In clearing, dont know what course to pick? also dont know if i should do foundation?

i am not sure if i should do a foundation year? is it work paying an extra 9k just to recap some A level stuff and learn a bit of new things? the foundation year just seems like a drag and a total waste of time to me. It's like resiting year 13.

so foundation year at a good university like queen mary or city university plus the normal 3 year degree length.......or just the 3 year course degree at a lower ranked university like the university of westminster?
which ones a better choice?

also i am stuck on which course to pick between computer science or electrical and electronic engineering.....which pays more? which allows you to travel around the world more? which gives you the opportunity to invent new things? which allows you to work with awesome companies?

note: please quote this always to reply to me

(edited 10 years ago)

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anyone?

anyone?

anyoe?

Anyone help please? Times running out

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Reply 5

Lorna17

Have a look at both the course content to see which you would prefer and only do a foundation if you think you will really struggle with the uni course if not you can do a bit of your own research to help you recap over stuff.

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Reply 6

TenOfThem

Original post by study beats

Anyone help please? Times running out

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I would go for the better university

To be blunt ... If they think you need the foundation year then you probably do not have the best grasp of the a level stuff that you would be reviewing

Reply 7

bestofyou

Original post by study beats

Anyone help please? Times running out

Take the foundation year, it will start off really easy doing stuff at GCSE but should go fairly quick and you'll be doing the A-level stuff quicker than you think. EEE and comp. sci. will both need quite a bit of science/maths background and a rather in depth knowledge of it. So definitely take thee foundation year if your maths/physics grades aren't very good.

You aren't really paying £9000 a year, for a start you may get a bursary from the university depending on your household income. Plus you might only pay back like £6000 depending on how much money you earn after the degree.

I'd go for EEE to be honest, it includes computer programming anyway, I'm not 100% sure, however I'm sure it would be easier to transfer to computer science from EEE than vise-versa.

A lot of software engineers and programmers are having rather short lived careers. This is because companies would rather hire new graduates who will work for less and will generally have a more updated programming mind leading to a more modern work force. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-22/software-engineers-will-work-one-day-for-english-majors.html

That is for software engineers, I'm not sure about computer science graduates however I don't see why it wouldn't be similar for computer science also.

Reply 8

study beats

Original post by bestofyou

But I already have good knowledge of my A levels....my grades were only low because of personal reasons...other than that I know everything....

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Reply 9

study beats

Original post by TenOfThem

I would go for the better university

To be blunt ... If they think you need the foundation year then you probably do not have the best grasp of the a level stuff that you would be reviewing

But why would I do an extra year? I don't wanna drag and waste a year....plus paying 9k !!

Also I already know good knowledge of my A levels and I am capable of starting right away...

I rather go to a low ranked university to do the degree instead of doing a foundation year at a better university...

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Reply 10

TenOfThem

Original post by study beats

But why would I do an extra year? I don't wanna drag and waste a year....plus paying 9k !!

Also I already know good knowledge of my A levels and I am capable of starting right away...

Ah. ok - well you did not give a lot of information in your OP and from what you did give I assumed that your A Level results had not been great

I rather go to a low ranked university to do the degree instead of doing a foundation year at a better university...

Then why ask and repeatedly bump

Reply 11

study beats

Original post by TenOfThem

Ah. ok - well you did not give a lot of information in your OP and from what you did give I assumed that your A Level results had not been great

Then why ask and repeatedly bump

Yes, my a levels were not that great, but they don't really represent me...

I ask because I seek advice

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Reply 12

TenOfThem

Original post by study beats

Yes, my a levels were not that great, but they don't really represent me...

I ask because I seek advice

But 2 of us have given the same advice and you are saying that you want to go the other way

Perhaps our advice has just convinced you that you want to go the other way

What does the course look like at Westminster - do you think it will teach you what you need

Reply 13

study beats

Original post by TenOfThem

Yea, and I am deciding to do computer science instead of electronic engineering ....I feel as if I wanna do that more

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Reply 14

Lisadee88

It all depends on what you want to do as a career. For some careers e.g. teaching - the university you went to is far less important than your final grade. Other careers will be more impressed with the foundation year and a good degree from a better university. Some people find foundation years a bonus because you get to understand how universities work and have better opportunities to boost your CV with four years to complete experience as opposed to 3.

Reply 15

TenOfThem

Original post by study beats

Yea, and I am deciding to do computer science instead of electronic engineering ....I feel as if I wanna do that more

If, at this stage, you are unsure about the degree subject you may be better taking a gap year

What interests you about each degree - why do you now feel the CS is better

Reply 16

Freddiehc

Original post by study beats

If I were you and you are desperate to go to uni this year I would recommend that you take the foundation year option, often Universities give a discounted fee for a foundation year anyway. For example the science one at the University of East Anglia is 4.5grand and then goes up to 9 afterwards.

However, if you don't want to pay that extra money and you still want to go off to University and maybe go to one that wouldn't have been your first choice go ahead and do it.

Althought you do have one other option and this depends on how badly you want to go to University this year or not. You could contact your college and re-sit some exams that you didn't do so well in and get the grades that you feel you deserve. That way you would stand a better chance of going to a University that you would be happy with and would have saved on the money for a foundation year - it would also give you an extra few months before the UCAS deadline to figure out which course is for you.

It entirely depends on you as a person and what you want out of it but the way I see it is that those are your options for the field you want to go into.

Reply 17

study beats

Original post by TenOfThem

If, at this stage, you are unsure about the degree subject you may be better taking a gap year

What interests you about each degree - why do you now feel the CS is better

Because it was my first intended choice....then I changed it to electronic engineering because my parents advised me too

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Reply 18

TenOfThem

Original post by study beats

Because it was my first intended choice....then I changed it to electronic engineering because my parents advised me too

You really need to make your own decisions on this

I asked you what interests you about each course - that is what you need to think about

Reply 19

bestofyou

Original post by study beats

But I already have good knowledge of my A levels....my grades were only low because of personal reasons...other than that I know everything....

Why are you asking for our advice if you only want to hear what you want? If you have extenuating circumstances for poor grades then fine, however that doesn't mean that you know everything. You did your a-levels, what, like two months ago? If you knew everything you'd have gotten good grades, the fact you didn't likely indicates that you haven't got the grounding required for the course. Yeah sure if x, y or z didn't happen you'd likely have got better grades, but it did happen and just because would have gotten high grades doesn't mean that you are currently of that standard, you'd be better off getting that foundation before jumping into a degree.

If you are that worried about the foundation year costs and content, then go back to school and resit your exams which, as long as you haven't repeated already, will cost you nothing other than resit fees. Remember that some companies filter applications with A-level results, if you have poor grades they may not even consider you regardless if you went to Oxford or the University of Bongo Bongo Land.

Chances are for most foundation years, as someone else stated, they'll not be charging the full £9k anyway.

Your options are either:

go back to school/college and resit for free basically, which is what I'd do

go do the foundation year and get into a better standard university

take a gap year and resit the exams you did poorly on studying by yourself, saying you know everything this should be fairly easy for you. Then you can apply for a degree at a better university as you'll have better grades. It also gives you time to sort out work experience to help you decide on which degree you would prefer to do.

Go to Westminster for the sake of going to university this year.