Super curriculars for Computer science or physics?

Hi I’m in year 12 and I am wanting to study either Computer science or Physics(with a foundation year as I don’t have physics alevels) at university , and I was wondering what super curriculars would help support my personal statement and also what books I could read to talk about in it.

I am most interested in AI,Forensics,and Graphics and Astronomy,Cosmology and Medical Physics for each respective degrees.

Please list some examples and any opinions about the super curriculars relating to these topics and degrees!

(I am open to learning more about ANY topics relating to CS or PHYSICS)

Reply 1

mesub

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post

by valkryiiex

Generally, there are books, competitions, podcasts, reading the news, lectures etc.

For CS specifically (I cannot speak for physics): you've got the BIO, the OUCC, Bebras, projects you can work on, MOOCs you can take (CS50, but everyone does that...) and so much more.

Reply 2

valkryiiex

ooooo I’ll check them out thank you!

Reply 3

TheKnightmare24

For physics a I’d recommend Isaac physics. It’s a website where u can solve challenging problems. Isaac is created by Cambridge so solving problems consistently builds the kind of skills Cambridge and top unis find desirable.

Reply 4

valkryiiex

Thanks for letting me know!

Reply 5

ShakyCacti

Original post

by valkryiiex

Hi I’m in year 12 and I am wanting to study either Computer science or Physics(with a foundation year as I don’t have physics alevels) at university , and I was wondering what super curriculars would help support my personal statement and also what books I could read to talk about in it.
I am most interested in AI,Forensics,and Graphics and Astronomy,Cosmology and Medical Physics for each respective degrees.
Please list some examples and any opinions about the super curriculars relating to these topics and degrees!
(I am open to learning more about ANY topics relating to CS or PHYSICS)

If you're interested in AI, I took a course on Dilemmas and Dangers in AI (ethics, pretty much) with a company called Leaf which I'd probably rate around 6/10, but it gave me a huge amount to talk about on my personal statement. The course is about 50% speculative stuff and 50% solid research and learning. If you want to try enrolling in that, it's good to show initiative, has more in-depth technical courses that you can follow up with - Leaf also have loads of other courses that you might want to look at. Leaf has a Discord server full of very ambitious students which helped me pull myself together regarding supercurriculars; they also offer small research grants too which could be super impressive to talk about. I mostly used the course to branch off and namedrop ideas and papers that I'd researched afterwards - that took up about a third of my personal statement. I hardly did much else - mentioned a few things like Advent of Code and UKMT maths challenge. I know Physics Olympiad is great too, and I can imagine a CREST Award is really suited towards a physicist if you have time. Just get your passion across. I didn't mention any books in my statement but I did enjoy Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom, and The Nature of Code, which looks at basic coding principles all the way to neural networks using a really simple visual representation of a natural ecosystem via the Processing visual sketchbook.

Bare in mind I haven't got complete proof of concept with this, but I have got offers from Bristol and Sheffield in CS which shows I must have done something right - getting good grades and passing relevant admissions tests is far more important than your personal statement, but it helps to cover all bases. If you have any questions let me know :smile:

Reply 6

valkryiiex

Original post

by ShakyCacti

If you're interested in AI, I took a course on Dilemmas and Dangers in AI (ethics, pretty much) with a company called Leaf which I'd probably rate around 6/10, but it gave me a huge amount to talk about on my personal statement. The course is about 50% speculative stuff and 50% solid research and learning. If you want to try enrolling in that, it's good to show initiative, has more in-depth technical courses that you can follow up with - Leaf also have loads of other courses that you might want to look at. Leaf has a Discord server full of very ambitious students which helped me pull myself together regarding supercurriculars; they also offer small research grants too which could be super impressive to talk about. I mostly used the course to branch off and namedrop ideas and papers that I'd researched afterwards - that took up about a third of my personal statement. I hardly did much else - mentioned a few things like Advent of Code and UKMT maths challenge. I know Physics Olympiad is great too, and I can imagine a CREST Award is really suited towards a physicist if you have time. Just get your passion across. I didn't mention any books in my statement but I did enjoy Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom, and The Nature of Code, which looks at basic coding principles all the way to neural networks using a really simple visual representation of a natural ecosystem via the Processing visual sketchbook.
Bare in mind I haven't got complete proof of concept with this, but I have got offers from Bristol and Sheffield in CS which shows I must have done something right - getting good grades and passing relevant admissions tests is far more important than your personal statement, but it helps to cover all bases. If you have any questions let me know :smile:

Literally thank you so much for this, I’ll look into it for sure.

I do have one question and I was wondering if you think it would be fine for me to have maths alevel as my only stem subject, I feel like I will have a disadvantage in applying to cs courses so I want to hear your thoughts about this.

Reply 7

mesub

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post

by valkryiiex

Literally thank you so much for this, I’ll look into it for sure.
I do have one question and I was wondering if you think it would be fine for me to have maths alevel as my only stem subject, I feel like I will have a disadvantage in applying to cs courses so I want to hear your thoughts about this.

Depends on the course (eg ideally FM for Oxbridge, imperial etc), but for all other courses you'll be fine.

Reply 8

valkryiiex

Original post

by mesub

Depends on the course (eg ideally FM for Oxbridge, imperial etc), but for all other courses you'll be fine.

Thank you!

Reply 9

ShakyCacti

Original post

by valkryiiex

Literally thank you so much for this, I’ll look into it for sure.
I do have one question and I was wondering if you think it would be fine for me to have maths alevel as my only stem subject, I feel like I will have a disadvantage in applying to cs courses so I want to hear your thoughts about this.

Hi again - I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Further Maths is a huge advantage for a CS applicant. For instance, Cambridge now explicitly requires Further Maths for their course and I can see other top unis (Imperial, St Andrews, UCL, those kinds of places) following suit. If you have the option to do FM at AS Level in your second year I would take it - you are at a disadvantage if you don't do Further Maths and your college offers it. It's not the end of the world, but having at least the AS Level would put you above a decent proportion of applicants, and since CS is now absurdly competitive it is pretty important. The other STEM subjects like Physics and even CS aren't really necessary, Further Maths just gives universities confidence in your maths ability which is surprisingly what they'd rather see over things like programming ability.

TLDR: I wouldn't feel too bad about not taking FM, but it's difficult to compete with other students who have taken Further Maths. They have to let you study what you want to some extent - Computer Science is brilliant to have but not necessary, and the rest are mainly up to you. Try to do AS Further Maths if you can, it's not terrible. Any other questions let me know :smile: