I currently live in Germany and want to study computer science.
I applied to these universities in UK:
[ul]
[]Oxford
[]Imperial
[]UCL
[]University of Edinburgh
[li]King’s College London[/li][/ul]
I was rejected from Oxford and accepted at other 4 universities in UK.
US:
[ul]
[]MIT
[]Stanford
[li]Harvard[/li][/ul]
All rejections.
I haven’t invested enough time into the applications and have no extraordinary achievements although i have top grades and great sports achievements.
I think it was wrong to just look at the Top University lists and choose the best universities in the world.
I actually only wanted to apply to Oxford but I also applied to 4 other UK universities for £10 extra.
Same for US. I only applied to the 3 top universities in the USA.
I chose the universities by their names, thinking it would help me in my future.
I don’t know what to do now.
I have visited Imperial college during the interview day. I mostly liked the university and the city. Great internship opportunities (Google, Amazon, … ). They offered me a place for a Masters Degree in Computer Science, which I would get in 4 years. I still have to take the AEA Mathematics exam to get the place.
But I don’t like the high amount of courses per day(8am - 3pm) Monday - Friday. I read and was told that US students have a lot less courses per week.
I could apply to German universities like
- []ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
[]Technical University of Munich
But I don’t want to study computer science in German language. Especially not in Germany because everyone can study computer science in Germany. Even with worst grades possible. I feel like I would not be rewarded for doing hard work in school, to later get the same degree as “bad” students.
What should I do?
Should I start university in the UK
(And apply as transfer to US universities next year?)
Should I take a gap year?
Should I study in Germany?
Are the US universities even “worth” their “name”?
I am 100% sure that I want to study computer science
Transferring in to the top US unis is extremely difficult if not impossible. Getting in to the top US unis is extreme difficult. They also cost a ton of money.
In the UK, you’d only study CS.
Have you looked to see how much class time there is at Edinburgh and UCL?
I don’t want to study in Edinburgh. Imperial and UCL seem to to be fairly similar. I assume that the class time is similar. During the open day at Imperial everyone said that Imperial is better than UCL for computer science.
One more thing I didn’t like about Imperial: many of the students who had an interview that day had no experience with programming before. This is what US universities could offer me: passionate students.
Do transfer students get no financial aid at all?
Why do you assume rather than check?
If you need a lot of fin aid, you have very little chance of getting in to a renown CS school in the US.
This is the most important thing you need to focus on:
The name of the school you go to matters very little in the grand scheme - it’s what you do while you’re there.Especially in CS, the name of the school you go to hardly matters. Companies care about experience and ability almost exclusively.
There are tons of great universities for CS in the US - dozens alone better than Harvard. Your obsession with name and selectivity is very ill placed - why should the fact that anyone can study CS in Germany mean anything?
Fun fact: this is the case for MANY CS students, including some admitted to Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. In fact, not knowing programming before college can even have its advantages - many learn bad habits and practice from self-study that they take years to unlearn, if they ever do.
Honestly, you come off as pretentious and misinformed - what seems to matter to you matters very little in the world you’re trying to enter.
Here’s what I say
- Take a gap year (If you can afford to, and can afford US Universities)
This is all going off a limited amount of posting, but I think taking a year and really getting some perspective will go a long way. During the gap year, do nothing with CS academically. Research US schools and how many great ones there are for CS in the US and elsewhere. Don’t just focus on name/rank, think about what you want from a school. Then apply to those schools, and make sure you have reach/match/safety schools.
- Go to Imperial
You already have admission to a great school it sounds like - the consequence for the mistakes in your application process will be the longer classes I guess, but otherwise, you have everything you need there to succeed. Go there with an open mind.
Imperial, UCL, and Edinburgh are already terrific options for CS.
Not sure what you’re trying to achieve (or why you applied to Edinburgh if you didn’t want to go there).
You should go to Imperial and get your masters in four years.
Imperial is amazing for CS. I’d say go there and get a master’s straight
OP, why didn’t you apply to Berkeley and such schools thag just as great as MIT and Stanford for CS but a little less selective?
Anyway, from the choices you have, I’d say imperial is your best bet. If you’d do well at Imperial and graduate with top grades, you will most likely get into a top US school for your graduate studies. I’ve come across Imperial grads doing graduate/post graduate studies in Berkeley and Stanford, and they seem to have done well academically.
I’ve also met people from Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick. In case, you’d want to hear that information.
Go to Imperial.
I’m surprised you have class from 8 until 3pm. Typically, British students have 10 hours of class per week, the rest being projects/independent reading.
@MYOS1634, Imperial seems much more hardcore:
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/computing/prospective-students/courses/ug/beng-meng-computing/beng-comp/
7 classes in the autumn. 11 in the spring in the first year.
Kind of like Caltech in a way (though CS at CMU and Harvey Mudd are also extremely work-intensive).
I guess it’d be ideal for a student who loves CS and wants to do that 24/7…
MYOS1634 science students generally have more ‘class’ hours than humanities because of the lab work.
^yeah, makes sense, but that’s still A LOT more. 
OP’s only objection to Imperial is that he(?) has to go to work from 8-3 M-F? What was he(?) planning to do with his days?
To be fair, that is a major amount of time in classes. Caltech, Mudd, MIT, Northwestern ISP, and CMU SCS (as well as the Cambridge Natural Science tripos) all have a reputation for being extremely rigorous and demanding STEM schools/programs, and I don’t think any of them have anywhere near that many class hours a week.
In the US, a rough rule of thumb for rigorous/elite colleges/programs is that for each hour of lecture a week, you should expect to study/work 3-4 hours outside of class. Even with an hour break for lunch, that’s 30 hours of class time a week. 3 hours outside = 120 hours a week total. Granted, in the UK system, where much more comes down to year-end tests instead of assignments and projects, I’m not sure how true that is.
However, Edinburgh is also very well-respected for CS/Informatics. By the 4th year there, it looks like CS courses there would be graduate-level in many other places.
OK, Caltech also is very demanding. For their freshman core, where each unit is roughly equivalent to an expectation of an hour a week, they have 210 units over 3 terms, or an expectation of 70 hours a week spend attending classes and doing schoolwork.
The key question is whether Imperial expects as much out of class work v. in class hours, which of course we don’t know. I do know some programs with lots of lab hours that do no require as much out of class work.
Right. Like I said, I don’t know what Imperial is like, but in the US, at elite CS programs, 20 hours a week of project work and homework for a class with 3 hours of lectures is not uncommon. 10-15 hours of work a week outside of class tends to be the norm for CS classes in good schools/programs.
Have you considered Canadian schools? I understand Univ of Waterloo is very well regarded for CS and its program might suit your requirements.