Uni Dilemma

coolsteel

Hi thanks for reading, my daughter has a decision to make, she has a choice of two university's, Manchester or University of Central Lancashire (Preston), her problem is the quality of the degree she would get. Think a degree for Psychology @ Manchester is better thought of than Preston, would this be correct? but her problem lies is that she really likes the set up @ Preston Uni and thinks she would be happier there but its the degree and how the degree would be perceived by future employers.
Any thoughts?

melancholly

i think manchester would be the better thought of degree.... but if she would get a much higher grade at preston since she prefers it so much, it's not exactly a 'bad' university so i wouldn't worry too much.

ftbworried

The University of Manchester would get my vote (but I'm biased ;-)).

Preston uni has this whole 'small town' feel and if she's quite a homely 18 year old or perhaps nervous about moving away then Manchester would seem quite daunting at first. Although she might feel a bit daunted by living in a big city, it has MANY plusses and the nightlife, social scene and societies available are infinitly better at Manchester. It also has a very large student community compared to Preston.

When she's older and perhaps more confident she may regret going to Preston because it seemed 'cosier' because by then she might also be suffering the repercussions of having a degree from an 'ex-poly' uni.

kittymary

Manchester university definitely has the better overall reputation (unless you mean manchester metropolitan).

The absolute most important thing to find out for a psychology degree is whether the programme is accredited by the BPS, as if it is not she will not have the option of applying for assistant psychologist jobs with the hope of becoming a clinical psychologist unless she does a conversion course so that she has the graduate basis for registration with the BPS. Obviously this may not matter to her if she doesn't want to be a clinical psychologist anyway.

Theoretically the quality of the degree you get depends only on the work you put in, with a first from one uni being the same as a first from any other. In fact there probably is a little variation, but it shouldn't be that huge. She may find that at less prestigious universities she will be taught predominantly by lecturers rather than the postgraduate teaching assistants that do a lot of the teaching at posher universities, and that lecturers have more time for undergraduates as at the posher universities the lecturers are too busy doing research to pay much attention to the students. This is of course a huge over-generalisation, and I am sure it doesn't apply to all university departments, the best thing to do is to go to the open days and find out what both departments are really like.

tr3mor

Manchester is definitely a better university.

Providing you don't mean the Met. Although it does seem odd to be choosing between somewhere like Manchester and somewhere like Preston.

coolsteel

tr3mor wrote: »

Manchester is definitely a better university.

Providing you don't mean the Met. Although it does seem odd to be choosing between somewhere like Manchester and somewhere like Preston.

Odd? could you say why? my daughter has offers from Manchester, Preston, Liverpool Hope, Chester, Lancaster,

Manchester ( not Met) and Lancaster need the Highest grades, so she chose Manchester, as a second choice she chose Preston from the rest for
1, Geographical,
2, Went to the open day and we were very impressed so much so now she is in a dilemma to switching Preston to her first choice.

slowlyfading

I'd say go with where you like the best. She's going to be there three years or more, so it needs to be somewhere she's comfortable with. I'm at Lancaster, and it was my first choice because of how much I liked it at the open day and how comfortable I felt there
Nicola x

melancholly

just had a thought - it's worth looking at the staff who teach the kind of psychology that your daughter is interested in - e.g. if she wants to learn about developmental psychology or cognition or language etc. then see what the specialities of the staff at the different universities specialise in.

ftbworried

coolsteel wrote: »

Odd? could you say why?

My guess is that there is never usually a comparison between those two universities. Its like a footballer saying "I can't choose between Everton (for example) and West Bromich Albion".

SamMoffatt28

I'm at Uclan and I have found it to be excellent! People often over look it for the bigger Uni's (as I almost did, I originally planned to go to Lancaster Uni) but I cant fault it in any way, in fact I liked it better than Lancaster as it has a nicer feel to it which is why I chose to go there instead. There is a huge expansion going on too, which can only mean that its going to get better.

Just my twopennies worth ...

studentphil

SamMoffatt28 wrote: »

I'm at Uclan and I have found it to be excellent! People often over look it for the bigger Uni's (as I almost did, I originally planned to go to Lancaster Uni) but I cant fault it in any way, in fact I liked it better than Lancaster as it has a nicer feel to it which is why I chose to go there instead. There is a huge expansion going on too, which can only mean that its going to get better.

Just my twopennies worth ...

Bigger means that it will loose its homely feel and it will become more impersonal, therefore, is bigger really better?