Choices for Universities offering History

[Winstonny]

I am going to send off my UCAS form in the next week or so and I want to check the consensus here among mothers with kids doing the same or already at uni, about my choices for History. In no particular order:

York
Bristol
Edinburgh
Warwick
Kings, London

The rationale for these choices are a) course offerings & locations b) ranking of university generally. Anything else I should consider?

I have grades in hand A(star), A, A

Thanks for this link. I had missed it when I looked at Leeds before. The courses as you suggest look really interesting.

If you have Edinburgh doubts , then bin it because it is very expensive. And, tbh, of all the unis you list it's the one not really up there for history. You'd think it would be but it never as been.

Disclaimer : I'm from Glasgow so may be a bit biased!

This year it is #17 but last year it was #15. I think that's fine. It is well within the top 20 which is the framework I've given myself.

My mum went to York when her course ranked #2 after Cambs and above Oxford, but it doesn't rank anything close to that any more, so I'm aware these rankings for courses are a moveable feast.

It's not about the ranking. It's a general reputation.

Why have you chosen it?

Ideally you would want some where highly ranked for the subject to ensure with your excellent grades that you will theoretically have the best lecturers .... as well as highly ranked uni for employment purposes?

pretty much the same reasons I outlined at the start:

"The rationale for these choices are a) course offerings & locations b) ranking of university generally."

Yes, that would be ideal but if you look at UEA for instance, it ranks quite highly for History but not generally. It isn't RG (which matters to some, not others) It doesn't appear to be a RG plus like Lancaster, Loughborogh, Bath. It is also known to have financial problems and accommodation disruptions.

There are a lot of variables to consider.

I did read that, but then you said you haven't visited Edinburgh?

By ranking generally do you mean non subject related?

Sorry for all the questions...I'm just trying to figure out why it's there.

yes.
yes.
that's fine.

I'd just be wary of going on general ranking. The subject rankings can reveal that quite highly ranked and regarded unis have weaker spots.

Reading between the lines you have actually chosen on cachet.

FWIW, Edinburgh has just as many very monied English and American students as St Andrew's.

I didn't realize that about Edinburgh. Thank you for letting me know. I would like to try and avoid it, if possible (though that element exists everywhere to some degree). Will have a think about alternatives. Thank you.

@Piggywaspushed I don't think you notice the mass of English as much in Edinburgh as in St Andrews since St Andrews is such a university town while Edinburgh is a proper city. That said I am English but did have Scottish friends too there!

Anyway sounds like it's not the right choice for @Winstonny.

Yes, possibly not . As a Glaswegian, I reserve my right to continue to glare!

I have looked up some numbers, not sure when they were assessed, so it could be on different, yet recent years. Edinburgh has over 49K students, 1500 of whom are from the US and 500 are from Canada. St. Andrews has 8800 total students, 1600 of which are American.

Not to derail my own thread, but as a family, we're half American. So I am not really looking for a place that has such a large proportion of American students attending in the UK as St. Andrews does.

Half American here too!

Thank you so much everyone (well, nearly everyone) who contributed their thoughts and suggestions to this thread.

I've just today sent off my UCAS form, to the original list of university choices I mentioned.

Fingers crossed for five unconditional, as you have grades in hand, offers. Then a slightly trickier decision. Let the thread know how you get on. Best wishes to you.

Good for you - that must be a nice feeling - especially with grades in hand.

Are you aware of the likely time scales for their responses - some take until late spring - even down to May to respond which is a bittedious especially if you have grades in hand. Just a waiting game now but I am sure you will end up with 5 offers. What would be your pick today? Also your thoughts might change through the year.....

Thank you. Yes I got some sense of wait times from what people have said on other threads here on mumsnet. I understand some make you wait til the bitter end and then don't even tell you anyway. Durham, Bath, LSE come to mind. That did have an influence on my choices somewhat, though Bath doesn't offer History anyway. My pick would be York, hands down.

Sounds like a great choice and a good mindset to be in - very best of luck with that. Hope you hear soon.

DD received an offer from Warwick within 2 days and York a week later. Edinburgh turned her down on her 21st birthday in February. She didn't have grades in hand. Four years later and she started her postgrad at York yesterday. You have made some good choices.

Don't forget to update us when your offers start to roll in.

Re Durham offers taking ages to arrive - in DCs cohort the English offers were so long in coming from Durham that Maths had not yet not only already had their Durham offers but had also attended the offer holder day. Talk about tension.

Update for anyone who is interested (and thank you for asking for updates) :

No actual offers yet, but I've had two acknowledgment letters, one from Bristol and the other from Warwick.

Nail biting stuff, this.

Wow quick work -- I hope you get your York offer asap and then acn focus on your year off. Do you know the waiting times for York? Does having grades in hand allow you to get a head start on the accomodation process?

I was wondering that too, about accommodation. I don't know about York wait times though. I know you can change your choices in the first 14 days of sending and that will be from Monday, so I wouldn't be surprised if lots of admissions offices don't bother looking at what's come in until that time has passed.