Edinburgh or St andrews For CS

Hi everyone
Im an international student and have received offers from both Edinburgh and St andrews for a computer science degree. Im extremely confused about this decision and would greatly appreciate any insights and pros/cons about both the unis.

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

both are very good universities for CS - have you visited either? st andrews is much smaller and the city is a lot less lively, whereas edinburgh is bigger and busier, it depends which vibe you would prefer

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

@vnayak any insights?

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

My sister is a student at St Andrews and I have a few friends at Edinburgh as well. So I have sort of a good idea about the environment. Do you have any thoughts on the course, faculty, internship opportunities and future job prospects etc

Reply 4

username5443984

Original post by Anonymous

Both are very good institutions. As far as industry goes, they both probably have the same opportunities but Edinburgh is a bigger name so I would argue that more employers would come to Edinburgh than St Andrews.

I remember reading somewhere that Edinburgh actually has the largest CS department in Europe - it's one of the biggest AI hubs in the country and Europe and this really reflects in the course modules that are on offer. A lot of their course modules are AI focussed and aren't widely available at other unis unless you go for a pure AI degree (and even then, not many pure AI degrees offer the same modules).

As a place, St Andrews is great but the technology and their facilities are quite outdated, which I wasn't a really big fan of (I saw it at the Open Day) but the Edinburgh course is a bit more theoretical. That being said, while it is theoretical, the opportunities available are far greater with Edinburgh being a bigger city so I would say that you should go for Edinburgh over St Andrews but I'll leave that up to you to decide.

I'm not particularly interested in world rankings but in case you are interested and are wondering about them, Edinburgh ranks 4th in the UK universities in the world rankings for CS (4th to Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial) where as St Andrews is quite a bit lower down in comparison.

So long story short, what do you prefer as a place? Big busy city, or small, quiet, sub-urban city? In terms of going into research, Edinburgh is 1000000000% better. In terms of getting into industry, I would say that both are quite similar in terms of what they offer because they aren't really "hubs" per se in comparison to some of the major cities in the country like Manchester or London but the opportunity is there, though I would give Edinburgh a slight edge. CS at Edinburgh is also a flagship course so it will be extremely rigorous, thorough and appreciated, though when it comes to going for jobs, your skillset with programming matters far more than the uni you went to. Personally though, if I were in your position, Edinburgh >> St Andrews so Edinburgh is the place for me.

Maybe go on YouTube and look at some videos on the "Day in the life of a Computer Science student at X", see which course you prefer for its content and modules available.