What is a good starting point for uni research?

[wondabar]

Son is starting Y13 and wants to study something Economics-based at uni. We have visited Surrey and are going to Bath this weekend as we wanted to see a local and not-so local uni. He has ASD so we are needing somewhere with good support. We have ordered The Good University Guide 2023 to look through, but what other online material or books would you recommend looking at to explore university courses?

Ucas has a search engine.

Does he want to do economics then?

2 things - his projected grades and uni ranking

If he is projected A star and As including maths and had good GCSEs then I would start by looking at the unis that have a good reputation for that subject eg LSE, Warwick, Bath etc. Be aware that most RG and higher ranking (Bath) will want As.

If he has lower predicted you need to look at lower ranking unis.

He wants to do either Economics on its own or possibly with Politics, Finance or something else. He is doing Maths, Economics and Business and his predicted grades are AAA.

I would be slightly careful about adding politics. He doesn’t have a traditional humanity subject at A level. Eg politics, history etc. He’s clearly more interested in business and economics if A levels are anything to go by. So I would look at Management degrees as well as Economics. His likely grades are not high enough for LSE in reality and some courses will want an A* in there. So look at the Complete University Guide snd look at entry requirements.

Then decide if he wants campus or city. How far from home? There’s a wide choice of very good universities.

Have a look at MORSE (maths, operational research, statistics and economics). It sounds like a really good fit for his A level choices. It's only offered at a couple of places / Warwick, Lancaster (where my DD is doing it) and I think Southampton.
I think Warwick ask for further maths or STEP but Lancaster doesn't.
A lot of the economics modules DD has done have a definite political slant. Worth a look?

My dd had to pick during the pandemic and looked up best places to study her subject then read the course descriptions on the uni websites which automatically reduced the number. She knew that she wanted to live no further than 4 hours away and on a campus (not a fan of public transport so immediately discounted London) She then checked grade requirements (she was predicted A* AB)

That left her with like 10 possibilities. She preferred a city location (we live in the suburbs which she finds boring) which made her first choice clear and helped reduce the number further.

Also ask school/college what they use. UniFrog is one platform , although dd did not find it particularly useful as she had narrowed options down by its introduction.