UCL Postgraduate Applications 2017/2018

Original post by futuramafan77

Anyone still waiting to hear a response back on the MSc Computer Science programme (Conversion)?

they take ages for that, and any CS department courses in general. If you need to get the offer asap (eg for applying to finance sources) give them a call and they should fast track it for you.

Reply 687

giaduc96

Original post by futuramafan77

Anyone still waiting to hear a response back on the MSc Computer Science programme (Conversion)?

Same here. I submitted by January, and then all references submitted by 5th Feb, still no news. But hopefully "no news is a good news" I guess? Let me know if any news my friend.

Reply 688

kousiksurya93

Guys, I have applied for Msc cancer in UCL. I am a doctor from Asia. I have passed all few from ucl. But I have not published any research projects. Will this be a reason to turn down my application?

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~ Aquamarine ~

17

References only just submitted for Education & Technology and Policy Studies in Education.I am worried as i have another offer in which i need to accept and pay a non refundable deposit within 5 weeks and it looks like UCL takes longer than this to reply,not too sure what to do! :frown:

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Original post by ~ Aquamarine ~

References only just submitted for Education & Technology and Policy Studies in Education.I am worried as i have another offer in which i need to accept and pay a non refundable deposit within 5 weeks and it looks like UCL takes longer than this to reply,not too sure what to do! :frown:

So you paid for two applications? aka £150 in total? Ring the lazy *******s and get them to fast track your application and get your money's worth out of them, they are an utter joke really. £75 for probably the worst admissions process I've ever come across in my entire life, and this is from someone who has applied to several overseas universities/UK MSc courses and been through several UCAS cycles, UCL are by far the most inefficient bunch of wallies I've seen, yet have the cheek to charge £75? I'd ring try get it fast tracked if I was you, explaining the amount of money you spent and reason why you need it fast tracked.

Reply 691

Original post by ~ Aquamarine ~

References only just submitted for Education & Technology and Policy Studies in Education.I am worried as i have another offer in which i need to accept and pay a non refundable deposit within 5 weeks and it looks like UCL takes longer than this to reply,not too sure what to do! :frown:

Phone them. They might help. Admissions is slow around this time of year due to all the MSc and PhD. With A levels soon it'll become worse.

They did say the application can take six week till after its accepted to hear a result, so they did already warn you.

Original post by futuramafan77

Anyone still waiting to hear a response back on the MSc Computer Science programme (Conversion)?

I've heard about this program. Apparently it's not very difficult at all, they accept all kinds of people, even internationals who can't speak English and barely got the requirements. They complain it's hard, so all the grades get reduced.

Honestly I wouldn't do a conversion. I'd straight up do a specialist Computer Science course and use that summer to learn all the basics. I can vouch because I had a friend who did maths, no CS, no coding and went straight to Oxford for a proper CompSci Master's and was fine.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 692

Original post by aware1

I've heard about this program. Apparently it's not very difficult at all, they accept all kinds of people, even internationals who can't speak English and barely got the requirements. They complain it's hard, so all the grades get reduced.

Honestly I wouldn't do a conversion. I'd straight up do a specialist Computer Science course and use that summer to learn all the basics. I can vouch because I had a friend who did maths, no CS, no coding and went straight to Oxford for a proper CompSci Master's and was fine.

Right...

And I'm sure UCL would be just fine with, say a history grad, just applying for an advanced CS MSc and saying, 'I'll practice da codez over smmer, plz accept'.

Also, people who can't speak English? Catch yourself on, UCL have a set standard for English requirements for each course, I highly doubt there are any standards so low you could say they 'can't speak English'

Also, you have a massively flawed logic with your friend who did maths. If you are unaware of the benefits a maths degree has in an advanced CS MSc, then really you shouldn't be giving advice on this topic at all.

Also, anyone reading this, please take this guy's advice with an entire road gritter worth of salt.

Reply 693

Original post by Et Tu, Brute?

Right...

And I'm sure UCL would be just fine with, say a history grad, just applying for an advanced CS MSc and saying, 'I'll practice da codez over smmer, plz accept'.

Also, people who can't speak English? Catch yourself on, UCL have a set standard for English requirements for each course, I highly doubt there are any standards so low you could say they 'can't speak English'

Also, you have a massively flawed logic with your friend who did maths. If you are unaware of the benefits a maths degree has in an advanced CS MSc, then really you shouldn't be giving advice on this topic at all.

Also, anyone reading this, please take this guy's advice with an entire road gritter worth of salt.

Obviously you don't know what you're talking about. My friend, who is a teaching assistant for many of the masters modules told me this. It was their exact words, many students were foreign so had difficulty speaking English but had great academic marks. They'd accept anyone on the course, especially international students whom pay more. Other specialist comp sci courses are geared for industry, more than research. My friend studied a master's at UCL in a specialised CS course and they gave first hand experience, the course mainly took from what we had already done in third year undergraduate and aimed it at those who were working in industry and needed a refresh.

Maths and CS degree, well maths and a research CS degree don't go hand it hand at all. His maths course was primarily based on theoretical maths, as he said, it did not help at all. It didn't help with coding, or learning CS theories, computer systems or security. It was however fine with machine learning, natural language processing and mathematical notation. But that was all.

The research focused courses are however amazing and recommended.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 694

Original post by aware1

Obviously you don't know what you're talking about. My friend, who is a teaching assistant for many of the masters modules told me this. It was their exact words, many students were foreign so had difficulty speaking English but had great academic marks. They'd accept anyone on the course, especially international students whom pay more. Other specialist comp sci courses are geared for industry, more than research. My friend studied a master's at UCL in a specialised CS course and they gave first hand experience, the course mainly took from what we had already done in third year undergraduate and aimed it at those who were working in industry and needed a refresh.

Maths and CS degree, well maths and a research CS degree don't go hand it hand at all. His maths course was primarily based on theoretical maths, as he said, it did not help at all. It didn't help with coding, or learning CS theories, computer systems or security. It was however fine with machine learning, natural language processing and mathematical notation. But that was all.

The research focused courses are however amazing and recommended.

My point is your advice is utterly terrible given that you are making vast generalizations. I expect you friend is also having you on that they cannot speak English, that or he has exaggerated and your foolishly taken it as the literal truth. How do you expect they can write their reports and read the lecture notes? Google translate I guess. Their English might not be as good as your mate's, but given them a break, I can guarantee you they'll have at least passed the English requirements otherwise they'd not be there. Of course they'll have difficulty with English, it isn't their first language, that doesn't mean they can't speak it which is what you said initially.

You are also deluded if you think you'll get onto an advanced CS degree with a non-maths/engineering degree, no work experience in a relevant field and nothing to hint at a programming ability other than, 'oh, I'll go over the basics this summer' (which hints at the fact they have incredibility limited computing experience and would probably make the admissions tutor wonder just why exactly they are applying in the first place). Your advice is hands down some of the worst I've ever seen on this site.

Also, the advanced CS MSc courses at UCL are postgraduate-taught, so no idea why you are bringing research into it.

I was working on a networks project during an internship, despite the fact I could code, I struggled with the linear algebra and encryption side of things as I hadn't covered those until my final year modules. Maths helps underpin a lot of CS topics, so will at least allow you to pick up some topics quickly and give you time to focus on others you have no idea about. If you have no idea about any of it, you'll not get admitted in the first place, let alone struggle on the advanced CS. But sure, anyone with a non-STEM degree and no work experience in a CS field, go head and skip the conversion course and jump straight into the advanced MSc material, all you need is a summer to bring yourself up to standard, I'm sure you;ll all be just fine.

Reply 695

The Assassin

18

Lol I came into this thread noticing on the sidebar to ask about computer science conversion course. Didn't expect to see the above

Still waiting, they said they're very busy with all CS related degrees

Reply 696

Original post by Et Tu, Brute?

My point is your advice is utterly terrible given that you are making vast generalizations. I expect you friend is also having you on that they cannot speak English, that or he has exaggerated and your foolishly taken it as the literal truth. How do you expect they can write their reports and read the lecture notes? Google translate I guess. Their English might not be as good as your mate's, but given them a break, I can guarantee you they'll have at least passed the English requirements otherwise they'd not be there. Of course they'll have difficulty with English, it isn't their first language, that doesn't mean they can't speak it which is what you said initially.

You are also deluded if you think you'll get onto an advanced CS degree with a non-maths/engineering degree, no work experience in a relevant field and nothing to hint at a programming ability other than, 'oh, I'll go over the basics this summer' (which hints at the fact they have incredibility limited computing experience and would probably make the admissions tutor wonder just why exactly they are applying in the first place). Your advice is hands down some of the worst I've ever seen on this site.

Also, the advanced CS MSc courses at UCL are postgraduate-taught, so no idea why you are bringing research into it.

I was working on a networks project during an internship, despite the fact I could code, I struggled with the linear algebra and encryption side of things as I hadn't covered those until my final year modules. Maths helps underpin a lot of CS topics, so will at least allow you to pick up some topics quickly and give you time to focus on others you have no idea about. If you have no idea about any of it, you'll not get admitted in the first place, let alone struggle on the advanced CS. But sure, anyone with a non-STEM degree and no work experience in a CS field, go head and skip the conversion course and jump straight into the advanced MSc material, all you need is a summer to bring yourself up to standard, I'm sure you;ll all be just fine.

You are deluded, UCL CS MSc is not an advanced course in the slightest. It's aimed at people who don't have a CS or engineering background. It says it on the admissions page. The other courses of course require CS. But we are not talking about those.

But you're right about only needing a summer. CS itself isn't very difficult at all. Mainly builds on A level maths with algorithms, majority of people go into software engineering and that's just logic and good practices.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 697

Original post by aware1

You are deluded, UCL CS MSc is not an advanced course in the slightest. It's aimed at people who don't have a CS or engineering background. It says it on the admissions page. The other courses of course require CS. But we are not talking about those.

But you're right about only needing a summer. CS itself isn't very difficult at all. Mainly builds on A level maths with algorithms, majority of people go into software engineering and that's just logic and good practices.

Advanced MSc in CS = specialised MSc CS => need a CS, maths or engineering degree depending on the specialization. Good luck to anyone on those with a no experience or at least some degree modules in something somewhat related, regardless of how hard you work over the summer. £12k is a lot of money to risk on this awful advice, but each to their own. I considered the Robotics stream with a STEM background that included work experience and programming as well as electronics, the response I had from admissions was 'I wouldn't discourage you to apply'. I highly doubt they are keen on taking people, who by the time of the deadline, can only say they plan on studying X,Y and Z over the 2/3 months before the course begins.

Done with this argument mate. bye

Reply 698