university - how to chose? Russell group really necessary?

There are plenty of universities that are very good that aren’t in Russell group, for example Bath isn’t.

dds college told them it’s much more important to choose a degree that matches their interests, so with English Lit, she would need to look at how texts are studied and which ones and all that (I’m a bit vague on English Lit ) and then to select places that are around their predicted grade.

There are excellent universities (eg in top 15 on consolidated league tables ) such as Loughborough, Bath and Lancaster which are not Russell Group.
I would start with subject league tables, required grades, employment prospects upon graduation. Then once you have this list look at course options, location of university, campus or not etc to narrow down your list.

If there is an RG uni that she likes and feels like she would be happy then I'd say to go for it. DD was looking last year and was advised to go to an RG uni but she also looked at one that wasn't RG and is also low down in the league tables for admission grades.

She turned down two RG universities because she felt that she'd be unhappy there and opted for one RG and the one lower down the league tables for her insurance because she thought she'd be happy at either of them after the open day and before the offer holders day

However, and there isn't really a nice way to put this, she passed comment that when she was having discussions with prospective student peers on the offer holders day that they didn't really seem to have the same interests as her in terms of academics - she wanted the degree to go into a specific profession and was wanting to be with like minded people but a lot of them just wanted to go to university because 'that is what you do' and didn't seem that interested in the academic side of university life - several said they were going for the social life and wouldn't go to all the lectures. She was extremely impressed with the university and it's academic facilities and the lecturers that she met and I think she'd have done well there but might have struggled socially.