Old polytechnics
- Thread starter sniffy
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http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/year3.html
https://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/admissions...erscience.html
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/computing/teaching/undergraduate/computing/lectures (Imperial are funny and refer to CS and Computing)
http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/prospective/ugrad/csatox/compsci.html
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/dcs/teaching/courses/cs3bsc06-07/
I am not seeing any of this;
Yes, but these are not called 'Computer Science' degrees, are they? In particular, not accredited by the BCS.
I'm not on a mission, it just annoys me when people try to brush 'Computer Science' off as a GCSE IT course.
Depends whether you want to go on to do something in the same industry as your degree.
You can do a less respected degree at a highly respected university and trade on the university's reputation to get a job where they might not have intricate knowledge of whether your university excels in that particular field or not.
I would agree with you on that. I would say that it is a combination of both, but I do feel that you are going to have better opportunities as a graduate of a top university rather than a lower university that is ranked higher in a particular course.
I think that one thing that is important to bear in mind is that the times list of universities etc, aren't particularly accurate. They look at a lot of factors which are very difficult to quantify, and as a result the rankings cannot be viewed as completely accurate. A classic example of this is in recent times Bath has been ranked as the best university for maths. This is blatantly not true, anyone who does any maths would know that Cambridge have the top professors, the brightest students and by far the most difficult course.
At the end of the day, the defining factor for an employer is how difficult the course is, and in general, the courses at the top university are a lot more difficult.
Maybe your friend teaches a optional module called 'Media Design' or alike?
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I got DDM but I did an extra maths module, plus an a level in electronics
Burnsy
Which BTEC did you do? Also, how favourably did they look upon the A-level in Electronics? I'm curious because I'm doing it at the moment
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If you're interested in computing, take a look at Plymouth's courses - I'm doing Computer Systems & Networking and it's a brilliant course now
Sure, I could've gone to Cambridge (very nearly applied), but I decided I didn't want to do straight, mathematical, theoretical computer science. I preferred a slightly more specialised area and Plymouth do a great course for it
Plymouth is also a brilliant city with a great student life, etc.
So....most important is to get on a course you like, then pick the best uni for the course you want to do - find out what each uni does as part of its course. Then the final factor I suppose is the lifestyle - by the sea, in the city? Huge uni? Small uni? What's the city like to live in?
All of this is far more important than picking university X, so long as you get into a decent place. Eg I wouldn't pick Brighton over UCL if all else was equal and I preferred the city of Brighton
Sure, I could've gone to Cambridge (very nearly applied), but I decided I didn't want to do straight, mathematical, theoretical computer science. I preferred a slightly more specialised area and Plymouth do a great course for it
Plymouth is also a brilliant city with a great student life, etc.
So....most important is to get on a course you like, then pick the best uni for the course you want to do - find out what each uni does as part of its course. Then the final factor I suppose is the lifestyle - by the sea, in the city? Huge uni? Small uni? What's the city like to live in?
All of this is far more important than picking university X, so long as you get into a decent place. Eg I wouldn't pick Brighton over UCL if all else was equal and I preferred the city of Brighton
a lot of ex poly's are making a name for themselves by forming good relations with industry as opposed to older institutions such as the red bricks, who often pay less attention to that element and focus on the more traditional stuff like research.
It all really depends what you want out of a uni. I started off at an ex poly (stafford) who have some excellent ties with Microsoft, HP, Eurocopter, Syngenta etc etc I got a placement at HP through them but could just as easily have been MS or even Eurocopter in Germany. Many of my friends went on to places like Cisco, MS, HP simply because of the universities ties.
As it stood my 13 months at HP made me absolutely despise the corporate world, so I shunned it for many post grad degrees at a more traditional uni (who let me in on the merit of my "poly" BSc no questions asked) and it now looks like i'll probably end up leading the academic life, at least for a little while.
Either way though, I personally dont think the ex Poly's carry too much stigma anymore, and for those only interested in a industry career after their degree, they could even be the better choice in some instances with more focus on the student and their follow up career rather than pure research.
Saying that, Manchester students tend to end up working for huge banks rather than HP and MS and other industry giants, and i can tell you right now, if its money you want then banking is most definately where its at, not being a programmer at MS or HP...
It all really depends what you want out of a uni. I started off at an ex poly (stafford) who have some excellent ties with Microsoft, HP, Eurocopter, Syngenta etc etc I got a placement at HP through them but could just as easily have been MS or even Eurocopter in Germany. Many of my friends went on to places like Cisco, MS, HP simply because of the universities ties.
As it stood my 13 months at HP made me absolutely despise the corporate world, so I shunned it for many post grad degrees at a more traditional uni (who let me in on the merit of my "poly" BSc no questions asked) and it now looks like i'll probably end up leading the academic life, at least for a little while.
Either way though, I personally dont think the ex Poly's carry too much stigma anymore, and for those only interested in a industry career after their degree, they could even be the better choice in some instances with more focus on the student and their follow up career rather than pure research.
Saying that, Manchester students tend to end up working for huge banks rather than HP and MS and other industry giants, and i can tell you right now, if its money you want then banking is most definately where its at, not being a programmer at MS or HP...
Your a bit bitter
That sijmply isnt the case, as somebody with a UK CS Hons BSc, there is no way I would consider a "IT" job for around £8,000 in fact it would be below minimum wage if it was a full time job!!
CS students who land £15,000 jobs are either taking a lower starting salary to get onto the ladder in somewhere difficult OR they didnt do very well in the degree
The average starting salary for most CS uni leavers is ~ £20k (give or take) though that clearly isnt fixed as friends have gone straight into 30k+ jobs at places like HP and MS.
I think the problem is, people think that these CCNA courses and things are looked upon in the same light as an actual BSc, seen through to completion, and it simply isnt the case. Theres a reason these companies charge in the region of £4,000 to send you some material ,offer very little tuition and give you a date on which to take exams.. its a VERY easy way to make money... Somebody with no degree but with other qualifications may well end up with a £15k "IT" job, servicing PC's or offering technical support. I would hope a switched on CS graduate most certainly would not...
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Bet that thought gives you a lift.
As manic_man says it depends on the industry to a degree how well received a degree from an ex-poly will be viewed, I think computing related work (for a very broad generalistion) is often less concerned about the reputation of the university overall but they will be concerned with how it teaches the specific course. Quite a few of my mates work in computer games for instance and about half went to Abertay (not surprising given my location and choice of uni) which has an excellent reputation within the games industry and strong ties to many companies which will doubtless help but the reputation in that specific area counts for a lot less if you are trying to get a job in sports science say.
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My advice is: don't do Computer Science degree, choose something else. However if you do insist, I suggest you evalulate the merits of each course based on the ratio between the theoretical (i.e. discreet maths) and practical (programming, databases) elements of the course, the overall standard and ranking of the university and finally, any industry affiliations the faculty has (includng recognition from the BCS). There are too many "Computer Science" degrees, particularly from the ex-polytechnics that are anything but.
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Which BTEC did you do? Also, how favourably did they look upon the A-level in Electronics? I'm curious because I'm doing it at the moment
BTEC National Diploma for IT Practitioners, with no particular specialty
I'm not entirely sure how favourably they looked on it, I was accepted before the interview, but I think my reference did a lot to help me Burnsy
cool i applied for that too lovely looking city and its cool with the labs on the top floors
, went to Manchester instead (my first choice)