Is it better to go for a second BSC or a conversion course in computer science?

I'm not sure if it would be different for you but the only postgraduate loans here are from co-op and Barclays Banks, unfortunately the government don't help with postgraduates



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I was in near enough exactly the same boat, except I am a UK student.

I graduated with a Psychology degree from Manchester Metropolitan University and then got onto a BSc (Hons) Computer Science at the University of Sheffield. I did it for about two weks before I realised I couldn't afford the travel (I was commuting from Manchester) and could no where near afford the fees. You do not get funding from the government if you have a degree.

I took a year out and found the conversion courses. I applied to Bristol, Birmingham, Imperial, Sheffield (slightly different course), and Liverpool. All Russell Group unis, if you place any importance on that.

Any I got into Birmingham and Liverpool. I would have loved to go to Birmingham, but I can stay at home with my partner if I go to Liverpool.

The point of telling you my life story is that I am so glad I am doing it this way. Even the first week of another BSc was torture. It's full of freshers who don't really care because it's first year for them and most of them aren't self funded. I am generalising here, obviously not all freshers are like that.

I highly recommend doing a conversion, why spend 3 years doing what you can do in 1! I emailed lots of PhD programmes (including the likes of Oxford and Manchester) and employers, and they all said that they would consider me with the MSc conversion, providing I performed well enough.

I hope this helps somewhat, if you have any questions about applying or anything then please feel free to ask Good luck!

Edit: My desired area of expertise is also game programming and robotics so those were the types of employers I contacted. They stressed a lot of imporance on work experience, so keep making games as well. Lots of them did say that some sort of qualification would almost be a pre-requisite, but wouldn't get me anywhere without work experience. I think it's brilliant that you are doing this with your girlfriend. My partner and I are a similar team!

I also wouldn't bother with a game specific course, from all the information I gathered, gaming companies prefer straight computer science courses as they teach you more general skills that allow you how to learn programming languages, rather then teaching you a programming langauge. If that makes sense

Hey, I thought I would ask here as this seems to be a thread most aligned to my story. I am due to complete my undergraduate in Economics and Management Science at Strathclyde in 2016 and have also applied for Computer Science/ Software Development degrees due to similar reasons as outlined above.

I am somewhat torn between my options as the course offered by Glasgow (Software Development) is open to anybody who didn't study Computer Science. So a conversion course in a way, however it is at least partly BCS accredited. I should say that I already have an offer for this course. My other option is a Computer Science MSc at the University of Edinburgh. I had emailed the admissions team a while back whether they would consider my application as they say on their website that they admit Comp Sci graduates as well as a range of other degree graduates (e.g. Maths, Philosophy etc). That application is still pending but I am trying to decide which uni would be my best bet (given that I get an offer from both unis). I am thinking whether it would be better regarded to do a Computer Science MSc at Edinburgh because Comp Sci graduates can do this course as well and it isn't strictly speaking a conversion course or if it would be nicer to start from somewhere completely fresh (Glasgow's Software Development Conversion course, but even there it wouldn't surprise me if people had programming experience). I mean in personal development terms but also for future employment reasons.

Any opinions people? I should say that I did work experience in a Simulation software company and in Oxford University Press's Technology department, so I have some sort of work experience to show.

I think going into one of these courses without programming experience is a bad idea and a potential waste of your time. Reasons why:
a) your course has a limited length
b) if you don't know how to program, you will spend a portion of your time learning how to program. This time could be spent on something harder to learn on your own or to ensure you don't keep on top of the workload
c) assumming you want become a programmer after the degree, it seems like a really bad idea to pay thousands of pounds and give a year of your life for something you have never tried before. What if you start your course and realise that you don't like programming? It will be too late to get your money back.
d) you only have one year to get an employable level of programming skill. Starting from the bottom means that your level won't be as high as if you did not start from the bottom. Think of the end goal!
e) if you have never programmed, most of the modules will not make sense to you. Stuff like software engineering, data structures and algorithm evaluation will be far harder if you never programmed before
f) programmers learn programming languages AND programming paradigms on their own. A proactive attitude is expected. Start now!
g) You can program a wild variety of things. But you need to choose an area and get good at it. You won't have time in one year to both explore all the possibilities, choose one and get good enough to be employable. Start now so know where you are going!

I should have made it clear that I do indeed now how to program. In multiple languages to be precise. I am fairly confident with Java and thus the principles of object-oriented languages (which is as I understood not the hardest but not the easiest either) which I took as an elective in my degree (it was taught in the Computer Science Department though) and I passed it with distinction. I am learning Python in my own time with my own Raspberry Pi (which teaches me how to use Debian and Linux as well (and the command line of course)), have produced simple shells and documentation for XML and know how to do HTML, CSS and some basic JavaScript (and yes I am aware that HTML is not a programming language). As I have outlined I have done work experience that was very technical as well, so I do know that this is what I want to do and have discussed this choice with previous employers.

Sorry if this didn't make sense from my previous post, I assumed that it would be common sense that people have an interest in programming and IT infrastructure, hardware, software etc (I'm not completely nuts ). I am just trying to determine which of the courses would be a better fit for me in terms of personal development and employability.