The purpose of this statement is to check you are a good candidate - no doubt the programming will be the most challenging element for other students, but the fact you show you have experience will no doubt secure your place.

Out of interest are you looking to start this year because I'm already into my 4th week of university and other friends of mine are 7+ weeks in.

I'm in University of Wales, Newport doing a MSc IT Management (my employer paid), but I graduated from a BSc Computer Games Development in 2009. Since then I've been working as a Build and Release Engineer for the government - I love my job, but getting here with a CGD degree was hard.

Quote: Original post by CodeCriminal
Hello and thank you for your comments.. So I have decided that a CS/SE degree would be in my best interests cnosidering my future during and after the games industry and other factors.. However I am having greater difficulty writing a personal statement that "sells me" as an ideal candidate for a position on computer science degree, as the majority of my interest is within programming and as we all well know computer science is not about all about programming.
Have developers even seen what a computer science degree is? It makes me wonder why they prefer it over software engineering which seems to hit much closer to home.

Personal statement is v.good. Most applicants have little to no experience programming before going into a CS course, I know I didn't have much experience when I applied.

I think the reason why CS degrees are preferred over SE is because the person covers so much more and is much more adaptable to different tasks. Whilst SE will teach you more practical skills, a good CS course will teach you good theory and practical skills and as a result your skills are more transferable. In most cases companies will train you in their own techniques/practices when you start so this is seen as a major bonus over a pure practical course. Of course the main differentiator is the uni you are studying in as I think the unis like to intermix the terms freely and the course structure can vary wildly between them.