Picking the less prestigious uni as first choice

It always makes me lol when pp say don’t go to a Scottish uni as it’s 4 years waste of money etc when they have likely paid thousands in private school fees. A waste of money is entirely subjective - I am happy to fund accommodation (not tuition as pp says many cap RUK students fees at 3 years) for an additional year for my DS to have the absolute time of his life. What is the rush?

Glasgow is an incredible place to be a student: 5 unis/art college/conservatoire means there are nearly 200,000 students there. The music scene is fabulous (Oasis were discovered at King Tuts) , stunning countryside within an hour, easy transport links to London etc. And the people are fabulous.

Highly recommend!

Not about Glasgow versus others directly but get her to check what the requirements are at the end of y2 to go into y3 of psychology at Edin and Glas as opposed to the English ones. Many moons ago my Scottish friend went to Reading instead of Edinburgh as she worked out she needed a high y2 score in Edin to proceed onto the course for honours. This may have changed now though. I picked Edin over Glasgow yonks ago as I wanted to stay at home. In the end I was very relieved I had as on my course Glasgow sat two years worth of exams in the final year whereas in Edin you sat 3rd year exams at the end of third year and 4th yr exams at the end of fourth year - which worked better with my learning style. Of course this may all be completely inapplicable 20 years on but in any case she should read all the small print for everywhere.

You don’t need a broader degree for Psychology. Loads of 3 year degrees are accredited. If you cannot afford 4 years of accommodation, there is no advantage in a Scottish degree in psychology. It gets you no further forward in your career. Great of you can afford it though. Totally unnecessary if you cannot. Scottish degrees are not masters at an English level so as far as I’m aware, degree holders from Scotland are not exempt from further study for psychology.

Great for dc whose parents can afford a 4th year when it is not necessary. It’s a total luxury. Many parents would wonder why it was necessary for exactly the same degree.

@TizerorFizz it looks as though you don't understand how a Scottish degree works. THe 4 years gives a much broader education, in which students specialise in the final two years. Many of them graduate with the equivalent of a Masters degree. The 4 year degree is standard in many other countries in the world, including those with some of the best universities in the world - the USA, Australia, Germany ... Your view point is quite limited & you don't appear to know the UK HE system well enough to give such definitive advice.

Would it be so bad to go to Northumbria for Psychology? My DN is going there to do it.

Northumbria is a post-92 university with a very limited research base, and admits people with around BBC to BBB. It's OK, I suppose.

@EvelynBeatrice Since when? Maastricht does. Most first degrees are three years except Scottish ones and they are not a higher qualification. MEng and a few others are considered better prep for professional qualifications and you don’t need a masters beyond the MEng. Few uk students study abroad in Europe as they are not bilingual. Our unis are in the top 100 world wide and are respected. Would a uni in Europe not respect a 3 year degree from Oxford?

The main requirement of psychology is that it’s a professionally recognised degree.

Well there's an advantage to a four year degree if you want to do a masters or doctorate elsewhere in Europe. Many European universities don't seem to recognise three year English courses as proper undergraduate degrees.
Personally I think four years is far better. More time to grow up and get into your intellectual top gear - especially for the Covid generation.
You're at work a long time ... another year before that is great.

You are not wrong @TizerorFizz. He massively took the piss. One if the reasons he is an ex.

You cannot automatically go to your insurance choice if you get the grades for your firm.

Putting that in bold because unfortunately some poor advice up thread- if you meet the grades for your firm, you are in there and your insurance place will have been released. The only way to get it back is to phone through clearing, but there is absolutely no guarantee of them having any spaces, and you’d be in line with everyone else wanting to go there through clearing.

Always put the one you truly want as firm, then decide what a sensible insurance place would be based on offers, where you’d be happy to go, and whether you’re inclined to take a gap year if you miss out.

Also bemused by the ‘lower prestige’ being U of Glasgow.

My dd picked her favourite as her first choice and an easier to get into uni as her back up just in case

@Namechange4234 It’s already been established Glasgow is 3 years of fees but 4 years of accommodation costs.

@RampantIvy Great for dc whose parents can afford a 4th year when it is not necessary. It’s a total luxury. Many parents would wonder why it was necessary for exactly the same degree.

It’s also a somewhat bizarre description of Bristol by pp. Bristol has done more than many for widening participation. It’s a vibrant city and most students find friends easily. It’s never great to judge other students quite so harshly and Edinburgh, in particular, would have been similar. In fact Edinburgh is 5th in the “posh student” league table (if you have to use such a narrow metric to judge a university!)

Would it be so bad to go to Northumbria for Psychology? My DN is going there to do it.

This

I’m a Scottish law graduate working in Scotland with lots of other Scottish law graduates. Not sure where the idea that Glasgow is less prestigious than Edinburgh comes from? Glasgow is an excellent university and I’m pretty sure it’s also RG.

Personally I’d rather live in Glasgow than Edinburgh (especially as a student)

There is clearly a misunderstanding somewhere, Glasgow is just as prestigious as the others you mention, it's an excellent and highly rated university in a beautiful part of the city.

Some young people prefer to enjoy the student life over 4 years rather than 3. DD's ex BF basically dossed and partied through his first year at Glasgow because it was considered an easy year (in his view).

Edinburgh is not more prestigious than Glasgow. They are equals. Daft and showing a deep lack of knowledge. I suspect it's plain old snobbery

Lincoln’s just brilliant. The investment in the university and wider city in the last 10-15 years has been phenomenal.

Glasgow is an excellent university. I thought you were meaning somewhere like Edge Hill or Northumbria.

We are very lucky to have so many world-class universities in the UK. And Glasgow is one of them.

Totally agree ideal to “ try before you buy “ if you possibly can. Dd went to stay with a pals older sister for the weekend and came back dead set on going to Nottingham as she loved it after seeing the students actual life there.

I went to Bristol for History 30 years ago and would say avoid it - wholly apathetic city I felt, no vitality and loads of posh people of the kind that put you off posh people. No vibe, no community atmosphere but some do like it... suicide rate was subsequently shown to be high, however. At the time it was a Top 5 uni but it isn't now.

Personally I'd pick a city that feels like a big place, bigger than you so it's a step up, rather than a safe haven. Also a city with an exciting neighbour so you can avail yourself of two major cities over three years - Manchester is half an hour on the train from Liverpool I think, so it's 2 for 1. Bristol only has Bath as a neighbour and Bath isn't terribly exciting.

(There's the old joke about how in Glasgow they say to a stranger visiting 'You'll stay for tea?' whereas in Edinburgh they say 'You'll have had your tea?' in terms of how friendly they are, but I don't know if that still holds!)

But I don't know your kid, and I didn't even know me at the time. I do advise visiting a uni in term time to get a feel of the place, maybe pay to kip on a student's floor for a couple of nights? Is that a thing? Not go during breaks if students aren't there and back home. Then again, train fares aren't cheap are they.

I think loads of other things come into it, quite rightly.

Location in the country, campus vs city, big city vs smaller city vs town, halls and how much they are. Also things like quality of teaching and opportunities after graduation - tho I think these are harder to quantify.

I kind of took it that Glasgow was not in the RG from the OP's post, that it was in some way "lesser" than Bristol and Edinburgh. I agree with others tho that it clearly isn't. Just for the OP's DC, the offer is lower. But happy days there surely.

Tbf as noted earlier by me, neither of my uni DC were interested in Scotland for reasons relating to fees and also to distance from home, so I didn't register much info about any Scottish uni.

Glasgow grad here. I would never study there again.

That being said, it blows my mind that people don't know that Glasgow is a RG member.

Surely your daughter would got tongue Uni that offers the course of her choice not any other reason should come into it

Know many students who have went to Edinburgh and left because they went because their parents made the decision for them the reasons you DP said not what was best for them

@ChristmasPuddy RG is a destination measure for schools. All the unis mentioned by op are RG. In some areas of work, these unis produce more employees.For other areas of work, they don’t. It really depends what area of work you are in. RG does include Oxford, Cambridge, LSE and Imperial which I guess you have heard of. In Scotland, only 2 are RG I think so doesn’t make much difference there. All the ones quoted are RG and Glasgow is arguably top of the pile for psychology.

@TheaBrandt It’s a degree people do when they don’t really know what to do. Clearly grads won’t all be psychologists so
it keeps other doors open. They are typically not physics, CS, chemistry or Further maths type students but enjoy some science. They might have done a humanities A level or two. So it’s seen as a degree that bridges the humanities/science centre ground. Whether the country needs so many with this degree is a moot point.

What about her 5th choice? Has she a spare that she could still explore, as a back up to Glasgow?

Yeah but who can afford to live in the University area? Most students end up living in Cessnock or even Paisley.