Preface

A pupil in secondary school ultimately has three goals: Academic performance, developing life skills and meeting interesting people. I had always been relatively academic throughout my years in school. However, in the grand scheme of things, university offers are the ultimate testament to one’s academic rigour. Grade A in termly assessments and awards given by the school and even GCSE results are minisculed under the offers given by good universities. However, whilst it would be fantastic to receive good offers, it is more important to bear in mind that these are merely a tiny part of our lives, and there is much more to life than academic performance. Thus it is vital to not build one’s private house of cards on the hope of achieving good offers, as if one does not, all the hopes and aspirations built on the dream collapses away. It is much more important to live in the present and focus on the experience rather than the goal.

Points to consider

Choosing the right university course early enough is essential, once the goal is clearly established, I can work on extracurricular events and supracurricular activities beyond the school environment that focuses around the subject specific course. However, a very dangerous trap is deciding on a course too early on and having your mind fixed onto that singular goal. This makes you very inflexible and unable to accept new changes.

In order to decide on a course, there are several aspects to consider:

1. The university
2. Passion from lessons
3. Future career prospects
4. Personal strengths

Choosing universities

For me, there are largely three paths. Chinese uni, Uk uni, American uni.

Whilst I do enjoy the atmosphere of chinese universities and education in China in general, I feel like it is a little insensible to have travelled abroad to the Uk for education just to move back for university. Hence Chinese universities would no longer be a consideration.

For Uk unis, here are some considerations:

1. Cambridge
2. Oxford
3. Imperial college
4. University college london
5. Bath
6. Southampton
7. King’s college
8. Manchester

Since America is the powerhouse of higher education, applying to US universities can open up a lot of possibilities since we are restricted to 5 university choices in the Uk. Another vital aspect of going to higher education is meeting and making connections, I think applying to US unis may provide me with a better platform for personal growth. So US unis are a possibility. However, this decision will be made at a later date.

Choosing a course

I have always decided to pursue a degree in either maths or computer science. However, as time comes closer and closer to application, I think it is important to finalise down on a choice. And then focus on my extracurricular activites towards that particular degree.

Reasons to apply to a maths degree:

1. Higher success rates, Cambridge maths degree has 1 in 6, whereas CS is 1 in 12.
2. Personally I have a greater passion for maths than CS
3. I have a lot of UKMT competitions that I can write about

Reasons to apply to a CS degree:

1. I am involved in programming, CP and project based programming
2. I am doing an EPQ on CS
3. I can write about UKMT competitions and programming when applying to a CS course

My decision

Mathematics. For the past years, I had inclined towards a degree in computer science. However, during a conversation with a friend who had been offered an mathematics interview at the university of Cambridge, I began to think more deeply about this. This decision is the result of three aspects:

1. Passion. Whilst preparing and during my past experiences with maths comps and olympiads, I remember that I can sit down and concentrate on hard maths problems for 2 or 3 hours straight, without drifting off. However, I cannot do the same for programming. I had tried to learn programming for the past two years, and the progress made had not been substancial. Oftentimes I would quit programming for quite a long time even though I knew well enough that I needed to carry on. Yesterday, I realised that perhaps this was down to a lack of passion.
2. Career prospects. Mathematics in my opinion is the bedrock of all STEM subjects. A degree in maths opens doors into a vast array of fields, from banking to tech all the way to teaching. It is easy to transition to a tech career with a degree in maths, in some way it could be more beneficial to have a maths degree for a tech job than a CS degree as the content taught in a CS degree are usually outdated. In such a rapidly evolving field of the tech industry, tools used in the work environment are often quite different to what is taught in classes. I could learn maths in university and self study computer science skills in my spare time, covering content and skills that are actually useful in the workspace. Whilst some may argue that going to a CS course isn’t learning a tool but learning the principals behind the tools, I believe I can do the same by self-studying. Hence, it is easy to transition to tech field even if I wanted to in the future.
3. Competition. Like I said previously, a degree in computer science is EXTREMLY COMPETITIVE. With on a 5% success rate in Oxford, 12 applicants per place in Cambridge and 20 applicants per place in Imperial College. On the contrary for maths, there is a 9% success rate in Oxford, 6 applicants per place in Cambridge and 14 applicants per place in Imperial College. Oftentimes the point of university isn’t what you learn, but the connections you make through the process, including professors and fellow students. University is more of a platform for you to leverage in the future. Maths simply has a much higher acceptance rate. So on balance, it seems logical to apply to maths.

What now?

1. Programming. We are going to continue programming, but with a focus on maths than computer science. There’s going to be a focus on two things. One being developing a reinforcement learning AI project implemented on strategic games for my EPQ, the second being competitive programming.
2. Reading. Reading the book of “Fermat’s last theorem” by Simon Singh, and “Does God play dice?” by Ian Stewart.
3. Courses. Po-Shen Loh’s maths olympiad course and Imperial maths course
4. Blog maths related content

That’s it for now, thanks for reading 🙂