Nottingham vs Sheffield vs Loughborough for computer science?

I’ve been given offers for Nottingham and Loughborough for Bsc computer science and I am waiting for Sheffield, who will hopefully give me one. I am thinking of firming Nottingham as I like it the most (not too far, good city, lots of support, good course etc) but are the other two stronger in terms of reputation or their departments?!?!

I know I shouldn’t bother with ranking but I can’t help it. Loughborough is ranked like ten unis higher than Nottingham and Sheffield is also above Nottingham. Does this mean that I am choosing the weakest uni for cs?

In terms of reputation I used to think not=sheffield > loughborough, but now I am not so sure.

If you know a lot about these unis please give me your opinions on each unis overall reputation and the strength of their departments

I'll tell you why rankings are folly, especially for CS:

1) In 3/4 years when you graduate, the best ranked out of the 3 options you have may end up being the worst ranked by then

2) Rankings use different criteria so there is rarely consensus. If you look at the Complete University rankings for CS, for example, it says the best to worst are:

Sheffield
L'bourgh
Nottingham

Guardian says its:

L'bourgh
Nottingham
Sheffield

If you look up all the major rankings they will all have the universities in different places as they use different methodologies. There is no consensus based on league tables which university is "best".

3) This is the most important thing when it comes to CS: It doesn't matter where you went to university, only what you can do. For example, what of the founders of WhatsApp attended San Jose State Uni. I'm sure it's a fine university, but would it be the first place you thought of when you think of great CS universities? The guy who founded Spotify got his education in a place called IT-Gymnasiet. Ever heard of it? Me neither.

The point is there are thousands of people who are incredibly talented and successful (and rich) working in the tech sector who didn't go to fancy universities. Many of them don't even have degrees (e.g. Gates, Jobs, Zuckerburg).

University reputation only matters if you want to stay in academia (which is poorly paid compared to the tech sector). Universities are guilty of really over egging the pudding when it comes to "reputation". I've posted at length on here before about how studies have shown that much of what is deemed to be "prestigious" about many universities is simply clever marketing designed to raise money through tuition fees. Universities are businesses as much as anything else. They are competing against each other and trying to sell you their own particular university. Some universities use supposed "prestige" as a value proposition. Other universities (like the banner ads for Huddersfield we see on here at the moment) use accreditations by external bodies as their selling point. Some will sell you on the fact they have a high employability rate or are more focused on professional careers post uni.

My suggestion to you is cut through the marketing BS, look at each course in detail, the modules, speak to students already on each course and visit each uni if you can. Also look at placement opportunities. Tech companies don't care about where you went to uni, they care about your skills and what you can do.

Put another way: No tech company is going to turn you down because you graduated from Nottingham instead of Loughbourgh. Your 3 choices are all good places to learn CS, so you can't go too far wrong really.

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aaaAAh you’re right. I don’t wanna go into academia btw. I always get so caught up in this (I’m a reapplicant) and forget that my individual skill will have a part in it. Thanks

hi! did you need A level maths to be accepted at nottingham and loughborough ? thanks