I flunked Oxford because of my poor work ethic. I like to think I was capable of getting a 1st if I'd tried, but I was too busy having fun and being psychotic.

I've said elsewhere, I applied to Bristol, Aberystwyth, UMIST and somewhere else I've forgotten. Maybe Bath. I seem to remember that Bristol rejected me, and I got BBB offers from the others and an AAAA offer from Oxford. To this day, I still think I should have gone to Manchester. It's impossible to say because of course I didn't actually go, but quite apart from the excellent music scene in '89, I know their labs were first class and they had some pretty damned good professors there.

My prof at Oxford was practically senile, and they expected you to be all responsible and learn stuff from books. Half the tutorials were taken by enthusiastic post grads who kept loosing the plot, and someone was killed on the high street by a gargoyle falling off Univ.

PM sent

And not really fussed, I have better things to do

Yep, I've been a university student for three years now And actually this adds a lot to the discussion:
Two years I've spent in lecture halls, listening to the people of academia, sitting at my desk into the night, doing work to tick boxes on a mark sheet.
One year of doing work learning on the job, going to casual classes to get the next set of skills, fulfilling an actual real position.

I would have said I have learnt a lot more this last year in a placement, doing stuff, than I did over the course of my last two years at uni.

I can't stress enough to everyone thinking of going to uni, or who is currently in uni and can get have the chance: do an industrial year, I hope Finlay will back me up, they are great fun, you learn so much, and they put loads of skills on your CV. They really are worth it if you pick the right placement.

Yeah, I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to all this atm, hence the reason I made a thread now, I've got months to get it all together.

Right, with taking a year to do 'on job' stuff, do I need to take a course that offers that? Or will every course offer the chance?

It's not quite that simple...Every course will allow you to take a year out, though if it's not part of the course then for that year you will cease to be a student (for the year) and be subject to council tax, but won't have to pay tuition fees...
If you go on a course that offers a sandwich year, then it is built into the course and you will be expected to find a placement. For your year out you will continue to be a student, get student discounts, pay no council tax, etc, but you will probably have to pay tuition fees to keep your student status (at Aber we have to pay half fees).

I know that Aber offers all of their courses with or without a sandwich year, and so they are happy for you to switch at the last minute if you do (or don't) want to do the industrial year. I'm not sure if all uni's do this though...

I think I'll have a look at the sandwich year courses then, I haven't got to worry about tuition fees, I'm in a very lucky position in that sense. And I like the sound of no council tax

Oh well, back to trolling the uni sites I go

This is something I hear from literally, everyone.

I'd just like to add:
I'm not much of a sit-down-and-take-notes-in-a-lecture-then-do-loads-of-study-at-home kind of guy, I prefer to be doing stuff than reading stuff. That's why I chose my course, because we spend a lot of our time in labs seeing how stuff behaves rather than just reading about how stuff behaves. But this is a very personal thing, so it's important to pick the right course at the right university. Some people probably wouldn't like my course and would rather be sat in-front of a lecturer 100% of the time rather than the roughly 40% of the time in my case.

Another thing to consider is whether the course also gives you other qualifications? It's common that networking courses do Cisco as part of the syllabus, for example. This gives your CV a bit more grunt than just the degree alone.

The number one tip I could give though would be make sure you go to the open days. Most unis will take you on tours around the department, halls, and even the city itself. You know when you've found the right place. A bit like a girlfriend.

Good luck.

I can't stand being talked at, that's one of the reasons I left A-Levels, went to another college and did a more 'practical' course, which involved doing stuff, other than putting a pen on a piece of paper. So I'll definitely have to take that into consideration.

Okay I've just read this back!!

What I meant was that you know when you've found a good one, one that's good for you.

Just thought I'd jump in and say that before anyone *cough* JV *cough* quotes it. etc etc

Really depends on the area of computing you want to focus on, Edinburgh do good Ai courses, Heriot Watt do fairly engineering oriented courses, Northumbria does a fair mix from fluffy internet scripting to low level cryptology



As in TVU in Reading? As it's in Reading I don't blame you

Vocational courses have a lot of use.

I know of people working in the IT industry with NO formal qualifications past O Levels, but with vocational courses you gain real world experience.

I can honestly say in my 1 year placement I have learnt more than my first two years at university easily given the real world skills you don't get at uni such as working parts of large teams, meeting 'real' deadlines etc

You are correct, I do not have a degree, Nick. That didn't stop me teaching a few weeks of the course though and realising that the BTEC requires far less work and commitment.


That's what we were discussing last night. The people who matter are the decent employers and prestigious universities, and they do not class these vocational courses as being equal.


Sorry, I didn't realise how controversial this issue is. It was certainly not a case of being a "Prick".

Peter.

Well, I've calmed down a bit, but you want to know why I, and a few others probably got pretty pissed? You effectively made it seem my qualification was worthless, now tell me how YOU would feel if, after two years of a lot of hard work, you were told by some jumped up penguin that your qualifications, supposedly meant diddly squat? I think you'd be pretty annoyed.

As it is, I actually got a fair bit of advice after you stopped posting last night, maybe we could keep it that way?

I never suggested that your qualification was worthless or that you hadn't worked hard for it. I was comparing your qualification to full A-Levels, which I still think are somewhat superior, but your BTEC is still very worthwhile.

It was not meant in an offence or demeaning way.

Peter.

B*[LIFTED]. The fact you don't have a degree is enough to stop you teaching. It's government policy that teachers at schools and colleges have a degree.



Decent employers and prestigious universities? By prestigious do you mean old fashioned? And as for decent employers, you go and find me an IT company that would rather take a candidate with three A-levels over a diploma in IT. If you can't see that a diploma is more attractive to the employer then you're even more of a moron than I thought.


I think it was a case of being a prick. This was your first post:



How demeaning is that? "everybody makes the same mistake as you" erm wake up and taste the coffee pg, it's you who is wrong.



Yes you have. You really have, and more than once too. Your whole point is that employers and universities don't like diplomas and that A-levels are "superior". That would make them useless because you couldn't get a job or place at university so you see, that's what you've been saying through the whole thread.

From earlier in the thread:





I consider these comments obnoxious, arrogant and very inconsiderate of the OP who frankly never asked you for your opinion in the first place. I suggest you do as he asked and GTFO.



Oh and now you're patronising him too. Well done.