Cardiff or UWE 2017 Entry? (Computer Science)

I'm doing computer science at Cardiff uni if you want any information about that. UWE was also one of my choices but personally I'm glad I decided on Cardiff

I am potentially looking at both of these Universities for computer science. What was your reasoning for choosing Cardiff? Did you know how to program before you went there? How many contact hours a week do you get? What is the help like if you are struggling with anything? What is the nightlife like?

The main two reasons I chose Cardiff were the location and modules. Location is obvious, I just liked the area more and thought Cardiff would be nicer to live in. For the modules, I did some research into what modules you do at both and found the topics and structure more interesting in Cardiff. It just had more choice in the optional modules so you could do what you really wanted.

I knew some programming. I had basics in a couple of languages so I knew how it works in general. We're doing python first year and I had no experience with that but it's interesting and there's a lot of help. Plus you start from the literal basics.

The contact hours are around 16 hours a week. 6 of them are lab ones. 1 is always an optional surgery one and then 2 others are depending on the week. So basically only come in if you're struggling with a certain topic. Wednesdays always finish by 12 for everyone if you do have lessons on Wednesday. So you get a bit of a mid week break. All lectures are also recorded so if you have a cold or something you can just watch the lecture from home later.

As I mentioned in the contact hours, there is at least one surgery lecture where you can come in and ask for help. Then depending on how quickly we covered a set topic, there will usually be another 1 or 2 extra ones instead of lectures. In most labs you will be just given number of tasks and there will be PhD students and that module lecturer walking around helping with anything you need. Other students don't mind helping at all and in groups of 8-10 we get older year mentors who you can talk to to get help. The lecturers also don't mind helping out of the learning hours and if you're really struggling you can talk to them and they will arrange an hour session in lab to help you out. Either with them or one of the PhD students. So there's help everywhere if you need it.

The nightlife is pretty good although I don't go out much but there's stuff for everyone. Computer society has bar crawls and pub meet ups at the uni pub constantly. We're having a Christmas dinner together too. There is a student night or similar at some club every night. There are society meet ups if you're not that into drinking. There's airsoft society if you like shooting people tea society if you prefer going out for tea brawl which is board gaming society and they meet up in a pub to play boardgames and card games together. Basically a lot of stuff to do for everyone.

A plus you may not heard of is the uni jobshop. The university often has short jobs they need doing or other companies asking for 1night help or similar. The uni may have a job like stuffing envelopes or just guiding people at their event and will pay 8.25 an hour. The stadiums and places like that also hire students when there's something big going on like rugby matches or famous bands come to perform. It's really good for students because they pay well and there's no major commitment. So one week you're free and doing fine with coursework and lectures, grab a job for a day. Another week you're swamped, you don't have a job to worry about.

Thanks so much thats helped a lot! I have a couple more questions if you wouldnt mind answering as well..
How much maths is involved in the course (I really enjoy maths ahha)?
Are you in halls of residence and if so what are they like?
How many people are on the course roughly?

I am potentially looking at both of these Universities for computer science. What was your reasoning for choosing Cardiff? Did you know how to program before you went there? How many contact hours a week do you get? What is the help like if you are struggling with anything? What is the nightlife like?