Uni Computing Courses

[Alma]

(wasn't sure where to post this.. sorry if it's in the wrong forum)

Like the title says, I'm pretty interested in studying some kind of Computer Sciences course at Uni. Ideally I'd love to go into Game Design or something similar, but I know it's a very hard career to get into.

So I was wondering if any of you computer-savvy folk have done a computing course or have a career in computing? I've looked at a few prospectuses for Scottish Unis and at the moment Dundee and Aberdeen are looking fairly promising for their courses.. Not had much of a chance to look at English Unis, so any experience you guys have had would really help me out..

So, yeah... Any help/advice you lovely people can give me about this?

Thanks
Alma

[OldBloke]

From what I'm told, you will be better off taking a games specific degree if you want to work in the games industry. A 4 year course (third year is a placement with a games company) will give you the qualification *and* the experience to back it up.

Good Luck.

[Carr0t]

On the flip side, there isn't really huge amounts of work in the game industry, and a hell of a lot of the devs for PC games out there (Cliffy B, huge swathes of the Valve employees etc etc) cut their teeth making mods for their favourite games, and then got into the industry by showing off really good examples of their modding. A good portfolio of your work seems to count a lot more than a degree certificate.

Conversely, if you want to get a serious IT job in any *other* part of the industry, people tend to look down on gaming-specific degrees, as one of my friends who did one found out. He's basically given up on getting a job in the gaming industry, and is trying to get a normal programming job, but is getting looked over and funny comments wherever he goes, becuase he didn't do a 'normal' Comp Sci degree. From what he's told me, gaming courses are very focused, so whereas I could translate to games programming from what I know of generic programming, he's finding it much harder to translate what he learnt doing games programming to anything useful to industries and the like.

Mind you, it could have just been that the course he went on wasn't that good. I don't recall him doing a year in industry, so he didn't have anywhere to go back to and beg an intership from once he'd completed his course.

I did normal Comp Sci at Lancaster. Bit too Windows-centric on the programming for my liking, doing effectively C for Windows instead of standard ANSI C, and the like, but it was good enough, and I don't really know if anywhere else would be any better. Supposedly our Comp Sci dept is quite good, but the entire Uni tends to get poor graduate-employment ratings, because apparently our careers service sucks.

As Oldie said, good luck. I'm not trying to convince you not to do a Games specific course. Hell, I considered doing one, i'm just throwing out my (secondhand) experience of it.

[Jamoe]

From what I'm told, you will be better off taking a games specific degree if you want to work in the games industry. A 4 year course (third year is a placement with a games company) will give you the qualification *and* the experience to back it up..

My brother in law recently visited Huddersfield Uni lookng at a similar course. Apparently only 20% actually get placements. I can see that applying to many Uni's.

The other thing to bare in mind is these courses aren't just about Video games, there are also opportunities in other areas like medical software, for example, modeling a really bad break and being able to simulate the best way to fix it.

Anyway, I kind of agree with Carrot

Good Luck.

[BrotherTobious]

Coventry have part of the uni devoted to Game development  

http://wwwp.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/seriousgames

Also Portsmouth Uni have game courses.  Inc graphical artist, programing etc.  But alot of the course are Math based and will have programing so get you head round that lot. (Sorry self plug I work there)

http://www.port.ac.uk/courses/coursetypes/undergraduate/BScHonsComputerGamesTechnology/

But it is the otherside end of the country for you

Hope that helps.

[Alma]

Thanks for the advice guys. Looks like i'm shooting myself in the foot a little here, eh? Like i said, gaming would be the ideal, but i realise it's unlikely to happen..
Also (just had a look at a few English Unis) does anyone know what the Scottish qualifications translate to in English terms? I've no idea if GCSEs are the equivalent of Intermediate 2 and A levels are Highers or what..

Thanks again
Alma

[T-Bag]

Swansea have what seems to be a reasonable Computer Science course. 4 of my house mates for the last 2 year did it. It covered Java, C++, C# and few others, mostly linux based I think. But they said there is a room with large screen covering every wall and some of the projects in previous years have involved game like aspects of using it. Other than that though it's seems pretty run of the mill comp sci.

[Anonymous]

I would guess Int2 and GCSE pretty similar.

A levels are above Highers (more equivalent to the Scottish "Sixth Year Studies" exam - if they still exist; it was looooong time ago when I did them)

[b00n]

I would guess Int2 and GCSE pretty similar.

A levels are above Highers (more equivalent to the Scottish "Sixth Year Studies" exam - if they still exist; it was looooong time ago when I did them)

They don't have SYS anymore.  I have no idea what they have now though as they still did SYS when I finished.

I'm currently studying Software Engineering at Napier Uni in Edinburgh.  The school of computing here is quite good by all accounts and although the course has taken a while to really grab my interest (I'm in second year now) I put that down to the fact that I already had a fair amount of programming knowledge before starting.  I suspect the first year of most courses won't be too challenging if this is the case for you.

While not as academic as say, Comp Sci at Edinburgh Uni, the Napier Software Eng course teaches a lot of skills that you are likely to actually use in employment, though many of these will not be so useful in games development (f.ex. I'm having to teach myself C++ as the course focuses on Java/C#).  The course also features a 12 month placement in third year.

Mainly I chose Napier because it's the best in Scotland and top 10 in the UK for graduate recruitment.

[Alma]

Thanks for all the help guys Much appreciated. The advice has really helped ^_^

Oh, and SYS are now Advanced Highers

Thanks again
Alma