Programming Degree

[Gnome]

UCT didn't win the overall ACM, just the Africa-Middle East section, i.e.: top university from all of africa and the middle east. The Russian universities tend to dominate, and MIT often get an ass-raping (considering their standing). Stellenbosch didn't win the Standard Bank IT challenge 3 years ago, because I remember being pissed that a few of my class mates got new laptops for winning.

I'll admit I didn't look back that far but they've won it for a long time now (Standard Bank one), we will see what happens this year. I'll also try ACM this year and see what's up with that.

Either way I've heard the other Universities have training sessions and stuff for these competitions @ Tuks we just showed up for the competition, we didn't even have the mandatory printer they spoke of, so we had to use that 1 PC we had to look at the problem while programming, doesn't sound so bad to some but we got printout's 2 hours later.

Before that we had to alt-tab between the problem specification and programming the whole time and we have to work on that WHOLE problem alone, half the team is sitting there doing nothing. After we got the printout things went better tho, we can actually split up with half working on 1 problem and the other half working on the next.

These local campus heats are always BS IMHO anyway, Tuks lab PC's suck, they have deep freeze on and the PC is running 10 000 applications (among them SQL server 2005, 2008 and MySQL, Anti-virus, PHP server, Fully fledged IIS) in the background which you can't kill because they've disabled the task manager, It's a old ass P4, campus internet is pathetically slow and we had to use our OWN bandwidth (Tuks only provides 200mb's for the ENTIRE YEAR per student) in the competition.

Sorry for the rant but it is so annoying, either way I don't think Tuks SIT care much about these competitions (which they should IMHO).

They should seriously provide a standard platform specification for these competitions, down to what operating system you have to have and exact configuration.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

So you have to do 'high school' math because the math you did in '93 is 'outdated'?



So if I decide to do an SA MSc, I would need to do a math course because my matric math may also be 'outdated'?

I passed maths on Standard Grade and to ensure that I can do my BSc I've decided to do MAT011 - I do not want to take the chance that they change the requirements next year and up the requirements.

15 years ago when I originally wanted to do my BSc, they would not even look at you if did Standard Grade maths.

Last year I could register for my BSc but decided through experience (10yrs ago I started a BComm in management) to first do a certificate and then complete the BSc. At least at the end of the year I will have a qualification, and not wait 6 yrs. You use to be able to use your modules as credits for certificates, but its been stopped now.

 

[iDenTiTy]

I passed maths on Standard Grade and to ensure that I can do my BSc I've decided to do MAT011 - I do not want to take the chance that they change the requirements next year and up the requirements.

15 years ago when I originally wanted to do my BSc, they would not even look at you if did Standard Grade maths.

Last year I could register for my BSc but decided through experience (10yrs ago I started a BComm in management) to first do a certificate and then complete the BSc. At least at the end of the year I will have a qualification, and not wait 6 yrs. You use to be able to use your modules as credits for certificates, but its been stopped now.

Have you looked at doing mathematics for non-degree purposes?
What I mean is, instead of registering for say a BSc and doing Math. You simply do math 101 and 102. That way you can do the course (i.e. math) but not get a degree for it.

You could then use that course as a credit for whatever BSc you wanna do.

My dad did that for applied mathematics 3, but that was 40 years ago.. :/

The sucky thing is, for me to do an MSc in SA, I have to retake Math and/or Stats, since my British BSc Hons isn't looked upon favourably in SA..

:/

It means I have to travel to the UK and do it there.
Granted I don't have to do an entrance exam to do an MBA there.

Still, kinda sucks.

 

[Sackboy]

Have you looked at doing mathematics for non-degree purposes?
What I mean is, instead of registering for say a BSc and doing Math. You simply do math 101 and 102. That way you can do the course (i.e. math) but not get a degree for it.

You could then use that course as a credit for whatever BSc you wanna do.

My dad did that for applied mathematics 3, but that was 40 years ago.. :/

The sucky thing is, for me to do an MSc in SA, I have to retake Math and/or Stats, since my British BSc Hons isn't looked upon favourably in SA..

:/

It means I have to travel to the UK and do it there.
Granted I don't have to do an entrance exam to do an MBA there.

Still, kinda sucks.

Oh, why's that? Where did you get it from?

 

[hyperian]

15 years ago when I originally wanted to do my BSc, they would not even look at you if did Standard Grade maths.

It's still the same now. They won't let you register for a bsc/beng if you did standard grade maths.

Last year I could register for my BSc but decided through experience (10yrs ago I started a BComm in management) to first do a certificate and then complete the BSc. At least at the end of the year I will have a qualification, and not wait 6 yrs. You use to be able to use your modules as credits for certificates, but its been stopped now.

Thats always one way. If you choose your modules carefully, institutions sometimes count them as credits towards a degree. Whats useful is if you have a bsc honours you can do bcom honours part time over two years.

 

[semiautomatix]

Rhodes does have quite a good computer science department. The curiculum is a bit different though, so check out the department web pages to see if either focuses on anything that you are particularly interested in. Be prepared to vacate Grahamstown when you graduate though, because I hear development jobs there are few and far between.

Well considering its a town of 40 000 people and if you don't work at Imaginet or the university, well then, yes, you need to move on. But the majority of the university population is made up of "out-of-towners" - so most people already have somewhere else to return to.

 

[Gnome]

Have you looked at doing mathematics for non-degree purposes?
What I mean is, instead of registering for say a BSc and doing Math. You simply do math 101 and 102. That way you can do the course (i.e. math) but not get a degree for it.

You could then use that course as a credit for whatever BSc you wanna do.

Yep if you interested in doing that at Tuks let me know and I'll tell you the procedure, overall you can get into BSc(CS) with 50% SG by doing a extra year and not failing anything in your 1st "extra" year. I got in that way myself since I don't have HG mathematics (let's face it school is so booooring, just couldn't bring myself to do much effort there).

 

[hyperian]

Well considering its a town of 40 000 people and if you don't work at Imaginet or the university, well then, yes, you need to move on. But the majority of the university population is made up of "out-of-towners" - so most people already have somewhere else to return to.

This is true. Although my mates than went to Rhodes really dont want to leave so they just keep on studying. Crazy people

 

[semiautomatix]

This is true. Although my mates than went to Rhodes really dont want to leave so they just keep on studying. Crazy people

*shrug* I decided I was in it for the money, in the end.

 

[iDenTiTy]

Oh, why's that? Where did you get it from?

London Metropolitan University.

BSc (Hons) Computing and Information Systems.



I have to enroll for a BSc CompSci to do an Hons in order to do an MSc.

 

[hyperian]

London Metropolitan University.

BSc (Hons) Computing and Information Systems.



I have to enroll for a BSc CompSci to do an Hons in order to do an MSc.

Correct. You can't do masters before honours, and can't do honours before you've done undergrad. But you can do honours, start masters and upgrade to phd if you are masochistic and enjoy pain. Masters and phd are pretty much overkill in SA if you don't wan't to be involved in academic or industrial research. Although honours is very useful and ensures that your qualifications are equivalent to other international degrees which are four years by default.

 

[iDenTiTy]

Correct. You can't do masters before honours, and can't do honours before you've done undergrad. But you can do honours, start masters and upgrade to phd if you are masochistic and enjoy pain. Masters and phd are pretty much overkill in SA if you don't wan't to be involved in academic or industrial research. Although honours is very useful and ensures that your qualifications are equivalent to other international degrees which are four years by default.

The problem is, my Honours that I did was a 3 years Honours.



SA universities use the 4 year honours thing..



Wits said that they regard their standards as being higher than UK standards and therefore won't endorse my Honours. The best they cangive me is 3 credit-awarding courses !!

I have to retake Software Engineering !! (Or the equivalent here)

 

[hyperian]

I'll admit I didn't look back that far but they've won it for a long time now (Standard Bank one), we will see what happens this year. I'll also try ACM this year and see what's up with that.

Either way I've heard the other Universities have training sessions and stuff for these competitions @ Tuks we just showed up for the competition, we didn't even have the mandatory printer they spoke of, so we had to use that 1 PC we had to look at the problem while programming, doesn't sound so bad to some but we got printout's 2 hours later.

Before that we had to alt-tab between the problem specification and programming the whole time and we have to work on that WHOLE problem alone, half the team is sitting there doing nothing. After we got the printout things went better tho, we can actually split up with half working on 1 problem and the other half working on the next.

These local campus heats are always BS IMHO anyway, Tuks lab PC's suck, they have deep freeze on and the PC is running 10 000 applications (among them SQL server 2005, 2008 and MySQL, Anti-virus, PHP server, Fully fledged IIS) in the background which you can't kill because they've disabled the task manager, It's a old ass P4, campus internet is pathetically slow and we had to use our OWN bandwidth (Tuks only provides 200mb's for the ENTIRE YEAR per student) in the competition.

Sorry for the rant but it is so annoying, either way I don't think Tuks SIT care much about these competitions (which they should IMHO).

They should seriously provide a standard platform specification for these competitions, down to what operating system you have to have and exact configuration.

Yeah, i know the feeling. Sometimes its useful if you can get a professor interested and act as coach. Sometimes they will give you R2k to upgrade one of the lab machines which you can use during the competition. UCT's bandwidth is also nothing to write home about. I was downloading a windows security patch at 355 bytes per second!

 

[hyperian]

The problem is, my Honours that I did was a 3 years Honours.



SA universities use the 4 year honours thing..



Wits said that they regard their standards as being higher than UK standards and therefore won't endorse my Honours. The best they cangive me is 3 credit-awarding courses !!

I have to retake Software Engineering !! (Or the equivalent here)

So you did a 3 year degree that included honours? Thats pretty strange. It's only really the south african and scotish universities (AFAIK) that do not force you to do a 4th year, whereas othes have honours 'built in' to your degree. What university did you go to in the UK?

 

[iDenTiTy]

So you did a 3 year degree that included honours? Thats pretty strange. It's only really the south african and scotish universities (AFAIK) that do not force you to do a 4th year, whereas othes have honours 'built in' to your degree. What university did you go to in the UK?

No.

In England, if you consistently achieve above 60 they award you your Honours (3rd class).
If you achieved >65% consistently you get a 2.2 class honours. Above that is a 2.1 and 1st class.

In joint Honours, it may become a 4 year degree.

Mine was a BSc, but because of marks, I was awarded an Honours.

I think it's that 3yr vs. 4 yrs that messes me around.

 

[hyperian]

No.

In England, if you consistently achieve above 60 they award you your Honours (3rd class).
If you achieved >65% consistently you get a 2.2 class honours. Above that is a 2.1 and 1st class.

In joint Honours, it may become a 4 year degree.

Mine was a BSc, but because of marks, I was awarded an Honours.

I think it's that 3yr vs. 4 yrs that messes me around.

I think you got your undergrad 3 year degree with ' academic honours'. I don't think they count that as having an honours degree.

 

[iDenTiTy]

I think you got your undergrad 3 year degree with ' academic honours'. I don't think they count that as having an honours degree.

The University classed it as an 'Honours degree'


They said I can go straight to MSc there.


So why will they allow me to do an MSc or MBA but not Wits?




EDIT:

Wait a sec..

Most MSc degrees there require a 2.1 Honours. So therefore will allow me to study them.
You may have a point though..

Still, why is it good enough for England but not good enough for Naledi Pandor?

 

[hyperian]

The University classed it as an 'Honours degree'


They said I can go straight to MSc there.


So why will they allow me to do an MSc or MBA but not Wits?




EDIT:

Wait a sec..

Most MSc degrees there require a 2.1 Honours. So therefore will allow me to study them.
You may have a point though..

Still, why is it good enough for England but not good enough for Naledi Pandor?

If you look at the states for instance, you do a four year undergrad degree, and only then are you allowed to proceed to postgrad. While honours is considered as postgrad in SA, its just part of undergrad in most other places. I think that there might be material you didn't cover perhaps? Maybe contact your old institution and tell them about whats happening.

 

[iDenTiTy]

If you look at the states for instance, you do a four year undergrad degree, and only then are you allowed to proceed to postgrad. While honours is considered as postgrad in SA, its just part of undergrad in most other places. I think that there might be material you didn't cover perhaps? Maybe contact your old institution and tell them about whats happening.

That would almost always be the issue with most institutions.

Link

The link above is what the course is I did.

The subjects are vastly different to say, a BSc (IT)..

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

It's still the same now. They won't let you register for a bsc/beng if you did standard grade maths.

Lasy year and this year you can if you got 80%. But, I do not want to take the chance that they turn around after a few years and so sorry, typo error, you needed HG and no BSc for you.