CS Supercurriculars

My super curriculars were mostly reading academic books and journal and a couple summer schools i was eligible to go to for free. Super curriculars were a great way for me to find what i really enjoyed about cs (AI and probability) and i found it through reading some introductory texts. Saw something on bayesian reasoning that interested me and now i’m down a rabbit hole researching. It helped a lot w my ps bc i based it on what i was interested in and what i’d read about it. I don’t have time or money for a lot of other things (think MOOCS/ work experience/ paid summer schools) so reading was really good. Once you’ve found smth you enjoy stray away from introductory texts and read undergrad books or academic journals(i’d say just work through a chapter or two bc they’re a hard read). I have some reccomendations if you’re interested, they’ll be focused on AI or quantum computing bc those were my interests but i can try and look through for my general ones if you’d like!

edit: they were helpful because i’ve already received an offer from York which i feel was heavily based on my ps as i doubt i’d have received an offer this early just because of my grades

It is completely up to you how much time you want to put into supercurriculars. In other words, its only as demanding as you choose it to be.

I’d say its a great investment of your time. Computer science is already a competitive course on its own, but investing in yourself is especially important if you are applying to competitive universities.

You don’t have to complete an entire MOOC, or read and entire book just so that you can say you’ve done something outside of the curriculum. Instead, you can read a few chapters or work through a few modules. It still shows you’ve invested time outside of the classroom towards the subject of your interest

My super curriculars were mostly reading academic books and journal and a couple summer schools i was eligible to go to for free. Super curriculars were a great way for me to find what i really enjoyed about cs (AI and probability) and i found it through reading some introductory texts. Saw something on bayesian reasoning that interested me and now i’m down a rabbit hole researching. It helped a lot w my ps bc i based it on what i was interested in and what i’d read about it. I don’t have time or money for a lot of other things (think MOOCS/ work experience/ paid summer schools) so reading was really good. Once you’ve found smth you enjoy stray away from introductory texts and read undergrad books or academic journals(i’d say just work through a chapter or two bc they’re a hard read). I have some reccomendations if you’re interested, they’ll be focused on AI or quantum computing bc those were my interests but i can try and look through for my general ones if you’d like!

edit: they were helpful because i’ve already received an offer from York which i feel was heavily based on my ps as i doubt i’d have received an offer this early just because of my grades

What CS summer schools did u do

york is my dream uni! i'd definitely be interested in some ai-related recommendations. i know that i'm going to apply to some summer schools, and i might leave the really time-consuming stuff for a half-term break or something so it's not taking up every second of my time during the school term.


thanks, this is really helpful. i know that i want to do at least a few really good supercurriculars as my dream uni is york, it's just i was quite intimidated by the length of certain things. i'm thinking that i might leave some mooc-related stuff for a holiday so it's not draining me during term time.