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!

Degree apprenticeship, and avoid debt altogether?

Actually OP I am also wondering in tbe most gentle way, why not Oxbridge?

There may be legitimate reasons and I don’t want to press you. But depending on your background teachers may be unwarrantedly discouraging, or even a highly intelligent DC may buy into invalid myths. There is no better place than an Oxbridge STEM School to find a crowd of fellow nerds.

Having said that all applicants must be robust, because most of the fully qualified ones are rejected. Still, IMO with London out if, for example, you were to use the list of 6 schools I sent earlier and pick 4, I would expect 3 or 4 offers. (The early A star in Maths will help a lot). So DS can afford the risk.

PS If DS has further thoughts to explore about Oxbridge and its perceived obstacles perhaps we can point you ro resourcex

Cross post. Fair enough to DC. But he should check out Cambridge, at least to the extent of going to an Open Day.

His peers at the Oxford Event were quite varied; he is the real thing. The Open Day will still draw all kinds but a bit less so. And it will be focussed on the UG programme

MN parents dislike Southampton as it isn't very pretty and doesn't have a cathedral. It does have good music venues & theatres, easy to get to London & the New Forest, guaranteed first year accommodation and is so much cheaper than places like Bristol & Bath.

Very much so to this!
I studied at Imperial not long ago (not a Mum!) and I lived maximum 25 mins' walk away. There are halls which are further out but Imperial asks offer holders to rank their top 5 choices (there are choices from South Ken to Chelsea to Acton) and they allocate you one. I would say that the majority of my friends lived around Hammersmith and Fulham from second year and lived with friends, which, by bike, is manageable for sure. It also has a very generous bursary if your household income is below a certain threshold. Having said that, it is definitely not cheap to live in London...

but the job prospects are also really second to none and any additional costs living in London would be offset quickly by the great job opportunities that it offers. If your child would be remotely interested in getting jobs at the top tech firms and quant jobs, Imperial has a strong name (quant firms only really select for Oxbridge and Imperial and pay v v well - easily 6 figures v soon after graduating) and the Computing Society is by far the most heavily sponsored by various hedge funds and tech firms in the UK. If you go on LinkedIn, you can see that the top 3 unis, in varying order, represented at these firms are Oxbridge and Imperial and then a gap with the rest of the good CS ones like UCL, Edinburgh etc. I wouldn't rule it out so quickly; it's a practical course (more than Oxbridge) with a strong underpinning of theory, which makes it appealing to employers. (Biased - there are things that I didn't love about Imperial but the prospects weren't one of them)

Eh...? Imperial happens to still be quite practical. Certainly more theoretical than some others which emphasise less on Maths but compared to, say, Oxbridge, it's not old style.

@basilbrush I went for a weekend in Southampton a year or so ago and thought it was fine. Of course lots of places are enjoyable on a sunny bank holiday weekend! Any chance you could visit and see what the campus is like?

I note its a much cheaper place for accommodation than places like Bath and Bristol which could make a big difference.

I’d suggest Warwick. Lovely uni, live in Leamington. My son did the summer school at Oxford but didn’t fit it. He’s smart, nerdy and found his tribe at Warwick.

What about Lancaster?

I’ve heard of kids with absolutely stellar exam results and amazing extra curriculars get rejected from CS at St As and Edi. My son has straight As at n5 and higher and I think it would be a waste of time him applying. English students might have more luck though as we are Scottish. I think some of them up here you may be able to apply for y2 entry to mitigate debts.

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 ?!

I live near Southampton (not a native) and I don't know why people would say this.
Obviously, it's not a picturesque cathedral city. It can seem a bit rough around the edges. But preferring somewhere like Birmingham (as a place to live I mean - I have no opinion regarding the uni/degree) seems mad to me.
The South coast is fab, plus you have the New Forest on your doorstep and the likes of Winchester, Salisbury and Chichester are very nearby if you like visiting prettier cities.

My son is at Southampton and is loving it. I went to two open days and dropped him off last week and it's not in the slightest bit grim, for a big city, at least round the uni areas and the bits I've been to. And I say that as someone that works in London and Manchester and I advised him not to apply to either, particularly Manchester, as I find the uni and surroundings really grotty (and yet, some people love it). It's not picturesque Oxford spires and I'm sure ot had some rappy bits, as it is a city, but so do all cities and even towns. My friend's son got mugged near Loughborough Uni recently. It seemed to me to be a really buzzy, lively city and the area down by the docks is lovely. It's also much greener than I expected. The campus area is also very green and well set up and his halls are in a nice residential area. I'd go to the Open Day before ruling it out on hearsay, as someone that works in IT, as it has an excellent rep for Computer Science, and my son (not doing CS) seems to be loving it there already.

There really is no substitute for visiting unis - we were shocked last year for example at how grotty and grimey Bristol was and so my son did not apply for that reason, he absolutely hated it,and yet it's a MN fave. Equally I was very impressed by how nice the Reading and Surrey campuses were. All completely different from what I had been expecting based on hearsay and MN.

I worked with a guy who did CS at Southampton about 10y ago and he is now CEO of his own start up AI company in his early thirties. I really would consider it for CS (and Surrey).

I’ve got a DS the same as yours and he’s just started at Warwick. He didn’t want to apply to Cambridge (where we lived) because of the interview. Not sure whether I should have encouraged him more because he’d have received a much better bursary and possibly the whole course and accommodation paid for if he’d gone to St John’s. But anyway he seems ok at Warwick.

A former student of mine appears to be very happy studying CS in Hull. She's extremely introverted/shy. Possibly ASD.

DS is loving CS at Durham. He put Lancaster as his second choice and also had an offer from Nottingham.

My nerdy boy just started CS at York. He also decided not to try for Oxford after a visit, I think the very idea of formal dinners made him run away.
Early days, but he seems to be getting on OK.

Bath

Guildford

Bath, Surrey or Lancaster woukd be a good fit.

Lancaster, a collegiate uni. My DS has Aspergers did maths and computer science and his masters. He absolutely loved it.

I am Southampton born and bred and it is not grim at all! I live near the uni and the campus is lovely, it’s green and safe and in a really nice area. The city centre is going through a lot of building work at the moment, but that is at the bottom end of town, away from the pubs/clubs etc. There are so many green spaces and town is full of parks. The uni is right next to the common, which is HUGE. It is very vibrant and there is always things to do. I mean it’s not pretty pretty like Oxford or Bath, but is far nicer than most big cities! Also only just over an hour on the train to London.

My son sounds similar. Also applying for comp Sci this year. We visited Oxford last year and he found the department ‘underwhelming’ and didn’t like the college atmosphere or accommodation (we looked at several). Cambridge fared better but being autistic he knew the interview would be difficult and he didn’t feel he loved it enough to put himself through the process.

Even though we are easily in commuting distance to London he refused point blank to consider any of the (excellent) choices for CS. I’m disappointed as I thought Imperial was the perfect fit - but nope.

We have had to visit every possible uni on his list for him to get a feel for places. His order at present is St A’s, Bath, York, Southampton and Sheffield (predicted A star, A star, A). He wasn’t keen on Nottingham (open day was chaos and it put him off) and Bristol he didn’t like. Manchester & Edinburgh require 3 A stars so we left those out.

Durham and Exeter are the only two we have not visited yet. I told DS to do the virtual tour and if he really thinks one is a contender we’ll go!

He is hard working and completely computer obsessed so I’m not too bothered academically where he goes, I’m much more invested about him being happy and supported wherever he ends up. My personal favourite is Bath but it seems incredibly popular this year after it won a lot of awards so I think offers will be hard fought. A lot of kids applying to the Elite unis have Bath as their CS back up which is going to make it a tough year to get in.

Warwick looks great. Its a large campus, easy to get to on the train and are really good for Comp Sci. DS has it as 2nd choice.

Which is the best station for Warwick, does it have one close by like Birmingham / Exeter?

We were there yesterday for the open day and DD loved it but I thought it might be a pain to get to on public transport, so very glad to hear it's easy!