How difficult is university?

In my opinion it’s rather easy, I found it easier that Sixth Form and so did many of my peers. Yet why are there still people that drop out and find it too difficult? There are some environmental and external factors that can lead to university getting to difficult. But its often because the student doesn't have a passion for the subject. I honestly don’t think intellect isn't an issue for most courses. Even think back to your own experience, the rather obvious correlation between the subjects you enjoy and the higher grades you got for them. The average Joe can get a degree if there passionate, though the smarter you are the wider subject areas you can take to the extent that a genius can get a degree in any subject area.

It will be difficult in pulses if you don’t plan. It’s not impossible, though you’re generally going to find it harder if you leave everything until the last minute. A good friend of mine who got a 1:1 would often leave things until the last minute. Literally uploading it seconds before it’s due in. It’s how he worked. It’s actually how I worked for a large time at university. I enjoy having that adrenaline rush before a deadline and I could easily stay up all night on an assignment. Although I also had a friend that’d do his coursework months before it was due. He’d panic if deadline got shortened and things like group assignments would be a little more stressful as everyone isn't normally like that. You usually find a good middle ground by the time you finish. Like I planned and scheduled my work. So I'll get that same adrenaline rush based on my own deadline which is due before the actual deadline giving time for any issues.  

To conclude if you enjoy a subject and think a degree would benefit you, do it. You’ll have some hard times, but that’s a part of the experience. I love doing what I do, I’ll happily read and watch related videos for hours on end. Please keep into consideration that your passion can change. I know people that no longer want to work in the field. University gave them experience on what they’d be doing in industry and they’d rather keep it as a stress free hobby, don't let that detour you as some are studying a different field for their master degree.

My experience on the department

This blog post is basically an overview of the computer science department from how I’ve experienced it so far. Because I’m a third year student, I’ve had 2 full years of the university. There are a lot of positive points about the university. I firstly think that almost all of the lecturers and professors are friendly. Even the demonstrators are friendly and will help out where ever they can. Basically if anyone needs help on any topic in the computer science field, there generally is someone who is willing to help you, even this is out of “learning hours”. I’m not saying that 11PM on deadline day that they will help. But if you approach most of them with problems you are having and show that you’ve actually been working on a certain project/topic. From my experience they will help. Not that I’ve emailed a lot for help, but I know there are some cases with deadline dates and what is actually due.

There is always a machine to work on. Even if that means going to the LRC and working on some written work, you generally can get a machine with specific hardware/software you need on a daily basis. I know that I can get access to 3Ds max which is specialist 3D software almost whenever I want. I can’t obviously talk for other departments in the Computer Science field, but from my first year experience, I know that networking departments seem often free for those who don’t have their own machine with expensive hardware and software on. Because not all students can afford to buy the hardware needed.

A good example of that is today, we had a quick demo of the motion capture room. If a student books in advance, they can get access to this kit. This is a very cool thing for students like me, knowing that they can get access to very expensive kit which wouldn’t be possible while being at home.

I don’t have experience at other universities so I can’t really compare. But from what I have experience at the university of Bedfordshire, it is a very up to date university with kit almost always available.  

Applying To University - My Experience

This is my first blog post on here, so I’m going to start with a little introduction about myself and my university application process. So at this moment in time I’m a Microsoft Student Partner, a Third year Computer Science student in Computer Animation. I will not disclose the university names that I applied for mostly because I don’t want to alter your university decision as you should apply for a university based on your personal course and preference. 

I applied for 4 universities while in sixth form. I got accepted to 3 of the 4 universities I chose. Being accepted into one of them involved doing a written exam and interview. The exam was about an hour long and generally job interview style questions. Although there was a practical test. We had to draw something in a few minutes which was contrasting. So I actually drew an elephant on a bicycle. It wasn't the artistic skills they was looking for but more the fact that you can be creative and think on the spot. This shows that getting adequate grades won’t confirm your place at university. That being said, I got accepted, but I decided not to got there because of the machine OS and their primary software focus.

Another university I got accepted at looked amazing from the outside. Contrastingly inside was completely out dated. Paint was pealing from the walls. Both hardware and software needed huge upgrade all round.

Machines that looked like this running Win95 in the room...

Now at the University of Bedfordshire there was up to date hardware and software. I’m giving my honest opinion here, I’m not being biased but for me it was perfect. It was the only university that had good motion capture technology and it used software that I had prior experience with.

Learn from my mistakes! Attend as many open days as possible. Know exactly what you want from the course, especially in a computer science degree. In this field, courses are named very vaguely. Game Development can mean primarily Photoshop/3D editing. On the other hand it main flash/2D based so it's very important you know what your getting into!