Imperial CS with no math/cs competitions (UKMT, Bebras, etc)

No, they would not. As always, these things are quirks that make an application individual; individually standing out is what matters, not the competitions. If you for example were already involved in your own programming projects or contributing to open source, or something else that is not typical of your average candidate but looks impressive, it would probably have the same effect. Computer science is not so math heavy that you need to be winning national math competitions to do it.

Alright well I think I have other computing supercurriculars that I could possibly talk about which could hopefully help me stand out. Thanks for the clarification

u shd learn how to program and make some projects that are related to some of ur interests u have outside computing. maybe do some MOOCs like CS50x, watch university lectures, get work experience if u can, could read some books too. I’d say making ur own projects is the most impressive things u cn do if u talk about it right in ur personal statement as it shows ur commitment to learning and how u applied it to help with something in ur life and give u an opportunity to show off ur technical skills

When discussing my personal statement, we spent a good 10-15 minutes discussing the project in detail because my interviewer didn't know anything about it or how to approach/do it.

So definitely worth doing projects....some of the other people in my group also did loads of interesting things. About 3 people made their own chess AI (which also happened to be what I did for my CS NEA because I play chess competitively outside of school at various county and national tournaments so thought it would pique my interest). @alinara

In actual fact, my interview ran over for 10 minutes so that could be a good sign but I'm not too sure. There was one shaky Maths question which took a couple of prompts to spot the answer (even though I had the entire working out completed on the board).

Was this for an imperial interview?

Was this for an imperial interview?

Also in answer to your questions about UKMT and Bebras competitions, I didn't mention a single competition (other than essay competitions that I had partaken in) in my personal statement, even though I performed mid (I got gold twice in SMC and then a merit certificate both years) in them so it is not a necessity but there must be something about your application that stands out which attracts the admissions tutor's attention.

Wow Id be really annoyed with the TMUA thing ngl. Sounds like you actually had a good shot with Cambridge but hopefully u get the Imperial offer. I’ve sent in my application last week and decided to mention the competitions but just didnt state what awards I got in them (just said “I participated and won awards”, I feel like my personal statement is pretty strong, Ive mentioned a lot of supercurriculars/projects and have tried to make it sound personal to me. Just need to make sure to do well in the test but haven’t gotten the email for that yet.

Do you mind telling me what sort of supercurriculars u mentioned in urs? And where else are u applying?

Wow Id be really annoyed with the TMUA thing ngl. Sounds like you actually had a good shot with Cambridge but hopefully u get the Imperial offer. I’ve sent in my application last week and decided to mention the competitions but just didnt state what awards I got in them (just said “I participated and won awards”, I feel like my personal statement is pretty strong, Ive mentioned a lot of supercurriculars/projects and have tried to make it sound personal to me. Just need to make sure to do well in the test but haven’t gotten the email for that yet.

Do you mind telling me what sort of supercurriculars u mentioned in urs? And where else are u applying?

Wow Id be really annoyed with the TMUA thing ngl. Sounds like you actually had a good shot with Cambridge but hopefully u get the Imperial offer. I’ve sent in my application last week and decided to mention the competitions but just didnt state what awards I got in them (just said “I participated and won awards”, I feel like my personal statement is pretty strong, Ive mentioned a lot of supercurriculars/projects and have tried to make it sound personal to me. Just need to make sure to do well in the test but haven’t gotten the email for that yet.

Do you mind telling me what sort of supercurriculars u mentioned in urs? And where else are u applying?

Where have you applied?

Yeah its a shame, ive also seen people with TMUA scores around 5 still get interviews but oh well, Imperial is still great and in my opinion is as impressive as Oxbridge for Computer Science. All very good choices uve gone for, so far I’ve applied to Imperial UCL and St Andrews. I plan to add 2 other options later, considering Manchester and Bath. I also get what u mean about the MEng, I applied for the MEng in Security and reliability at Imperial but only cus a large portion of my personal statement is dedicated to cybersecurity. I know it wouldn’t really make a difference but I’ve just done it anyway in case it could send some sort of message to them and yeah like u said, I can change to BEng if I decided to in the first 2 years.

I felt that Imperial was better than Cambridge so if I got a Cambridge offer, I would have seriously considered Imperial over Cambridge. You have some amazing choices.

Manchester is very good for Computer Science. If you have the 3 A* grades, you are more or less guaranteed an offer. Now from what I saw, Bath is good to have as a safety as you can reduced offers from them if you meet certain requirements e.g. doing an EPQ.

I was actually considering applying to the places you have put down but this is what put me off (This isn't intended to put you off but is what made me make up my mind about my backups after Cambridge and Imperial).

My friend went to the UCL Open Day for Economics. He told me all about the stuff going on there and it put me off from applying though I was considering applying to it. There were LOADS of student protests and even though the main campus is really cool, the facilities weren't amazing. However, I don't know how it is with regards to CS so it may be worth applying. Another friend went to the UCL Open Day for CS and said that the teaching staff are really interactive and great.

Someone in my CS set went to the St Andrews Open Day and said that the tech was outdated and so this put me off applying.

If I may, I would like to recommend Durham for CS. They just built a new department for CS and maths and the facility is simply AMAZING (I saw it when I went on the Open Day)! It's ranked 4th in the country and A*AA minimum entry so shouldn't be a problem if you are applying to the other places.

As a guide, I'm not sure whether you are aware of this but Bath recently changed their minimum entry requirements from AAA to A* A* A affecting several applicants. Now, given that you are also applying to Imperial, this shouldn't affect but I thought I would raise this to your attention beforehand.

I know this because my friend has applied to the exact same places as me for the same course except he applied to Bath over Edinburgh (which my Computing teacher and I felt was a bit of a mistake). Both are good for AI but the foundations of AI came from Edinburgh which propelled me to apply in addition to their focus on things like cybersecurity.

The opinions I have mentioned on this post are my own personal views and preferences. You don't have to take these as gospel and go for these options but it's what made me make up my mind. I don't have anything against you or the places you have applied and in fact, have great respect for these institutions.

Definitely, choosing imperial over cambridge is a common thing, i've seen people do it before and London is so much nicer for most ppl tbh.

Yh I've heard loads of gd things abt manchester and I do have the grades, only problem is I messed up my Maths exams last year and got an A and Im resitting it this year and picking up a new subject (Further Math), predicted A star in both. My other achieved grades are an A star and an A. I've contacted all the unis im considering and they all said its fine except Warwick so I'm not applying to Warwick even though I wanted to. Although they say this, I still feel like I will be at a disadvantage so I need to make sure I don't mess it up and get no offers.

I also went to the UCL open day and the uni is quite nice in my opinion, some parts didn't seem as nice as others and I've heard that the lecturers can be horrible and they expect u to basically do the degree urself but apparently thats pretty much a problem at most unis for computer science. I also have friends at UCL but not for cs and they're enjoying their time there, I know it has problems with the protests and stuff rn but I still think I'd enjoy myself more there compared to other unis.

For St Andrews I've actually only heard positive stuff about their CS course and its rlly flexible which is smth I want. Outdated tech is a bit embarassing tho but I mainly applied to St Andrews because my achieved grades already meet their conditions and they allow for direct entry into 2nd year which is what I've applied to. I don't know if I want to be that far in the middle of nowhere but if its my only choice then I'll go.

I am actually considering Durham, if I could have a 6th choice it would probably be Durham and thats part of why I haven't used my other two options yet cus I'm still considering it. It's good to hear that they have new facilities, I didn't know that before, my current grades also already meet their requirements so it could put me at an advantage maybe. The only problem I have with Durham is how far it is and also the uni itself. I'm not sure if I'd like the collegiate system and Durham has a bit of a posh reputation which kinda puts me off. I'm still thinking about it tho, it might not be as bad as I think it is but I'm not sure yet. Did it seem like that when u visited?

Because I now have 4 A-levels with further maths my Bath offer if I got one would be a reduced offer of just a B in further math since my current grades meet part of the overall offer of A*AAB. I have friends at Bath and I've been there. I've heard the course is good and I've been on the campus and around the city and thought it was decent. I dont actually know if I'll apply to bath tho, its mainly because I know its not as competitive as the others and since they increased their grade requirements I'm assuming its going to be even less competitive.

I have to give myself time to properly think about it. I think Manchester is very likely but my fifth choice is between Bath and Durham, just not sure yet.

I will hopefully be applying to Imperial for computer science this year and was wondering if they would look down on me for not having any math/cs competitions such as the UKMT in my personal statement. All the recent personal statements I have seen online that got into Imperial CS seem to have awards in these competitions.

I have actually taken part in the UKMT before and in the UK Bebras, I received a Silver award in the UKMT Senior Challenge and a Merit in the UK Bebras. I am not sure if it is worth mentioning these as they arent as good as the awards I have seen on many other personal statements. Would it be better to just say I have participated in these competitions?

If anyone has received an offer to Imperial for Computer Science without mentioning competitions please could you let me know?

You can just say you received awards in these competitions. Yes, there are people at imperial in Comp sci who haven’t done these competitions, don’t worry about that. (Source: i study there) But I would make sure you are confident with step questions in case you get an offer.

I know that you think that Durham is posh and I completely understand why. The reason it's posh is because it has long been a place considered important like Oxbridge, but obviously not quite to the same standard. So the place has lots of Oxbridge rejects, which is why it has the notorious impression of being posh. However, on the Open Day, it doesn't seem like that but I think the thing that is making me re-think Durham after applying is that aside from the university itself, there isn't actually that much to do. I went to Durham outside of the Open Day just for a day's excursion and it all seemed very quiet. There's stuff to see like the Cathedral and things but it's not got the buzz that I felt in other places.

St Andrews is great, don't get me wrong. The course is really good with regards to content and flexibility and covers a large area but I think it does greater justice to the social sciences and humanities courses. I think entry straight into second year is extremely brave because if you do A level Computer Science, I think first year will be similar to that but I want to use the first year to get used to the rhythm of university life.

I'd say Bath is a very good choice if you don't particularly like Durham. I didn't like the city too much personally so I went with Durham instead but that's my personal taste.

When you say that all universities expect you to complete the degree yourself, I mean that's sort of expected though, is it not? There should come a point in your life where you aren't spoon fed everything you need to know.

That's why our Computing teachers have been extremely good with us in terms of preparing for university. Unless the topic in hand is notoriously difficult or long, they haven't taught us any of the other topics. We have had to conduct self-study both in the lessons and at home. If we have any questions about the material, by all means, we can ask them but the studying part itself is up to us. If we find anything difficult, they will teach the content to us at this point.

Warwick used to be AMAZING for Computing but lost their footing last year. They lost the funding for their technology and so the facility isn't that great anymore. When my friend went to the Open Day, he said that the staff in the CS department weren't very warm and welcoming.

Don't worry about your A level grades. Provided you have an A in Maths, that will allow you to enter most universities for CS in this country. Having lots of A *s is obviously a plus point but by no means is it the end of the road and you aren't going to go to a good university.