CS Courses

Hello everyone,

I'm a year 12 student who's having a bit of difficulty choosing what course to take at university. CS is an area that has peeked into my interest and so I researched about the different type of courses. However I'm having trouble choosing which course would suit me best since I have absolutely no prior experience with computer software.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. =D

Reply 1

roblee

Why has it piqued your interest if you have no prior experience? How do you know you won't hate it when you start?

If all you want to do is "study CS", well, do any G400 computer science degree. If you want a more specific answer you'll need to ask a more specific question.

Reply 2

BananaPie

Well I essentially want to do CS because I felt like doing something new at university. I do, however, honestly think it's sort of a weird reason to base my university course decision on.

2 of my HL subjects in the IB diploma are Mathematics and Physics. The course that I could definitely take with those two subjects would be any engineering course at university. The problem is that I'm getting a bit bored with physics and so I'm worried that engineering might be a bad decision for me.

Computer Science does look a bit interesting since I've been a bit interested in how a computer works and so I thought it wouldn't be that bad of a choice to take it.

Reply 3

roblee

Hm, consider a joint course such as Computer Science and Maths or Computer Science and Physics then, if this is still your aim after the summer break. A core G400 course might be less science-y and more alien than you'd expect.

Here's the syllabus for one such joint honours course, including module breakdown (the equivalent of an A-level specification). It would be a very good idea to self-teach some programming now to get a feel for what the next 3-4 years could be about; refer to one of TSR's many dedicated threads for a full ~~all-out flamewar~~ discussion about which language to try; if they're too difficult for now, there's always Mindstorms or Scratch.

Reply 4

BananaPie

I've used scratch before, although I've never made any groundbreaking fancy looking stuff, I did find the basics really easy to grasp and understand.

I was about to start using stencylworks just for some fun but my end of year exams and other commitments got in the way so I haven't had time to do that (nor do I think I have time during the summer as well).

I'll take your suggestion into consideration and look at the syllabus once I wake up tomorrow! (currently 1am here)