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Kings vs Baths vs Leeds for CS undergraduate

I am going to apply for university this October (undergraduate) and need help choosing between the three

Unis I have currently chosen:
Oxford (cs and Philosophy), Imperial(cs and Artificial Intelligence), UCL(Cs)

Unis I need to decide between:
Leeds(cs and Artificial Intelligence), Kings(cs and Artificial Intelligence), Bath(cs and Artificial Intelligence).

I Currently like Kings because of its location and the fact that it has links with big firms for job opportunities e.g. Goldman Sachs (As stated on the website). I also like the courses at Leeds and bath but don't really know how good the job prospects after the degree are compared to each other and Kings. I would really appreciate advice on which two universities out of the three you think are best in terms of job prospects and student social life (clubbing and going out).

Thank you!
KCL, indeed, would be advantageous in terms of industry links , and London area.
Leeds and Bath , as I believe, are very similar to each other.
And if your main goal is to land a good job, I'd reconsider Oxford's CS and Philosophy programme. Check UCAS end of cycle reports, Graduate Market analysis reports for the last 5 years, and DiscoverUni data, you'll see Oxford is not among the most targeted universities by major employers.
Oxford is evidently the best, but might not be the best option for diving into industry after. However if you consider doing research after, I'd suggest CS and Maths, or even Maths as a degree. Even CS Director of Oxford says it.
Original post by btw i use arch
KCL, indeed, would be advantageous in terms of industry links , and London area.
Leeds and Bath , as I believe, are very similar to each other.
And if your main goal is to land a good job, I'd reconsider Oxford's CS and Philosophy programme. Check UCAS end of cycle reports, Graduate Market analysis reports for the last 5 years, and DiscoverUni data, you'll see Oxford is not among the most targeted universities by major employers.
Oxford is evidently the best, but might not be the best option for diving into industry after. However if you consider doing research after, I'd suggest CS and Maths, or even Maths as a degree. Even CS Director of Oxford says it.

Thank you so much, that is very intersting- so do you think bath or Leeds would give me higher chances of landing a good job?
Idk about the other 2 but I just finished first year at KCL and I liked it.

The year before mine the entry grades were AAB but the they moved it up to AAA. Most, if not all, students I've met have got higher than this which seems to be reflected in the recent complete university league tables for comp sci. We actually beat ucl somehow in most of the metrics they used and I assume we will continue to climb the uk league table as ppl in yr 3 are the ones who pick the satisfaction, and one of the reasons for the grade increase is so ppl can cope better with the content. Also we have two maths modules in the first year as oppose to one (it wasnt like this in previous years) so we do learn a fair bit of maths.

Note however that if you don't like maths then you can just not pick all the mathsy modules as they are part of the optional modules : computational and mathematical thinking for engineers 1 (yr1) , computational and mathematical thinking for engineers 1(yr1), signals and systems (yr 2),intro to robotics(yr2). (besides from intro to robotics they are all required modules for the engineers so they are maths-y and not picking the maths modules in year 1 will make it harder for you, if you want to do the year 2 modules) .

As for global rankings, based on the choices you have already picked, King's is the natural choice as it is a bit more globally recognised than the other 2 (both overall and specifically for CS) .

There are a lot of international students (about 50%) of the students. And the vast majority are students from China. International students tend to stick with themselves, but if you're willing to initiate the conversation they are usually quite nice.

I did maths, CS and physics at a level. While you will find the first year easier if you've done CS at a level they still push you, you are meant to research outside the syllabus to make your projects more complex if you want to get in the 80-100% mark.

Also just look at the salary data after 6 months and after 3 years on Discover Uni. You will see that's Leeds is nowhere near. Bath is not bad tho.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by gyuigygh
Idk about the other 2 but I just finished first year at KCL and I liked it.

The year before mine the entry grades were AAB but the they moved it up to AAA. Most, if not all, students I've met have got higher than this which seems to be reflected in the recent complete university league tables for comp sci. We actually beat ucl somehow in most of the metrics they used and I assume we will continue to climb the uk league table as ppl in yr 3 are the ones who pick the satisfaction, and one of the reasons for the grade increase is so ppl can cope better with the content. Also we have two maths modules in the first year as oppose to one (it wasnt like this in previous years) so we do learn a fair bit of maths.

Note however that if you don't like maths then you can just not pick all the mathsy modules as they are part of the optional modules : computational and mathematical thinking for engineers 1 (yr1) , computational and mathematical thinking for engineers 1(yr1), signals and systems (yr 2),intro to robotics(yr2). (besides from intro to robotics they are all required modules for the engineers so they are maths-y and not picking the maths modules in year 1 will make it harder for you, if you want to do the year 2 modules) .

As for global rankings, based on the choices you have already picked, King's is the natural choice as it is a bit more globally recognised than the other 2 (both overall and specifically for CS) .

There are a lot of international students (about 50%) of the students. And the vast majority are students from China. International students tend to stick with themselves, but if you're willing to initiate the conversation they are usually quite nice.

I did maths, CS and physics at a level. While you will find the first year easier if you've done CS at a level they still push you, you are meant to research outside the syllabus to make your projects more complex if you want to get in the 80-100% mark.

Also just look at the salary data after 6 months and after 3 years on Discover Uni. You will see that's Leeds is nowhere near. Bath is not bad tho.

Thank you, I really like Kings so I think I will definitely apply there! Do you think Bristol or Birmingham is better than Leeds? Also, do you think the normal computer science course is better than the Computer science and intelligent systems is better in terms of employability after?
Original post by Student.unihelp
Thank you, I really like Kings so I think I will definitely apply there! Do you think Bristol or Birmingham is better than Leeds? Also, do you think the normal computer science course is better than the Computer science and intelligent systems is better in terms of employability after?

I can't say too much about Bristol, Bath or Birmingham. I'm pretty sure they're better, but check world rankings if you care about prestige. For me the two most important things were the course and average salary(check on discover uni website). Check what the modules on the course are and pick the course you like.

Search up some jobs that you would like and see what they're about, then check which courses have modules that cover similar stuff.

I do Cs with intelligent systems. As far as I'm aware the only difference with the normal one is that they pick most of the modules for you) (although I think there is a computer vision module in 3rd year that is only for intelligent students, but this might change). So if you want more freedom pick the normal one and you can still pick the same modules as the intelligent course. I only chose it coz i already knew I liked the modules and I think the offer rate was slightly higher (it usually is less competitive when you do a more specific course). As far as job prospects you should just search machine learning jobs (or something similar) and you will see how many jobs show up and the salaries.

Imo most undergraduate courses are fairly similar for the most part and will have similar graduate prospects if you work just as hard.

There are other things you should consider. Such as London being expensive(not a problem for me as I commute). Campus being small or non-existent in London(but technically central london is your campus . London unis also give you the chance to be close to other unis, which has some benefits: for example, there was a researcher that gave a talk at imperial and then he popped over to kcl and gave the talk here as well.

But just go on discover uni and compare the courses and you can see stuff such as satisfaction and avg salaries 6 months after leaving and 3 years after leaving (but keep i mind london unis may be higher coz students may be more likely to work in london where the living wage is higher) .
Original post by gyuigygh
I can't say too much about Bristol, Bath or Birmingham. I'm pretty sure they're better, but check world rankings if you care about prestige. For me the two most important things were the course and average salary(check on discover uni website). Check what the modules on the course are and pick the course you like.

Search up some jobs that you would like and see what they're about, then check which courses have modules that cover similar stuff.

I do Cs with intelligent systems. As far as I'm aware the only difference with the normal one is that they pick most of the modules for you) (although I think there is a computer vision module in 3rd year that is only for intelligent students, but this might change). So if you want more freedom pick the normal one and you can still pick the same modules as the intelligent course. I only chose it coz i already knew I liked the modules and I think the offer rate was slightly higher (it usually is less competitive when you do a more specific course). As far as job prospects you should just search machine learning jobs (or something similar) and you will see how many jobs show up and the salaries.

Imo most undergraduate courses are fairly similar for the most part and will have similar graduate prospects if you work just as hard.

There are other things you should consider. Such as London being expensive(not a problem for me as I commute). Campus being small or non-existent in London(but technically central london is your campus . London unis also give you the chance to be close to other unis, which has some benefits: for example, there was a researcher that gave a talk at imperial and then he popped over to kcl and gave the talk here as well.

But just go on discover uni and compare the courses and you can see stuff such as satisfaction and avg salaries 6 months after leaving and 3 years after leaving (but keep i mind london unis may be higher coz students may be more likely to work in london where the living wage is higher) .

I really like the intelligent systems modules too so I think I will stick to applying to that one. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind giving my personal statement a read and give any critiques and improvements you have for it - if you have an email address I can forward it to that :smile:

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