University of Bristol

Bristol

Computer Science 2016 Applicants

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Reply 40

UnknownDude

Original post by k4l397

Currently in my first year doing computer science if anyone has any questions :smile:

Hey! I've been considering Bristol quite alot recently especially after getting offers from unis that are better than Bristol on the league tables. Why would you recommend me to go Bristol than rather say Imperial or UCL? And is it true that Bristol graduates do earn as much as Imperial graduates and can earn more than 40k as starting salary if they are good?

University of Bristol

Bristol

Reply 41

username738914

Original post by UnknownDude

Obviously they can.. It's as simple as getting a job that pays that much; probably Google, Facebook type companies, startups, tech roles in banks or jobs at a hedge fund/prop trading firm.

Your uni doesn't get you a high paying job, you do. If you want one, do the things required to get one.

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Reply 42

username738914

Original post by k4l397

Currently in my first year doing computer science if anyone has any questions :smile:

Thanks for doing this man.

How is the teaching structured for CompSci? How many contact hours per week do you have? What is the coursework/project work to exam ratio like? Are the other CompSci students stereotypical or are they varied? Are there any girl CompScis? hahaha

In terms of the uni as a whole, how have you found your experience so far? What is the general 'vibe' like around the place? Is there much in the way of different events/things to do?

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Reply 43

username987675

Original post by UnknownDude

Yes bristol graduates definitely are able to earn more than 40k if they are good, but you'd have to be quite good - that would go for any top uni tbh with you. When I was choosing uni's I basically got a list of uni's that seemed to have good courses then picked them based on where I would most want to live. In terms of employability I believe a lot of the top universities have good employability so which one shouldn't matter that much. Speaking about Bristol specifically though, they have a first year internship scheme which has internships only open to first year UoB students (which means your chances of getting them are quite good), they can be really useful for securing internships in later years and helps boost your employability after. They also have a really good PandA (programming and algorithms) course, the lecturers make it interesting and know loads about it so it's a really good course. I'd find it hard to give you a good reason to choose it over UCL or Imperial because I've never been either of those two... Generally speaking they are all good universities all with good prospects after, for me peronally the location made me choose bristol . I didn't even look at london uni's because I didn't really like london, don't really want to compare uni's I don't know much about so sorry I couldn't give a better answer :P

tl;dr UoB is good as is UCL as is Imperial, you'll probably get a decent paying job from all 3 if you do well. If you can't choose between courses, I'd recommend choosing the one you like the location of.

Original post by Princepieman

The way the teaching is structured depends on the module really. For PandA (programming and algorithms), I get 3 lectures a week, one on c, one on haskell and one on algorithms, then there is 4 hours of labs per week. For the maths module for computer science, it's split into 1 lecture, 1 2 hour workshop, and an optional 1 hour drop in session. Then finally there is computer architecture which has 2 2 hour lectures and a 2 hour lab. The rest will depend on the optional modules you pick, for example the maths module I do has a 1 hour tutorial, 2 1 hour lectures and a problem class. You get 30 credits of optionals to pick from, some are covered in teaching block 1 (before christmas), others are in teaching block 2. You're totally free to choose how to spread those 30 credits out, if you really wanted to, you could put all 30 credits in 1 teaching block, but it's not really recommended.

Currently my contact hours are 21 hours a week, some of them are optional though - for example there is an extra class for the maths module, and there is a problem class, as well as a drop in for the computer science maths module. It's much up to you to choose how you spend your time, if you feel like you need extra help with a topic then the extra optional things are available. In the second teaching block I have 27 hours a week (again some are optional), partly due to a pretty poor choice in how I should arrange my optional modules. Most people have about 24ish contact hours a week in both teaching blocks.

Exams to coursework seem pretty much 50/50, about half the core units use exams of some form (1 unit uses a viva), and all the programming units use coursework. There is a bit of coursework in a unit I do next teaching block, but it's meant to still be mostly exam based. I believe it gets more coursework based in future years if I remember rightly. Currently I get a programming assignment a week.

Computer science students are quite varied I'd say but a lot do share a lot of common interests. A lot I've spoken to are into computers (probs no surprise), gaming, ect. The A levels everyone has done isn't particularly varied either, in general it's some combination of maths, further maths, physics, chemistry or computing. You could probably safely assume that there are gonna be hardly any girls on whatever computer science course you apply to. They exist, but they are very rare :P

As a whole the uni and the city is great :biggrin:

. Bristol is very vibrant and has loads to do. Night life is really good, there are loads of clubs to choose from (Motion, Thekla, SWX, ect). Your halls of residence also organise events, some free, others not. I personally haven't really joined any societies (or atleast haven't been to many of their events), but ik some are meant to have really good events. https://www.bristolsu.org.uk/activities/societies/ <- here's a link if your interested in societies, bogsoc looked an interesting one but I've never been to a single one of their events (I just get loads of emails about them...).

tl;dr - Course hours are good, arguably a bit much but manageble none the less. Exams to coursework is pretty much 50/50. People in computer science are varied but still share some common interests. Girls are nearly non existent in computer science. Overall a great uni though :biggrin:

Reply 44

Sawamura

Original post by Anonymoose12

I just received an invitation for a visit day on the 16th. Pretty excited, and it seems to be a more informal interview just asking me questions like why computer science, why Bristol, etc. Nothing scary then hopefully, but any advice would be great.

Anyway, has anyone else received an invite for the 16th as well?

I'm going on the 16th as well. :h:

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