Best university for a chemistry degree?

[3littlefrogs]

Ds2 has decided he won't "fit in" at Oxford or Cambridge. Where should he look at next? We know a couple of people with connections at Imperial college, who have said he would have no problem gtting in there, but he wants to go away from home for his degree(we live in London). He would be very happy to come back home for post graduate studies.

UMIST at Manchester is very good.

link to information produced by the royal society for Chemistry on picking the right courses

Dh went to Cambridge from a state school. He says where ever you go there will be people you don't wish to hang out with but there will be someone like you although you may have to hunt them out. He says to avoid older colleges (trinity). He says the advantages of oxbridge are enormous - especially if you enjoy being challenged and finding jobs at the end. It is also cheaper compared to other unis. Cambridge is also a fab place

If he's into sports then I can really recommend Edinburgh. The Sports Union there is fantastic, and gets a significant amount of funding. It's also a great venue for adventure sports (the Uni owns an outdoor education centre on the banks of Loch Tay).

I can't comment from a Chemistry perspective, although it seems to fare well in The Times link. Good diverse mix of student backgrounds - yes, plenty of rah rah public schooly types, but also plenty of us state educated lot .

Fwiw, my dh has a 1st in Chemistry and a PhD from Bristol. With hindsight, although he loved his time at Bristol, he regrets not having applied to Oxbridge, so agree with Popsycal that a gap year may be worth it in terms of allowing him time to explore options (incl. Oxbridge) in more detail.

Actually, quite a few of the people on my gap year scheme delayed applying until after they got their results and all who applied to Oxbridge with appropriate results got in.

They value gap years

Thanks everyone. Lots of food for thought here. I will follow up the links. I think a gap year will be a good thing. (Ds1 has had a gap year of sorts, working and taking different A levels from the first time around, and he has grown up such a lot, and chosen a really good course).

I haven't read through all of this, but as a recent (2006) Cambridge Grad, I would definitely advise Oxbridge! Particularly if he like music and sports. I am a state school drop-out (didn't complete my GCSE's, was a complete horror at school and became a teenage single mum) you really can't get further from the presumed image of an Oxbridge student! But, my goodness did I enjoy myself! I made friends very easily, there are so many different types of people - this is what makes Oxbridge so fantastic: it is built on a furious thirst for knowledge, and if you have something to offer you will be welcomed with open arms - this diversity ensures that everything is constantly looked at with fresh eyes, fresh opinions, fresh interpretations. Everything is debated and it is an incredibly awe inspiring experience! what's more, there are so many societies that you can be anybody! Seriously, there are societies for cross-campus games, that last for weeks on end, societies for every imaginable sport, every type of music, every religion, there are socialist/conservative/labour/green/etc. It is possible to find a society (basically a club) for anything and everything. But, even better is the books! Oh the books - every book ever published, at your beckon call (I spent one term at a less 'prestigious' university, and I was constantly battling to find decent reading/research material, and to find anybody to discuss theories with - an emerging idea needs feeding - mass debates over the dinner table are perfect for this!) The other HUGE tick for Oxbridge, is that the greatest minds center upon the two colleges - this is where all the resources, are, and where is is cool to be a geeky nerd - so it obviously attracts people who have a huge thirst for knowledge. Ask your son whether he would turn down the opportunity to share lectures/dinner/halls/socialise with the current/next Isaac Newton or ( _ enter well known scientist - I'm not up to speed with the sciences) Could he imagine the mind blowing discussions he could have, indeed, could he imagine how far this would stretch his imagination - he could be the next Isaac Newton, by the chance of pondering the inkling of an idea with somebody in the kitchen, or battling a theory out with his supervisor or something striking him in a lecture by Stephen Hawkins (or other present day genius) and it growing from there, into an amazing break through!?

Honestly, anybody who is serious about growing to their full potential, would be wasting a huge opportunity by not even applying!

I got on wonderfully well, despite my background (poor, state school drop-out), and learnt not only how to behave like an adult, but also to accept everybody as people - whether they appear rich/poor/snobby/shy... Of course there are cliques, but not as your son will understand them to be from school - they are not as well defined the dining halls/lecture halls/residence halls are a hotchpotch of all types and the most unlikely of people (seemingly) are great friends - people will value him for his intelligence.