Computer Science suggestions for talented pupil (not Oxbridge / London)

[basilbrush]

Good morning all - I'd be very very grateful if anyone had suggestions/ advice for places for Computer Science degrees

DS is in Year 13, state school, he is very academic, 11 9s for GCSE and an A star* *in A level Maths which he did early in Year 12 and is predicted A star for his other 3 subjects.

He is sweet, shy and very nerdy. He likes the idea of a campus uni or one in a smaller city where you can get around easily.

He does not want to apply to Oxbridge or a London uni but does want to apply somewhere 'good' - as fair play, he should!

So far he has Warwick and York on his list. Does anyone have any other suggestions - Southampton? Bristol? Durham ? St Andrews? Edinburgh? (last two would involve another £20k of debt as 4 year degree so although they are lovely places, we are a bit reluctant for him to apply....)

Thanks!

Maybe Bath, Manchester, Birmingham? I think they're all pretty good for comp sci. Standard offers from ÅAA for Bath and Birmingham to ÅÅÅ for Manchester 😱

Lancaster might be good if he is looking for an insurance choice.

It’s a good idea when studying computer science to choose courses that employers choose to upskill their employees as students will develop contacts. Depends what he wants to do.

University of London is one of the best computer science courses if you want to work for Google / Facebook etc as a lot of their employees study there. You can literally bump into Google employees during student socials. Bath and Keele are good to develop job ready coding skills and again you can network. Bristol is good for data science (in my opinion better than Edinburgh). Southampton better for AI.

Another alternative is an Indian degree. IIT is equiv to Cambridge/Oxford / MIT but a fraction of the cost (even as a UK home student). Many students are now doing to Mumbai / Ahmedabad to study - might be work exploring the option. Upon graduation he could expect to start on a minimum of 80-100k (dollars). But it’s only really appropriate mow if he wants to develop deep coding skills & learn how to build AI algorithms from scratch.

Forgot to say that comp sci is of course v competitive so might be a good idea to have a spread of unis to maximise potential offers. It's one of those subjects where you hear the stories about DC with 4 x Å predictions not getting any offers at all. But avoiding Oxbridge and London will help a bit with that.

No advantage in going to Scotland for 4 years. All the unis are great on your list. Add in Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, Surrey and Loughborough.

Just to check - does he take further maths?

I would definitely look at Southampton and Bath. Very strong computer science courses at both of these options.

@jayritchie Yes he is doing Further Maths

Southampton looks great on website, love the idea of being near the coast, but then everything I've mentioned it to says Oh God Southampton is a really grim place ?!

@basilbrush I'd have to agree, Southampton is grim. DD was considering it but saw it and said it was a depressing place. She's at Birmingham and loves it. But she's a social butterfly so busy and buzzing is her natural environment.

@AnIndianWoman is it possible to go to an IIT as UK student? I know Birmingham uni has recently signed a joint exchange program with IIT Chennai.

Why exactly has he discounted London? He sounds like a perfect fit for Imperial.

Hi @MelodiousThunk Too expensive / doesn't like massive cities / doesn't want to spend 50 mins on tube every day getting to lectures, would prefer to have more manageable campus / smaller city size

@basilbrush IC first year accomodation is all easy walking distance (some of it is on campus). 2nd/3rd year students tend to room an easy cycle/bus/tube journey away - certainly not 50 minutes! But yes, I get the expense. South Ken is surprisingly 'villagey' in feel tbh.

Maybe remove Manchester from my earlier suggestion, if he doesn't want a big city. Could replace with Exeter which is a lovely campus and a small, pretty city.

Just my own view (I work in IT and have done MSc in comp. science)…. I’d look into the subjects of the course before deciding

some really good places (like imperial) have very old style courses, it ll put him right off. Things that were done 20 years ago and definitely not current! Also more theory than practice.

He might need to look into courses with AI, Machine learning and gaming development .

For St Andrews there is the option of direct entry to the 2nd year. With his grades it is worth exploring as it would otherwise fit his criteria.
I agree with @MelodiousThunk. I would strongly encourage him to not discount Imperial just due to the perceived inconvenience of transport.

Warwick

Bath has a good reputation for computer science.

Hi, OP -

What a lovely post. Your DS sounds very appealing so I wanted to start a reply now.

Yes yes yes to Bath. The new CS offer is

A star, A star, A.

He ought to clear it easily, it ticks all of his boxes, it’s an excellent programme.

Back soon.

Has he thought what he wants to do with computers? They are desperately short of technology engineers who use computer science to do things from run power plants & wind farms to doing automation or robotics engineering to aerospace engineering.

Many comp sci degree courses are focused on machine learning, AI and various data management systems. The careers are more about being a CTO of a shipping company or a large grocery chain or even a broadband company.

A love of computer science can go into different degree courses- it doesn’t have to be a computer science degree. So I’d have him do a few careers quizzes and see what comes up.

Hi, again OP -

Durham and St Andrews both look like excellent choices academically and certainly tick the campus box.

St Andrews will definitely require a visit as socially it’s got a reputation for being a bit Marmite. IMO that’s less likely to apply in STEM (and I am writing as a STEM academic) but it should be assessed.

Whilst being fully cognisant of financial constraints, in the context of the bright future DS can expect I hope the possibility of extra debt won’t overly influence his decision.

Birmingham keeps coming up because it is awfully good in CS, is in fact a beautiful campus university and incidentally has an excellent Careers Service. Definitely worth a look on those grounds. Sheffield snd Edinburgh would be excellent choices but they are not campuses.

So Warwick, York, Bath, Durham, Birmingham, St Andrews are 6 excellent programmes that meet the criteria of your DS.

The only possible issue is that none of them will accept a B. But DS can afford to blow away one A Level. For Bath he still needs A star A, for the others two A’s. If his teachers are confident I think he should be, too.

Bristol or Manchester

Bath would fit the bill I think or Lancaster as an insurance. Both nice campuses close to towns but not huge places. Plenty to join in with at both universities if he's inclined to do so and the option of a year in industry or abroad. Both have good reputations.

Why not Oxbridge? They are two of the world’s best universities, and with the collegiate system are very like campus universities.

Is there something in particular putting him off?

DH was discouraged from applying by teachers who told him it wasn’t suitable for people like him (working class), and he’s incredibly glad that he didn’t take their advice.

Yeah I’d question the oxbridge thing. Cambridge in particular might suit him really well. V small compact city and the college system means it’s less socially overwhelming as you get to know everyone in your college by name. At some colleges you can live in all 3 years too. It’s also wall to wall geeks so he’ll definitely find his tribe. It’s really not all parties and cashed up public schoolies/ rugby players.

Thank you everyone - this is all very useful! 😀

He went on a residential summer school for state school pupils this year at Oxford but when he came back he said it wasn't his kind of place and he'd decided not to apply as he doesn't think he'd be happy there - so what can you do!