How did you decide which university(ies) to go for?

Former Member

Straightforward really... did you just go to maybe 20 or so open days and see loads of different onces, or did you look in the league tables and pick out the one that soudned best for you? I went on the guardians table thingy and Warwick looked really good for maths, and it's not far away from where I live, I'm quite looking forward to going there. I mean, I haven't made a final decision, I'm still in year 12!!! But it's a destination.

I really haven't had much influence from anywhere except doing my own research, it's quite scary though, because we're supposed to be getting prepared for uni but all I know about is what I've learned myself. I guess there is a degree of taking the initiative, but all the same, I would've thought I'd still be a lot more spoon fed. I don't really know anything about any of the universities in this coutnry (but there are hundreds ), and I don't want to choose a university I'm not going to be happy at.

Former Member

i only went to about 5 or 6 open days. This is because my course was quite unique so there isnt loads of uni's that do it. I used a combination of the tables and personal factors like distance from my parents, course details ect.

Former Member

I just looked at the course details in loads of prospectuses and decided which uni's to apply for. This time I decided I wanted to stay within reasonable traveling distance of home, so that left me with Manchester unis, Liverpool ones, Leeds and a few other places, but none of those did courses I wanted to do. My bf at the time was in Manchester so when I was stuck between choosing between Liverpool and Manc, Manchester won. Very glad i did now since I've changed the emphasis I wanted in my degree this year which i couldn't have done at Liverpool.

Former Member

i had to stay at home in my first year,and i couldn't drive so i was pretty much limited to the unis in a 15 mile radius that were relatively easy to get to by public transport.

Former Member

I dismissed Oxford and Cambridge because I wasn't willing to jump through the extra hoops to go there, because I don't have the work ethic and because I wanted to be top of my degree classes, much like I had always been at school.

I dismissed going to a very Southern university on cost. After that I chose 6 in total, with good reputations and within a few hours of home. Went to visit each of them. Didn't like Edinburgh so didn't actually apply to it, chose Durham because it was collegeate.

Former Member

How do you give yourself the confidence you're choosing the right ones? All my teachers say it's a brilliant plan, but... *nervous*

Former Member

TheShyBoyInTheCorner wrote:

How do you give yourself the confidence you're choosing the right ones? All my teachers say it's a brilliant plan, but... *nervous*

You make the university what you want it to be. To be honest I think I'd have been happy at any of my choices.

Former Member

I went on the ucas website and wrote down a list of all the places I could possibly imagine myself living for however many years. Then I thought what subject I wanted to do, and realistically what grades I was likely to get. And cut out all the ones that didn't suit because of grade boundaries or low in league tables or whatever. Then I went on the websites, and then to some open days. Worked for me

littlemissy

I didn't go to any open days before accepting my place at uni. I was too far away and it was a huge hassle.

I chose Edinburgh as a city. I decided I wanted to go there and applied to all the unis there (well, most of them) The other options I chose from just looking at the prospectuses.

However, I do acknowledge that this isn't the right way to do it. You should go to open days and try and get the feel for the university and stuff.

Former Member

I went to those conference things with loads of representatives, and got an idea of what kind of places I wanted to go to. I went to some random open days and got a feel for what kind of place I'd want to go to.

It turned out the course I wanted to do isn't that common, which helped me narrow it down a lot. I wrote down all the unis that did the course, and cut down the list based on where they were (didn't want somewhere too close to home, or too far away), the course content, the city and the university reputation, that kinda thing. I looked at league tables as well, but out of interest more than a way of deciding where to go. I also made sure I had a range of typical offers, from AAB to CCD.

I'd planned to visit all the unis that gave me offers, but I didn't in the end. I'd visited Manchester twice already, and set my heart on it, but they cancelled the course. The next open day was Oxford Brookes, which I expected to hate, but really, really liked. After I'd visited Brookes, I decided not to visit Edinburgh and Glasgow because they were too far away, and I wouldn't want to go that far from home. The course at Birmingham wasn't really what I wanted, and I thought the grades were unrealistic, and I just didn't really fancy Nottingham Trent.

So, I decided on Brookes. It just kinda.. worked out that way for me. It really helps to visit and get a feel for the place though - some unis (including Warwick, as it happens) I expected to love but just didn't think that much to when I visited, and like I said I expected to hate Brookes but within half an hour of being there I felt like it was definitely somewhere I could enjoy living and working at for three years.

I based a lot of it on gut instinct, really. Hopefully it'll work out alright for me. :nervous:

Former Member

I didnt go to any open days I dont think. I choose places on what I wanted, such as being in a large city (not to hard really) and quite of a few of the places I applied to I had been to before. Not in a dogey way just "I've been to Cardiff before, nice city. Does my course, nice little position in the Russel group. "SIGN ME UP BABY".

NOw you said you wanted to do maths, well then it all depends on what level you want to be hitting, truly hardcore in Imperial collage of London? Bath is good for maths, Southampton are quite good. With maths you got to be carefull of the differant types of banches. Pure maths? Statisitcs? Applied? You really dont want to end up doing a module that you hate or worse hate/cant do as it may go tits up.

Bopz

Former Member

Bopperz wrote:

I didnt go to any open days I dont think. I choose places on what I wanted, such as being in a large city (not to hard really) and quite of a few of the places I applied to I had been to before. Not in a dogey way just "I've been to Cardiff before, nice city. Does my course, nice little position in the Russel group. "SIGN ME UP BABY".

NOw you said you wanted to do maths, well then it all depends on what level you want to be hitting, truly hardcore in Imperial collage of London? Bath is good for maths, Southampton are quite good. With maths you got to be carefull of the differant types of banches. Pure maths? Statisitcs? Applied? You really dont want to end up doing a module that you hate or worse hate/cant do as it may go tits up.

Bopz

not 100% sure but stats seems a definate option. But i've always ben into computing as well so maybe a mix of those two.... but I'm leaning towards the pure maths + stats option

Former Member

I went to Newcastle to do maths in the first place, but was more into the mechanics side of things...but we had to do a little of everything. Other places I applied for were Loughborough, York, Hull and Nottingham. Went to look round all of them 1st time. Was really expecting to like Hull and had my heart set on going there, but when I got there hated the place. Think I was fussy because they all put me straight off, except Newcastle where I drove into the city and instantly fell in love with the place.

Former Member

Kazbo wrote:

I went to Newcastle to do maths in the first place, but was more into the mechanics side of things...but we had to do a little of everything. Other places I applied for were Loughborough, York, Hull and Nottingham. Went to look round all of them 1st time. Was really expecting to like Hull and had my heart set on going there, but when I got there hated the place. Think I was fussy because they all put me straight off, except Newcastle where I drove into the city and instantly fell in love with the place.

You expected to love Hull?

Based on what? It's been voted the worst place in Britain to live!

Former Member

hull is 2nd worse next to grimsby for me, either way they both smell of fish.

I chose my place at uni because a) i wanted to be within touching distance of home because a lot of my friends were stopping here and didnt wanna lose touch. b) manchester rocks c) few of my friends were going d) all the sexah girls are in the world are in manchester

edit: btw, do NOT go to Lampeter university in wales, the town sucks. its sooo small nothing going on! we went there on our roadtrip a few years ago over the summer, wasnt expecting a uni, lucky for us there was a girls band camp on we partied hard. but the place eats nuts.

Former Member

Yeah lampter is really crap i had a friend who went there and dropped out because it was so islolated.

I wasnt' sure what I wanted to do I knew i wanted to do either development studies or geography but i didnt' want to do a full geography degree (which in retrospect was really silly because i probably would have got a first if i did) so i had to narrow my choices down to places where i could do developmenty geography and something.

I went to a few open days both before and after I applied - some of them I went to totally put me off like sussex I hated it when i thought i was going to like it and it had a really good reputation for what I wanted to do, I also loved Keel the first time I went to see it but went again after i'd been offered a place and decided it was to far from home, the same thing happened with Aberdeen.

Then in my upper sixth I decided that I really didnt' want to leave london after visiting all the far away universities and getting really into clubbing and a close group of friends who were hear. So I rejected all my offers except for the SOAS one, however I have to say that going to the open day there made me realise what a lovely place it was and unlike all the other universities which were really shirty to people looking round and a bit unfriendly, they had laid on this giant buffet of carribean and african food for us all to eat - so I guess you can say I was swayed by my stomach.

But my advice would be to develop a shortlist of the ones that are good for your course and go and see as many of them at open days etc as you can wilst your int he lower 6th (i've no idea what year that is inteh new fangled system) because in your last year you have to have handed in your UCAS for my Nov/December time and its probably better to go and see them before applying incase you dont' get any offers

Former Member

I had lots of mates in Hull so it was gonna be a reunion for us all and should have been great.

Former Member

I looked around at specific courses which I wanted to attend and visited the Uni I wanted to go to.

Then I go terrible exam results so I just picked a Uni in London who would let me in because I wanted to be there.