Computing science

Hello Runegear, well in a few months time I get my final exams (highers in Scotland) and I plan to go on to university, I want to study computing science and was wondering if anyone here has studied/studying computing science and if so how was the course, I'm hoping it isn't to easy as I'd like to challenge myself and also what career prospects could I expect after Uni cause I don't want to come out of uni and end up teaching school children like my current teacher.

EDIT: also would you recommend learning anything before going, I was learning python earlier this year but stopped due to exam pressure but would it be a good idea to pick it back up after my exams are over? or would you recommend something else?

I started an ICT course this year, majoring in Games Development.
Don't worry. In computing, the job possibilities are endless.
The first year will be fairly easy, but after that, obviously, the difficulty will increase. If you stay on top of your work though you shouldn't have a problem.
The main thing you will want to focus on is not just completing the work, but applying that knowledge even further to create your own.. Whatever.
For example, you might be doing a programming subject and you'll need to create a simple program that opens a window, draws the picture of a house, then closes. When you complete that, don't just sit back and wait until the next lot of work comes out. If you want to challenge yourself, expand on your work. Can you animate your house? Can you add a loop so the house changes colour until the window closes? Can you create an 'Exit window' button that closes the program?
Of course the difficulty of such tasks will greatly increase in time, but that is what you'll find challenging, and somewhat fun in a roundabout way.

I'm in my second semester of CST, if you have the aptitude your job possibilities are endless.

Yeah what I was wondering is that after you complete the course how do company's tell the difference between someone who has completed the course but isn't very good (or have the aptitude) and someone who is actually very good and knows what they are doing, does the university write some sort of report or would you need to proceed on to further learning in that area before being able to get a decent job?

You'll get a certificate of whatever it is that you get that is recognized nationwide or worldwide.
Each subject that you do will be graded as a pass, credit, distinction, high destinction, or something similar. Basically means average, good, great, exceptional.
The certificate itself won't have anything special, just that you've completed a set course but if you do well in that course, you'll get job offers straight out of uni. Employers usually employ students based on what the uni has on file. That's how they 'tell the difference' between students.
Also, you'll have a portfolio of all work that you do which you'll use for future job applications.

I did three years of cs. It's a pretty hard major. You'll be doing calc 1,2 maybe 3. Descete math, physics, computer organization, networking class, operating system course, and a few programming languages.

Could you tl;dr Computer science exactly?

Famous™ said:

Could you tl;dr Computer science exactly?

Click to expand...

What chemicals make a computer.

I'm hopefully doing a Bachelor of CS after school. Good choice IMHO.

Famous™ said:

Could you tl;dr Computer science exactly?

Click to expand...

http://www.gla.ac.uk/undergraduate/degrees/computingscience/

Read the programme structure.

I am currently enrolled in a private liberal arts college in the midwest (USA) for cs major.
The only tough classes it seems are calculus and other math classes.. I feel like when I got to my programming classes they just cover what I already know :/

Yeah well I need to get three A's and a B in my end of year exams to get a unconditional offer for computer science in the university I want to go to...should be easy enough.
Also after my exams I think I'm gonna start up programming again, is python the best place to start and then move onto a language like c++?

Python's a good starting language, but I'd start with Pascal. It's the foundation language a lot of universities use.

tl;dr

goodluck on your future.