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Universities...
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I need people's opinions on the seven universities I have on my list, so that I can cut it down to six. I want to do English and Creative Writing, and atm I do IB. The pass mark for IB is 24 points, and I'm predicted somewhere around 34. The highest you can get is 45, and anything above 34 is pretty good. So anyway, my choices are:
Northumbria (which is where I want to go and will be my first choice), although I don't know the IB entry requirements, it's 280 UCAS points.
Chester, 30 IB points, 240 UCAS points.
Chichester, 28 IB points, 220-40 UCAS points.
Huddersfield, dunno the exact requirements, but a pass.
Manchester Met, 28 IB points, 280 UCAS points.
Plymouth, 26 IB points, 240-280 UCAS points.
Winchester, 24 IB points, 220 UCAS points.
So, like, if anyone could tell me what the universities are like and stuff...that would be nice . Thank you kindly and stuff .
xx
Northumbria (which is where I want to go and will be my first choice), although I don't know the IB entry requirements, it's 280 UCAS points.
Chester, 30 IB points, 240 UCAS points.
Chichester, 28 IB points, 220-40 UCAS points.
Huddersfield, dunno the exact requirements, but a pass.
Manchester Met, 28 IB points, 280 UCAS points.
Plymouth, 26 IB points, 240-280 UCAS points.
Winchester, 24 IB points, 220 UCAS points.
So, like, if anyone could tell me what the universities are like and stuff...that would be nice . Thank you kindly and stuff .
xx
Post edited by JustV on
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Plus chichester is as far as I'm remember pretty quite and not really student friendly, unlike brighton.
Aim for a couple of high ones, and then 4 others. Don't forget, when you make your choice you get an insurance option too!
My main offer was AAAa, my insurance was CCC, I got something between the two in the end, but am glad I'm not on a CCC course (most of the time).
I won't babble on too much about how utterly fabulous Newcastle is as it speaks for itself, but you are a wise lady having it as your first choice and I definitely don't think you'd regret coming here. The English department is raved about by my friends who have studied there, just to tack on a brief mention of something that is actually academic
Oh, my second choice of those would be Manchester, most definitely.
You know where to go!
As Scary said, I'd go for a couple of high ones. You never know.
Also, I've walked around campus several times and its quite weird tbh. The accomodation isn't particularly nice either. Sure, theres a few halls but the student housing really isn't very nice. There isn't any proper student accomodation. I wouldn't really wanna stay there. Also, although this might not be something you would take into account when applying for a uni, it would me so I'm gonna say it...Chester doesn't really have a very good nightlife. This is where I'm forced to go out back home if I want to go to anything more than a Wetherspoons (I live in a village 20 mins away) and its nothing special. I can only think of 2 nightclubs in my head and a few decent bars. Its a lovely lovely town though, don't get me wrong. Its just a VERY BORING place to live. Its not really very studenty at all. I think its a shit place to live for students.
It seems as though you have already made up your mind tbh so like, posting this is probably a waste of time I seriously would cut Chester out of the list though.
I would go for high ones, but I don't want to feel like I'm tied down to a university I'm not really fussed about going to, just because I managed to meet their entry requirements (not that I will).
I'm trying to remember what my predicted grades are, and I know it won't get me more than 35 points MAX.
6+6+5/6+4/5+5+5+2 = 33-35. Yeh. I think that's how it is. I don't even know about the 2 points at the end, either. That's optimistic, as are some of those predicted grades if I'm honest. Meh.
If anyone wants to reccomend me a high one that does the course, go ahead, 'cause I'm thinking I now have 4, rather than 7, as I imagine I'm gonna cut Chester, Chichester and Winchester off. Maybe.
Birmingham, UEA, Kent (you can even have a year abroad in the states with this one), Royal Holloway and Warwick are all good universities which do that course.
Failing that there is also Greenwich which is down the road from me & wycombe which means you get to hang out with dr p! Also if the worst comes to the worst then you can probably get a place at any of the universities you've listed through clearing.
Also consider doing English as a stand alone subject and then a short course in creative writing which would definatley broaden your choice of places.
ETA - I checked a few of the better universities and you can easily get into them with those predicted grades so i really don't see why your not trying for them
I don't want to go to UEA or anywhere in Kent/London/etc because imo that's a bit close to home, and I want to be far far away from here, tbh. That's one of my main things about Uni, that I don't want to be so close to home that it's piss easy to come back if something bad happens, so that I can deal with it by myself.
Whilst those unis around you are geographically close(ish), there's nothing to make you pop home every weekend, and in terms of experience you'll be miles away. Don't dismiss places just because of where they are.
I came from Midsomer Norton and went to Bristol Uni, which is about 50 minutes drive away (or an hour and 15 on the crappy busses). I didn't constantly make visits home, but it was nice to be a bus-ride away, rather than an expensive train-ride away, so I could get home at short notice if I needed to. Living fairly close also made moving SOO much easier, as Mum could do multiple trips in one day, rather than having the headache of how to cram everything in the car in one go.
I wouldn't rush to write off Northumbria as a "good" uni, either- their politics department rates higher than Durham's, for instance. And its the same with MMU. I would have a punt and shove an application in to Durham- its a great uni, and the IB is respected there.
You know which one I think you should apply to though
:yes:
Proof by obviousness.
Durham's great, I lived there as a student for a week, that one gets my thumbs up. Look at the course details though, find out how much English and hows much CW there is. With a course like that you also want to really check out how much teaching you'll be getting, you may feel like many do that getting 4 hours contact time a week is a waste of your money.
Birmingham is just one for consideration tbh, you know exactly where I want to go Kermit .
I found out when I was choosing courses that often there was the opportunity to do as much if not more of what I wanted in the regular course through module/unit options as there was on the X with Y courses.
Nah, only kidding. Its a lovely uni. Quite hard to get into though.
Weird you say they don't do creative writing though, I'm sure one of the girls in my ex's halls did :chin:
But no...I didn't want to go there. I considered it, because KHSS told me to, but they didn't do my course and stuff so *shrug*.