MSc in Computer Science, at Bristol or UCL?

[s***@gmail.com]

I would like to have some information about the reputation, campus life
and job opportunities of these two universities. Among of these two
universities, which is regarded most distinguished in the UK and
especially in the area of CS and which would lead to a better academic
career? I am also interested about the cost of life, in Bristol and in
London and which of these cities is more beautiful?

I welcome everyone who studies or lives there to guide me through this
difficult selection of postgraduate programs.

Thank's in advance.

[wooks]

Post by s***@gmail.com
I would like to have some information about the reputation, campus life
and job opportunities of these two universities. Among of these two
universities, which is regarded most distinguished in the UK and
especially in the area of CS and which would lead to a better academic
career? I am also interested about the cost of life, in Bristol and in
London and which of these cities is more beautiful?
I welcome everyone who studies or lives there to guide me through this
difficult selection of postgraduate programs.
Thank's in advance.

UCL has several options for postgraduate CS.

http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/students.html

I suggest that a good place to start would be to look at the various
programs on offer and to find and compare similar material from
Bristol.

If the focus of your enquiry is more of a non academic nature then you
ought to look at some tourist brochures but if it helps any Computer
Science at UCL in general and esp at PG is very cosmopolitan.

[Richard Smith]

Post by wooks
UCL has several options for postgraduate CS.

UCL doesn't do an advanced CS MSc - their CS MSc is a conversion course
for non-computer scientists. All the advanced MSc courses they do offer
are specialised for very narrow areas of CS, so the choice really
depends on whether they offer your specialism.

As to whether they are better than Bristol, that again depends on which
area you specialise in. For example, if you are interested in networks,
then UCL has a very well-respected networks research group, while
Bristol has none at all. If you're intested in AI, they both have
groups, so you would need to ask someone in the field which group is
more respected. (Or take a look at citeseer and see which group's
papers are most referenced!)

[wooks]

Post by Richard Smith

Post by wooks
UCL has several options for postgraduate CS.

UCL doesn't do an advanced CS MSc - their CS MSc is a conversion course
for non-computer scientists. All the advanced MSc courses they do offer
are specialised for very narrow areas of CS, so the choice really
depends on whether they offer your specialism.

So like I said there are several options for postgraduate CS..... and
the specialisms that are offered cover most of the CS curriculum. I
can't see that the distinction you make as being material and the OP
never gave a clue as to what sort of MSc he wanted to do and what sort
of background he had.

Post by Richard Smith
As to whether they are better than Bristol, that again depends on which
area you specialise in. For example, if you are interested in networks,
then UCL has a very well-respected networks research group, while
Bristol has none at all. If you're intested in AI, they both have
groups, so you would need to ask someone in the field which group is
more respected. (Or take a look at citeseer and see which group's
papers are most referenced!)

If you are taking AI as an example UCL's faculty is strongly biased
towards sub-symbolic computing whereas say at Imperial their strength
is in symbolic computing so your sphere of interest would dictate the
choice (at least between those 2). Again I haven't looked at Bristol so
don't know what they do ..(thats the OP's job) but I would pay more
attention to the research interests of the faculty rather than
assessing the research, purely and simply because research ability does
not necessarily correlate to teaching ability.