r/Glasgow Tools

Title
Author	zellisgoatbond
Comment	I'm studying CS at Glasgow - I didn't end up going for the Faster Route but I know a few people who did. \[If you have any further questions, feel free to ask\]. The faster route degree is the same as a normal 4-year degree - you're essentially skipping the first year because you already meet the requirements of that year, not losing the more advanced topics later on as in some other shorter degrees. In the computer science courses, for the first semester you take courses in: * Object Oriented Programming in Java * Algorithmic Fundamentals (essentially the foundational mathematics for CS, so things like propositional logic, proof by induction, graphs, modular arithmetic and things like that. * Networking and Operating Systems (it was really screwed up this year - in essence they ran it for the first time last year, and in effect combined two 3rd year courses into a single 2nd year course - so it should be much easier next year) * Databases and HCI (this is a 1st year course, but if you're on the faster route you have to take it this year instead - it's pretty easy though). * A course in study skills (this is for Faster Route students only - there's no exam, but it's a weekly lecture on things like study skills) For the 2nd semester, there's courses in: * Software engineering (e.g various design patterns for software) * Web Application Development (using Django) * Algorithms and Data Structures * Computer Systems (e.g circuits and assembly programming - again, this is a 1st year course) * A course in study skills (cont. from 1st semester, though I believe it's less structured here) It's also worth keeping in mind that, for you, this'll be 80 credits (10 credits per course, but the study skills is a 0-credit course), so you'll also take 40 credits in other stuff. You can take 2nd year stuff if you qualify for it - for instance, if you've taken first year mathematics courses you could take some 2nd year maths courses - but 1st year courses are also an option, and timetable permitting they're pretty flexible in what you can take. For CS, most courses have 2 hours of lectures a week and 1 hour of lab work a week, and some also have a 1-hour tutorial once every two weeks (essentially a lecture, but focused on giving more examples of previous topics rather than learning something new). The 2nd year courses are mostly assessed with 20% coursework (often done as two "assessed exercises", worth 10% each), and 80% exam work, though some courses change this about (e.g Web App Development is 60% coursework based, including a team project worth 40% of your overall grade). With regards to connections with employers, there's quite a few financial firms in Glasgow - in particular Barclays, J.P Morgan and Morgan Stanley - and they recruit pretty heavily for CS here. In particular there's often "spring weeks" in April-ish - essentially a week where you learn about what's involved in the company - and these are often considered when getting internships next year (i.e you can still get internships with them without going to their spring week, but they rate it quite highly). Along with this, I would also note one thing: learn Python if you don't already know it. The department mainly uses Python in 1st year, and assumes it for some courses this year (e.g the networking/OS coursework is done in Python, and Django is a framework for web apps based on Python), and also courses next year (e.g the intro course in data science). You don't need to know it to an especially high level, but being comfortable with the basics will help considerably. As a rule of thumb, if you can handle up to (but not including) Section 6 on [this page](https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/python3/), you'll be fine.
Reddit Link	https://www.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/bvirq0/anyone_enrolled_in_print_computing_science_bsc/eppjpes/
Created	Sat 1st Jun 2019 10:44am
Status	()

I'm studying CS at Glasgow - I didn't end up going for the Faster Route but I know a few people who did. \[If you have any further questions, feel free to ask\].

The faster route degree is the same as a normal 4-year degree - you're essentially skipping the first year because you already meet the requirements of that year, not losing the more advanced topics later on as in some other shorter degrees.

In the computer science courses, for the first semester you take courses in:

* Object Oriented Programming in Java
* Algorithmic Fundamentals (essentially the foundational mathematics for CS, so things like propositional logic, proof by induction, graphs, modular arithmetic and things like that.
* Networking and Operating Systems (it was really screwed up this year - in essence they ran it for the first time last year, and in effect combined two 3rd year courses into a single 2nd year course - so it should be much easier next year)
* Databases and HCI (this is a 1st year course, but if you're on the faster route you have to take it this year instead - it's pretty easy though).
* A course in study skills (this is for Faster Route students only - there's no exam, but it's a weekly lecture on things like study skills)

For the 2nd semester, there's courses in:

* Software engineering (e.g various design patterns for software)
* Web Application Development (using Django)
* Algorithms and Data Structures
* Computer Systems (e.g circuits and assembly programming - again, this is a 1st year course)
* A course in study skills (cont. from 1st semester, though I believe it's less structured here)

It's also worth keeping in mind that, for you, this'll be 80 credits (10 credits per course, but the study skills is a 0-credit course), so you'll also take 40 credits in other stuff. You can take 2nd year stuff if you qualify for it - for instance, if you've taken first year mathematics courses you could take some 2nd year maths courses - but 1st year courses are also an option, and timetable permitting they're pretty flexible in what you can take.



For CS, most courses have 2 hours of lectures a week and 1 hour of lab work a week, and some also have a 1-hour tutorial once every two weeks (essentially a lecture, but focused on giving more examples of previous topics rather than learning something new). The 2nd year courses are mostly assessed with 20% coursework (often done as two "assessed exercises", worth 10% each), and 80% exam work, though some courses change this about (e.g Web App Development is 60% coursework based, including a team project worth 40% of your overall grade).



With regards to connections with employers, there's quite a few financial firms in Glasgow - in particular Barclays, J.P Morgan and Morgan Stanley - and they recruit pretty heavily for CS here. In particular there's often "spring weeks" in April-ish - essentially a week where you learn about what's involved in the company - and these are often considered when getting internships next year (i.e you can still get internships with them without going to their spring week, but they rate it quite highly).



Along with this, I would also note one thing: **learn Python if you don't already know it.** The department mainly uses Python in 1st year, and assumes it for some courses this year (e.g the networking/OS coursework is done in Python, and Django is a framework for web apps based on Python), and also courses next year (e.g the intro course in data science). You don't need to know it to an especially high level, but being comfortable with the basics will help considerably. As a rule of thumb, if you can handle up to (but not including) Section 6 on [this page](https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/python3/), you'll be fine.