Help us narrow this down please. (Uni choices).

[MouldyFridge]

DS needs to narrow the short list down to 5 courses. (Currently has 8 from 6 unis).
Looking for experiences of the courses or the places (or anything really) that can help narrow this down.

Cambridge and St Andrews are definitely going down.
He likes Lancaster but can’t decide between the courses.
He likes Loughborough but can’t decide between the courses.
He likes Lincoln but not sure on the course.
He likes the sound of the course Durham but wasn’t so keen on Durham itself.

Cambridge - NatSci
St Andrews - Chemistry and Physics
Lancaster - NatSci or Chemistry
Loughborough - NatSci or Chemistry
Lincoln - Chemistry
Durham - Chemistry and Physics

Some context:
We are from a rural part of the North West (don’t know whether that makes a difference).
He’s at a state school (always has been).
Predicted grades A stars and As in Chemistry, Physics, Maths and Further Maths + EPQ.
GCSEs - 8x9s, 1x8 and 1x7. (8 and 7 were English Lang and lit).
He has a ton of work experience and career wise thinking something so do with energetics/energetic chemistry
He is out of year (should have left now but only going in Y13) because of issues earlier in secondary school (he re-did Y9 when he started a new school).

York is also known for being kind on results day if a grade is dropped so is often used as a good insurance university.

Durham and York in clearing for Chemistry according to CUG. Says it all! Yes, York is ranked 6th and worth considering. Durham ranked 5. Bath is 11 and not in clearing.

Loughborough, Sheffield, Leeds and Lancaster not top 20. Many in clearing. Bizarrely though, UCL is ranked 28 (?) but not in clearing. Graduate prospects at Imperial is odd too - 85%.

Hi everyone, sorry, I completely forgot to update. The Cambridge application has gone in and the ESAT is done. He’s prepping for the hopeful offer of an interview.

We did get over to Durham. It was interesting as he had a meltdown in the car on the way over. I won’t go into it, but there was a lot of stress and worry there which has been overcome and he has a clearer head and in a happier place. At one point I offered to keep driving all the way over to Newcastle or we could go home but he said he wanted to go to Durham so we went.

He’s currently only applied for Cambridge, because that was the important one, but now he’s had a bit more time and headspace to think the list has changed somewhat. Over the last few weeks several universities have been added, removed, some have stuck and some of the original list have gone. It now features;

• St Andrews
• York
• Bath
• Durham
• Edinburgh
• Lancaster
• Loughborough
• Warwick

He’s veering towards definitely putting St Andrews down and possibly York. Still question marks and uncertainties over the rest, and this is the part of the list which is very changeable at the minute.

I think St Andrews has a very similar vibe to Durham (small town, old university etc) but the course will be very different due to the way the scottish system works. 1st year is very like doing A-levels again IMO.

Mouldyfridge,
Dd thinking was as follows;

So dd preferred subject at a levels was chemistry but not keen on giving up other science subjects. That made her choose nat sciences.
That limited her uni options a bit.

Excluded big cities ( London ) and driving beyond 3 hours (Scotland). And not keen on being too close to home....

Wanted a year abroad. So while Durham offered year abroad she wasn't keen on set up of it.

Looked in more detail at modules. Excluded Warwick.