Help choosing between 4 unis

[mrsnewnameagain]

i have lurked on this board since DS1 went to uni 2 years ago. He is at Oxford studying MFL. I am so encouraged by the number of MFL posts in recent months coz, before that, there have been hardly any on here since I joined. Is MFL becoming more popular? Really hope so.

My daughter is in lower sixth and wants to study MFL too. She is not as clever as her brother and predicted BBB. There is a live thread on here that I have found so useful. Reading and Surrey and Swansea and Kent are great BBB choices.

DH (teacher in a non-MFL subject) says that I am wrong to take comfort from posts on Mumsnet about MFL as it is in terminal decline.

pressed send too soon. The four top choice unis for MFL are Liverpool, Southampton, Nottingham and Lancaster.

Sorry, OP. I'm not sure what your question is? Are you looking for advice about MFL at Liverpool vs Southampton vs Nottingham vs Lancaster? Or about the uni experience in those places. Or whether a BBB student should choose one as an aspirational choice?

Or are you choosing between Reading, Surrey, Swansea or Kent?

@mrsnewnameagain Er? No. Those are not the top unis for MFL. All decent though. Are you asking for a BBB student? That’s very different snd yes, those unis are good. Your DC will need a range from slightly aspirational ABB to BBC. This really will depend on which MFLs they want. It could also be that a BBB will take BBC anyway so I don’t see the need to go below BBB.

A level stats clearly show MFLs are in decline. That’s why you get into RG with ABB (which adds in far more than your list!). So aspirational choice is wide. However you then have to factor in that not all RG have a decent spread of MFL. Some now have limited options snd limited languages studied to degree level. They only offer basic tuition.

Thank you both for replying and apologies that my post a bit garbled. From reading the other thread, my DD is clear on good BBB options and will apply to 2-3 choices at that level. She wants to have a try for Cardiff (ABB) and has also picked out 4 other unis that are aspirational (want ABB) - Liverpool, Nottingham, Lancaster and Southampton - and needs to narrow it down to 2. So I am wondering whether MFL is good at those universities - lots of module choice, buzzy department etc.

DD has MFL offers from Nottingham and Lancaster.

On paper she was very excited re. Nottingham but discounted after the offer holders day. She felt most of the people weren't particularly friendly and one of the subject tasters was apparently terrible. Lovely campus though. Might just have been a bad day!

Lancaster however pulled out all the stops. I suspect the MFL department is small but they went out of their way to be welcoming & friendly. They have offered DD BBB if she firms & said to call if they miss a grade (not promising anything but they would consider).

@indiyhell congrats to your daughter! Interesting to hear about Nottingham - the campus is gorgeous. I’ve only heard good things about Lancaster

One of my lawyer children went to Nottingham and loved it (not MFL but even so worth putting on the top 2 list)

I am in STEM so far from MFL, but as a former admissions tutor I follow trends. In the last year I’ve gotten interested in Lancaster and the more I learn, the more impressed I am. Both research and Teaching and Learning have been making great strides recently; or perhaps it is more accurate to say that in recent league tables the investments and care Lancaster began to put in a little while back have really begun to pay off. (The other uni I have felt this way about, for longer, is Bath. Its reputation has caught up.)

Having said that, Notts has always had much to recommend it, also. Which has the more highly ranked MFL programme(s)? That would matter to me.

Don’t know why I forgot about Liverpool and and Southampton, both fine unis. Again I would be looking to the relative tankings of DD’s proposed degree programmes as well as her feelings about the places, particular and general. The latter include such things as size, type of campus, etc. With my iwn students I have found that some have stronger preferences than they realise forca particular type of environment. Best to realise this ahead of time

@poetryandwine
Some of the universities you mention are a bit niche for MFL. Bath very much so. It’s very business oriented.

The bigger university MFL departments have the broader range of options. These can change of course. DD at Bristol had absolutely loads to choose from. MFL is still vibrant there. Many universities are bribing students to do MFL. They will be AAA or higher for English but immediately lower grades to get the students for MFL. My DD was told they didn’t care about her A level results outside the two MFLs she wanted to study. They were clearly desperate. This was in 2010!

@mrsnewnameagain Each uni should list the possible options and core. League tables do matter as does MFL department. You can easily see if it’s buzzing by the number of students admitted and breadth of mfL offering. Not sure Liverpool is a great MFL university. I would probably drop this one first.

The other aspect is the year abroad. Working abroad is more difficult after Brexit so university exchange becomes more important. Where are the university exchanges? Top flight unis or ones you have never heard of? This is a key element of any decent MFL course. You don’t spend all your time here.

What does dd want out of the degree? What sort of job? A broad MFL education is now way more important than endless translation. You do need it to learn but it’s not a viable job these days in written forms.

I would not say a single post about Nottingham should make you discount it. It’s a very good university. Also Lancaster is a much smaller place than Nottingham or Southampton. At uni my DD ran a MFL society. Students do a lot themselves at universities where there are motivated students. It’s up to students to engage with what’s available. Lancaster punches above its weight given its low offers. However it might well depend what careers are in mind.

@TizerorFizz I was only intending to reference Bath tangentially. I have been enthusiastic about Bath for certain STEM fields for a few years and the REF rankings and league tables are now catching up to me. I only meant that I am recently starting to think of Lancaster the same way. Recent work is paying off. But again, my focus is STEM.