Need Uni Advice

Hey, Gonna sound a bit dillusional and out of touch to some so apolgies in advance.

Last year due to personal (30% attendance) I got DDE at A Level. I naturally decided to resit, I applied to uni and hold offers for Computer Science From Durham and Maths and Cs at york and lancaster. (I am contextual) I applied to these unis as due to fierce debates and even sufficent evidence I was only predicted AAB (Maths,Comp Sci,Further Maths) However based on all the topic tests I whole heartidly thing I can achieve much better(I sit full papers in the next two weeks) Having achived A* and an A on my last two further maths topic tests,A and B in computer Science (not a high priority as im fairly strong at it from last year was more a coursework issue) and A* A* in my last two "normal maths" topic tests, I honestly think i stand a decent chance of getting A*AA/A*A*A.

Now the delusion part. I like durham as a uni however I want to Ideally go into quant or machine learning Both requriing grad degrees. However integrated masters are substancially cheaper and covered by SFE.

Ieally with Quant and or Research machine learning type postions, I think Maths and Cs suits me much better for both career opurtunities, however Uni Reputation matters massivly for quant generally with most jobs taken by LSE,Imperial,UCL,Oxbridge, and Warwick(due to a strong maths department). Also durhams CS department has had its fair few sturggles espically with stuident satisfaction the last few years and that worries me and my grad school chances as i need a first ideally.

My family and GF thinks a Gap year is a waste As itd make me two years behind my cohort.However I am very Curious about other opinions and just hope i dont seem like too much of a "Snob" (from a working class man) for being slightly unsure of a degree from Durham.

Thank you for reading all that XD

Hi there,

I'm a 4th year mathematics and statistics integrated masters student at Lancaster University. I would agree that doing an integrated masters has been considerably cheaper for me than my friends studying regular masters. I'm glad you are enjoying your subjects a lot more this time around. In my opinion, I think focussing on achieving your current offers would be the best decision. If you do achieve better than expected then you may want to consider clearing or taking a gap year, but having those offers in the meantime is a good safety net.

In terms of what degree to pick, I would say pick the one that you will enjoy most because you are more likely to get good grades in what you enjoy. Especially if you are considering postgraduate level because employers tend to consider your highest qualification level in my experience so what you did your undergraduate degree will not be as important.

Have you been to an open day at Durham and spoken to current students? I would encourage you to go and ask lots of questions to see how they have found it. Also don't worry about being slightly older, there are quite a few people at university who have taken gap years.

Please feel free to ask me any questions.

Amy (Lancaster Student Ambassador) 🙂

Why do so many user here have this obsession in getting As and A*?

Why do so many user here have this obsession in getting As and A*?