How to choose a university?

[redskydelight]

DD is in Year 12 and is struggling with the conundrum of how she chooses a university.

She is interested in English or possibly English and Linguistics. English is basically offered everywhere. She's been told by teachers she should "aim high" but they won't give her predicted grades yet.

So she's looking at the list of universities ranked for English and basically working down. She has no idea what to look for.

I've suggested

1. Does the course appeal? How is it taught and assessed? Contact time?
2. University has good reputation for English
3. What sort of university does she want? Big/small/campus/city?
4. Can she see herself living there?
5. Distance from home?

Can anyone suggest anything else? Or do you disagree with the things on my list?

My daughter chose, deliberately and with my encouragement, a university as far away from home as possible so she wouldn't be tempted to run home if things got tough. Trouble was, when things did get tough and she needed support, she was 400 miles away! With hindsight, it was too far. I think you shouldn't be so close that you can be home in 20 minutes, but not so far away that it's a massive and expensive trek. Maybe 2 hours away?

@redskydelight one question I would add to the already excellent list you have produced and advice you have had is whether your DD wants a career in something English-related such as journalism/publishing/teaching, or is she choosing English as a degree subject because she loves it and wants to spend 3 years studying literature? Both are equally valid reasons for doing a degree in it, but might make a difference as to which course she chooses.

There's also the issue of course structure. Does your DD want to acquire a broad knowledge of literature across the ages (and/or across countries), or does she already know she wants to specialise in a particular genre? To me it's a bit bizarre that you can acquire a first class English degree without ever having studied any Shakespeare (as one family member did recently); on the other hand if your DD knows she wants to work in, say, children's fiction publishing then there are degrees which will allow her to take modules geared primarily to that.

Don’t underestimate the importance of how it feels.

My DC have very strong feelings about places and the people that inhabit them and you just can’t get this from any league table or website, got to visit. Ideally on a working day, not an Open Day.

@RRRException Thank you for this x

I would not draw up a list based on all the many different criteria people are suggesting. Instead give her the suggestions and get her to reflect on which of them actually matter to her.

I agree with @RRRException - my children are like this too (we decided on secondary schools partly on this basis too!).

@redskydelight thanks for starting this thread. DD is in the exact same boat and also wanting to do English. Her teachers have earmarked her for applying to Oxbridge and she has a mentor that is doing her 2nd year in English at Cambridge.She is being very pragmatic about applying to Oxbridge and sees it as kind of a side project.

Other than that I think the only criteria she has thought about is if it’s fairly prestigious but she also wants somewhere with a good night life!

She will be doing English for her love of the subject as she still isn’t sure what career she wants to go in to. But is thinking journalism or law could be potentials, which luckily fits with her doing English.

Does your DD’s college use Unifrog at all? I think this is what DD will be using fir managing it all.

Will keep an eye on this thread.

On a point of order sharpbridge, Glasgow Uni is in one of the poshest areas of any city uni that you could imagine...

OP, I agree with your plans. they sound good. I also agree with posters who are specifically saying for English to look at freedom of module choice , range of modules, assessment type (if you can find out!) and perhaps also employability stats and opportunities to do modules linked opt employment skills - as this varies pretty widely from uni to uni. Some unis give choice right from the start (or in term 2), some have a very fixed first year. Some specialise in Middle English so it's impossible to avoid, some in Shakespeare, for example.

ps I concur. Unifrog is fantastic.

Maybe consider a Scottish uni, they have four year courses but you can do three subjects in the first two years, like extended A Levels. Then you concentrate on the chosen subject for the last two years. I would have gone mad if I just had to study English for three years. As it was I got to study Classics, Social Anthropoly and History too.

It can be a daunting process but at least she and you are starting to think about it now. Could you visit a couple of potential places between now and summer just to get a feel for the place and university even if not an official open day or some Uni’s still have tours or a lot of info online since covid for those not able to visit.

My DS is an hour and a half away which has worked out perfectly. He only comes home at Christmas and Easter and we usually visit him once a term on a Saturday or a Sunday if he consents lol.

Those are good questions. I agree with PPs about visiting campuses- no need to wait for open days if you want to just mosey around. She’ll very likely get a feel for whether she’d like to be there for 3 years.
Once she’s narrowed it down, definitely look at the course structure and content on the department’s web pages. Courses with the same title will be very different and the detail of the content will be a guide as to whether it’s the right course for her.

For English you really need to look closely at the course content. It varies a lot in terms of periods and themes covered, among other things.

Also, my daughter deliberately chose a university as far from home as she could and I encouraged this-but the she was so far away when things went wrong for her-it was a nightmare. I would now suggest bo more than a couple of hours away-just in case.

I agree with visits on "non" open days, especially a weekday during term time, where you'll get a "real" feeling of the campus, i.e. how busy/vibrant it is. Open days and weekends are artificial, open days show them "too busy" and weekends show them at their quietest, some are like a zombie apocalypse with no one around.

Our son was about to "firm" Leeds until we "dropped in" one midweek day as we were travelling on the M1 and thought we'd just drop in for a look and have lunch in their refectory. He really, really, didn't like how busy and crowded it all was, especially the block of lecture theatres in the middle by the small "lake" and the refectory, it actually freaked him out and he said it reminded him of school with all the jostling/pushing/noise, etc. As we drove away, it was a very emphatic "NO" from him!

@user1497207191 It seems a shame to have rejected Leeds on such a brief snapshot- obviously it's going to be busy at a moment like that!

He can't cope with excessively busy/noisy indoor spaces.

Not a shame really as he's at Lancaster instead which is a lot more spread out, far more open space around lecture theatres, more eateries, and has had no problems at all as there's virtually no overly noisy/crowded indoor corridors etc.

He's graduating this Summer (expected a first) and has a job lined up to start in September with a blue chip company, so he's no regrets - he literally couldn't have had a better outcome at another Uni!

(Well the only regret is the crap way that Lancaster dealt with Covid but he's got over that now!).

That is a very good suggestion to visit a Uni on a normal 'working' day.

We were heading up from Devon this weekend and thought we would detour through Exeter (where I nearly studied some decades ago). The only public carpark on campus was rammed so we made do with a drive through instead!

Placemarking