Daughter about to start Uni, having a wobble and thinking she should have gone to a higher Ranked Russell Group Uni!

[WhatsTheStoryRory]

My daughter did her A levels in the summer and got all A*s in 4 STEM subjects.
She accepted an offer to study a STEM subject in a non Russell group uni because that's the one she liked the best when we visited.
The Uni she liked is very well rated and is a couple of hours drive from the city we live in.
She's gone through the whole process of applying for Student loan and choosing accomodation.

She's now having a wobble and thinking she should have accepted an offer she had from a Russell Group Uni in the city we live in.
The main reason seems to be, that she thinks future employers will give preference to those who went to higher ranked Uni's.

She's even mentioned taking a year out and re-applying for next year.
We've said we'll support her whatever she decides.

Is it even possible to change Uni's at this late stage?

There is a poster on MN who insists on only being treated by a doctor who attended one of the Oxbridge universities

That is hilarious!!

I think one of the biggest myths is that you have to be super-clever to be a good doctor. It’s competitive so those with the best grades get into medical school. But there is so so much more to being a great doctor and being a genius isn’t necessary. People skills, team-working, being organised, multitasking, being able to see the bigger picture, manage challenging interactions, how to get the best from colleagues, staying calm in a crisis etc. Of course you need to be pretty bright but that’s not enough.

As others have said Bath is a very good university. I went to Oxford and have consistently worked alongside super able Bath grads in similar roles to mine since I left. Don’t think she'd be materially set back vs general Russell Group.

If she fancies a gap year and swinging the bat at Oxbridge again I'd always say it's worth it, but if she's keen to get on and go to university she'll probably have a lovely time at Bath.

COULD NOT AGREE MORE

as a scientist who recruits top scientists all the time, I ANSOLUTELY agree. A placement year is invaluable. That plus one or two (paid) summer internships and the student goes to the very top of the pile. If they have a history of working in customer service too - Superdrug or a pub or restaurant or something - so much the better ( modern science is, contrary to popular opinion, a team sport and interacting with vast numbers of others is required)

While I totally agree with what you are saying in general (indeed, that is exactly what DD2 did), it's worth pointing out that most universities dont actually ask for your A level grades when applying tor a Masters. They are really only interested.in your under-graduate degree and they may dig down into that in quite granular detail, but they do not see A level results as particularly relevant.

And guess which university is particularly renowned for its placement years?

Begins with a B!

if I had a STEM keen kid, who liked Bath, got into Bath, had excellent grades and would benefit from their placements, I'd absolutely encourage them to take the place. And I say that as an Oxbridge graduate (albeit not STEM, but I have worked in a Science department at university for 17 years).

Yes def better to go with higher ranking one!

Just saw, Bath is a very good uni though! She’ll enjoy it!

Agree.
Out of a department of over 30 consultants I know the medical school of 3 or 4 and they're the ones I am actually friends with. I couldn't even tell you which region most of my colleagues trained in, even those that I interviewed for their posts when I was Clinical Director.
And it's laughable that patients would be bothered by which medical school their consultants attended. Aside from anything else, what you learn at medical school is such a tiny proportion of the knowledge and skills a doctor has acquired by the time they're an established consultant it really is irrelevant.
There probably are particular individuals who prefer colleagues who attended their old medical school just as they might favour a candidate wearing their old school tie, but fortunately current recruitment practices should stop that kind of bias actually having a significant effect.

Yes def better to go with higher ranking one!

...which for her subject may well be Bath. Or too close to call.

Which is the Russell Group university she's considering?

Have a child applying to Bath and Cambridge this year. Was super impressed by Bath - it seemed very inclusive,friendly and down to earth. Actually liked it more than Cambridge which seemed a bit more pretentious (which I guess it would be). It seemed like a nice place to spend 3 years.

THis is why I am always pleased when Bath graduates apply!

Loads of very good prospective medical students won’t apply to Oxbridge as their courses are so old fashioned, as they were 30 years ago even. There is no clinical work at all for the first three years. You do spend your first year dissecting a body.

Yep, Durham doesn’t have a Medical School and I think we’d all agree that it’s a good University. Medicine should not even be brought into the argument here. It is very different. All Medicine degrees are equal. It does not matter where you study. The CUG rankings are pretty meaningless for Med. However, Newcastle is a very old and respected med school. My DC had four Medicine offers and could have applied anywhere with a top 1% UCAT. They chose Newcastle.

This

One of my daughters graduated from Bath a few years ago. Did a science degree with a placement year. She loved it and she, and all her friends from Bath, are doing very well working in industry now. I rate it highly and I have to say, as a scientist/Professor at a RG university and external examiner at others, her course and the strictness of the assessment etc was by far the toughest I have seen. If she has an offer from Bath - take it!

It is interesting reading all this about RG because I am a research scientist and I couldn't for the life of me tell you which universities are in the RG and I don't care. It's not important. It's more about the individual departments - my department is in the top 5 in the world for my subject and that is much more important than whether the university is in the RG!

And just to add, I have had four children go to University and it never occurred to me to check if they were in the RG - only whether the teaching is good, the staff-student ratio was good and they were the most suitable for what each child wanted to do afterwards. But they chose their university.

@WhatsTheStoryRory

With a week or so to go, what’s your daughter decided to do?

Have you made another visit to Bath to allay her fears?

is it a wobble about moving away , rather than the Russel uni factor?