Online MSc Computer Science with Data Analytics at University of York

Did you happen to consider US-based courses before you decided to pursue the York's degree? I am referring to Illinois MSc in CS with Data Science and Georgia Tech Online Masters in Analytics

Unfortunately, I didn't look that far, but seeing where Georgia Tech is on the world rankings, I think I would have considered it first. Now that Imperial is in the mix, you know which one I would choose now.

Thanks for all the contributions on this thread so far, really useful!

I have 2 questions relating to the content & whether I would be able to manage the content.

I’m in the early stages of looking into online msc’s in the data science field, and this one has caught my attention. My question for anyone currently on the course (or who are further along researching) is how much of this course falls in the data science realm Vs core computer science? Appreciate there is overlap, but it seems pure computer science is the route for people who want to build software/programmes ect, whereas I would want to focus mainly on on the data science/analytics side.

Whether I would be able to manage the content ... I’ve got an undergrad in Economics(did quite well in the maths heavy modules) but no experience in coding/programming. My plan would be to brush up on my maths and take a few online intro course on computer/data science before starting any Msc degree. 20 hours a week study would be the absolute max I could commit alongside my job.

Thanks!

I live in the UK, so I think it made sense to choose a UK university for me, as if I ever used the degree in the future, I think employers would want to be familiar with what they were looking at when seeing my degree.

Birkbeck Msc CS evening seems worth it for the price, people who live near central

I studied 2 PGDips at BBK (with the finance, maths, stats department) and can say that although they are good they can be very disorganised and unsupportive at times.
With regards CS, I have a friend who is studying it there and says that the teaching quality is a bit 'meh'. But your mileage may vary.
EDIT: I should add that by studying there I was able to get a job in the area I studied (finance+financial risk) and people seem quite impressed that I worked full-time whilst studying.

What do people think of the Glasgow course? Specifically when comparing to Bath? Looking at the QS rankings, Glasgow is higher but in terms of employability Bath pips it by a few places. Costs are almost the same.
I postponed my decision on York after posting in this thread a long time ago, glad I did after reading what people have said. Now considering Bath (CS) or Glasgow (DA) next year if I can get my employer to foot some of the bill. What's the feelings on these courses here?

I don't know why rankings are being taken way too seriously here, when there's not much difference at all between the unis being considered. Apart from the very few exceptional uni such imperial and oxbridge, all the other well known uni will be regarded the same way. Employers don't follow or stay up to date with rankings, so to them there won't be any difference between a Bath or York graduate. Though yes you will be contacted a lot more by recruiters in regards to graduate opportunities as compared to some less well known uni such as Hertfordshire or Leeds Beckett. Each company would have their own bias and preference. For a lot of grad positions I've applied to, many from low ranking job did excellent job and got offers mostly due to their vast experience offered by their course (e.g. compulsory work exp and a more project based approach to their course).

I wouldn't rely much on rankings and would use it with severe caution when it comes to tech. The QS World University Rankings survey is based entirely on opinion and not real-world employment outcomes to back their claim up. What is also not being mentioned is that universities can cheat the system. Entry standards and graduate outcomes take 2yrs to feed into league tables whereas facilities spend takes just one. So universities will deliberately be more selective with which students they accept to keep higher quality, accompany that with big investments in the campus or Improving staff/student ratio and then enjoy a fly up the league tables. In short, the metrics are very 'cheatable' and they rely on students putting too much weight on reputation/prestige, so use ranking with a bit of salt. You’ll end up with a ‘good’ degree but less experience and exposure (possibly ultimately less employable in practical terms) than someone who went to an overall lower ranked university that invested in your subject area. Of course thats not to generalise all top uni, but its something to consider as a few courses that seem like an easy cash cow for them and not producing much value.

A bit about me: I was doing the MSc Comp Sci at Uni of Nottingham from September 2019 as it was only £7k (price rose to 10k now), but had to drop out due to my funding being cancelled So I've moved back home and got a regular boring office job to cope until this corona virus epidemic came. I've been contemplating about the York's course as its cheaper, but from my own exp with Nottingham it slightly put me off and doesn't seem as great.

not considered doing it by distance learning?

Can anyone advice about Birkbeck CS, can't find there ranking anywhere, they decided to withdraw from public rankings because they have a different vision on how to deliver courses or something, anyone did there CS Msc or similar course? Already tried Kent CS and left, don't want to make the same mistake.

I've accepted an unconditional offer for the MSc Comp Sci at Bath. Comparatively speaking, there are too many positives when comparing the Bath MSc compared to the one offered by York (subjectively speaking). For example, the I prefer their teaching techniques i.e. teaching computer science by various programming paradigms and ensuring to include programming in almost all modules, to relay the fundamental concept being taught. Their tutors are apparently responsive and they have developed quite a nice online community of Comp Sci students, their teaching material includes easy to understand notes and slides (their approach is to teach you as if you were in class), as opposed to expansive reading material and then a test at the end of it. They are purely coursework based (they have small tests which are MCQs). So yeah, no question for me to accept Bath, and worth the £5k extra for me.

I've accepted an unconditional offer for the MSc Comp Sci at Bath. Comparatively speaking, there are too many positives when comparing the Bath MSc compared to the one offered by York (subjectively speaking). For example, the I prefer their teaching techniques i.e. teaching computer science by various programming paradigms and ensuring to include programming in almost all modules, to relay the fundamental concept being taught. Their tutors are apparently responsive and they have developed quite a nice online community of Comp Sci students, their teaching material includes easy to understand notes and slides (their approach is to teach you as if you were in class), as opposed to expansive reading material and then a test at the end of it. They are purely coursework based (they have small tests which are MCQs). So yeah, no question for me to accept Bath, and worth the £5k extra for me.

I'm trying to find one that I would like. Bath seems okay for me, but very expensive although they seem to offer a flexible payment arrangement just like York. I think the biggest problem with these courses is the lack of info available on them, as well as the unis reluctance to reveal much. I'm also scared of choosing the wrong programme and not receiving a refund

I'd be careful in thinking that Bath will contain more programming than York, I'm reading through Bath's modules and tbh a lot of the modules look like York's in that they 'sound' like programming modules when in actual fact they are probably theoretical. Looking at the description I'd say that like York only 4-5 of those modules look like they contain programming, the rest will be making UML models of theoretical code (in particular the software engineering modules,THCI , cybersecurity and entrepreneurship modules wont have much code, the databases module might not contain much code either and instead may use schema and ERD) .

Well, if you could keep us posted as to your experience of the course as it progresses, it'd be greatly appreciated.