Manchester or Imperial?

[Mooda]

DS has got offers from both the above for maths & physics/ physics & theoretical physics. He was all set to pick Manchester but now can't decide (driven in part I suspect by Imperial being ranked 2nd best uni in world today). I understand the prestige but am concerned he may miss out on the social experience of uni at Imperial. I've also seen it doesn't have a great rep for student support. Any thoughts - anyone got any advice at this 11th hour?

My DD has just finished her degree at Mcr Uni. We live half an hour away but she has lived in halls and shared houses whilst she has been there.
She has found the city vibrant and interesting and has met other students who will be good lifelong friends now. Workload has been immense and she’s had to work really hard, even with excellent A levels.
She’s looking forward to life after uni now, confident and sociable, with plenty of initiative and common sense. Manchester University has been great for her.

DS did BSc and MSc, both physics related at Imperial and had a great uni experience.
Seems to have been a work hard/ play hard environment and the clubs he joined were well resourced.
He also had an offer from Manchester but on balance considered that there would be more opportunities in London to suppliment his income, which did turn out to be the case - maths, physics and stats face to face tutoring.
He lived out at the halls in Acton first year but cycled in using a safe route via the canal paths so saved on transport costs.
The International students were a bonus, he made some great friends and contacts.
He's currently on his PhD with UCL working at CERN so for him, Imperial was the right choice.

Imperial

Interestingly lookin at the QS rankings referred to above Manchester is 34= in the world and 5th in the UK after Imperial, Oxbridge, UCL and Edinburgh - so ahead of the likes of Bristol, LSE and Warwick

The LSE ranking is skewed because they only do social sciences. For the subjects LSE does they rank extremely highly

I'm not convinced of the full relevance of the QS rankings for undergraduate study. The new "Sustainability and ESG" category seems to have helped Imperial leapfrog Oxford and Cambridge in the latest release. Table shows score andrank in all the QS categories for UK Unis in the top 100.

Choose whichever they think they will be happiest. They’ll thrive academically if they are happy. You could drive yourself insane looking at league tables.

Not sure world rankings are looked at by many employers here but very international ones might.

If students don’t want to even live a mile from the uni, as you might at Bristol, don’t choose London either. Imperial has some far flung halls. I suspect only well off students stay in Kensington and Chelsea after y1. The key would be finding friends who are ok being further out. Then there’s the journey in that others don’t like. So all this needs weighing up.

It seems a bit safe staying in Manchester. There is sport and music in London. Just about everywhere! Some football might be difficult to access but Milwall and a few others might float his boat! If you have money you can have a brilliant time in London, but if not you just feel a bit jealous.

DD1 just finished at Imperial. DM me if you like.

Imperial is rolling in cash and hands out money to students based on parental income. I think the highest threshold is £70k. With an income just below this, the student receives a bursury of 2k/year. With a lower family income, it goes up to £5k.

Imperial also has very well paid student jobs .DD. is going one for 2 weeks over the summer for £16/hour.

DD is not interested in nightlife so i can't talk much about that but I know the sports club she belongs to likes socialising in pubs and clubs.

The student halls are expensive but nowhere near as much as DD2 has to pay at another London uni.

Manchester is amazing and half the price. Great place to be a student.

DD lived in Fulham which was about a 40 minute walks from campus. 15 minutes by bicycle.

She rented an ex council house which was safe and comfortable but very ugly in the outside.

Most of the halls are in North Acton, which is rather far away from campus. Probably about 40 mins by tube.

No one in their right mind would pick Manchester over imperial. Imperial is world beating and London is a globally important city. Why the hell would you choose a provincial backwater over all that? Accommodation is massively subsidised at Imperial and there are all manner of grants and bursaries going begging because unlike most UK universities it is not in financial trouble. For anyone who wants to be in the thick of it, going to a solid London university is the way to do it. Most people will never be able to live so central, so cheaply, as the students at Imperial do.

To be fair, I think a 40 min journey into uni is pretty standard, including in Manchester. Most people don’t live on campus, including those in halls.

I was offered a place there and turned it down as I’d been out partying there and found it seedy even then. (And I studied in Leeds, I love a party.) I then lived there more recently, for several years, and although there were things I liked there – not saying it’s bad through and through – overall I found it grim then too. Just my opinion.

I would agree with this.

This sounds minor to me but DH (maths at Imperial) says he would have preferred a university with a better balance of the sexes.

‘Provincial backwater.’ My goodness. You may have clever kids but let’s hope they have slightly more charm than their parents.

Ok. Manchester this then. You can not discount this.

It sounds very much like questions were not welcome. They were belittled. Somewhere it says something about being penalised for asking silly questions if your tutor needs to be told something time and time again and they still don't remember, you would stop going. It sounds like elements of things I experienced elsewhere. It is being spoken in a way I can totally picture.

IC!!

Fuck me. Backwater. OP it your DS is of this Southern small minded mindset then by all means stay South. I grew up in the South but much prefer the forward thinking North

To those living in Fulham - breaking news - that’s the LB of Hammersmith and Fulham. It’s not K&C. North Acton is some way from the Kensington campus. Also not a brilliant area to live - DD was there. Living fairly close to Imperial is expensive so yes, DC will have to travel.

I was also comparing with Bristol because a poster said DD didn’t like the 10 minute bus ride to the uni from Stoke Bishop. There are, in fact, halls right by the uni there but in London this is less likely. A 10 minute bus ride would be a luxury for many in London. Fulham to Imperial is around a 40 minute walk. As with any London hni, look up and down the tube lines from South Ken.

I would have said Manchester ( great city) but as you already live there ( as do I), I think a more exciting and fuller student experience would be had by moving away somewhere new . So I’d say Imperial for the new experiences

I have thought this too. Don't know the actual ratio though?

I think that rankings have to be taken carefully though. There's so many and they all list differently.