Which Uni?????

[UniMum2012]

Not sure if I have posted this in the right place....

My DD is 17, in the lower 6th at school and is now thinking about University. Her favorite so far is Durham because she likes their mix of liberal and traditional outlooks. If she can't go to Durham she wants to go to a University in the south because that is where we live and she would therefore be able to visit home to see us and her home friends easily and as frequently as she likes. She also doesn't want to got to a London university because we live in London and she wants a new experience. She wants to study history.

Here are the 5 possible choices we have picked out so far (in no particular order) but she needs a 6th choice....

Durham
Cambridge-not banking on getting in, just want to apply to see what happens
Sussex
Bristol
Kent

We were thinking of warwick but apparently you have to study a language alongside history and this is not something DD wants to do.

If anyone has any suggestions they would be much appreciated. :)

Remeber that Durham is as difficult to get into as Oxbridge.

York is in the middle of moving to a new campus I believe and is closing various buildings- it would be worth a check of what is going on before applying.

I think my brother is still at Salford, he must be at the end of his 2nd year. He is a bit odd.

Warwick Uni is not in Coventryor Warwick, more the middle of nowhere.
I would definitely look at Birmingham, a good mix of Northern and Southerners, and you don't have to do moden history.
Keele has a college system I think.

The only other universities that I'm aware of that have a college system are Oxford, Cambridge and York, although York's collegiate system is a bit wishy-washy compared to the others.

To some extend your DD needs to wait for her AS grades to come out, and for A2 predictions to be given. She should then look at one university that is somewhat ambitious (Oxbridge or one grade above her predictions), two or three that she will most likely get into (at or one grade below her predictions) and one or two that are two grades below her predictions, where she will almost certainly get in. Mind, there's no point actually applying for a university that she doesn't like and will decide against going to on results day just because it has the 'right' entry requirements!

I presume that your daughter has been working at A grade (maybe a B or two?) at AS? If so, she should be looking at universities in the Russell Group (larger research intensive unis) and 1994 group (smaller research intensive unis). These are the most prestigious universities, and having a degree from one of them will help her get a good job later on.

When deciding on universities, she needs to look at

• course content - course content is usually dictated by the research interests of the professors there, hence why it varies vastly from uni to uni.
• location - probably best to look at how long it takes to get home rather than distance in miles. For instance, Manchester is only 2h10 by train, whereas Bristol is 1h45 by train - not a massive distance. It's good to be a fair distance away from home - otherwise people can find that they are constantly going home, and not putting down roots at uni, but at the same time you don't want to be so far away that going home is a major undertaking (St Andrews is a little isolated!)
• and, as mentioned above, entry requirements and how well regarded they are.

Open days are always very useful - it was only when I got to Exeter that I realised I really didn't like it at all (ditto Loughborough), but visiting Leeds and Manchester really helped to confirm my decision. Sometimes it's something as unquantifiable as a "feel", and other times it's only when you get there that something more concrete becomes apparent - such as a particular focus of the course, how sporty the students are, or how isolated the campus is. There's no need for trips to open days to be too expensive - you can get her a railcard (third off all railfares) and she can go on her own, and they really are invaluable.

I went to Durham, it is lovely :)

The college system (not like oxbridge as separate from the academic side) plus points- more chances to get involved in things as you have college sports teams, choirs, theatre groups etc so you don't have to be good enough for university team, you can have a go and have some fun. A close environment which makes it a little easier to make friends outside your course. A student led welfare system. A strong student voice when it comes to college centred decisions. Lots of college bars .

Negative is really one big one. It can be all just a little bit too much like school. You have your popular kids who end up being the ones elected as senior man and so on and the colege can pretty much end up revolving around what the "in crowd" does. Sort of comforting and familiar in first year, by final year you can find yourself wondering if it isn't time they all just grew up a bit.

She does just need to visit them all though and see which courses she likes best. She'll end up loving her university whatever so long as she is enjoying her course.

Agree with Indith re pros and cons of College system,it can be great for opportunities in the sense that there is a layer below University level but can also be rather insular.My ds1 who had always been keen on Durham felt when he went to the openday that it just too small a canvas.In mitigation his father and I both went there and we live in a small town with cobbled streetsso all rather like school to him.

He is also interested in politics and student media and I'm not sure that's where Durhams strengths lie,although a surprising number of my contemporaries work for the BBC.

"she will probably have to do a modern module at some point"

Make that MOST of her modules. I don't know of any history department in the country that would let students specialise in pre-1700 history before third year.

All the universities she's interested in are great, though I would put down only one of Durham or Bristol, and include somewhere like Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds or Warwick in the mix. Sussex and Kent both very good for history but Kent is bloody miles away.

Royal Holloway would be an excellent option - University of London, but in the most stunning campus outside London.

Loughborough also has a surprisingly good history department, and gets rave student satisfaction ratings overall.

The other thing to point out is that if she's happy with the 5 on her list, she isn't obliged to put a sixth option down. That way she won't be feel like she has to go to a lower choice university if that's what she's offered.

Don I've just had a flick through the course description for York and there seems to be a fair few modules in early modern and even earlier - definitely enough to meet the criteria of someone interested in pre 1700s. Likewise Kent has an impressive selection of modules that seem to cover a bit of everything. That's particularly good in case your DD's interests change over the course of her time at uni.

Second Boomting's point about 'feel'. The open days helped DD to make her mind up very easily, and interestingly we both felt the same about each Uni we visited (although I kept quiet until she had expressed her opinions). Birmingham was her favourite from the early round of open days, but the moment she set foot in Newcastle she just knew that was where she wanted to be and she is so happy there as her first year comes to a close.

Guess what I'm saying is maybe its best to keep a fairly open mind until she has visited all the places she is interested in. Its very easy to get completely wrapped up in the tables (we did) but being somewhere you want to be makes such a big difference to success.

I teach history in a university and know whereof I speak

I work at Kent. it's not that far - fast train is under an hour to St Pancreas.

Oxford is an obvious choice for History and college system. But that would entail a choice with Cambridge - worth visiting both though.

Bristol would require high A level grades - probably in the region of AAA. Does have also have a separate Ancient History option and good archaeology department.
If you are looking for a non-campus university close to a city centre then Bristol is a good option and very popular with students from the London area.
There are some lovely areas of Bristol and it is a great place to be a student.

BringBack1996 (love the username - a fellow Wombats fan?) she'll struggle to put down a 6th choice, seeing as you're only allowed to put down 5 nowadays

boomting, can you tell that my DC are not yet at university age :o
And yes, fellow Wombats fan but the name also seemed fitting as I'm pg with DC3 and DC1 was born in 1996!

It is also worth remembering with Durham that the college system is not like Oxford. At Durham, your academic application is to a department. If the department accepts you, you will get into a college. It may not be your first choice of college, but you will be given a place somewhere.

So which college you choose doesn't make any difference to your chances of getting a place at the university. The college you choose does make a big difference to which college you end up at. If you apply to University college, you are unlikely to get a place there and will probably end up at a hill college. If you apply to a college on the Bailey other than University college, you are much more likely to end up living in a college on the Bailey. The Bailey is the old, central part of Durham around the Cathedral.

I applied to Castle and got in . Colleges on the hill often have better rooms and are not quite so full of pashminas but the Bailey colleges are being revamped. The castle is all ensuite now and Chads is being redone to be ensuite and have double beds .

Chads with Ensuite and double beds ,surely not.They had horrible stained enamel baths in my day,I remember vividly washing glasses in one at Candlemass when I worked on the liqueur coffee bar

I know, all the upmarket stuff is confusing, Dh was Chads, I was Castle, between us we had a couple of the scuzziest rooms in the uni (Number 1 and Moatside). Students are getting way too posh!

Birmingham offers Ancient History, or Ancient and Medieval neither of which involve Modern! Even the plain History degree doesn't seem to force you to do lots of modern History.

You need to line up all the places you like and consider what their offers will be. You need one at least with a lot offer than the others - don't go for all A and A. Give yourself an option not to have an A just in case.

Sorry to blunt to people working at Kent, but if your DD is Cam and Durham standard, why would you be considering a non RG uni? ( and remember their RAE score is for a much smaller dept than the others)

And when my DCs have been deciding on where to apply, they've considered distance, campus and non campus, course content (by far the most important factor for them)? And then they threw all of that out of the window and went with the important feel factor!

Thanks everyone. DD had a look at York prospectus today and really liked the look of it. Nottingham also a definite possibility now.

This is a very useful thread on The Student Room showing the standard offers for History (V100 is the UCAS code) this year.

I think there was a big jump in the standard offer this year at a lot of places. My son's insurance choice is Lancaster because it was the only AAB offer he got (everything else was AAA - thanks be he doesn't have an A* offer, it is making this year that little bit less stressful). We visited on a UCAS day and liked it a lot. Lancaster has a great deal going for it - it's highly rated for teaching and research across all subjects, it has a version of the collegiate system, Lancaster is a lovely town to escape to from the campus and there's fabulous countryside all around. It is a long way from the south, though.

I was a collingwood student. Ensure for final year. Great bar, great sport focus and quite a mix of people as large. If you're going for a hill college collingwood is generally considered the top one.