University. One to two marks off a first? Experiences?

pleasedelete

Person_one wrote: »

Do you work in the arts? I did. If you don't then it may be that your expertise in recruitment doesn't extend to that particular field.

You'd have a really hard job studying graphic design, fashion, or sculpture at most Russell Group universities. UCL only excels in the subject because it has the Slade.

Here are the top universities for Art and Design, it looks very different to the list for chemistry, or medicine, or engineering:

http://www.theguardian.com/education/table/2013/jun/04/university-guide-art-design

Which is what I said- for certain subjects some universities are better but for a mainstream degree the university matters.

I have recruited for arts twice this year so far in the £80-100k range.

Person_one

pleasedelete wrote: »

Which is what I said- for certain subjects some universities are better but for a mainstream degree the university matters.

I have recruited for arts twice this year so far in the £80-100k range.

So who were talking to with your 'kidding yourself' comment?

onlyroz

Just to add that I have two friends with a 2:2 from a Russell Group Uni who did well for themselves. One of them spent their time during their first degree doing archery and had little time for study. They managed to get onto a 1-year MSc course which subsequently enabled them to go on to do a PhD. They've now been working for Arup for a few years don't very well for themselves.

My second friend spend all his time at Uni running the dramatic society. He decided that he wanted to get into television and so got a job as a medical secretary to supplement his income while he went on the stand-up circuit. He's now running a department in a large London hospital. He still does quite a bit of stand-up but he's had to turn down opportunities to direct some London shows because his NHS job keeps him too busy.

I have another friend who wanted to become a doctor but didn't get the A Level grades. She did a degree in biology and then went on to do medicine and has been a qualified doctor for a few years now.

Basically what I'm saying is that you can usually get where you want through hard work and perseverance even if things don't always quite work out first time.

pleasedelete

And indeed one of my childhood friends left school at 16 and went to be a nanny and is now a QC.

Another went to be a builder and I would imagine is almost the highest earner of all and certainly the most asset rich (bought houses 2O years ago- renovated and kept them)

There are exceptions and outliers everywhere but when advising 18 year olds the advice to go to the best uni possible would generally be more sound than to try and catch up later.

whodathunkit

Person_one wrote: »

For the arts, it is 'uni uni uni' but the ones that have the best reputation in the art/design field aren't the traditional red brick or Russell Group at all. The best universities for the arts are usually ex polys that have incorporated the old smaller art colleges into themselves at some point in their history.

There's a difference between "the arts" as in art and design and as in arts v science subjects.

For arts subjects like English and History, the university you attend is very important.

Person_one

whodathunkit wrote: »

There's a difference between "the arts" as in art and design and as in arts v science subjects.

For arts subjects like English and History, the university you attend is very important.

I'd call English and History humanities subjects, rather than arts.

daisiegg

English is an arts subject. You get a BA (Bachelor of Arts). I just looked up history degrees and it seems they are generally BA too.

Buzzybee90

daisiegg wrote: »

English is an arts subject. You get a BA (Bachelor of Arts). I just looked up history degrees and it seems they are generally BA too.

You can get a BA in geography, but it's not an arts subject.

daisiegg

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

You can get a BA in geography, but it's not an arts subject.

Surely by definition if you get a Bachelor of Arts in it, then by that university's classifications it is an 'arts' subject, even though we do not think of it in that way?

But I think the point that is being made is that the poster who was talking about the university you go to being important in 'arts subjects' was more talking about BA type subjects (which,as you have pointed out, can really be lots of subjects - almost anything that is not sciencey!) Other people then thought he was saying 'the arts' to mean things like design and fashion, which I don't think is what he was talking about.

I think. I may be wrong!

Person_one

daisiegg wrote: »

English is an arts subject. You get a BA (Bachelor of Arts). I just looked up history degrees and it seems they are generally BA too.

You can get a BA in loads of subjects that aren't arts.

I think people do often lump 'arts and humanities' in together, and the boundaries aren't always clear. I don't think most of the general public would mean subjects like history or sociology or French if they were talking about studying the arts at university.

(The words art and arts look really strange now!)