How do you choose a university in this country?

[UniversityQuestions]

can anyone advise how you select a suitable uni in this country. My daughter’s schools seem to suggest names as potential matches for her that when I look up are wildly different in ranking, specialism, location but all seem the same in terms of low contact hours and minimal engagement with students. In my country it’s really clear how unis are ranked but here it varies wildly be aubjevt and you seem to also have to consider the overall name of the uni no matter what the subject ranking.

my daughter has good GCSEs - 10x 9s and 8s, we haven’t got her predicted grades for a level but she seems to have As or A stars at most tests. She wants to study History. Her school have suggested she book open days at Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester, Exeter and St Andrews which when I look them up seem to have no common denominators.

Manchester sounds perfect then. It’s a research-active (Russell group) uni in a major party city. I used to work there and both my kids did post grads there but went away for uni as it’s their home city. Halls and local accommodation are expensive and high demand though.

My DS visited a bunch of universities that do the course he’s interested and then picked based on how he like the unis, accommodation, vibes, clubs, and the city or town it was based in.

Please go and see Oxford and/or Cambridge. If she looks at the history syllabi, one may be more appealing to her than the other. The workload is high but the terms are short - just eight weeks. Living costs are lower because the colleges are wealthy. Few students only work and most of the other things on offer are easily accessible because Oxford is a compact city. All students are learning from the very best academics in their field, are really challenged by the tutorial system, and have access to some of the best libraries in the world. My DD graduated last year. As well as a year abroad because she read modern languages, she rowed and sang, and has a wonderful friendship group established in her first year. All of them now have graduate jobs or are doing further study. It's not for everyone but dismissing it on an assumption would be a shame when your DD has the grades to make an offer of a place an achievable goal.

Typo

Brown University's open curriculum is not replicated or even slightly available in the UK. If that's what she is interested in, she should focus on that. Also in the US there's St. John's (in New Mexico and in Maryland) which has a similar "great books" curricula.

Yeah. Don't go to St Andrews.
I considered there, but apart from it being very near to home, I realised I needed a city University. So, I went to Edinburgh for my first degree (English Lit & Linguistics), and have never really regretted it. I did my Masters in Australia, and PhD at Durham. St Andrews would have been completely wrong for me. It is beautiful, and I love visiting, but just not right for me. Everyone seems to know what each other have been up to, and I enjoyed the anonymity of the city.

There's an interesting/entertaining anecdote about the Statutes for Universities (not sure if it's just Scotland....) which run to pages for St Andrews, a considerable list for Glasgow and Aberdeen. For Edinburgh, it reads, "the students live in the city, and do as they please." 😂

I would say that you should also look at what the entry tariffs are for each Uni. She doesn't want to waste an application space if she's predicted nowhere near them. (But, that's basic, I know.) Be aware that Scottish students are coming with known Higher results in most cases, and all categories of students, including RUK (rest of UK) based students are all ring-fenced/limited numbers of places. Institutions in the Russell Group are largely selecting, and not recruiting, for places.

I'm a big advocate of the Scottish system, which allows for a wider set of subjects, if she's interested in doing that. The extra year in the Scottish Hons degree means you can take a completely outside subject (timetable allowing, of course) to your core subject(s). For example, I did a language in first year; and history in second year. It allows for a more 'liberal arts' style of study experience.

Others have given good advice on accommodation, and work availability. These are super important if she's going to be there 3/4 years.

Thank you all again. Some really good tips here.

i think she likes Brown mainly because her step brother goes there so she visited and loved it. Part of me thinks that was the US uni experience she was reacting to rather than Brown itself. She loved the breadth of courses, the structured contact hours, the campus, the sense of a uni community. I do wonder whether that doesn’t suggest a campus uni would’ve best for her but hard to find many in big cities!

Birmingham!

For a campus that's actually in a city, back to my suggestion of Leeds. Or Birmingham, as @Piggywaspushed has just beaten me to suggesting.

We got a massive sheet of paper and shortlisted unis that had a decent reputation for his course.

We then discussed what he wanted in terms of social life/preferences between city/campus, distance from home, course modules, cost of accommodation, and a few other things that I can’t recall (but the list will differ depending on your dc and what they are looking for)

Then after more research graded them all out of ten on all the different factors to shorten the list further (some got knocked off the list just on accommodation costs or being too far to travel home for weekends) then we booked open days at the ones left on the list.

I agree if she wants a big city and is getting good grades then look at places like Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham. If she can cope with a smaller city then places like York. And definitely worth considering Cambridge/oxford.

Look at the specific courses, what modules are offered and if they align with her interests. Some may have a focus on more medieval or more modern history.

And if she does like a campus university then possibly Nottingham?

Manchester is a city campus with a lot of their main buildings on a campus but most of the halls of residence are a walk or bus ride away.
york and Durham also campus universities but smaller cities.

I mean to me the whole point of Oxbridge is that you are in the middle of a city,. Small and different from most but definitely in the heart of things but with that collegiate bonus.

You both need to do your research. UK uni is vastly different from UK. History will have very
low contact hours and she will need to be motivated to do a lot of self directed reading with some
guid from her tutors.
She needs to look at each course and check if it aligns with her interests. I would say this is the most important.
Different people at the same university can have different experiences. It is not the location of the university that matters it’s your peer group. If you make like minded friends you will have fun no matter what you do.
I think Oxford or Cambridge will suit her. It has high contact hours and there is always time to have fun

Ds knew he wanted to study energy or civil engineering and that he didn't want to be in London or Birmingham. That gave us a short list. Add in his projected grades, AAB and we narrowed it down to about 10.
visited those and then chose the highest ranked which would offer AAA or AAB, two mid range - BBB, and one BBC.

Applied, looked at the five offers and he chose an AAB as his first choice and BBC as his reserve because he loved the facilities and the location.

You might also want to take a look at Queen’s University, Belfast. The campus is a 15 minute walk from the city centre and is absolutely beautiful. It has a big history department, offers exchange visits, and it ‘walks the walk’ rather than just ‘talking the talk’. It’s also relatively cheap to live there and return flights to London are less than £100 - cheaper than a return to Manchester! Glasgow has a similar feel, as do Liverpool, Leeds, and Manchester - the cities that drove the Industrial Revolution. They’re bigger and grittier than Exeter or Oxbridge, but if she wants busy and vibrant they could be just what she’s after.

The best thing to do is to visit a shortlist. My DD wanted to go to Warwick until she went for an open day and found it too isolated for her needs, but it was perfect for her friend.

My daughter chose a London university despite growing up there, because she decided that the subject she wanted to do was at a variety of places and she loved where she lived anyway. She did a couple of outreach courses at her first and second choice, so she went to an art club at one, and she did a two week course at another. In the end she chose the second, not only because it’s very well known and she found the teaching to be good, but also, as someone who is naturally reserved, she felt much more safe there. She also liked how well she got on with the tutors and how approachable they were.

I say this to other young people too. It’s not just the course, or the social life, or the cost of living, it’s if you feel comfortable there, and feel like you can ask for help if you need it. If you feel isolated on visits to the uni you aren’t going to flourish.

Accomodation is VERY expensive in London. Her room is £290 a week. I contribute a week’s rent a month plus £100 “pocket money”, her dad and grandparents also contribute (my mum says she doesn’t want her to starve. This isn’t likely). She has tried to get a cheaper room for September but obviously all the cheaper ones are snapped up first. She’s actively looking for a job to lessen the burden on us all though.

Pick the course you want, check which are the highest ranking ones for that course, check what your grades are likely to be and the universities that usually accept people with your grades onto that course. Go and look around a few. Pick your favourite.

My DD is in 3rd year at Glasgow, I had nothing to do with it, she researched and applied herself, it’s her life not mine.

🙄

Glasgow is by no means a bad uni.....but as parents we took an active role in our DC's uni choice (given that we are funding it).

I gave DD free rein abou her university choice. She wasn't interested in going anywhere that was expensive so I didn't need to play an active role other than take her to open days because Northern Fail were on strike every Saturday for several months.

@JulietteHasAGun Durham is not campus. The buildings are a bit spread out and so are the halls. They are firmly in the city, unlike York that’s not in the city.

I think this is an important decision. Well for a year anyway! Courses - they have core modules and tailoring to wants is not always 100% possible and options get dropped. New ones come in.

With history it’s vital dc are self motivated and don’t expect to be spoon fed. They won’t be at the top tier unis. They need to know how to research and work independently.

I hope I am not derailing the thread, but I often hear that universities outside of the UK have more contact hours. Does this mean that those students undertake less independent learning? Or do they spend more time on their studies?

We did not give free rein at all. We advised and helped their shape their path and helped them go to the best university possible for their subject.