uni course advice

-Exodus-

-Exodus-

-Exodus-

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hey there, i'm just about to go into my last year of school and i need to decide my uni course and all to apply for when i got back.
i've been looking through the ucas site looking at random courses for the last few weeks but find it all a bit hard to take in what is good or not. so can someone please help advice me on a course.

currently i'm doing 3 A-levels; ICT, Technology and Design and Business Studies (i know =/ lol).
i'm looking for a course for around the technology and ict side, but a lot of the ict ones require maths. i'd like a course that is a more practical means of learning and if possible examining. i don't mind where the course is anywhere in the UK.

i like the whole hardware side of computers building them etc. but i've never really done any programming, what sort of courses are good that will actually get me a good career out of it.
sorry for being so vague but i'm really quite lost atm :(

thanks in advance :)
 
theres no courses realy built around building computers, as its pretty simple. IMO

Networking is a good course to take and will always have a future.
Programming also.
Web Design/Development, is dying out as pretty much anyone can do it.
 
WalkeruK said:
theres no courses realy built around building computers, as its pretty simple. IMO

Networking is a good course to take and will always have a future.
Programming also.
Web Design/Development, is dying out as pretty much anyone can do it.
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i was looking at networking but not sure exactly what the course would involve. was also looking at a product CAD course but not sure, i mean i've tried a bit of 3d modelling (pretty basic) but god knows =/

so web design is one i shouldn't bother with?

lemonkettaz said:
Dont go into a mcdonalds IT course.

If you want to do computing id say Computer Science
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surely i would need math to get into a decent computer science course?
 
-Exodus- said:
i was looking at networking but not sure exactly what the course would involve. was also looking at a product CAD course but not sure, i mean i've tried a bit of 3d modelling (pretty basic) but god knows =/

so web design is one i shouldn't bother with?


surely i would need math to get into a decent computer science course?
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Not at A level,

as long as you got it at GCSE A-C
 
Do a course with a foundation year - ideally you should have done maths if you're interested in studying computer science but you still can simply be doing an extra foundation year with your degree - might actually give you a bit of a head start on the 1st years tbh....

AFAIK quite a few unis do them for say people who want to do engineering/comp sci but don't have maths A-Level or people who want to do medicine but don't have Chemistry A-Level

edit - I've just googled one for you:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/foundationyear2/founsci/index.php

didn't go there myself but there is an example of a decent uni offering a foundation year
 
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lemonkettaz said:
Not at A level,

as long as you got it at GCSE A-C
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ah i got an A in gcse maths, pure luck, went from an E in my mocks lol

does computer science not involve a lot of programming? i've never really tried that before, easy to pick up? i assume the job opportunities are pretty vast and could go into a lot of computer career fields with this?

any other good sort of courses? maybe suited more about the Technology and Design side?
 
what my best bet would be to know the best universitys and check what courses they have. anyone know the best ones in the uk for computing?/does anyone recomend a certain uni?
 
-Exodus- said:
what my best bet would be to know the best universitys and check what courses they have. anyone know the best ones in the uk for computing?/does anyone recomend a certain uni?
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Best uni's for CS are Cambridge, Imperial, Oxford, really. However, don't do CS unless you enjoy lots of theory/maths - its not what most people expect... CS involved a fair bit of programming as well, yes.
 
Una said:
Best uni's for CS are Cambridge, Imperial, Oxford, really. However, don't do CS unless you enjoy lots of theory/maths - its not what most people expect... CS involved a fair bit of programming as well, yes.
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hmm don't think i could hack a lot of theory/maths... =/
 
Hey, I was in the same position as you. I didn't want to do computer science because maths wasn't my strong point, but wanted to gain a career in IT. What did I decide to go for? Information Systems at Newcastle University.

I've just finished my 1st year and have really enjoyed it so far. Computer Science people do maths modules and programming while IS students do programming and simple web design with very little / simple maths and modules based in other schools (I took Management and Marketing in my first year and this coming year I'm really excited; I'm doing a technological innovation and teaching modules )

I'll be happy to help if you need more info :)
 
Pav89 said:
Hey, I was in the same position as you. I didn't want to do computer science because maths wasn't my strong point, but wanted to gain a career in IT. What did I decide to go for? Information Systems at Newcastle University.

I've just finished my 1st year and have really enjoyed it so far. Computer Science people do maths modules and programming while IS students do programming and simple web design with very little / simple maths and modules based in other schools (I took Management and Marketing in my first year and this coming year I'm really excited; I'm doing a technological innovation and teaching modules )

I'll be happy to help if you need more info :)
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lol you've just said exactly what i'm thinking. that sounds quite interesting, what sort of carees can you get out of that in the end?
thanks man
 
-Exodus- said:
lol you've just said exactly what i'm thinking. that sounds quite interesting, what sort of carees can you get out of that in the end?
thanks man
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Anything you want! People who study IS at Newcastle on average have higher salaries than people who study CS there. You can become a programmer, or a teacher (what I'm think about) or a manager; set up your own business, an Informations Systems Analyst, whatever you want to do, you can. Information Systems focuses less on programming and more on other things, like management, etc. You also learn about the hardware side and stuff a little, not much. Informations Systems in a general course, so there are LOTS of options in the end!
 
Pav89 said:
Anything you want! People who study IS at Newcastle on average have higher salaries than people who study CS there. You can become a programmer, or a teacher (what I'm think about) or a manager; set up your own business, an Informations Systems Analyst, whatever you want to do, you can. Information Systems focuses less on programming and more on other things, like management, etc. You also learn about the hardware side and stuff a little, not much. Informations Systems in a general course, so there are LOTS of options in the end!
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is a general course not less favoured by employers than a specific course or does it not really matter that much?
 
-Exodus- said:
is a general course not less favoured by employers than a specific course or does it not really matter that much?
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It doesn't matter. Its not totally general since you still learn programming, web design, computing environments and computing history, but the optional modules help to broaden your horizon rather than sticking to maths which the CS students have to do, IS students pick to learn new languages, management, accounting etc
 
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