Want to apply to comp sci

- Was going to apply to medicine but after work experience don't want to do it
- Want to apply to computer science instead and considering a gap year
- If I took a gap year and studied further maths in the gap year is it possible to get into the more competitive universities for comp sci?
- I know that I would need to score very highly in maths competitions in Year 13 as well
- A-levels are Bio; Chem; Maths; Comp Sci

Reply 1

Teruko

10

Hi, I did the exact same A-levels actually (Maths Bio Chem CS).
Managed to get into Warwick with not a lot of supercurriculars but got rejected from Cambridge after a god awful interview...
You'll definitely need further maths for the likes of Oxbridge, Imperial - or alternatively you can study maths separately through other mediums, so that you only learn the parts of maths most important to CS (eg linear algebra); but you'll need to be able to demonstrate your knowledge somehow, be it in the interview, TMUA/MAT/STEP and/or personal statement. I'd say that's doable during Y13 but you'd need to have put in a lot of work over the summer holidays... which are over...
Imo it's not worth it to have a gap year just to possibly have a chance at getting into Oxbridge/Imperial. Any of the other top CS unis will be happy to accept strong single-maths applicants - and once you're into those, you'll have a good chance of applying for a Master's at an Oxbridge-level uni after your Bachelor's, if you really want to

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 2

DeviousFrog

OP

5

Original post by Teruko

Hi, I did the exact same A-levels actually (Maths Bio Chem CS).
Managed to get into Warwick with not a lot of supercurriculars but got rejected from Cambridge after a god awful interview...
You'll definitely need further maths for the likes of Oxbridge, Imperial - or alternatively you can study maths separately through other mediums, so that you only learn the parts of maths most important to CS (eg linear algebra); but you'll need to be able to demonstrate your knowledge somehow, be it in the interview, TMUA/MAT/STEP and/or personal statement. I'd say that's doable during Y13 but you'd need to have put in a lot of work over the summer holidays... which are over...
Imo it's not worth it to have a gap year just to possibly have a chance at getting into Oxbridge/Imperial. Any of the other top CS unis will be happy to accept strong single-maths applicants - and once you're into those, you'll have a good chance of applying for a Master's at an Oxbridge-level uni after your Bachelor's, if you really want to

Thanks for the reply.
I think a gap year is pretty likely for me cos parents are still kinda set on me doing medicine and are pushing me to apply in the coming months. I still need to convince them somehow that comp sci is profitable.

Reply 3

jimb0b

6

You don’t need to convince them of anything. If it’s something you want to do then just do it, you’re an adult now, you can make your own decisions.

Reply 4

Teruko

10

I agree with Jimbob, but also having your parents be supportive of your choices is also nice.
Entry-level graduate salaries from a good uni (eg Southampton) are currently over £30K, and you'll eventually end up earning at least £50K in a few years - some even earn upwards of 100K in specialised fields (I know a guy in the States who earns $300-400K/yr, running a computer systems consultancy business).

Reply 5

jimb0b

6

Top firms like Meta pay a ton of money. There are director level ICs earning $1mill+ a year, average for a senior is around a half mill dollars. That's top of the industry banding though, average in the UK will be around 60-100k GBP for a senior dev in my experience. Recently there have been layoffs and tightening, but there's still plenty of good job for software engineers, in general.

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 6

DeviousFrog

OP

5

I told them I'm not doing it. They said that the only career a black person can gain any level of respect or status or be rich is through being a doctor because everyone in UK is racist

Reply 7

DeviousFrog

OP

5

They also said a degree in comp sci is completely useless and any person who has a computer can get qualified in it

Reply 8

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by DeviousFrog

I told them I'm not doing it. They said that the only career a black person can gain any level of respect or status or be rich is through being a doctor because everyone in UK is racist

That sounds racist and arrogant in itself (sory to say).

See the following for example (I couldn't believe that I had to google for this to provide evidence for a point either):
https://academicinfluence.com/rankings/people/black-scholars/computer-scientists
https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Black-leaders-in-technology
https://www.blacksintechnology.net/
https://ukblacktech.com/
https://www.infotech.com/research/ss/the-state-of-black-professionals-in-tech

Note, I am not saying there is no racism at all or that working in tech will definitely won't mean you won't get pushed around (I think this might be the case irrespective of your race, gender, religion, etc.), but making mass generalisation like that is entirely inaccurate. If they want to make generalisations like that, at least get them to back them up with actual statistics.

Also being rich depends more on what value you bring to the table as opposed to what job you do. You generally don't get rich being a doctor, and you usually don't hit the high figures unless you're a consultant.
Work that tend to generally earn high figures tend to be sales or people oriented, have a lot of responsibilities/risks, or require very specialised expertise that's in demand. These are not easy to find and there is usually a lot of competition involved. These also tend to go beyond what degree you have done.

If you want to stand for diversity, I suppose you would need to stop adhering to stereotypes and certain mentailities for a start. I personally have come across various highly respected IT professionals of colour and ethnicities, so I don't know exactly where your parents got those ideas from.

Original post by DeviousFrog

They also said a degree in comp sci is completely useless and any person who has a computer can get qualified in it

Clearly they haven't done a degree in computer science.

In March 2019, there was a story about how computer science has one of the highest drop out rates of all subjects at 9.8%. See:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/education-secretary-warns-universities-over-dropout-rates
This is higher than medicine at 1.4%:
https://thetab.com/uk/2022/01/20/these-are-the-degree-subjects-which-have-the-highest-drop-out-rates-236445
Having said that, using drop out rates as an indicator is crude, because some of these subjects tend to require interviews and careful selection of candidates before letting onto the course. Also dropping out isn't necessarily an indication that the subject is just difficult; it could be other factors as well.

The only thing that I would remotely and partially agree with is that you don't really need a degree in computer science to go into tech. The industry employs you based on your ability to do the job, not the qualifications you have. If anything, you can do well just with professional IT certificates.
If you want to go into tech after doing a degree in medicine, you can but it just involves more work (not necessarily another degree though).

As a back up option, you can do a master's degree in computer science that accepts any undergrad degree (you need to search for these as not all unis offer this), so long you have a high enough grade (usually 2:1, but the pickier unis can ask for a 1st class).

The only times I would consider doing a computer science degree are:

•

If I wanted to go into academic research with a complete or partial computer science focus e.g. computation neurology, bioinformatics, computer science - all usually involving a PhD or a research degree on some level

•

If I want to work in bioinformatics at the NHS (even though you can do this with quantitative degrees of similar nature e.g. maths, engineering, physics)

•

If I want to teach computer science at secondary school (even though you can possibly get around this without doing the degree in comp sci)

As far as I know, you need to be really dedicated and committed in order to study medicine (let alone getting into the degree). It's a ridiculously competitive course, and if your heart is not entirely in it, you're going to have a very hard time.

I think this is something where you need to do a lot more research and talk a lot more with your parents. At the end of the day, you're the one doing the degree and you're the one who needs to answer to your own decisions, not them i.e. if they don't like it, tough.

Reply 9

jimb0b

6

Original post by DeviousFrog

I told them I'm not doing it. They said that the only career a black person can gain any level of respect or status or be rich is through being a doctor because everyone in UK is racist

Sounds like they have no idea what they are talking about.

Original post by DeviousFrog

They also said a degree in comp sci is completely useless and any person who has a computer can get qualified in it

See above.

Reply 10

jimb0b

6

Original post by MindMax2000

The only thing that I would remotely and partially agree with is that you don't really need a degree in computer science to go into tech. The industry employs you based on your ability to do the job, not the qualifications you have. If anything, you can do well just with professional IT certificates.
If you want to go into tech after doing a degree in medicine, you can but it just involves more work (not necessarily another degree though).

As a back up option, you can do a master's degree in computer science that accepts any undergrad degree (you need to search for these as not all unis offer this), so long you have a high enough grade (usually 2:1, but the pickier unis can ask for a 1st class).

The only times I would consider doing a computer science degree are:

•

If I wanted to go into academic research with a complete or partial computer science focus e.g. computation neurology, bioinformatics, computer science - all usually involving a PhD or a research degree on some level

•

If I want to work in bioinformatics at the NHS (even though you can do this with quantitative degrees of similar nature e.g. maths, engineering, physics)

•

If I want to teach computer science at secondary school (even though you can possibly get around this without doing the degree in comp sci)

This is false and bad advice. Technically yes there are roles like networking engineer that you can get (and are expected to have) industry qualifications like Cisco. For the vast majority of tech jobs however, especially any that require even moderate amounts of programming, you require a Computer Science (or STEM with computing experience) degree at a bare minimum. Even if you get lucky and manage to snag a programming job without a degree, you will be perpetually at a disadvantage when applying to external roles, partly thanks to automated systems that disregard applications without that bare minimum requirement; and that's not saying anything about the lack of breath of knowledge that you get from a degree. I know people who were in that exact position; they went to university afterwards to get the degree because external employers still wouldn't look at their application despite them having a decade of real work experience. So yes, technically it can be done, but I absolutely would not recommend going down this path, because it's just hamstringing yourself for no reason.

(edited 7 months ago)

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