Honours university choice help

Ghost02 said:
Was this more than one year? Also which University was this and does it include living and stuff? I definitely wouldn't be able to go for R200k for one year.
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Shes in the Ph.D stream at the moment, but it was from undergrad straight through. Thankfully she got a bursary for Msc. But no thats just tuition fee's, nothing else. Everything else at home is also paid by me, and i also drop her off. She attends WITS.

So if i had to thumb suck a figure, im most likely looking at close to about 500K on her alone:P

Her brother was doing comp eng and ukzn, he didnt like it either, so hes completing it through unisa while he works now.

Next year i may either do one via correspondence from an american or uk uni, or even unisa. Have not fully decided yet. Mostly a maths related degree thou with some comp sci.
 
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Ghost02 said:
Thanks, if you're talking about Hugh, he took a sabbatical two years ago and stepped down from being head, now Prof Pillay is head and Prof Murrel is retiring next year ( he just did some lecturing this year). But this is the negative view I'm scared employers might have that would put them off hiring someone from UKZN.
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I know, Hugh is in my family ;)

UKZN has a bad rep everywhere. I've been denied some good opportunities because of it. The AI and security courses at UKZN are a joke, go to Tuks.
 
MartinMorrison said:
UKZN has a bad rep everywhere. I've been denied some good opportunities because of it.
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Really? Are you in the academic field?

I started my career on a grad program and there were people there from UKZN. Actually, I went to Wits and I think there were more grads from UKZN. Granted this was a long time ago but the company I work at now targets UKZN just as much as they do with the other universities for their grad program. Also, when hiring, a candidates work experience counts a lot more than which university they went to.

Where there is no work experience, I'd be very surprised if a grad program or similar snubs UKZN.
 
Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Just from an employers perspective. If two people that were exactly the same for the scope of this question but one did their honours at the university of Pretoria and the other did theirs at the university of KwaZulu Natal. Would it make a difference to a potential employer ?
 
Ghost02 said:
Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Just from an employers perspective. If two people that were exactly the same for the scope of this question but one did their honours at the university of Pretoria and the other did theirs at the university of KwaZulu Natal. Would it make a difference to a potential employer ?
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Doubt they would openly admit to that, but if the course work was not up to scratch you may suffer.
 
Ghost02 said:
Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Just from an employers perspective. If two people that were exactly the same for the scope of this question but one did their honours at the university of Pretoria and the other did theirs at the university of KwaZulu Natal. Would it make a difference to a potential employer ?
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Depends, I guess. A good employer would know which questions to ask, perhaps have the two of you do an assessment, etc. If you put in some extra effort and self study, you can be on par with students from the best universities.

One more thing, don't be fooled; quite often a lot of students do advanced courses at university, but don't really understand the work they're being taught. A lot of students scrape through with 50 - 60%.
 
Ghost02 said:
Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Just from an employers perspective. If two people that were exactly the same for the scope of this question but one did their honours at the university of Pretoria and the other did theirs at the university of KwaZulu Natal. Would it make a difference to a potential employer ?
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Everything makes a difference to some degree. The biggest impact your degree will make to an employer it what they will read on your CV - where you studied, what you studied, and perhaps your average (not as important as you would expect). I'd say when many graduates apply to for example, a technology job, they all studied a similar subject and the differentiating factor becomes where you studied. This is definitely the case in the UK for graduate jobs where some employers only invite students from the top 5 universities in an area to insight weeks. You will find Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Imperial dominating the student intern and graduate intake in the highest paying tech positions. This only applies for graduate jobs/internships...once you get experience it obviously becomes less relevant.

In South Africa it probably doesn't matter as much because such a low percentage of the population even have degrees, let alone a BSc. But remember that going to a better university means more than what the employer sees - at a better university, you will generally interact with more motivated/talented students and find that many opportunities to even apply for the best jobs or be referred for them come from this. UKZN is really not a top university at all for CS, and students do not aim high, even by SA standards.
 
MartinMorrison said:
Everything makes a difference to some degree. The biggest impact your degree will make to an employer it what they will read on your CV - where you studied, what you studied, and perhaps your average (not as important as you would expect). I'd say when many graduates apply to for example, a technology job, they all studied a similar subject and the differentiating factor becomes where you studied. This is definitely the case in the UK for graduate jobs where some employers only invite students from the top 5 universities in an area to insight weeks. You will find Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Imperial dominating the student intern and graduate intake in the highest paying tech positions. This only applies for graduate jobs/internships...once you get experience it obviously becomes less relevant.

In South Africa it probably doesn't matter as much because such a low percentage of the population even have degrees, let alone a BSc. But remember that going to a better university means more than what the employer sees - at a better university, you will generally interact with more motivated/talented students and find that many opportunities to even apply for the best jobs or be referred for them come from this. UKZN is really not a top university at all for CS, and students do not aim high, even by SA standards.
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Disagree completely. All that matters is that it's a reputable institution, and not one of those where you can buy a qualification online. You said it yourself - once you get experience under your belt, where you studied becomes less relevant.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Disagree completely. All that matters is that it's a reputable institution, and not one of those where you can buy a qualification online. You said it yourself - once you get experience under your belt, where you studied becomes less relevant.
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I'm taking about getting jobs as a recent graduate, our during your studies. In the market abroad (UK and US specifically) the graduate and intern market is extremely competitive. Where you studied is immediately important to land internships throughout your degree, which are typically needed for the good graduate roles. It can be hard to move up without the right graduate role, and to get decent experience you need to do good internships.

Google London only invite CS students from specific universities for one of their insight workshops with a fast track application. Investment bank internships and graduate roles (typically paying x4 of 'normal' software graduate roles/internships) are dominated by students from top 10 universities. Microsoft conducts on campus interviews at only the top universities. Oxbridge research internships heavily favour applicants from a handful of universities.

It certainly makes a difference here. I am sure South Africa will one day reach this stage - perhaps in many years. As more people graduate in SA I think it will start to have a bigger impact.
 
I would suggest you seriously take a look at doing Honours at UJ as well if Tukkies is an option.

UJ provides the most "customizable" honours degree when it comes to Comp Sci and Informatics.

In your honours you get to choose 9 subjects from a pool of 23 subject, most of which are lectured by guys that work full time in industry and have PhD's. Some pretty prestigious dudes that work for big corporate companies and leading banks. So there is a proper mixture between real-world experience and what you are taught. A good example of this it the CTO of corporate and investment banking @ Standard Bank that lectures IT Proj Management.

There is also some pretty cools subject that you can do, such as AI, Biometrics, Computer Forensics, Information Security, Advanced AI, Mobile Programming, Web Services Development, New Systems Development Paradigm etc etc etc.

Look, I know everyone will say "their" univ is better because of X, Y and Z, but I can tell you that UJ provides top notch degrees. I started out doing my BSc Comp Sci and Informatics at UJ quite some time ago, also did my Honours in Computer Science (cum laude :P) at UJ and I am currently almost done with my MSc in Computer Science at UJ.

I wouldn't trade it for any other univ.

I get to interact with a lot of students from Wits, Tukkies, Pukke, Unisa and TUT thanks to Microsoft events, but after listening to all the students complain about their Comp Sci departments I can really say that UJ's Comp Sci dept is a pretty good place to be/do a degree.

Just my 2c
 
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