Going into a computer science degree, you always get the stereotypical view from others that you’re going into your first year expecting to stay in your room playing games like World Of Warcraft, you’re not really going to socialise with others and that you’re preparing for a life of pretty much just coding away at a desk, but this wasn’t the case for me last year and neither for many other computer scientists. Even though it was a lot of work and this year will be too, there is plenty to do while studying for this degree and a lot of fun to be had.
The Course
The course itself is mixed up of hardware and software components that involve you working in groups and also individual assessments, so you get a feel for the whole range of things you can study further on in the degree. This involves having software labs where you learn new coding languages and concepts, having hardware labs where your working hands on with actual technology trying to make things work and also having group projects to come up with new ideas and products. Throughout the year you’ll be working hard and you’ll have your supervisor to help you get through it but the biggest help you’ll get is from the friends you make on the course, we worked day and night trying to get through the first year and we had lots of fun along the way. Taking up my time at the moment is a group project about making a game about a duck in the university, one of the most random things I’ve been asked to do, but its great fun and I’m enjoying making it.
Sports
University is great for learning new things and getting the degree to get that job that you want, but the best part of university is meeting new people and taking part in other activities. This year and last year I played college football which is great fun, its got a competitive edge to it but overall it is a good laugh with a group of guys you have crazy socials with. So far this year with my college team, we’ve got into the playoff spot and hoping to go up in the next league above us, we play every Saturday and it’s a great break from studying. Getting back to the social aspect of the team, the socials are madness, the latest one we’ve had is the crate escape… (yes, you read that right), if you’re not sure what it is I’ll let you google that later, but having socials with the team have been some of the best times at university and I would recommend joining a sports team to anyone at university.
Night Life
Going out is probably what nearly everyone coming university is looking forward to the most and it is when most of my favourite moments happen whether it was going out after our final exams last year, going out on university bar crawls like viking raid or even dressing up on halloween and going clubbing, which by the way in York is amazing; the city embraces the tradition and everywhere has ghost walks and a cool creepy atmosphere to it, so its really a great place to be at that time of the year. Computer Science has had a bar crawl already this year to get to know people from different years, so you can meet people in older years that in the future you can ask for help about the course or just to even to meet more people that have the same interests as you.
This year so far has already had great moments and already given me loads of work to do, but I’m enjoying every moment of it.
Hi Ranjit, are you from India? Need to know more about the computer science department at York. My daughter has completed B’Tech and wants to go abroad.