History and politics degree best choices . Huddersfield, keele

[sleepwouldbenice]

Hi all
My daughter is predicted BBB at A level. Given Covid of course anything could happen, but I would have hoped she would get this, or BBC at worst
She doesn’t have a clue what regarding career choice , fair enough so my aim is that she does the best degree possible to keep doors open and keep her employable
She wants to do history and politics. Best choices being Huddersfield and Keele, possibly Coventry
Of course hasn’t been able to visit them yet
She likes Huddersfield. Their initial BBB offer will be reduced to BCC if she outs them as first choice
Sounds great but I have my doubts

1. They had said they did a year out. I was in favour of this as thought it might add to her cv. Turns out most people don’t do it

Keele does a year out 2 I think Keele is considered to be a better uni(overall and also reputation do better for cv?) but would welcome opinions

1. Although Huddersfield has reduced the entry grade it makes me worried something is wrong with the course. Is there anywhere I can find out the inside track on this?
2. My master plan of putting Huddersfield first then Keele has gone wrong as Keele is BBC with no sign of an offer holder day so far

If anyone has any thoughts or advice on the above I would be really grateful

Don’t know Keele but do hear lots of good things about Huddersfield.

Where do you live?

If you are looking at northern universities Hull has a strong reputation for politics. www.hull.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/history-and-politics-ba-hons

4. My master plan of putting Huddersfield first then Keele has gone wrong as Keele is BBC with no sign of an offer holder day so far

Your master plan? Your whole post comes across as what you want, what you think.

What does your daughter want?

My advice, having been the dd in this situation, would be to take time out, get an entry level job or volunteer work for a year, even a few years. She’ll gain valuable insight into what kind of jobs exist and what she may want to do.

I followed my mums plan and did “the best degree possible” without any career plan. I did very well, have an excellent degree, but ultimately after a few years into the working world I realised it was no good for what I actually would like to do- careers I didn’t even know existed at 18.

I’ve never been able to do a second degree as I can’t afford to self fund. So I’ve drifted from job to job and never really made full use of that excellent degree.

Couldn't agree more that it's her choice not mine. (The master plan was letting fate decide really as keele could have been the second choice )
Trouble is none of us have a clue really. She hasn't been there to know if she likes the vibe of the place, we have no contacts who have done a similar degree or any degree at any of the places to get any first hand knowledge, she's our eldest so things will have really changed
I just want her to be informed in her choice.
We've talked about a year out, agree it might well give her experience , she doesn't want to do that. Mostly as all her friends at this stage are going to uni

@JayAlfredPrufrock

Don’t know Keele but do hear lots of good things about Huddersfield.

Where do you live?

We live in the northwest

Please tell me where to find out "good things" about any of them- I only know about league tables etc really

Hull is also on her list of 5, thanks for that - but I think she is less keen on the course

@EwwSprouts The deadline for applications has gone. Looks like the OP (or maybe the daughter) has chosen and had two offers (Keele & Huddersfield). Maybe a 3rd (Coventry). Is that correct op?
There’s two websites and I constantly get them muddled but they could help with ascertaining ‘best’ choice. ‘The complete uni guide’ and ‘which uni’. I think, DD asleep so can’t ask her. She may also have access to ‘uni frog’ via school. These sites give various statistics such as number of 1st, 2:1’s, percentage in employment afterwards & where; how rated by students etc. I’m a bit surprised your DD didn’t do this research pre-application and had her choices ranked already. Has your DD asked Huddersfield why so few students do their year in industry? Is it only this year that they haven’t, perhaps covid related? Are they helped to find a placement?

Hull for politics.
I looked at Coventry and hated it.
In fact I was predicted BBB but wasn’t confident so accepted a diff uni at BBC. Turns out I got BBB so I actually went through clearing to get my first choice afterall.
In clearing they only wanted CCC but conditional offers wanted BBB. So could this be a strategy??
Does clearing still exist?!

I went to keele. It's a bloody marvellous place to be a student, but only if she is looking for a campus based uni. If that's what she wants, it's hard to think of anywhere better. It is breathtakingly beautiful and she literally won't need to leave campus as it's so self contained. If she wants a city experience, go elsewhere.

‘Which uni’ has changed to
www.theuniguide.co.uk/

Go to course info & There’s sections about ‘what students say’ and also ‘after graduation’ at a quick glance they’re very similar.
Another place look is YouTube. Sometimes students post videos about their courses and the universities- could help.
There should be some online offer holder days soon too. She doesn’t have to decide for ages yet unless there’s a first come first served policy for accommodation.

@FancySomeChips

Hull for politics. I looked at Coventry and hated it. In fact I was predicted BBB but wasn’t confident so accepted a diff uni at BBC. Turns out I got BBB so I actually went through clearing to get my first choice afterall. In clearing they only wanted CCC but conditional offers wanted BBB. So could this be a strategy?? Does clearing still exist?!

Yes @FancySomeChips it’s a strategy. Lots of universities offer at higher grades, accept lower grades on results day and some offer even lower in clearing. Not all universities & not all courses. Clearing still exists if students don’t meet the grades of their two offers. It sounds like you went through ‘adjustment’ where students who get higher grades than their offers can apply to a ‘better’ university.

[quote NotDonna]@EwwSprouts The deadline for applications has gone. Looks like the OP (or maybe the daughter) has chosen and had two offers (Keele & Huddersfield). Maybe a 3rd (Coventry). Is that correct op?
There’s two websites and I constantly get them muddled but they could help with ascertaining ‘best’ choice. ‘The complete uni guide’ and ‘which uni’. I think, DD asleep so can’t ask her. She may also have access to ‘uni frog’ via school. These sites give various statistics such as number of 1st, 2:1’s, percentage in employment afterwards & where; how rated by students etc. I’m a bit surprised your DD didn’t do this research pre-application and had her choices ranked already. Has your DD asked Huddersfield why so few students do their year in industry? Is it only this year that they haven’t, perhaps covid related? Are they helped to find a placement?[/quote]
Hi thanks.

Yes we did do all this extensive research at the ranking tables back last year and then she used these and what she (!) thought of the course to make her 5 choices. She has offers from all 5 but prefers the 3 mentioned re course content

But .... how do you know if a uni is going downhill so that’s why they are making lower offers. How do you feel if you will enjoy somewhere when unis vary so much?
No she didn’t ask why they didn’t do placement year, only 3 in the last few years apparently so not really Covid. She’s going to ask follow up questions so these could be them, or maybe they aren’t really deemed that worthwhile for this type of degree?

I went to Huddersfield, albeit as a mature student, and was way more impressed with the teaching and facilities than the red brick I attended for my first degree. I don't know anyone who had a bad time in Huddersfield. Approachable staff, loads of links with industry, great town, friendly, cheap to live. I can highly recommend it.

Oh, and my course involved placements (Nursing) and we weren't expected to find our own. I can't imagine staff being anything other than proactive in helping students fine work placements. Huddersfield is well respected amongst local businesses, and the Uni has loads of links.

Thanks all for advice on websites. Interesting to hear more offer holder days might be on their way, thought that time might be passing. She just needs to see different views, even if all online.....

She doesn’t want a big city so campus \keele might well work for her. But they apparently have a half campus feel at Huddersfield so that might also work !

@SirChing

I went to Huddersfield, albeit as a mature student, and was way more impressed with the teaching and facilities than the red brick I attended for my first degree. I don't know anyone who had a bad time in Huddersfield. Approachable staff, loads of links with industry, great town, friendly, cheap to live. I can highly recommend it.

Really great to hear thanks

We visited Huddersfield two years ago, OP on an Open Day.

It had been rising up overall league tables and getting good reviews and has TEF Gold for teaching. It has had a little dip in the last couple of years league table wise but so have many places. It was a uni with a real sense of PR, I felt. We also visited NTU, Hull, Lincoln and OBU and would have rated Hud below all of those but that was mainly on the place to be honest (and geographical accessibilty for us). Huddersfield as a town is nothing special (nice scenery though)

Of DS's friends who went to uni (actually not very many) the only one who dropped out dropped out of Keele (also politics but he dropped out before any teaching occurred) . Although that may be more to do with his anxiety at uni than Keele itself. He is now at Lincoln and managing fine.

Keele is definitely a place if campus is your major preference. Other campus unis (eg UEA) are near large towns or cities. Keele really isn't so can seem isolated both when in it and to get away from for day trips/visits home. Might be OK if the student drives and has a car I guess.

On the face of it, Keele may have the better reputation, but I know students who have got into Keele in the last few years having got very low A Level grades (I think it does find it harder to attract recruits than some other unis because of its isolation and students not being able to pin a location to it) but not Huddersfield which, by the way, has a top reputation for music as an aside!

All that said, Keele has regularly been named as one of the unis with the highest student satisfaction ratings. When DS's friend dropped out he was treated very well by Keele who tried to help and actually offered him the option to hold his place for a year.

Of the three, for politics specifically, I would say not Coventry which is very good for some specific subjects. Coventry also has a high proportion of students who live at home so may be harder to settle for someone who doesn't.

I have no specific advice on those universities or that course.
But one of my friends' daughters had offers from Birmingham and York (so "well reputed" universities). One has offered to drop the grade requirements from AAB to BBC if she firms them; the other has offered £1k if she firms them. (She's now had an Oxford offer so isn't going to do either). My impression from your post is that the fact that they were prepared to drop their offer possibly reflected poorly on that university but I think it seems to be relatively common practice nowadays. (Apologies if I misread your concerns).

I have just seen Hull is one of her 5. The fact that their politics course is renowned aside, it is a really nice campus with the nicest - and cheapest- accommodation we saw by a country mile.

Hull itself is an acquired taste but no more or less so than Huddersfield.

Of all the places I mentioned that we visited Hull felt the most like a 'proper' university in its ethos and even appearance. It has had a big slide down the league tables over the years (again some issues with recruiting students who eschew Hull as a place is one of the reasons and perhaps the dwindling of general enthusiasm for 60s campus unis) but is on the up again.

Lots of history specialisms at Hull. I really think she should give it serious thought.

Interesting views on all the places thanks. Just what we need as perspectives
It was just do much easier to know the inside track when they picked secondary schools and 6th forms!
Interesting to hear about the grade changes too
We can look into accommodation and see if that makes it a reason to decide early, and if not hopefully she will get more offer holder days and actually visit somewhere. I know that visits really helped me decide 30 years ago!
Any thoughts on the placement year? Just thought it might guide her as to what she might do in the future, as well as all the general life skills of having a job
Thanks again

A lot of unis say they have these placement years now and I always wonder how many take them up once the reality of sorting accommodation and fees etc etc kicks in. I wouldn't consider it a dealbreaker in your DD's subjects : summer work experience might be just as worthwhile. I get the impression lots of unis don't really help at all with the placements.

One other thing I’d check if she is undecided but doesn’t want time out is if the course is easy to switch.

Some courses are very broad the first year, sometimes second, so you can take a lot of different modules, often even within different departments, which can give you a good idea of the different courses. I ended up with a completely different degree to the one I started with, purely because I could choose stuff that looked interesting and narrow down as I went, rather than a prescribed course.

WIth BBB your dd could also look at Kent, Essex and Southampton (Southampton offers BBB for politics and you can add history as a minor but if you apply for history the usual offer is AAB).

Hull offers BBC and is definitely worth a look - ds has an offer from there.

You say you live in the north-west so Chester might too close but also worth a look.

Stirling and Reading also offer BBB for history and politics.

The university websites probably have virtual tours permanently accessible. Ensure she’s register for the virtual offer holders, open days etc sometimes they are not automatic. Tell her not to be afraid of emailing or calling the admission officers and asking her questions. They are very approachable and usually extremely helpful.
As I mentioned videos on YouTube can give quite a bit of insight especially those done by current students rather than the glossy promotional ones by the universities- but even those are useful.

@bluebluezoo

One other thing I’d check if she is undecided but doesn’t want time out is if the course is easy to switch.

Some courses are very broad the first year, sometimes second, so you can take a lot of different modules, often even within different departments, which can give you a good idea of the different courses. I ended up with a completely different degree to the one I started with, purely because I could choose stuff that looked interesting and narrow down as I went, rather than a prescribed course.

Yes Cardiff used to be like this - the Welsh universities might also be worth a look especially Cardiff and Swansea for history and politics.