This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

Bristol vs York for Computer Science!

I have offers from both of the unis and really don't know which one to choose.
Bristol's course seems to lean toward the software bit, while York's course looks more balance between hardware and software. So can anyone give me an advice which one to choose? Thxs. :biggrin:

Reply 1

tcassey

Don't know if thats really a questions any one else can answer for you without biasing you towards their own preferences. Have you visited both universities and looked at the cities themselves?

I dont know the courses at York, looking their website it seems they offer a lot of different computer science courses, which specifically are you looking at. Having taken a quick look at the computer science courses offered at Bristol there seems to be a first year course focussed on computer architecture, and I know there is a final year masters unit on it as well cause i did that last year. Also one other thing to remember is that you can also take open units and if you do have an interest in the hardware side there are units offered by the electrical engineering department similar to those listed on the York website.

Hope that helps and like i said i know nothing about the course at York except for what I just saw on their website, so feel free to ignore me.

Reply 2

laser

10

I'm a current York student so I might be able to help you some (there's a few others of us floating on here too). I don't know much about Bristol (it didn't really register on my radar as places to deal with - certainly 4 years ago when I was applying it was a lot further down the league tables and York was 2nd after Cambridge in The Times that year). What do you want from your course? Which University do you like more?

Reply 3

laeof

14

I got offer from york but i dont think im going to go.
I dont like their course compared to others at all. And you can't do a masters in just computer science either.

Reply 4

nhat2991

OP

My friend told me not to go to York since it entered reason for a few years recently.
I seems to like York more than Bristol after the open days. However, it is hell-of-a-lot money to do the course so I just want to make sure I will not make a wrong decision.
York looks like a safe bet where everything is taught while Bristol is more concentrating on the software bit. York is a very nice place and the fee is cheaper than Bristol (I'm paying international student fee).
@Laser: TBH, I'm not even sure what I'm gonna do neither. I'm interested in writing program and on building computers. I looked at both places, the 1st 2 years are pretty much the same.
In the 3rd year of York, I'm quite interested in Artificial Intelligence for Games. Did you do this module? If yes, what is it like? Is there any modules on Graphics (I saw a demonstration of an app rendering some objects using OpenGL and think it will be interesting to do) Thxs a bunch. :biggrin:

@AshleyT: It's just a degree's name so why bothered? As long as it offers what you want to do.

Reply 5

laser

10

nhat2991

My friend told me not to go to York since it entered reason for a few years recently.
I seems to like York more than Bristol after the open days. However, it is hell-of-a-lot money to do the course so I just want to make sure I will not make a wrong decision.
York looks like a safe bet where everything is taught while Bristol is more concentrating on the software bit. York is a very nice place and the fee is cheaper than Bristol (I'm paying international student fee).
@Laser: TBH, I'm not even sure what I'm gonna do neither. I'm interested in writing program and on building computers. I looked at both places, the 1st 2 years are pretty much the same.
In the 3rd year of York, I'm quite interested in Artificial Intelligence for Games. Did you do this module? If yes, what is it like? Is there any modules on Graphics (I saw a demonstration of an app rendering some objects using OpenGL and think it will be interesting to do) Thxs a bunch. :biggrin:

@AshleyT: It's just a degree's name so why bothered? As long as it offers what you want to do.

Indeed, the CS & Software Engineering course is identical to the undergraduate course for the first year, and just means your modules are chosen for you in the second year.

With York's hardware side of things, there are options in the later years to build computers (the first year modules just focus on electronic circuits, but in the second year you get a Z80 processor and are then expected to build a computer around that from components) and writing programs is well covered too.

I'm not taking the AFG module, but my housemates are, the lecturer's a bit new and apparently she has problems with timing her lectures correctly, but I've not heard anything much about it. There's also a second year module (or you can do it in the third year if you choose hardware in the second year) called CGV which is half theory of graphics, and half practical OpenGL.

Reply 6

Psyk

16

If you're concerned about Bristol's course focussing too much on the software side, you might want to consider the computer science and electronics course they do. I think Bristol's thinking is that the hardware side of things doesn't really come under computer science, so they offer a course that's a mix between computer science and electronics (it used to be called computer systems engineering, but I think CS and Electronics is a more descriptive name). If you've already applied for the computer science course, if you get in it would be easy to switch to CSE if you do it right at the start. Admittedly, York's course might be more consistent because it's presumably not split between two departments.

Reply 7

dw77

4

York almost certainly has the slightly better reputation from most people I have spoken to in the field. Bristol is certainly a bit of a rising star in the area though.

Reply 8

tcassey

dw77

York almost certainly has the slightly better reputation from most people I have spoken to in the field.

Not sure i'd entirely agree with that, looking at the results published by the RAE the two universities are pretty much neck and neck in terms of research quality. Whilst one may be better than the other for a particular area i dont think you can say hands down that the reputation of one is better than the other. Out of curiosity what area of the field did the people you ask work in?

Reply 9

laser

10

I think coursewise, both York and Bristol rank in that "second tier" below the "triangle" of Oxbridge and Imperial. The courses are going to be similar and equally well respected. You should start widening your criteria to more than just your course.

Reply 10

laeof

14

nhat2991

My friend told me not to go to York since it entered reason for a few years recently.
I seems to like York more than Bristol after the open days. However, it is hell-of-a-lot money to do the course so I just want to make sure I will not make a wrong decision.
York looks like a safe bet where everything is taught while Bristol is more concentrating on the software bit. York is a very nice place and the fee is cheaper than Bristol (I'm paying international student fee).
@Laser: TBH, I'm not even sure what I'm gonna do neither. I'm interested in writing program and on building computers. I looked at both places, the 1st 2 years are pretty much the same.
In the 3rd year of York, I'm quite interested in Artificial Intelligence for Games. Did you do this module? If yes, what is it like? Is there any modules on Graphics (I saw a demonstration of an app rendering some objects using OpenGL and think it will be interesting to do) Thxs a bunch. :biggrin:

@AshleyT: It's just a degree's name so why bothered? As long as it offers what you want to do.

Compared to other uni's i feel it offers less in the course...other courses tend to give you a wider variety of languages for example...york doesnt provide much on the web development area.

Reply 11

laser

10

AshleyT

Compared to other uni's i feel it offers less in the course...other courses tend to give you a wider variety of languages for example...york doesnt provide much on the web development area.

You should not judge a course based on what languages it offers. A good course will teach you the principles of programming in multiple paradigms that can then be applied to any particular language.

Reply 12

nhat2991

OP

@AshleyT: TBH, i won't be bothered much about which languages are taught. At all the open days i went to, they all stressed the fact that what they teach is "how to learn a language".(If you know what I mean)

Bristol vs York for Computer Science!

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you