[QUOTE=joyenusi;32488275]And where are you studying ? A lot of the top universities require a high grade in A-level Mathematics which I failed during my first year at college, although I got a B in GCSE, I'm hoping I can take extra tutoring in maths when the time comes...[/QUOTE]
Im at Essex, they required me to get a distinction in my btec maths module but thats it
I'm starting 2nd year Computer Science at University of Surrey. I'd advise staying away from game programming degrees. There's no reason why you will get held back by a Computer Science degree, but the same is not true for a game-specific course, and like others have said, don't concentrate too much on the language they teach. Focus on things like employability, the general course content, how satisfied their students are and, of course, whether you actually want to live in the city.
Also I highly recommend finding a place that does a placement year (sandwich course), this should give you a good edge on other graduates. It also usually means the uni has good industry connections.
[QUOTE=RyanPridgeon;32489738]I'm starting 2nd year Computer Science at University of Surrey. I'd advise staying away from game programming degrees. There's no reason why you will get held back by a Computer Science degree, but the same is not true for a game-specific course, and like others have said, don't concentrate too much on the language they teach. Focus on things like employability, the general course content, how satisfied their students are and, of course, whether you actually want to live in the city.
Also I highly recommend finding a place that does a placement year (sandwich course), this should give you a good edge on other graduates. It also usually means the uni has good industry connections.[/QUOTE]
What would you say about someone who would be entering the course with a BTEC Nat. Dip in IT and hasn't studied maths since GCSE ?
Going to York as well :) I applied to York, Warwick, Nottingham, Lincoln and Nottingham Trent.
Warwick just didn't feel right to me and it seemed to be rather focused on their link to some banks with the projects you do later in the course. That and it didn't seem as attractive to me as York. See below though, I've always been set on York tbh, and Warwick did look pretty high quality.
Nottingham didn't appeal to me at all on the CS visiting day but I accepted it as an insurance offer, since it had lower grades than Warwick and it's close to home.
Lincoln and Trent were expecting pretty low grades- but to be honest, I never wanted to go to them. From the off I wanted to go to York, I have no idea why but it just felt like it's where I needed to go. Anyway I guess I'll find out soon, less than two weeks!
[QUOTE="Vampired"]
Edit: What college you in?
[/QUOTE]
Alcuin here :D
[QUOTE=Turd92;32501543]Going to York as well :) I applied to York, Warwick, Nottingham, Lincoln and Nottingham Trent.
Warwick just didn't feel right to me and it seemed to be rather focused on their link to some banks with the projects you do later in the course. That and it didn't seem as attractive to me as York. See below though, I've always been set on York tbh, and Warwick did look pretty high quality.
Nottingham didn't appeal to me at all on the CS visiting day but I accepted it as an insurance offer, since it had lower grades than Warwick and it's close to home.
Lincoln and Trent were expecting pretty low grades- but to be honest, I never wanted to go to them. From the off I wanted to go to York, I have no idea why but it just felt like it's where I needed to go. Anyway I guess I'll find out soon, less than two weeks!
Alcuin here :D[/QUOTE]
I got to Notts last Sunday on Comp Sci G404, and from what I've seen so far, it's an awesome department. What didn't you like about it?
The IT here overall is ran very harshly by the network admins, but it's manageable. Stark contrast to say...Southampton. On the open day there, we were encouraged to attempt to hack the network so new vulnerabilities would be exposed and we would learn at same time. Here, I'm pretty sure you'd face firing squad. Someone in the IT admin team is desperate to prove they are worth their salary.
[QUOTE=TrueNash;32534942]I got to Notts last Sunday on Comp Sci G404
TEXT[/QUOTE]
My friend got into g400, I don't suppose you know a Robin?
Doesn't matter, all CS programs are trash anyway.
Just teach yourself years before going to college and then half ass your way through the coursework to get your worthless degree.
[editline]29th September 2011[/editline]
Just go to whichever college costs the least because CS programs are pretty much a joke anywhere.
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;32539431]Doesn't matter, all CS programs are trash anyway.
Just teach yourself years before going to college and then half ass your way through the coursework to get your worthless degree.
[editline]29th September 2011[/editline]
Just go to whichever college costs the least because CS programs are pretty much a joke anywhere.[/QUOTE]
Quickly let's ignore the fact that were talking about the UK! Also while I'm at it I'll make a huge sweeping generalization and then I'll follow up with a light sprinkling of being a complete moron. I mean everyone knows that having a CS degree makes you a bad programmer, it just does!
[QUOTE=iPope;32543475]Quickly let's ignore the fact that were talking about the UK! Also while I'm at it I'll make a huge sweeping generalization and then I'll follow up with a light sprinkling of being a complete moron. I mean everyone knows that having a CS degree makes you a bad programmer, it just does![/QUOTE]
I'm not saying having a CS degree makes you dumb. I never said anything about the value of the degree, you're the "complete moron" in this case.
The fact that I'm from the US doesn't change anything. It's not like the UK is a magical land where CS classes are actually challenging.
Maybe you'll figure out what I mean after you take the same bullshit "how to declare variables and write functions" class but with a different course number three or four times.
If you don't have enough interest in programming to learn it on your own, then you should probably do something else because there is no excuse. I've yet to take a course where it's assumed you know the language and you can move on and actually do something useful rather than retarded exercises teaching you how to write a loop.
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;32544231]I'm not saying having a CS degree makes you dumb. I never said anything about the value of the degree, you're the "complete moron" in this case.
The fact that I'm from the US doesn't change anything. It's not like the UK is a magical land where CS classes are actually challenging.
Maybe you'll figure out what I mean after you take the same bullshit "how to declare variables and write functions" class but with a different course number three or four times.
If you don't have enough interest in programming to learn it on your own, then you should probably do something else because there is no excuse. I've yet to take a course where it's assumed you know the language and you can move on and actually do something useful rather than retarded exercises teaching you how to write a loop.[/QUOTE]
Yes because all computer science degrees are programming
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;32544231]I never said anything about the value of the degree, you're the "complete moron" in this case.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;32539431]...to get your worthless degree.[/QUOTE]
Anyway, anyone else going to Durham tomorrow?
Well York was good, definitely prefer it to Bristol but not sure if it's better than Bath. I think the course was better at York but Bath itself is better - decisions decisions! Also going to see Derby & Stafford soon to see if they're any better; though they're for Games Programming.
Oh god, let's not go off topic with the value of a degree
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;32539431]Doesn't matter, all CS programs are trash anyway.
to get your worthless degree.[/QUOTE]
[editline]29th September 2011[/editline]
I guess then I'll get my worthless job too. I don't know what universities you've looked at but in the UK CS degrees are very science and mathematics centric. You learn design, architecture and techniques for complex systems, past the first semester knowledge of language structure is assumed...
I went to Hull for Software Engineering (graduated in 2005), it's very good and some of the lecturers are quite entertaining - you will hear the same jokes if you repeat the year though so watch out for that - the games development course is very focused on Microsoft / XNA type stuff pretty much exclusively as is the rest of the course. We switched from Java to C# half way through my time there - it was easy since they're basically the same thing syntax-wise and I already knew C++. They also teach C++ at Hull in the Advanced Programming module. They have all sorts of connections with Microsoft, a couple of the guys in the year above me ended up working at microsoft on the visual studio team. I know that's not gaming but it shows you the kind of set-up they have there. Anyway, I'm a linux head so enough promotion of MS stuff from me.
Went to see Derby yesterday and I think it might be my first choice. The place felt much more warm; like Bath - and the course taught C# and C++, had great facilities and great lecturers. They also had the opportunity to switch to Computer Science after the first year if you were on networks or gaming (in the first year you do a module split into 3 for each section so you can get a feel for what they'll be like and then decide which one you want to carry on with). Their placements also seemed really good and the fact that their requirements have gone up and the course has been redesigned makes it even more appealing!
Anyone done CS at Birmingham? I'm thinking of applying there (of course it all depends on me doing well in my AS resits) since it's just down the road and is apparently a good course. Haven't been to the open days for anything outside of the midlands, it's just too fucking far, and out of all of the midlands unis I've been to Biirmingham was leaps and bounds ahead, as opposed to coventry, (abssolutely terrible, I think it gave me cancer), aston (shite) and wolverhampton (really bad).
I'm studying Computer Science at Edinburgh. It might be a bit further afield but you should really consider coming here. We're learning Haskell (functional language) in semester 1 and Java in semester 2. Employees love people who have functional programming under their belt because it forces a different way of thinking and gives you an edge.
Our Haskell lecturer co-wrote Haskell (Philip Wadler), and he's just brilliant.
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