Hi, I am a US student who is considering attending the University of Edinburgh Informatics School. I have a number of questions and would appreciate any help. First, in general how do US students tend to perform at the Edinburgh, the US educational system is different and I wonder how I will do there? Second, I noticed that the first two years students are primarily assessed using end of semester tests? Is this correct and if so how has this type of assessment been for other students from the US? Next, I read that Edinburgh tends to rank low students satisfaction, why is this and should it discourage me from attending? Last, what did you think about the quality of teaching and the quality of the program the first two years? The second two years? Any words of advice? If I planned to work in the US after graduation do you think it would be better to go to Edinburgh or a US school? thank you for your thoughts
The UK expects you to be very independent: to be able to figure out how things work on your own, to be self-motivated and to be reasonably self-disciplined. Since we don’t know you, we can’t know how that will suit you!
End of semester (or end of year!) tests are typical in the UK. If you are good at keeping up with your work or are super at cramming, and don’t panic in exams you should be fine. Note that your degree is by category (1st, 2.1, 2.2), so you don’t have to worry about your GPA (they are being experimented with in the UK, but are not a thing yet).
Student satisfaction ratings are based on voluntary online surveys by graduating seniors across all subjects- but in the UK context you only study your subject. So, you don’t know how your course fared. I only know 3 current Edinburgh students, but they are all very happy, have great relationships with their professors, etc. Obviously, not a statistically significant sample.
A big difference between the US & the UK is that your course is much more prescribed in the UK. There are no GenEd or distribution requirements in the UK. For the CompSci course at Edinburgh, you will get to choose 2 electives in year 1, and 1 elective in year 2. All your other classes are required. In years 3 and 4 you have 2 (1 in 4th year) required classes and choose 5 or 6 (6-8) from a list of 20 (30)- all from the comp sci group. You may also choose 1/2 an elective from outside comp sci. So before you pick your course it is really, really important to read the details- it is not easy to move from one subject to another (between closely related subjects, in the first year is easier- but the system really isn’t geared for movement).
For an American who wants to work in the US, I would think that a good CS school States-side would be better for job placement.
You would take a ton of CS classes at Edinburgh, though.