After the not-so-interesting BioChem open day at Imperial, which (thankfully) put me off anything to do with it for life (as did all of my Chemistry lessons since then), I have turned my attentions more seriously towards studying Computer Science at Uni (or Physics, but that’s a bit of a side thing atm). Yesterday, accompanied by my mother, who over-planned for time again, I went to Oxford for their CompSci Open Day.
ZOMG. THIS IS THE COURSE FOR ME.
We arrived an hour early. Which turned out to be an hour and a half early, since they in fact changed the times without letting us know. Anyway, we wandered around the town aimlessly, and it really is a beautiful place. I’d always thought that Cambridge was the prettier (although that was the only one I’d visited) because there were so many parks and stuff, but Oxford really is a lovely place – and all the colleges are very close to one another, making it all very convenient. Going on aesthetics alone, I really wouldn’t mind going there.
When we were finally let in, after waiting outside with one other girl and about 20 guys (yay?), there was a demonstration thing we could join in. First we chatted (note: I asked a couple of questions, my mother waffled on about insignificant things) to a 1st year student who seemed really nice. Then there was a kind of programming thing, and it was SO AWESOME. I felt proud because I already recognised a few things, but even though I got quite a lot wrong, it was completely immense and I want to do it. Even if it involves typing ((blank$star$blank)&tree)$(blank&man)$(blank&woman)$(blank&blank&man) for the entire first year.
Then they laid on free lunch for us (yum) and, there were more demonstrations which I didn’t understand because I couldn’t hear properly. However, I talked to a guy who was very nice and also informative about the course, his A-level background and life in general. There was then an informal talk on Oxford as a University and CompSci as a subject, a demonstration of how your ideas get ripped apart if they’re wrong (oops), and an argument between the guy and a parent about positive/negative discrimination for/against private/state schools, which was AWKWARD, because hello, private school girls present in a very left-wing argument.
And then there were more demonstrations which I actually got a chance to have explained to me (and apparently got chatted up in the process) which were really awesome. And then I was like “lolsocominghere” and left.
Overall, a positive experience. All I really have to do now is ascertain that I am not going to apply for Cambridge (I’ll leave the A* option for Imperial) and then work my butt off to get three As. Awesome.
Tags: ambitions, computer science, future, oxford, school, student, university
Before you apply for a computer science degree, please realise that you /probably won’t be doing much actual programming through the entire course/. Loads of people don’t realise this and apply assuming that they will learn enough to be a computer programmer. There are more appropriate degrees for this – usually titled software engineering. Computer science is a science like any other science. Great theory, little practical.
We had maybe two or three units through the entire degree that involved any programming at all – and we weren’t taught the languages, we had to learn them in our free time. It’s much, much more to do with theory. You’ll be taught how to ‘program’ in a very generic way that doesn’t often apply to any language in particular (this kind of code is usually referred to as ‘pseudocode’) and probably won’t go much further than the very fundamentals of each different /type/ of programming language (imperative, object oriented, logic, etc.). You’ll be learning things like data structures, computing foundations, modular arithmetic, discreet mathematics, algorithms, text manipulation, artificial intelligence and computer networking theory. It’s great if you’re interested in that – but it is extremely maths heavy and requires great logical thought.
Good luck, though.
Oh totally – they were very keen to emphasise that it’s theory-based rather than practical-based yesterday. I think it’s so much more sensible that way (although apparently some Unis do focus on the practical side) because if I learn so many programming languages and nothing else, then I’m a little stuck if they go out of fashion or something new is developed.
And I do love Maths
It just means if you want a career in computing after university CS, you have to really work at it in your free time – learn the languages, learn the tricks of the trade, and really keep up with technology and standards. No time to slack off.
Something that might interest you; http://projecteuler.net
Tests mathematical and programming ability. If you want a nice language to start off with, try looking up C# or Java, C++ if you’re feeling adventurous. They will take you far.
Also, feel free to e-mail me if you need any help. 
Unrelated to the course itself (what do I know about computer science?!), I found on my visits that Oxford was a LOT nicer than Cambridge. I’d choose Ox over Cam any day based on environment and atmosphere alone.
This open day sounds far more interesting than what I experienced when I wanted to check out my university. We basically sat in on the second half of a lecture. Sure, being the total programming nerd that I was, I wanted to absorb everything and learn it all during that measly hour… In the end though, I wish we had university open days like those you experienced (not necessarily with lunch added
).
Macca: wow really? That’s interesting. Here, in Romania, you basically have three choices to earn a computer programming diploma (related) diploma.
The first is by attending a section of the Maths-Computer Science faculty. This is what I did. We did plenty of programming, but obviously not enough for real life. However all in all, we had quite a lot of programming courses starting 3rd year (not so much 1st and 2nd year. Oh yeah, my course lasted 4 years.
Then there is a section of the Technical uni, which lasts 5 years, where you learn programming, but apply it more for technical stuff (eg programming electrical circuits), and you have a lot of classes relating to Physics/Electronics.
Then there is a section of the Economic uni, which focuses more on web related languages, and… uses of programming in Economical environment. For someone with no additional computing knowledge, it can be quite useless really.
Uni open days are so much fun! I loved when I was checking out colleges and trying to decide what schools I would have liked to attend, what I would like to major in and even participating in demonstration classes. I visited a lot of schools, except, ironically, the one I ended up in (it was my first choice school but I never really went to any open day activity).
It sounds like your day was really fun and exciting though! I hope that if you there and that course, it turns out exactly how you wanted it to be