Computer science

Hi, i want to major in computer science for university.
which is the preffered a levels for it:
Maths, physics, computer science

Maths, Further maths, computer science

I want to go to UCL, cambridge or imperial since they are outstanding for CS

Of those two options, Maths, Further Maths, and Computer Science - because either option works for UCL and Imperial, but Cambridge are keen on Further Maths.

• UCL have no stated subject preference (beyond the obvious Mathematics). (source)
• Cambridge say, "A Level Further Mathematics is very strongly encouraged." (source)
• Imperial recommend "Computer Science, Physics or Further Mathematics" - in additional to Maths. (source)

However, if you look at The Uni Guide, you'll note that the most popular A levels studied for all three courses are Maths, Further Maths, and Physics (which isn't one of the options you provided).

So far i chose maths physics and computer science, i might change them but thank you, can i ask one more question

Of course you can. You can ask two if you like.

Actually i got ALL 6s in my current GCSEs, i want to major in computer science, this year i didnt do super good in my GCSEs. I am thinking to retake maths GCSE and try aim for an 8 so i can choose for my a levels maths, physics, computer science and further maths. (for now with my current grades i chose maths physics and cs) But i am aiming to go to imperial or ucl as those universities are amazing for computing but after recieving my gcses i am feeling less confident. i am aiming to get A*A*A for a levels but i am worried my gcses will disadvantage me. Any advice ?? (and any extra tips for ucl or imperial, do you know anyone with 6s in this universities)

Actually i got ALL 6s in my current GCSEs, i want to major in computer science, this year i didnt do super good in my GCSEs. I am thinking to retake maths GCSE and try aim for an 8 so i can choose for my a levels maths, physics, computer science and further maths. (for now with my current grades i chose maths physics and cs) But i am aiming to go to imperial or ucl as those universities are amazing for computing but after recieving my gcses i am feeling less confident. i am aiming to get A*A*A for a levels but i am worried my gcses will disadvantage me. Any advice ?? (and any extra tips for ucl or imperial, do you know anyone with 6s in this universities)

I received an offer from both UCL and Imperial last year for Computer science. Whilst they don’t explicitly state grades needed in GCSE, if you struggle to get an 8 or above in GCSE Maths you will find it extremely difficult to meet Imperial’s grade requirements as they require you to sit the STEP 2 exam alongside your A levels(my offer was A* A* A A and STEP 2) and this is extremely difficult and is only sat by Cambridge and Warwick Maths students as well as Imperial CompSci students as well.

Imperial
Imperial say that, for Computing BEng, they made their typical offer "to at least 80% of 2022 A-level applicants." (Their typical offer is A*A*A for applicants studying 3 levels and A*AAA for applicants studying four). If we look at their published statistics for "New Entrants' Achieved Grades" we can see that the Department of Computing hasn't accepted anyone with less than two A*s (regardless of how many A levels they have) since 2018. (source) So your should be under no illusion as to how hard it is to gain entry to this course.

Imperial state very clearly that, "The only GCSE grade that we may consider with respect to entry requirements is English language grade if the applicant is using the results of this qualification to show that they meet our required English language standard for entry, or a relevant modern foreign language for courses with a year abroad." Other than that, they pay no attention to GCSE grades whatsoever. They don't publish the GCSE grades of successful applicants as they don't bother to retain that information - it's irrelevant to them. Your GCSE grades are therefore only important in so far as they allow you access to the A levels you want to study. They are not important to Imperial.

UCL
UCL say that for Computer Science BSc, their entry requirements are A*A*A and don't quote separate grades for those studying four A levels (suggesting that they might simply ignore the fourth).

UCL are much much more reluctant to release information about admission statistics and the grades of successful applicants, denying freedom of information requests by asserting that, "even providing this information on an anonymised basis it is possible that the underlying individuals could be identified". That sounds like a spurious argument to me. Looking outside Computer Science itself, they have release some (dated) information which shows that for successful candidates with 8 or more GCSE results in the 2018 admission cycle, 25% of GCSE were A*, 32% were A and 32% were B (with remainder being B or below). The fact that they're quoting GCSE grades in terms of letters rather than numbers shows you how old the data is! However it does show that GCSEs at a grade B/6 are certainly no bar to entry.

Summary
Don't worry about your GCSE grade profile (other than for Maths, if that's stopping you gaining access to the A levels subjects you want to study). You will need to do exceptionally well at A level to gain access to you preferred course - as will all other successful applicants.

I received an offer from both UCL and Imperial last year for Computer science. Whilst they don’t explicitly state grades needed in GCSE, if you struggle to get an 8 or above in GCSE Maths you will find it extremely difficult to meet Imperial’s grade requirements as they require you to sit the STEP 2 exam alongside your A levels(my offer was A* A* A A and STEP 2) and this is extremely difficult and is only sat by Cambridge and Warwick Maths students as well as Imperial CompSci students as well.

Im sorry if im confused here but isnt Imperial supposed to be a very competitive university: how are "at least 80% of 2022 A-level applicants." being accepted?

Fair point. The quote I lifted from their web site here is actually very misleading. What they say is that their typical offer is, "Made to at least 80% of 2022 A-level applicants." What they mean to say is that of those applicants who receive an offer, their typical offer is, "Made to at least 80% of 2022 A-level applicants." Those are clearly quite different things. So apologies for my having taken what they've written at face value.

We can get a clue to this revised meaning in that the same page says, "Some applicants may be set lower offers and some more challenging ones." But the real proof is in the spreadsheet which I linked to which shows that for the 2022 admission cycle, 1418 applications were received for G400 Computing (BEng 3YFT) and 210 offers were made. So offers were only made to about 14.8% of applicants. Of these 14.8% of applicants, the typical offer was made to at least 80% of them, with some of the remaining being "set lower offers and some more challenging ones".

It's also worth noting that of the 210 applicants who received offers only 66 were ultimately accepted, with the remaining either opting to take up other offers, not meeting their offer grades, or not actually joining the university for some other reason.

Quick 2 questions, of all the applicants that applied do they all meet the A*A*A requirement or do they apply anyways expecting he university to be lenient if they got something like A*AA.Secondly,if that many people are not meeting or rejecting the offers what does Imperial do with the free spaces is it provided through clearing?

1. I know of no available data with regards to the predicted grades of applicants to Computing at Imperial. However, we can see from the "A level, IB, STEP Offers Made" sheet in the workbook I linked to earlier that there were zero A*AA (or below) offers made across the whole Department of Computing last year. The same was true the year before. All offers in both of those years were at A*A*A (for those taking 3 A levels) or A*AAA / A*AAAA / A*A*AA (for those taking four).

From the "New Entrants' Achieved Grades" sheet in the same workbook we can see that there is no leniency with achieved grades. Across the whole Department of Computing there were zero entrants with achieved grades lower than A*A*A (for those taking three a levels) or A*AAA (for those taking four A levels) - and the majority were above those grades (over half were A*A*A*A*).

2. What do you mean by "the free spaces is it provided through clearing"? I see no evidence that any of degrees offered by Imperial's Department of Computing were available via Clearing last year. Do you know otherwise?

Or perhaps you've been mislead by my "of the 210 applicants who received offers only 66 were ultimately accepted" statement above. Universities routinely make more offers than they have places. This is sometimes because they release offers in batches (make 50 offers, see who firms/insures elsewhere, then make some more offers - knowing that some of the previous 50 places are now available again). It is also sometimes because they know from previous years' statistics roughly what percentage of students miss their offer grades, so they build that in to the number of offers they make.