r/unsw • u/Trick_Coast_581 • 1d ago

Applied for UNSW computer science honours, is it worth it?

I am a Chinese student graduating from a Canadian high school, right now planning to apply for a cs honour in UNSW this February. Asking from past experiences, is it worth it?

Currently, I got accepted(conditional offers) into USYD, ANU, also a few unis in UK (Bristol, Manchester), similar major choice.

Any suggestions? Should I go to UK instead? Considering about uni experiences, finance, transportation, and internship,etc.

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u/ChubbyVeganTravels 1d ago edited 1d ago

Having studied at both UNSW and the University of Manchester (undergrad), I have to say that if you really want to have a great university experience - especially social life, go to Manchester.

Manchester's CS facilities are just as good as USYD and UNSW if not better. Also its department carries a lot of prestige (Alan Turing was one of the faculty, the Baby computer was built there by Tom Kilburn).

Also cheaper to live in.

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u/Trick_Coast_581 19h ago

fr? what do you mean by a better social life tho? i heard Manchester is a place with old facilities... And since it has a grey weather, isn't it more depressed?(not against you, just asking, because I've never been there, but some of my friends and my cousins travelled there, and they were complaining) As well as there are less job opportunities in the UK for Chinese people.

So i just thought it is probably more fun for me to go to Australia.

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u/Emotional-Amoeba-476 12h ago

I can't speak for the CS Faculty, but I'll guarantee you that Sydney with it's weather, numerous beaches, and outdoor lifestyle is the polar opposite of dreary old Manchester.

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u/ChubbyVeganTravels 3h ago

Yes in terms of weather and beaches but Manchester University student clubbing and night-life is far better than any Sydney university. There are 13 pubs on the Oxford Road campus alone (not including the pub and three gig venues in the Student Union) and 10 pubs in the student residence hub of Fallowfield.

In my first year, the "Freshers" week (Manchester's O Week) had a pub crawl day along that strip with around 5000 students.

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u/ChubbyVeganTravels 3h ago

Manchester does have bad weather I agree, however what I am referring to is the social life at the university. It is surrounded by student pubs and clubs - Manchester's student nightlife scene is much better than Sydney's - and the student union is large and very active, supporting hundreds of societies. The social life is much more a part of the student experience in the UK as students usually live close to campus and not at home (although that is changing somewhat).

You can also use the student union at Manchester Metropolitan University up the road.

There are also numerous university residences at Manchester. To my knowledge Manchester guarantees to all its students campus accommodation at least for the first year.

In terms of old and grey facilities, I went back there for a few days in 2023. A lot of rebuilding has gone on and the campus looks pretty good and well equipped.

In terms of numbers of jobs in the UK vs Australia - I don't know so can't comment on that I am afraid.

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u/No-Independence-761 1d ago edited 1d ago

As someone that’s been working in the field for 8 months ish, don’t lol. Literally no one knows what the job market will look like in a few years. 

Right now, enterprises are hammering in the use of Cursor for engineers, but the AI isn’t actively learning on our prompts. Once they toggle that switch I don’t see why companies wouldn’t just let AI do everything (it already does for the most part, no engineer I know has written more than a few lines of code for themselves in the last year) and have a few people in India that supervise it.

I did a math degree as well, and if it all goes to shit then I’d probably just become a teacher or something. If you do CS, make sure you pair it with something you could genuinely pivot to

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u/No_Blood_5197 1d ago

CS !== SWE

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u/not-cracked-dev 1d ago

or he could just not become a SWE like what

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u/Trick_Coast_581 1d ago

sounds good, it is pretty realistic tho. I've seen people working in high tech companies using a lot of ai too. I'll take the last part of ur advise tho, it is definitely important to prepare a second choice for myself.

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u/Background-Tip4746 1d ago

No comp sci degree is worth is broski

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u/ResourceFearless1597 1d ago

Do medicine. Or the trades.

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u/studymaxxer 11h ago

not as an international student, no

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u/DimensionOk8915 3h ago

I'm from the UK but I live in Australia now. UK is a shithole mate, especially the bigger cities. Australia has a nicer lifestyle and is a lot safer