Predicted A* maths / further maths / compsci

[bamboowarrior]

Where would you recommend they apply for conputer science????🙏🙏🙏

My DS got those results and is at Birmingham - look at the pwc apprenticeship, very sort after.
One of his friends is at Manchester

My DS got those results and is at Birmingham - look at the pwc apprenticeship, very sort after.
One of his friends is at Manchester

Depends on what aspects they are interested in - different courses will have different content , theoretical or applied for example

And the style of university- campus or city , how much pastoral support required

Having said that Lancaster is very strong in comp sci and a good university all round

I got information from 4 different university ranking websites for computer science and did a spreadsheet comparing them, in particular the grade offers. I avoided Guardian rankings as they include student satisfaction which imo is not well measured.

My experience was that there is a big group that all state they offer at AAA type level. Presumably because those top grades are more common in maths and further maths, but also it's a highly competitive course.

I would say look closely at Warwick, Manchester, Cambridge, Durham, Imperial (if London is an option) for AAA type offers, and maybe for Birmingham, Bristol, QML, Leeds, Southampton for a grade or so down. Ds did well and is now at one of these.

Warwick

My dd has these predicted grades and is holding an offer from Durham with Newcastle as insurance.

DS1 has those plus physics and is going to apply to Cambridge, Imperial, St Andrews, UCL and Durham. Also.one abroad. Likelihood is he will only get one offer, although the one abroad is almost guaranteed and will be unconditional if offered.

Surely Edinburgh would be one to consider? They are ranked 24th in the world for computer science according to the Times and 20th according to QS. They offer an integrated masters in computer science called an MInf.

My son has an unconditional offer for this starting September.

Not to dampen your enthusiasm, but I'd recommend taking a look at this year's application threads on TSR, and their offer spreadsheets

CS was up there with Economics as being particularly brutal, where applicants with both predicted or achieved full houses of A stars weren't getting offers.

Those 5 unis are particularly ambitious @Travelban - wouldn't you consider one a bit lower down in the rankings, e.g. Nottingham, Birmingham, Exeter?

@Aurea - personally I wouldn't recommend anyone apply to Edinburgh nowadays unless they're international or Scottish, and guaranteed a contextual offer.

Their admissions department is appalling in the way they treat applicants - zero communications from them post applications, with a lot of people still waiting until the final week of the UCAS cutoff to get a response - mainly rejection.

Again, worth a look at their TSR applicants thread and their offer spreadsheet for clarity

I agree with lastdayatschool

My son applied this year with the Scottish equivalent of 4As stars predicted as well as one achieved in maths in year 12. He also had 6 highers at A grades from
year 12 (like AS levels).

He got rejected from Cambridge (after interview), withdrew from St Andrews and Glasgow (end April having not heard back) and offers from Edinburgh (unconditional) and Durham (AA).

Computer science is extremely competitive and many talented students with all A stars will be rejected from top unis.

Yes fully aware, we have looked at them and had many many discussions about it. His view is that if he doesn't get into any of those he would rather go to the one abroad. He is unmovable!

@lastdayofschool

My son is non contextual although he attends a state school.

He received his unconditional offer end March and he now has his accommodation booked which is reassuring.

Ps going abroad ultimately is a wonderful experience, especially as the country in question is my home.country and we have been umpteen times... so not a complete punt.

Thanks for replies - can anyone post a link to student room offer spreadsheet memtioned above??

Where do THEY want to go? This is the most important criteria. If they’re not happy there, they wont do as well as they might.

That's great @Aurea - well done to your DS.

My DS and several of his friends - girls and boys, from a number of NI Grammars - applied to Edinburgh this year. Not a single offer between them, despite some of them getting offers from Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, Bristol and Exeter.

Mums were more disappointed than the kids tbh - most of us fancied some Edinburgh trips.

I was going to say this as well.
@bamboowarrior if you are on Facebook can I suggest you join the WIWIKAU group. There are loads of parents of very bright young people with stellar predicted grades who have had no offers because they have only applied to the most popular and competitive universities.

@bamboowarrior - here's a sample of some TSR Offer Spreadsheets:

Durham: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VKmLK1U8EKTt10aAEn9l3pXemc1Zu5tmtUdOpkZiydA/edit#gid=555965637

Edinburgh: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ep8EPig2INWuWV77v7pM9L1nlgNiasKeJmjSip3yWIc/htmlview

Manchester:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wMkLVfD_IsbqYQUlLAiOm8Brww5Sa4nYdUMbpM6egzs/edit?usp=sharing

To look for other universities, go to: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=307 and then pick a University.

Most will have a 2023 Undergraduate Applicants thread and, if someone has done an Offers spreadsheet, it'll be on the 1st page of that thread.

Note: Not all universities have an offer thread and obviously, those recording their offers are only a small subset of applicants.

https://www.theuniguide.co.uk/ is also useful IMO - search for your course and location in it, and it gives an indication of the typical subjects/grades of those attending the course and also the breakdown of International vs UK students on the course - a factor which, unfortunately, has to be taken into account, given the number of universities which favour international applicants more highly over UK ones.

Most universities also publish admissions metrics on their websites if you search for them - they also give a good breakdown of numbers Applicants vs Offers vs Entrants ratios across UK and International applicants - these have definitely been an eye-opener and something my DS and me wished we known about/looked at pre-application.

As my username suggests my child would not recommend Durham for computer science. There are complaints about the same things every year and nothing is done about it, mainly absolutely no feedback on exams or modules, some modules being taught very poorly and a high number either fail it altogether resulting in resits or do very poorly despite getting very high marks for other modules so this isn't an understanding issue. Students in higher years are meant to offer support during certain drops in but admit they don't know how to help because they too were poorly taught. They can never be told about modules/exams as these are used year on year and they all have a gag order, understandable but it leaves you completely puzzled as to where you went wrong on a module which you then have to build on. It is frustrating.

Basically you get to the end of the year are tested but have no idea throughout the year as to how you are doing, more formative tests ie a test which is marked but does not count toward your grade would be helpful rather than it all being exposed too late in the final exam. Over half the cohort failed a module and had to resit it. That would suggest the teaching of that module was problematic or the test was too hard but they did not adjust the grades to reflect performance. It put a lot of pressure on them for the resits worried they might not continue onto the next year. It also jeopardised their shared housing situation if someone was going to drop out. Dc did not resit but still felt the system was unfair and this isn't sour grapes, they did incredibly well.

I would probably suggest asking about performance and resits at any open day of any university.

Ds's friend applied for CS this year with 4 A Star predictions to Imperial Manchester Bristol Bath and Birmingham. He was rejected by Imperial and Bristol. It is very competitive this year.

The universities most renowned for computer science are Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Edinburgh and UCL. These are a level above the others for computer science.

After that, KCL, Manchester, Warwick, QMUL.

However, it is important to have at least one insurance option. Lancaster is a particularly good insurance option.

What sort of other extracurricular activities do your DCs do to complement their predicted grades? And how did they fare with their personal statement as it’s changing this autumn isn’t it?

But it’s interesting what the PP said about Durham. DD visited there for an Open Day for History. She hated it, said the department was chaotic and no one seemed to know what was going on so she refused to apply and eventually took up a place at UCL.

No there is still another cycle with a personal statement.

I assume you also mean supra curricular rather than extra curricular which unis don't really care about when assessing applications.