Choosing a university - useful sites?

Savvy_Sue

m277 wrote: »

He has to sit two STEP papers depending on which maths A-levels he has done/doing. If he is only doing the single maths A-level then he has to sit both STEP 1 and STEP 2. But if he is doing both maths and further maths (which I would recommend as it will give him a better grounding for uni maths) then he has to sit STEP 2 and STEP 3.
I gather from your post, he has probably done a maths A-level and STEP 1, and got a level 1 - that's pretty impressive.

DS2 is now a bit confused because he's done STEP 1, and he doesn't think you usually do more than 2 STEP papers, but as he's doing Maths and Further Maths he should be doing STEP 2 and 3 ...

so he's going to leave that conundrum until he's back at school and can talk to his maths teachers.

Rikki

My son wasn't happy when he found the best place for him to study his course was at the nearest university. :rotfl:

..but he can be as close as he likes and still be along way from home, especially if it involves washing. :rotfl:


When we were looking at universitys we only visited a couple before he made his six choices. We were then going to see which ones made him offers and then see if we needed to look at anymore.

Savvy_Sue

Rikki wrote: »

My son wasn't happy when he found the best place for him to study his course was at the nearest university. :rotfl:

..but he can be as close as he likes and still be along way from home, especially if it involves washing. :rotfl:


When we were looking at universitys we only visited a couple before he made his six choices. We were then going to see which ones made him offers and then see if we needed to look at anymore.

Yes, DS1 visited our local university and was disappointed to find that he liked it as much as he did! And I can't remember which of his choices he visited before putting them on his form, and which we saw afterwards.

But it all feels a lot more rushed for DS2, and it feels as if the choice of 'which course' is wider to begin with, so harder to know where to start.

Or maybe I'm just feeling older ... he's too young for this! :rotfl:

student_advisor

I was in a similar position to your son when I applied for uni, and also went for Mathematics.

I went through the big uni book (or something similar) which lists each course and the current points offer. This helped me sort out courses that would challenge me academically. I then used prospectuses and websites to narrow these top 10-20 down to just 6.

I chose Warwick, York, UMIST (now part of Manchester possibly), Bristol, Sheffield & Bath. UMIST had a lower points score but I'd previously been there for an event and was impressed. (Didn't fancy Oxbridge and had a sneaking suspicion that I couldn't be bothered to work hard enough.)

I visited Warwick, York, Bristol and UMIST and chose Warwick as no.1 and York as no.2 (in the end didn't get in to Warwick and had the best time at York).

Good luck to your son, sounds like he'll be welcome wherever he applies.

m277

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

DS2 is now a bit confused because he's done STEP 1, and he doesn't think you usually do more than 2 STEP papers, but as he's doing Maths and Further Maths he should be doing STEP 2 and 3 ...

so he's going to leave that conundrum until he's back at school and can talk to his maths teachers.

If he gets an offer from Cambridge (or Warwick) then they will probably ask for 3 As in his A-levels and a certain grade on both STEP papers. Since he's doing maths and further maths then they will base the offer on STEP 2 and STEP 3. It won't matter that he's already done STEP 1. The entries for these exams don't have to be in until nearer next summer so there's plenty of time left to check it out.

studentphil

I think it is important to consider if places offer joint honours in two subjects or a way to transfer out of doing just one subject if you really do find that you hate your degree subject.

Savvy_Sue

studentphil wrote: »

I think it is important to consider if places offer joint honours in two subjects or a way to transfer out of doing just one subject if you really do find that you hate your degree subject.

It does help that with Maths, he really should know by now ... :rotfl: although of course the KIND of Maths is quite important: the boys' godfather is a pure mathematician, and has no time for thinking about whether there's any practical use for his research ... he leaves that to the applied mathematicians.

And both DS1 and DS2 completely despise statistics! :rotfl:

And Durham used to offer a common first year for Maths and Physics, at the end of which many of the aspiring mathematicians switched to Physics because it was easier!

I asked last night if he thought he was clever enough to get 3 As at A2, and he just sort of looked at me. :rolleyes:

He's meant to be researching open days today. And finding a driving instructor. :wave:

studentphil

It depends really some people find the second subject a good break from Maths then others find engineering or computing all a bit of a let down and a step away from the maths they love so much. But for some reason they like to push a module or two in computing into many maths degrees now (most likely because the computer industry is where they will go for jobs).

As you son knows what sort of Maths he likes then looking for a maths department that does those sorts of modules is where you want to go.

Voyager2002

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

It does help that with Maths, he really should know by now ... :rotfl: although of course the KIND of Maths is quite important: the boys' godfather is a pure mathematician, and has no time for thinking about whether there's any practical use for his research ... he leaves that to the applied mathematicians.

And both DS1 and DS2 completely despise statistics! :rotfl:

And Durham used to offer a common first year for Maths and Physics, at the end of which many of the aspiring mathematicians switched to Physics because it was easier!

I asked last night if he thought he was clever enough to get 3 As at A2, and he just sort of looked at me. :rolleyes:

He's meant to be researching open days today. And finding a driving instructor. :wave:

Yes, I did the Durham course you mention. It involved a very heavy workload, since you did the entire Maths first year AND the entire Physics first year. I was spending too much time doing lab work for Physics and tedious assignments, so I reduced the Physics content of my course and so was committed to a Maths degree.

NickiM

Sorry, can't help the maths side, but will be going to Durham in September if you have any Durham questions.

Good websites:
- www.studential.com
- www.thestudentroom.com (not specifically university based but has helpful subforums for different universities where you can ask lots of questions)