Picking the less prestigious uni as first choice

[RecycleThie]

DD has offers from Edinburgh, Bristol, Glasgow and KCL. She wants to accept Glasgow as first choice- it’s the lowest offer (AAA whereas the rest all want one A star) so she wouldn’t have a second choice.

DH thinks she should go for Edinburgh or Bristol as being more prestigious to employers or if she wants to do further study (her course is psychology so she’ll need to if she pursues this career). I think she should go with her gut- she loved Glasgow when she visited and was a bit meh about the rest.

Obviously it’s her choice but she’s asked for some guidance. What would you say? I’d see DH’s position more if there were a bigger gap between the unis but as far as I’m aware they are all good.

It’s an undergrad masters isn’t it? Plus you still have accommodation to pay for. It’s not a “free” year for maintenance and parental costs. Not sure if dd here is planning to join in y2. I don’t think the Scottish degrees get you any further forward towards being a psychologist but the costs can definitely be more.

People seem to be assuming that Glasgow isn’t a Russell Group uni, but it is. The only caveat I have is that lots of the students will be local and going home to mum and dad in the evening - some English students find that a bit hard.

@DoAsYouWouldBeMumBy It’s because the OP said it was less prestigious and people then assume it’s not RG. It is and hardly “less prestigious” for many.

Currently you don't get charged tuition for the fourth year but of course there's still accommodation costs. It is NOT a masters in the England sense - it is an undergraduate degree it just says MA. You cannot automatically go in to Y2 @Delphigirl - it depends very much on what course you did at A level.
Glasgow itself is excellent and you should look at the particular course at the university when deciding. Some very prestigious universities will rank lower than others on a particular course.

And yes you do take your firm if you make the grades. If she decided not to she would have to decline the place and go in to clearing. Once the grades are received by the universities, which is before results day, the firm takes them and the insurance is dropped and the place offered to someone else. It's not there 'in reserve' should an applicant change their mind!

In fact in the Complete University guide for Psychology, it’s ranked 8. Higher than any other uni listed by the OP. So this thread makes little sense to me. Have you read the rankings @RecycleThie

Somewhat bemused to open this thread and discover that the "less prestigious" uni in question is Glasgow.

If she's going for psychology, prestige of institution is irrelevant - what matters is that her degree is BPS accredited.

Depending on her plans afterwards, the statistics content may also matter (eg clinical psychology doctorate at Southampton requires the first psychology degree to have a high stats load).

Why do you think prestige matters?

Nobody said it was a free year

I beg Glasgow’s pardon, it was me that suggested it wasn’t RG. That’s how much RG is in my radar (kids went to Leicester and Loughborough- neither one in RG, the horror!).

I also didn’t realise you only pay three years of fees. That makes a difference.

I still would consider how far it is - obvs @RecycleThie may live north of Newcastle and it’s not far. But imho distance, cost of trains, convenience can really come into it. Ds2 is maybe a bit too close lol! But he has been glad enough of it more than once.

@Delphigirl But as far as the costs go, doing 4 years and not 3 costs more. There’s no advantage in doing this. In fact many reasons not to.

The RG thing is a very English obsession I would say. I’ve never ever heard a Scot talk about the Russell Group unis.

I worked in England for a good few years and I never heard anyone talk about RG unis then either. So I’m not sure if it really matters in the ‘real world’. Work experience is the most important thing when applying for jobs after uni IMO.

What is going on with psychology? Pretty much all dds female friends are doing it and most of my friends dds too.

She should pick the one she likes the best! Glasgow is an excellent uni and it having a slightly lower offer can only be an advantage. I was bricking it because my firm was Oxford and my “insurance” was Durham with the same grades, so it would just have been a case of “hope Durham will be more willing to take me if I mess it up”. And I didn’t even like Durham but my mother wouldn’t let me put Edinburgh as insurance even though I preferred it.

If she wants a career in psychology, work experience is more important than the uni she goes to.

Two of my cousins are at Glasgow at the moment and having a blast.

Not true of the university area. The city centre has definitely taken a hit in the last few years but the west end is thriving.

Glasgow is an excellent university and the city is a great place to be a student.

Your DH needs to keep out of it.

They are all excellent universities and choosing one over another is not going to make the slightest bit of difference to her options when she graduates. Employers /postgrad courses really will not care which of those she goes to. It’s what she does while she’s at uni that’s important - the degree but also the clubs, societies, volunteering, work experience, placement, jobs - all that stuff is what employers want to see.

It's her choice and she should go where she thinks she'd be happy.

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

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

@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.

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

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.

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.

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.