Birmingham or Southampton

I'm applying for first year and i'm trying to deciding which choice to firm. I will want to go for masters and even possibly try for PHD, I hope it's not too ambitious.

I've been to both universities, I got an impression that Birmingham is better as university and its accommodation. As well since Birmingham is in the second biggest city I reckon there will be more events and opportunities that are more accessible. Nonetheless, from the outside Southampton does look better, greener and not in the middle of a big city. But Birmingham does have much more and better grants and scholarships.

Though I'm much more interested how is the course than anything. Birmingham does have industrial year which is a bonus. But how are the lecturers, work load, etc? I'm more interested in the better and tougher course/university.

Anyone with any information please replay! Thank you for you time!

Reply 1

jamjamH

Hey

I'm a first year computer science student currently studying at the university of southampton. While I can't compare it to Birmingham as I personally didn't ever consider that as a university I'd like to go to, I can give you my opinion on southampton as a university and the course as a whole. First things first I'd like to put it out there, southampton is very welcoming to computer scientists both completely new to the field and also those with previous experience. The first semester is somewhat split into two streams for the programming module in order to challenge those with previous experience and also bring those with no or little experience up to a similar level. As someone with absolutely no prior experience before I started in September, I felt this was well executed and I'm already a fairly competent programmer. But don't let this fool you, by no means do they ease you into it, straight away in the first semester you have a pretty killer maths module, foundations of computer science. This had fortnightly class tests and a final exam too, and far and out was the most time consuming module of the first semester, fall behind and you'll be sure to fail. That's not to say the modules aren't interesting however, I have so far enjoyed and found interesting all the modules I have taken/ am taking, and find the lecturers to be usually quirky and entertaining, at the same time as being good teachers. All lecture slides and for some modules video lectures, are all provided on the student wiki, usually the same day the lecture was given, this is very helpful for revision. All coursework and marked work is handed in through the ECS exclusive hand in system (much better than black board or having to hand in a physical copy!). I also feel like I should mention the labs (you were probably shown these when you visited), they are upgraded annually I believe to keep the pc's up to date, and are open daily from something like 6am till 11pm, and they're a great place to do work as you are always surrounded by other ECS students who are always happy to help friendly first years! On to the university as a whole, while the city is not as big as birmingham there is always something to do, Bedford place is littered with clubs, and don't forget to visit the hobbit themed pub! Society wise there are something like 338 different societies, from movie watching to rugby to wind surfing there is pretty much anything you could want to do, and they will all welcome you with open arms. I am staying in the brand new mayflower halls this year and can tell you they're VERY a nice, but are the most expensive non catered halls. You are provided with a years unlimited uni link and blue star bus pass for your first year at uni, which is very useful for getting around the city while you're a fresher and want to do a lot of exploring. And one final thing I feel like I should mention, which is an ECS exclusive perk for the university (not even sure why), in first year they provide all of the course books for free for computer science students, so no buying £100 text books etc as they give you a mixture of physical books to keep, digital downloads to keep, and year long loans from the Hartley library. All in all I can safely say I'm very happy to have chosen southampton as my firm and you will definitely not go wrong by choosing it :smile:

Birmingham or Southampton

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