Computer science/linguistics double degree? (1 Viewer)

[Procrastinator103]

I'm doing 2 foreign languages (continuers) for the HSC and want to take a gap year to study them at my own pace, as well as improve my writing skills in my other native language because I haven't practised ever since I came here in year 9. Of course I'll try to get a job or internship during that gap year so it won't seem like I'm doing nothing.

Even though I like studying languages, international studies doesn't interest me that much, and I don't necessarily want to teach English in a foreign country so I looked up some other language related jobs. Computational linguistics looks interesting – I've read Wikipedia articles on random languages and how they related to each other for fun, and I'd thought about doing something STEM related like computer science or engineering before. Why not combine both? Maybe I could help improve stuff like Google Translate or WordReference (WordReference is a lifesaver for language students, IMO).

It looks like I could do a Bachelor of Science (Computer science)/Bachelor of Arts (Linguistics) double degree at USYD with an 80 ATAR or UNSW with a 92 ATAR, and it'll take 4 years.

http://sydney.edu.au/courses/bachelor-of-science-and-bachelor-of-arts

https://www.futurestudents.unsw.edu.au/degreetool/engineering/computer-sciencearts

Does anyone have experience with doing linguistics or computer science at uni? What's it like and which uni would be better for these?

 

[sida1049]

Unfortunately I can't contribute much to this one, but if you get a high ATAR (95+), you can enrol into Bachelor of Science (Advanced)/Bachelor of Arts at USYD. But to be honest, the only difference between B. Science at 83, B. Science (Advanced) at 95 and B. Science (Advanced Mathematics) at 98 is the compulsory units; the advanced degrees require you to complete at least 2 advanced intermediate and 4 advanced senior units.

I just checked this, and this is kind of awkward, but at least this year, USYD only has 3 advanced senior computer science units, lol. Given this mismatch, if you want an advanced science degree at USYD, your options are
- Take a (3rd year?) Talented Students Project: this is a semester long research project that counts as an advanced unit that satisfies the requirement of your degree. (Entry into TSP is either 99+ ATAR for first year, or HD wam.)
- Take a 3rd year advanced unit from another area of study: this problem becomes a non-issue if you choose to double major in science. If you only want the single computer science major, you can take units from an area of study that interests and/or is useful to you. (E.g. mathematics, if you're up for it [since you have to take 4 junior maths units anyway as a requirement of your degree and computer science units], but that may my maths bias talking.)
- Or see if you can bend this requirement with the coordinator. Probably unlikely, though.

I'm sure USYD and UNSW are both good unis for computer science.

I know a guy in my cohort who state ranked two HSC language courses, and similar to what you might want to do, is studying computer science and linguistics and planning on specialising in language recognition software or something.

 

[sida1049]

I just checked this, and this is kind of awkward, but at least this year, USYD only has 3 advanced senior computer science units, lol.

Actually, this might not be true... I just realised that there are two special IT project units that, despite not having the 'Advanced' label, has the INFO39XX code, and typically at USYD X9XX codes are advanced units.