Things to do for Personal Statement - Comp Sci

Trojan Horse

Trojan Horse

Trojan Horse

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What small projects and things can I learn within the next 3 month (before Jan deadline) in order to strengthen my PS.

Any advice, as long as constructive, is appreciated! :)
 
The following are key concepts you'll likely end up covering. A head start in any of them will be helpful...

- Get yourself an understanding of Object Orientation and Schema design. This underpins a lot of software dev. these days.
- A lot of degrees start with some functional programming so playing around with Haskell/F# and understanding recursion will be helpful too.
- Getting to grips with the key concepts involved in concurrent programming will make you stand out.
- If you really want a challenge then start teaching yourself Boolean Algebra. There was a huge amount of this in many areas of my Computing degree.
 
If this is UCAS then put the usual made up nonsense on it nobody reads that section it's ll down to exam results and social back ground lol
 
MickeyFinns said:
The following are key concepts you'll likely end up covering. A head start in any of them will be helpful...

- Get yourself an understanding of Object Orientation and Schema design. This underpins a lot of software dev. these days.
- A lot of degrees start with some functional programming so playing around with Haskell/F# and understanding recursion will be helpful too.
- Getting to grips with the key concepts involved in concurrent programming will make you stand out.
- If you really want a challenge then start teaching yourself Boolean Algebra. There was a huge amount of this in many areas of my Computing degree.
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Thanks very much :)

Any idea of actual projects I can do though, to strengthen the personal statement. i.e what scripts/programs are achievable and doable in a day/few days work for a complete novice?
 
Are you sure you want to do a computer science degree if you are a complete novice? When I started my computer science degree I had already known for 2 years visual basic, some Java, HTML and understood binary, hex, etc. and I still found the degree extremely difficult.
 
I am sure you will be successful with a proactive attitude like this, and if you work hard you will do well. Some pro advice above I see from someone in the know.

Is your personal statement all about C. Sci?

For example, it could be the place where you stand out from the other candidates, you are memorable, tutors are looking for someone that will be pleasant to be with for 3 years and coach-able.

Demonstrate you help grannies with PC's. Do charity runs dressed as a chicken for those less fortunate, that you are a task completer e.g. you researched and built your own PC or similar. You have other interest besides PC's. A special interest, for example I built my own arcade machine to play arcade games. You complete projects and don't give up. Demonstrate that you have a track record of finishing what you start. Go and work voluntarily in a PC role. Teach some kids to do something with PCs.

Stand out. Think general and specific.

Best of luck with the Boolean thingy o_0.
 
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Trojan Horse said:
Thanks very much :)

Any idea of actual projects I can do though, to strengthen the personal statement. i.e what scripts/programs are achievable and doable in a day/few days work for a complete novice?
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perhaps take a look at some online courses (some are easier than others)

for a quick and easy win, something to talk about on your personal statement then perhaps try the intro to computer science course on udacity then some of the other intro courses - good thing about these is they will tend to be project orientated so you'll get to build stuff quite quickly which you can then talk about

https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-computer-science--cs101

https://www.udacity.com/course/programming-foundations-with-python--ud036

there are also coursera, edx and mit open courseware courses but I reckon those udacity ones would probably get you actually working on 'stuff' quicker

later on, if you've got lots of free time in the summer before starting uni, then these are very good:

https://see.stanford.edu/

though they're full fat university lectures not the usual watered down online courses
 
I think anything that demonstrates you have some understanding of what a CS degree will entail would go down well. That could be a mini-project you've done (my A-level Electronics project was a useful talking point), perhaps some material on Khan Academy you've learned from or online lectures you've watched. I wouldn't overdo it though, just be passionate when you do talk about it. Portraying yourself as outgoing and such is arguably as important when applying for a CS degree.
 
jpod said:
I am sure you will be successful with a proactive attitude like this, and if you work hard you will do well. Some pro advice above I see from someone in the know.

Is your personal statement all about C. Sci?

For example, it could be the place where you stand out from the other candidates, you are memorable, tutors are looking for someone that will be pleasant to be with for 3 years and coach-able.

Demonstrate you help grannies with PC's. Do charity runs dressed as a chicken for those less fortunate, that you are a task completer e.g. you researched and built your own PC or similar. You have other interest besides PC's. A special interest, for example I built my own arcade machine to play arcade games. You complete projects and don't give up. Demonstrate that you have a track record of finishing what you start. Go and work voluntarily in a PC role. Teach some kids to do something with PCs.

Stand out. Think general and specific.

Best of luck with the Boolean thingy o_0.
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Hi,

The reason I'm wanting to do as much as I can is because I did not take Computing (wasnt offered at my school) A level nor did I do Maths (until after AS did I decide CS was something I would enjoy) and so I probably stand at a serious disadvantage. I understand how hard it is going to be for me, without any previous Maths, but I'm still looking forward to spending lots of time learning it , especially considering CS is such a prestigious academic discipline that is just so interesting.

My PS so far goes like this structure-wise:
Introduction (something about me as a kid + why i want to go into CS)
Why I am good for it (just some information on things I've done to help with CS, e.g building PCs, reading around subject, throw in a code language or something and what I've done with that code"
How my (unrelated) subjects can relate to CS
My role as a team member


Right now its pretty bad as its my first draft but I just want to get it written so I have a base for rewriting it later. I think I have about 3 months before it's due so I do have a fair amount of time to finish :P


Thanks for those Udacity links as they are helpful, annoying interface with the 20x 2min videos but I'm not going to complain! :D
As with the stanford online course - these seem excellent but how dated are they? Hasn't Java evolved to be much different now, but are the basics (and foundation) still the same?
 
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Trying reading up on algorithms and then perhaps implement one. They have a wide application. For example Min-Max algorithm can be used as AI for games.
 
Also sound out a friend who is a superb word smith (A level Eng Lit or Uni) and get them over one day and make that PS read brilliantly. Can't be any typos, grammatical errors and such.

:p
 
Bit off topic, but any one read: Computer Science Illustrated?

Thing is, the 4th edition costs a tenner, the 5th £20, and the 6th, £50. It's a bit of a leap but aren't they all almost the same? I'm looking at getting the fourth for a tenner hahah :)
 
nope but in general if a specific version of a textbook has been specified for your course then I'd buy that specific version unless you're confident there haven't been significant changes
 
The Craig said:
Can you even do comp Sci without an a level in maths?
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seems you might be able to - but I might question those sorts of courses

OP might also want to take a look at doing a course with a foundation year

course with foundation year at a better ranked university might be better than watered down/vocational course at lower ranked uni

then again it depends what you're into, for some people the more vocational courses at former polys etc.. might be a better fit and more useful to their career choices
 
In a similar situation myself, so I'm really appreciating everybody's suggestions!

Thankfully I'm studying Maths and Computing already at A Level, but still trying my hardest to have plenty on my personal statement.

I tried reading a few books from the oxford reading list https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/ugadmissions/why_oxford/background_reading.html, but to be honest, I didn't find any of the books I tried particularly interesting reading.

You could try a few of the courses on https://www.codecademy.com, I did the HTML & CSS one to help make myself a small web portfolio. Assuming the courses are all the same length, it shouldn't take too much time to do one.

The Craig said:
Can you even do comp Sci without an a level in maths?
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A lot of unis I've looked at do want it, but there's a few where they don't require it, Hull comes to mind.
 
I'm looking at Newcastle, Lancaster, Nottingham, Swansea, Leicester, there's also other places that won't be on my list eg Kent Kingston Bradford Cardiff etc

I doubt places like Newcastle Lancaster would have bad CS courses? They're in top 20 for CS. I've looked at having a foundation year but don't think id enjoy it. Rather give it a shot and see if I can get in with those if not take a gap and do maths
 
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