ATAR for comp sci. (1 Viewer)

ohYea

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hey, just a quick question...
what is a chance of someone(int student) getting in computer science with ATAR of 82 and has done FEAS interview???
thanks in advance
 

MrBrightside

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Hi, I would also like to know this. I received an atar of 90.55 though, and was wondering what are my chances of getting in via FEAS? Is the course set to stay at 91? I have a feeling it may rise to 91.5
 
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4025808

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Hi, I would also like to know this. I received an atar of 90.05 though, and was wondering what are my chances of getting in via FEAS? Is the course set to stay at 91? I have a feeling it may rise to 91.5
There are HSC plus bonus points for computer science aren't there?
 

pwoh

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I know a few people who got in with lower than the published cut-off 90.05 is pretty close, I think you'll be ok. But do check HSC plus, pretty sure there were a couple of subjects for it.
 

MrBrightside

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I know a few people who got in with lower than the published cut-off 90.05 is pretty close, I think you'll be ok. But do check HSC plus, pretty sure there were a couple of subjects for it.
Yeah there's 4, but I didn't do them and didn't get band 6 for 2u. Sucks that there's no HSC computing subjects counted, pretty stupid, considering it's a computing degree.
 

4025808

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Yeah there's 4, but I didn't do them and didn't get band 6 for 2u. Sucks that there's no HSC computing subjects counted, pretty stupid, considering it's a computing degree.
It's because that the uni knows that the computing subjects are pretty useless to the computer science degree, since the degree will be more technical and math related rather than learning about ethics and society related stuff.
 

shutupnsmile

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hey, just a quick question...
what is a chance of someone(int student) getting in computer science with ATAR of 82 and has done FEAS interview???
thanks in advance
I think you should apply for UTS, Civil and Mechanical cut off is always higher than expected. 82 atar is very low for unsw considering the minimum is 80.
 

MrBrightside

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It's because that the uni knows that the computing subjects are pretty useless to the computer science degree, since the degree will be more technical and math related rather than learning about ethics and society related stuff.
Not necessarily. Software design and development goes into the basics of hardware within the CPU, such as registers and accumulators and explains the fetch-execute cycle from a CPU perspective. I understand that HSC computer subjects are not at uni level computing nor do they intend to be, but at least these subjects try to establish a connection with uni studies of computing (such as "COMP2121 Microprocessors & Interfaces" subject studied in 2nd year) and thus, for the students studying HSC computing, this displays interests of these students to undertake the comp sci degree and learn more about computing.

Also the SDD course outlines the several steps involved in the software development cycle which would be useful in a course for computer science. I can understand not including biology cause that has nothing to do with computing - unless u go into bioinformatics. But physics is a course included for bonus points towards comp sci, yet there is 0% of physics included in this degree. Also MX2 is not mandatory for this course but preferred for higher optional mathematics courses. Go figure mate. Do your research before you go say something like this.

Also there is an ethics subject in comp sci. Called "SENG4921 Professional Issues & Ethics" studied in 2nd year.

I also asked my interviewer, what 1st year maths is actually applied on 2nd year and 3rd year of comp sci subjects and he couldn't even explain what maths actually carried over to computing aspects. I had to suggest that I know probability would be a big topic to cover due to logic programming and the ability to cover every output combination of a program and that all legal and expected values, legal but unexpected, illegal but expected must be tested to ensure that a program performs to the users' needs efficiently and smoothly.
 
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pwoh

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Not necessarily. Software design and development goes into the basics of hardware within the CPU, such as registers and accumulators and explains the fetch-execute cycle from a CPU perspective. I understand that HSC computer subjects are not at uni level computing nor do they intend to be, but at least these subjects try to establish a connection with uni studies of computing (such as "COMP2121 Microprocessors & Interfaces" subject studied in 2nd year) and thus, for the students studying HSC computing, this displays interests of these students to undertake the comp sci degree and learn more about computing.

Also the SDD course outlines the several steps involved in the software development cycle which would be useful in a course for computer science. I can understand not including biology cause that has nothing to do with computing - unless u go into bioinformatics. But physics is a course included for bonus points towards comp sci, yet there is 0% of physics included in this degree. Also MX2 is not mandatory for this course but preferred for higher optional mathematics courses. Go figure mate. Do your research before you go say something like this.

Also there is an ethics subject in comp sci. Called "SENG4921 Professional Issues & Ethics" studied in 2nd year.

I also asked my interviewer, what 1st year maths is actually applied on 2nd year and 3rd year of comp sci subjects and he couldn't even explain what maths actually carried over to computing aspects. I had to suggest that I know probability would be a big topic to cover due to logic programming and the ability to cover every output combination of a program and that all legal and expected values, legal but unexpected, illegal but expected must be tested to ensure that a program performs to the users' needs efficiently and smoothly.
What it seems they are looking for with the HSC plus subjects is not directly related content, but your ability to handle the higher level reasoning and logic that you will need in the degree. While 4 unit isn't required, it is quite helpful for first year maths, and without 3 unit it might be a struggle. Even if not every topic in the compulsory maths (e.g. differential calculus) is directly relevant to computing, they at least help to build your reasoning / logic. In the more theoretical courses (like COMP1927) you might be asked to prove the complexity of a certain algorithm *using maths*. Only some topics are directly used - e.g. graph theory in discrete maths is used in COMP1927 and I suspect would also be relevant to some networking courses (disclaimer: haven't done any).

Haven't not done SDD, I can't really comment on its relevance, but IPT definitely doesn't help lol :) Ethics is pretty much BS xD You're right - there's an ethics course in there. Note that almost every technical / sciencey degree has a compuslory ethics course. The degree isn't *about* ethics.
I agree with the physics thing though - it's not relevant to the computer science degree of software engineering degree, and from what I heard it isn't very difficult mathematically either. However, it is relevant to computer engineering (not sure about bioinformatics). I think they might've thrown the computing degrees in one category though.


EDIT: Sorry to OP, I have no idea about FEAS stuff, and I assumed this was MrBrightside's thread xD
 
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4025808

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Not necessarily. Software design and development goes into the basics of hardware within the CPU, such as registers and accumulators and explains the fetch-execute cycle from a CPU perspective. I understand that HSC computer subjects are not at uni level computing nor do they intend to be, but at least these subjects try to establish a connection with uni studies of computing (such as "COMP2121 Microprocessors & Interfaces" subject studied in 2nd year) and thus, for the students studying HSC computing, this displays interests of these students to undertake the comp sci degree and learn more about computing.

Also the SDD course outlines the several steps involved in the software development cycle which would be useful in a course for computer science. I can understand not including biology cause that has nothing to do with computing - unless u go into bioinformatics. But physics is a course included for bonus points towards comp sci, yet there is 0% of physics included in this degree. Also MX2 is not mandatory for this course but preferred for higher optional mathematics courses. Go figure mate. Do your research before you go say something like this.

Also there is an ethics subject in comp sci. Called "SENG4921 Professional Issues & Ethics" studied in 2nd year.

I also asked my interviewer, what 1st year maths is actually applied on 2nd year and 3rd year of comp sci subjects and he couldn't even explain what maths actually carried over to computing aspects. I had to suggest that I know probability would be a big topic to cover due to logic programming and the ability to cover every output combination of a program and that all legal and expected values, legal but unexpected, illegal but expected must be tested to ensure that a program performs to the users' needs efficiently and smoothly.
What it seems they are looking for with the HSC plus subjects is not directly related content, but your ability to handle the higher level reasoning and logic that you will need in the degree. While 4 unit isn't required, it is quite helpful for first year maths, and without 3 unit it might be a struggle. Even if not every topic in the compulsory maths (e.g. differential calculus) is directly relevant to computing, they at least help to build your reasoning / logic. In the more theoretical courses (like COMP1927) you might be asked to prove the complexity of a certain algorithm *using maths*. Only some topics are directly used - e.g. graph theory in discrete maths is used in COMP1927 and I suspect would also be relevant to some networking courses (disclaimer: haven't done any).

Haven't not done SDD, I can't really comment on its relevance, but IPT definitely doesn't help lol :) Ethics is pretty much BS xD You're right - there's an ethics course in there. Note that almost every technical / sciencey degree has a compuslory ethics course. The degree isn't *about* ethics.
I agree with the physics thing though - it's not relevant to the computer science degree of software engineering degree, and from what I heard it isn't very difficult mathematically either. However, it is relevant to computer engineering (not sure about bioinformatics). I think they might've thrown the computing degrees in one category though.


EDIT: Sorry to OP, I have no idea about FEAS stuff, and I assumed this was MrBrightside's thread xD
Looks like I should take what I said back.

And MrBrightside, what happened to your moderator status? :O
 

MrBrightside

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What it seems they are looking for with the HSC plus subjects is not directly related content, but your ability to handle the higher level reasoning and logic that you will need in the degree. While 4 unit isn't required, it is quite helpful for first year maths, and without 3 unit it might be a struggle. Even if not every topic in the compulsory maths (e.g. differential calculus) is directly relevant to computing, they at least help to build your reasoning / logic. In the more theoretical courses (like COMP1927) you might be asked to prove the complexity of a certain algorithm *using maths*. Only some topics are directly used - e.g. graph theory in discrete maths is used in COMP1927 and I suspect would also be relevant to some networking courses (disclaimer: haven't done any).

Haven't not done SDD, I can't really comment on its relevance, but IPT definitely doesn't help lol :) Ethics is pretty much BS xD You're right - there's an ethics course in there. Note that almost every technical / sciencey degree has a compuslory ethics course. The degree isn't *about* ethics.
I agree with the physics thing though - it's not relevant to the computer science degree of software engineering degree, and from what I heard it isn't very difficult mathematically either. However, it is relevant to computer engineering (not sure about bioinformatics). I think they might've thrown the computing degrees in one category though.


EDIT: Sorry to OP, I have no idea about FEAS stuff, and I assumed this was MrBrightside's thread xD
ahahaha I wanted to know about my FEAS chances too lol. so software engineering doesn't need physics as well? I thought it did cause it's a BE degree. Maybe I'm thinking of Usyd.

Lol what is the ethics course actually about then if it's not about ethics? and just on a side note how does Usyd's B.I.T and BCST degrees compare to UNSW? (might make a new thread for this)
 

pwoh

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Nope no physics required. And I was referring to the degree, yes the ethics courses is about management and ethics and other 'soft' things, *but* you only have to do one course on it - not the focus of the degree as you know.

I believe I made a thread on USyd vs. UNSW last year, should still be floating here somewhere. General consensus from what I've seen everywhere is - UNSW for computing, hands down. I know someone who transferred from USYD computing to UNSW computing last semester. Of course that is purely anecdotal and you should look around yourself. Perhaps some people might benefit from the smaller computing cohort (?).
 

MrBrightside

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Nope no physics required. And I was referring to the degree, yes the ethics courses is about management and ethics and other 'soft' things, *but* you only have to do one course on it - not the focus of the degree as you know.

I believe I made a thread on USyd vs. UNSW last year, should still be floating here somewhere. General consensus from what I've seen everywhere is - UNSW for computing, hands down. I know someone who transferred from USYD computing to UNSW computing last semester. Of course that is purely anecdotal and you should look around yourself. Perhaps some people might benefit from the smaller computing cohort (?).
Which uni has smaller computing cohort?

I know UNSW was ranked 1st for comp sci uni last year. and usyd was ranked top 10 or something. :/
 

pwoh

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Which uni has smaller computing cohort?

I know UNSW was ranked 1st for comp sci uni last year. and usyd was ranked top 10 or something. :/
USyd has the smaller cohort, and it's smaller in general. Yeah UNSW has always been at the top for Australia.
 

MrBrightside

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Does Usyd and UNSW have the same maths content? I'm not sure I would like a comp sci degree. before HSC I told myself I would not go into a heavy maths degree (I got 82 for HSC 2 unit adv maths, not sure how accurate that is from BOS. UNSW recommeneds at least 90 in 2 unit, or else take the bridging course).

I'm more interested in I.T at UTS as there are no compulsory maths subjects - i.e it's more applied to programming and business solutions. This is more me. But I would hate a business degree like accounting. I just like pure I.T nothing more, nothing less. I'm considering comp sci as only a secondary option atm. Usyd degree looks like it gives students time to decide on a major that is information systems or comp sci.

was reading this thread http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1515286 from your comparison, and it looks like it would be maths intensive which is not what I want :(

Also what is the student life like at both usyd and unsw?

Also I heard UNSW has 60 day mandatory work exp does Usyd have some? Would like that.
 
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harrisony

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look up the difference between an IT and a comp sci degree and come back
 

ohYea

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pwoh

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@MrBrightside: Then it sounds like IT at UTS is perfect for you. At UNSW, first year maths would be quite intensive for you, but none compulsory in later years. From the website, it looks like the amount of compulsory maths is about the same for USYD and UNSW. Flexibility wise, UNSW looks better - most of the comp sci degree is electives. You don't need to pick any particular stream, pick whatever courses you want. Student life, not much I can do to compare. UNSW only has mandory work experience for engineering students (not including computer science).
 

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