Best unis for a broad biology degree?

[Justlurkingmostly]

Looking for Biology options for DD2, have looked at many* and not all cover plant, human and animal as she’d like and several places have low standard offers for straight biology which puts her off. Has looked at some Nat sci courses but she’d prefer not to have to take eg physics and prefers the more in depth biology modules offered by straight biology courses.

She’s likely to be predicted 4 x A stars, is ruling out Scotland/Durham/York/Manchester etc due to distance (although she may need to revisit this) and London due to preferring a campus. Oxford is the preferred choice course-wise so far but she needs at least one other “excellent” / stretch option as we are aware Oxford offers are hard to secure.

Any others we are missing? Are the lower standard offers simply a function of the subject being less popular rather than rigour/excellence of the course? Grateful for any insights, thanks!

*have visited Exeter, Bath, Warwick, Nottingham, Cambridge, Loughborough and Oxford. Will likely apply Exeter, Bath and Oxford and need to find two more. Will visit Bristol and Birmingham in June.

DD applied to Exeter, Bath and Oxford, Bristol and Durham. She wanted a rigorous and broad course but didn’t want London. She also looked at York and Warwick. In the end she went to Oxford (and insured Durham). She loved the breadth of the MBiol at Oxford and the structure of the first year. It was a full timetable with lectures, labs, tutorials, tutorial essays and field work.
Good luck to your DD in her decision making.

Cambridge natural sciences has 3 bio options in the first year, and many more in-depth options for 2nd and 3rd year. Definitely no need to study physics!

Thank you very much for your reply - yes the Oxford MBiol looks amazing. Is your daughter enjoying it? And does she have time to do a sport/socialise etc a bit? Am sure it’s hard work but I do want DD to have a fun uni experience! She works very hard but also enjoys a range of hobbies. Am also interested in your DDs firm/insurance - is the Durham offer any lower than Oxford? I think our DD will end up with the same list of unis yours applied for, ultimately. The Durham course looks the next best for her and we will just have to cope with the distance. Did your DD apply for bio Nat sci or straight biology at Bath and Exeter? Many thanks for any more info!

She has been put off the Cambs nat sci by a good friend of ours - no doubt it is an excellent degree but this YP had a miserable time. Constant work and said it was so hard and stressful, no time for anything other than study. I believe in the span of their time at C they had Christmas Day and their birthday off but worked the rest. Now, this is obviously only one person’s experience (and they secured a first and now in grad med school which they declare easy by comparison) but it has put DD right off. She works hard but would like to play her sport etc. We should have another proper look at the options though before she decides, thank you for the info.

That's a shame your friend had a bad experience. It's been a few years since my NatSci degree at Cambridge but certainly back then it definitely allowed for play along with the work! We did have Saturday morning lectures but that was about the worst of it. Certainty the sports teams were full of NatScis (not to mention the bars).
I would certainly encourage your daughter to try and get some other opinions before dismissing it completely. I know lots of cases of people starting a NatSci degree with an idea that they'd definitely want to specialise in one area, and finishing it in completely another (eg genetics to geology, physics to Chem Eng etc). That's the beauty of the degree - it allows you to try lots of things and follow your interests.
Good luck to her wherever she goes and hope she has a great time!

That’s great to hear and very sound advice, thank you for your insights!

DS sat through a Zoom on NatSci at Cambridge. The repeated emphasis on maths put him right off. As he said if he wanted to do maths he would do a maths degree (got maths A*).

DS went to Durham and had a great time. He didn't narrow down his options even in his final year choosing ageing, something about crops, projects on the european lynx and also apex predators. Durham is a small and walkable city. I wouldn't discount it for not being a campus as everywhere you go you there are other students.

@Justlurkingmostly , DD graduated a couple of years ago. Oxford provided DD with so many opportunities, academic and extracurricular (DD continued to dance competitively throughout her degree, including varsity) and the course, which is quite traditional, was a good fit for her interests. Her Durham offer was the same grades as her Oxford offer - obviously not ideal for an insurance offer but the standard Oxford Biology offer is reasonable and DD took the risk. For her thevDurham and Oxford courses were clear frontrunners.

DS went to Cambridge (not NatSci) but found time to play tennis at BUCS level. It’s about finding a good balance between academic work, socialising and extracurriculars. I think sport really helped my DC to get the most out of their university experiences and kept the work in perspective.

@Justlurkingmostly how definite is the preference for a campus university? Of the two that you (pl) are about to visit, Birmingham definitely is one, but Bristol definitely isn't.

Cardiff? Seems quite high up in the league tables for Biological Sciences?

Don't let one YP's experience of NatSci at Cambridge put her off. I can offer a similarly one-off anecdote of a NatSci student who competed at uni level in a sport that required several hours a day commitment, and still did well enough in their degree to progress to PhD. Every student is different.

I have a child doing Manchester biology, and although they've done well and like the city, they wouldn't recommend the course particularly highly. So no need to revisit the ruling out of that one!

When we went to the Bristol open day, I would have signed up to their biology degree there and then (shame I have none of the right A levels...)! They sold it really well, and I've heard good things from people that did it.

Oooh that’s really good to know thanks - we are off to their open day in a few weeks. I know the uni as a whole is really well regarded and it’s just a couple of hours’ drive away, so very convenient. The only thing putting her off is she would prefer a campus but the course is the most important factor - fingers crossed!

Lower offer level is a poor filter on its own. For a broad Biology course, I’d look at first-year compulsory modules, how late they can specialise, fieldwork/lab load, and whether plant/human/animal options survive into year 2/3. For the open days, ask to see actual optional-module availability from the last two years.

What my DS found frustrating at Manchester was the lack of access to the lab. Barely anything until 3rd year. A shame in itself, as it's what he enjoys. It's also hard to start strategising for possible career paths when you don't have enough hands-on experience to know if a lab-based career would interest you. Hard to get internships in the summer if you don't have much in the way of lab skills to put on your CV, etc etc. So his advice would be to look for courses that don't leave most of the lab stuff until the end.

The lower offers for biology reflect that the highest achievers tend to be encouraged to train to be doctors or vets. I wouldnt take lower offers to necessarily a bad sign. I would look at red brick unis too and try to choose one with a big broad research output. That will mean that she can access specialists in lots of different areas and follow the bits of biology that she is interested in.

Very good point - will keep in mind for open days to check thank you