhere in the tech industry. You can specialise in web design in CS I think.

Reply 3

tim_123

Have you looked at module content? As most cs courses offer at least one web dev module. I would say do cs, that way you'll still be able to break into the web dev industry, whilst keeping your options open later on in life

Reply 4

SDocker

Original post by tim_123

I've looked at quite a few and although they have small bits listed, it doesn't really go into detail on how much it will actually cover, what programming etc will be taught and whether its a working knowledge to the extent of being able to leave uni and go into a junior web developer job.

My worry is racking up £30-35k worth of debt doing this, most of the focus being on theory, networking etc which isn't really where my interest lies and still having to self teach after that.

Also maths isn't a strong point for me, which most of the computer sciences have a heavy focus on...

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 5

tim_123

Original post by SDocker

Yeh I can imagine that would be frustrating. Might be worth calling the Uni's or emailing the relevant department to ask for more information.

Reply 6

MrTechGamer

Hey there everyone !
I've joined a programming course late and I don't understand this task which has been given to me. The code needs to be produced in vb and the framework is .NET Framework 4.5 and Windows Form Application needs to be used. The following are the tasks which I have been given and if anyone can produce the code it would be great because I can then familiarise how everything is intergrated in vb.
The system should ask the student’s name, then ask 10 random maths questions with random operator signs, output if the answer to each question is correct or not and produce a final score out of 10.
There are three classes in the school and the data should be kept separately for each class.
The program should record and store the data for three separate classes of students using the arithmetic quiz.
The system should store the last three scores for each student. The teacher would like to be able to output the results of the quiz for a particular class, sorted:
• in alphabetical order with each student’s highest score for the tests
• by the highest score, highest to lowest
• by the average score, highest to lowest.
The program should allow the teacher to select which class group to look at and which field to use when sorting the output data.
Once again if anyone can help out it would be much appreciated.

Reply 7

MaxwellBriggs

If you want to build your career in web development then you should take the branch named as Computer Science.
You can say that Computer science is a broad niche under there are different subcategories are there in which web development also comes. There is a bright future in web development, but you need to update yourself time to time.
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Reply 8

avancenajohn

I do ICT at Huddersfield, the course involves a good amount of web programming (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, VB, C#). The course itself is good, the lecturers give great feedback most of the time. However, if I was to decide if I would go to university again? nah, I would personally rather go into an apprenticeship for it because you learn more from the actual domain you're focusing on; instead of learning some concepts that are very time consuming and you will most likely never use in the field.

Like they say "jack of all trades, master of none". Good luck anyway, I hope your choice benefits you whichever one you choose.

Reply 9

Jooooshy

You need to ask yourself if you would actually enjoy studying computer science. I've more or less finished my second year and I've never formally been taught anything about web development.

Reply 10

Planto

Original post by gmahapatra

Web developers go into a tough market

lol.

Reply 11

avancenajohn

Original post by Async

They teach VB.NET at your university? Jesus christ. But then again you're doing ICT, not Computer Science or Software Engineering.

vb for like couple of months then the rest is all web programming based (html, css, js, php, asp.net, mvc, other frameworks and all that jazz). but yeh quite a bit of it are concepts like systems thinking and stuff like that

Reply 12

Frank the Tankk

I'd just do Computer Science, it is almost the "master key" for the tech industry. You can take every Web Dev. module in the course if that's the path you'd like to take and if you feel you still won't have the experience, well you have the internet to help you out with picking up new frameworks etc. By the time you finish a CS degree you'll be able to pick up a new language/framework to a working standard in a week. I don't think taking a 3 year degree in only one area of the industry is worth it.