What made you decide on your university?

RobLondon1984

I decided to do a Msc for 2008 entry, I am thinking of applying to 3 universities. If I do get offers from all of them, I have no idea which to choose.

They are all out of London, while I am living in London, its proberly worth it going to those universities open day?

Just want to know what reasons people have on choosing their university?

[Deleted User]

Do you want a night life/campus?
Do you want red brick/'new uni (ex-poly)'?
Big City/Small city?
Far from home (e.g. St Andrews) or not far from London (e.g. Bristol)

Depends on your priorities.. the course content should be quite important, plus the quality of the uni and it's place in the rankings for that subject.

Being a MSE, you may want to look at cost of living (look at average rents)

Oh so many decisions, i had the following in mind originally:
1. In the north (lived at time in manchester)
2. Not liverpool
3. Not wales

What happened? I ended up on clearance going to uni doing a degree then a masters at Liverpool uni. Then ended up working at the university of wales college of medicine in Cardiff.

Show's what i knew at 17

Note: I now live in London, and i'd highly recommend you study outside of London.. if anything to get a wider experience of life.

apoorstudent

For me, in this order...

1) Prestige of the institution
2) Locality
3) Content of the course
4) Practicality of the subject once I've graduated
5) I'm good at it

Notice that there's nothing about liking the subject there... Hah.

jrrowleyws

You have to visit them, your going to be spending 3 or 4 years there atleast. Youve got to like the place!

Even though it costs to visit them, its cheaper than dropping out of your first year!

sarah.roberts85

I got accepted to 5 universities. When considering where to go I looked at quite a few things:
1. Reputation of the institution AND the department (look at league tables etc)
2. I went to open days and got a feel for the university and the town/city - no point spending 3 years at at nice Uni when the town is a dump with nothing to do!
3. I spoke to other students already at the Universities to gauge living expenses - depends on your eligiblity for student loans etc. but I needed somewhere fairly cheap.

I think finding somewhere where you know you will be happy is the best thing, if you are unhappy chances are you will not complete your degree! Also do you want to be within a close travelling distance to your family?

Good luck deciding! :-)

dexters_mum_2

For me it was:

1. The course, it wasn't widely offered but my local uni did it
2. Course has had a very good report from official bodies
3. Locality

Good Luck

skintscotsman

RobLondon1984 wrote:

I decided to do a Msc for 2008 entry, I am thinking of applying to 3 universities. If I do get offers from all of them, I have no idea which to choose.

They are all out of London, while I am living in London, its proberly worth it going to those universities open day?

Just want to know what reasons people have on choosing their university?

went to the uni that had the nicest looking girls but had to ensure it wasn't *too* high brow a university as I needed the girls to be thick too so they could fall for my bull sh*t.

mug51

I had to pick one from 4, but one of them was a safety net incase I couldn't be accepted in the other 5, so thats rules that one out.
I looked at the pretty pictures in the prospectus to see which I liked best , should have really gone on the open days. I also compared the subject rankings in the likes of the times and guardian, that pretty much discarded one of the uni's.
However the killer choice was whether to stay at home in Newcastle or move to sunny Scotland. Far too many pros and cons, and I was never a decisive kind so I submitted my first and second choices just before the deadline. I had to let God decide, heads for Scotland, tails for home. It turned out to be heads and I submitted my choices.
And i'm not even at Edinburgh, God had a change of mind, he made me fail both my business exams in the summer to be 3 marks off from being up there.

Anyways enuff of my life story.

dalumsden1

I have a applied to a uni because it is the only place in Scotland that does it.

1) Tuition fees are paid free for Scots so I decided to stay here.
2)I wanted to to a uni in Glasgow or Aberdeen as accomodation is cheap and it is far from my home but easily accessible by bus or train.

sunflower_rainbow

Well, my decision, like dalumsden1, was pretty much made for me as there are only 2 places that do my course in Scotland. I applied only to the one that 'had the better course' .... apparently... i believe so anyway. haha

Is there no way for you to find out what uni is best for the particular course you are wanting to study?

pavlovs_dog

i knew which course i wanted to do, it was only offered at a handful of unis, didnt like a few which narrowed the list down, won a scholarship to one of the ones i did like, so thats where i ended up.

the benefit of hindsight has taught that that i probably would have been better off at one of the unis i decided i didnt like, as knowing what i know now it doesnt seem so bad. sods law i guess