Personal statement for computer science at a top uni

Hi, I'm in Year 12 and I was just wondering what kinds of super-curriculars and activities people did who went to top universities (say, top 20/Russel Group) for computer science- in particular, which ones were included on your PS.

Hi, I'm in Year 12 and I was just wondering what kinds of super-curriculars and activities people did who went to top universities (say, top 20/Russel Group) for computer science- in particular, which ones were included on your PS.

Hi, I'm in Year 12 and I was just wondering what kinds of super-curriculars and activities people did who went to top universities (say, top 20/Russel Group) for computer science- in particular, which ones were included on your PS.

Hi, I'm in Year 12 and I was just wondering what kinds of super-curriculars and activities people did who went to top universities (say, top 20/Russel Group) for computer science- in particular, which ones were included on your PS.

I recently got an offer to study Computer Science at Imperial (three days ago to be precise) and it's the most competitive Computer Science course in the country (5% acceptance rate) so I think that I am qualified to answer this. I don't feel comfortable posting the things I have done on a public forum so I will instead PM you what I have done. Please ensure that this isn't shared with other people otherwise I would have done it myself.

Oh hey, would it be alright if you PM’d me too? I’m currently writing a PS for CS although I don’t know if I’ll be applying to Imperial, but nonetheless, if it’s ok with you

PM you the stuff I've done? Sure but as I mentioned with the previous user, I'm not particularly comfortable in sharing stuff I've done on a forum myself so please ensure that this doesn't get spread on other forums otherwise it defeats the purpose of me keeping to myself.

I can’t PM back, perhaps because I just created this account today 😅, but thank you for the help.

Also, have you already sat for your STEP examination? And did you get a STEP offer?

You sit the STEP in the summer of year 13. I've literally just started preparing for it and yes, it was part of my offer. My offer requirements are:

Maths - A*
Further Maths - A
Chemistry - A
Computer Science - A
and grade 2 in STEP II.

Hello! If I try to get a good score by taking the STEP2 exam before applying to IC, will this help my application? Is it easier to get an interview?

I also got offers to study Computer Science at Manchester and Edinburgh, waiting on Durham but got rejected from Cambridge pre-interview due to my own admin mistake during my TMUA admissions test. On the day of my admissions test, there were 7 other admissions tests that were taking place in the same room at the time. I was at the back of the room and the start and end timings were presented in a tabular format on a small whiteboard at the front of the room and I looked at the wrong row for the first TMUA paper and so thought that there was an an extra 15 minutes. When there were 2 minutes left to the actual finish, I had finished answering every question and I was extremely happy because for ~15 of the 20 questions, I had working out which led to one of the multiple choice options. I thought at the time that I still had 17 minutes left and so I should probably start shading the lozenges in on my answer sheet so that I don't run out time. However, two minutes later, I got told to put my pencil down and I only managed to shade 9 out of 20 of the lozenges. The paper wasn't even that hard but it was the fact that I had fumbled the timings that made me lose it.

The second paper is the notorious one for me and I have always performed comparatively worse on it relative to the first paper (which is unusual because people usually perform better on the second paper) so I knew that I had absolutely no chance of securing an interview.

I was wondering if you could also tell me how I could secure an offer at Manchester and Edinburgh since I am also applying to them.

Manchester - just get 3 A*s and have a decent personal statement.

Edinburgh - It's also personal statement but I'm not sure what else.

There aren't any admissions tests for these universities thankfully.

I think the only ones with admissions tests are: Oxbridge (MAT or TMUA + interviews), Imperial (Their own test, interview + STEP) and UCL (STAT exam).

Manchester - just get 3 A*s and have a decent personal statement.

Edinburgh - It's also personal statement but I'm not sure what else.

There aren't any admissions tests for these universities thankfully.

I think the only ones with admissions tests are: Oxbridge (MAT or TMUA + interviews), Imperial (Their own test, interview + STEP) and UCL (STAT exam).

I was wondering if we could PM each other so that I could tell you what I included in my personal profile so that you might give me suggestions.

Just a question, how many lines (as per the format used in the UCAS website) did you use to talk about your extracurricular activities? Did you also have to talk about your proficiency in Mathematics?