Queen Mary or Royal Holloway?

Hi guys, I'm torn between Royal Holloway and Queen Mary to study Bsc Psychology.

I love the location of QM, it seems pretty more active than Royal Holloway in terms of social life and student union etc. but the thing that really puts me off Queen Mary is the fact that the Psychology course is really new! Will this put me at a disadvantage?

At RH, they have facilities like MRI scanners, EEG's etc. whereas I don't know if QM have similar equipment.

Plus, QM are strong in subjects like English, Medicine etc. and I'm worried that they don't really focus as much on the "new" psychology students, so maybe we won't have as much career/employment events and stuff for us.

Do you know or are you a QM Psychology student? What is it like studying Psychology at Queen Mary? Please, I need some advice!! Thanks in advance.

Hey guys,
I saw this thread and it was really interesting to read it, found loads of useful information here
I have an offer from QM for law. Since I've been rejected from my other choices (KCL, Ox, LSE), I'm thinking of either firming QM or taking a gap year and trying to reapply the next year.
Could you give me some advice about what to choose?
Thank you.

No, have left. Careers service was okay but none of the university services are great to be honest. They tend to offer generic advice rather than the stuff you really need. I did English though so I don't know about Psychology as such.

My experience of Royal Holloway was negative (as I say this is not everyone's experience). It was not because of the course which was fine.

a). The college is on the top of a big hill. To reach Egham is a trek. In the deep of winter its a nightmare. Egham is essentially a commuter town and there's nothing there. The train to London is on the Waterloo line which is very slow. If you have a car then RHC is probably fine but without it then it can feel very isolated.

b). The surrounding area is expensive to rent in for the second and third years. I know London itself is too but at least there's more of a choice and you get the London weighting to help.

c). On campus night life is okay but its limited.

d). Its popular with richer students who didn't make Oxbridge but still want a quad therefore its a bit homogeneous in terms of student attitudes with a pre-ponderance of students who are conservative with both a small and large 'C'.

I came from a city to RHC and was shocked to discover the lack of services in a country area. Obviously others may want this country experience so RHC would be great for them.

Hope this helps....

Queen Mary is like a heavenly little island bang-smack in the middle between east end poverty and West End affluence, whereby you can easily access either with but a touch of an Oyster Card.

Truly in the middle and truly middle-class. Almost the very definition of it.

Do you go there? What's it like, i never got to look around it properly on the interview day because they over ran
I know the area is pretty bad though, but it's the Uni you go to not the location

I went there yes for undergrad. The area isn't really bad at all, and as I said it's right in the middle in terms of either going to the east end or the west end so it really is a great location.

Did law there. Would recommend. Don't take a gap year for application reasons. I had LSE, but wanted Oxford; reapplied and got rejected from both!

Good points:
- As rigorous a course as any other good university (that includes Oxbridge).
- Good teaching
- If you are proactive in wanting help, you'll get it.
- Campus university in London. Best of both worlds.
- Strong law societies. Lots of vac schemes available internally from various societies. I didn't get my training contract through this, but I met a contact through one of the societies who helped me out with the application process...

Negatives:
- It is hard work. Some people manage to have a social life, some don't.
- If you don't seek help and have difficulties, it's easy to slip away, fall behind and do badly. This is the case everywhere probably outside of Oxbridge.
- All the law students I've known from QM are lovely. Paradoxically there is a very competitive and cut-throat atmosphere around the law school sometimes.
- If you don't join societies/know where to go, London can be depressing. As Stephen Fry said, 'the only ugly things you will ever see when you look out of the window are things made by man'.

I had the same dilemma and chose Royal Holloway in the end. It was the biggest mistake I made, transferred to Queen Mary in my second year and have been much happier since!

Hey guys,
I saw this thread and it was really interesting to read it, found loads of useful information here
I have an offer from QM for law. Since I've been rejected from my other choices (KCL, Ox, LSE), I'm thinking of either firming QM or taking a gap year and trying to reapply the next year.
Could you give me some advice about what to choose?
Thank you.

Hi everyone! Thanks for an interesting thread! I am also deciding between QM and RHUL, and I'd be moving over from California. QM will be FAR more expensive due to location and they don't have the gorgeous campus that RHUL has, but the school is in the top 100 in the world. I'm pretty torn whether to choose more student debt and a better school or a roomy 2-bedroom for me and the fiance in rural Egham, ha!