Clearing - What's a good Uni to apply to do Computing/Forensic Computing?

[FatalSaviour]

For reasons too complex to go into right here, I'm no longer studying Chemistry.
This has presented me with an opportunity to switch University, and Course...
I'm thinking about choosing either a Computing course, with, perhaps another subject in tow, or something like Forensic Computing, although I don't want to specialise too much at this early stage.

So...what's a good university, from a prospective long-term employment POV?

My A-Levels are fairly good - AAABC in Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Further Maths, and German respectively, and GCSEs are mostly A*s, with 1 or 2 As thereabouts.

Would appreciate any input that you guys might have!

TIA,

Ray

[midzt]

I think your careers tutor will probably give you the best advice but with them grades i think that you could get on a much better course than offered on clearing. my mates is in a similar situation atm, and he's decided to take apply next year instead after speaking to our careers tutor. I know that taking a gap year isnt for everybody but that just what my mate has done now so i thought id pass that info onto you.

[GDVS]

With those grades I'd look at Imperial College or if you fancy a beautiful city try York instead. Both top end universities and both with very well respected computer computer science departments.

[directhex]

it's probably a bit late for clearing on the decent universities - consider reapplying next year

[chrestomanci]

With those grades you should be able to get into Durham (where I studied). They have a good Computer Science department

When I was there about half of my fellow students (all subjects) had got there on clearing rather than applied normaly, so you should have a good chance.

[99Flake]

Staffordshire University is one of the best, if not the best for computing. It is not very good for other courses but it has the most amazing facilities for computer science - VR suites, Silicon graphics machines, macs hundreds of machines in labs all in one massive dedicated building. Plus the halls have ethernet for your machine with frighteningly fast military grade internet. I went there and was astounded at the equipment and different variations of computer courses they had. They really are a specialist in that area.

[directhex]

Staffordshire University is one of the best, if not the best for computing. It is not very good for other courses but it has the most amazing facilities for computer science - VR suites, Silicon graphics machines, macs hundreds of machines in labs all in one massive dedicated building. Plus the halls have ethernet for your machine with frighteningly fast military grade internet. I went there and was astounded at the equipment and different variations of computer courses they had. They really are a specialist in that area.

all the places i looked at for my undergrad degree bar one had all the above facilities. staffordshire ranks 78th on the guardian lists for computer science degrees, dragged down primarily by lacklustre teaching staff

[99Flake]

Hmmm. Well I went there in 2000 and it wasn't like that then. Maybe things have changed a bit I don't know. Was just a suggestion anyway, was speaking from personal experience and I chose it over some far more prestigious "established uni's"

[HyeongSeong]

How about doing a MEng Computer Science with Games Development in the University of hull ? Hull has one the best couse for game develpoment ( lots of people I know end up work for EA and Codemasters). The city of hull is also one of the cheapest place to live.

[Agent]

all the places i looked at for my undergrad degree bar one had all the above facilities. staffordshire ranks 78th on the guardian lists for computer science degrees, dragged down primarily by lacklustre teaching staff

At college we were always warned to take the Guardians lists with a huge slab of salt. Apparently many of the results are skewed in favour of certain institutions. While I cant back that up (and don’t have time to go trawling Google right now), pretty much everyone I spoke to when looking at going to university agreed with it.

[directhex]

At college we were always warned to take the Guardians lists with a huge slab of salt. Apparently many of the results are skewed in favour of certain institutions. While I cant back that up (and don’t have time to go trawling Google right now), pretty much everyone I spoke to when looking at going to university agreed with it.

that was my feeling on the Times list, which seems to have remained unchanged since forever, and lists oxbridge at the top "just because". when i was looking at places to do my degree, oxford failed to make the top-20 for computer science on the Guardian lists, which is an accurate reflection, compared to the times' "omgoxbridgewin" approach

at the end of the day, any rating scheme or league table is skewed somehow, but i found the guardian lists more useful than most

[HyeongSeong]

I totally agree with you, last time I look at those tables they have things like research funds included. What do research funds have any thing to do with students that just come out of six forms? I think is very important to do your own research and really think about what area of computer science that you like and choose the course accordingly. Going to Hull is one of the best things that could happen to me. Not only are the lectures friendly and helpful, they are also very knowledgeable in their field (most of them worked in the industry and some of them actually helped in the development of .net). After finished the degree , you can also take parts in their start up program ( backed by E.U and Microsoft) .

[chrestomanci]

I totally agree with you, last time I look at those tables they have things like research funds included. What do research funds have any thing to do with students that just come out of six forms?

Research funding is important because it attracts the best academic staff.

Academics want to progress their carears just like anyone else, and the main way they do that is by doing reserch and publishing academic papers. The more they have pubished the better the rest of academea judges them and the more likely they are to get promotion, tenure, and the like.

Research takes funding, but the funding goes to the department, not the the academic. The funding councils dish out most of their money to the departments with the best track records, so any ambitious researcher will apply for jobs at departments with good research ratings and losts of funding. The result is to create a virtuous circle where the best academic staff get concentrated in a small number of instituions, where the best work is done.

There are seperate ratings for teaching and research, but in general the two tend to be similar as the best people are good at both. (Though most people can think of some exceptions. On my Chemistry course, there was a profesor who was the only female profesor of Chemistry in the country, and had pubished hundreads of papers, but could not teach to save her life.)

[HyeongSeong]

Research funding is important because it attracts the best academic staff.

I understund what you saying, but computer scienice is a lot different to Chemistry. The best computer scienice lecture are those worked in the induestry. ( The way academic writing software are totaly different to what company produced). They also tend to follow the latest software craze . ( not always a good thing , i.e some those idea doesn't really work in real life ).

[FatalSaviour]

Just wanted to say thanks to all those that have replied so far.

There's been some great input, and I've taken a lot on board.

Cheers guys

[alterion]

yes with 3a's you can do any sciencish course you want next year (except maybe maths because uni's don;t like a year out for that). i would start hounding your parents for money and plan a gap year and re-apply next year you should be highly competitve for the top Comp-Sci courses at cambridge-imperial-york ect