Should I choose the highest ranked uni?

I know Nottingham is still a really good uni and it is in the top 10 for English. I’m just worried that I am wasting my potential or damaging my job prospects by going for a lower ranked Uni.

I know I’ve already firmed but there’s always clearing or re-applying. Any thoughts? Thanks

Hey,

Basically I recently firmed my university but am now doubting my choice as it was made in a rush and was probably the lowest ranked out of all 5.

I got 10A*s for GCSE, 4As at AS and am predicted A*A*A/A* at A2. As you may expect, my teachers were keen for me to apply to Oxbridge but I decided against it as I don’t feel like it would be the right environment for me; I don’t think I would work well or thrive in such a pressured environment and I am not the typical “clever” student who reads and discusses politics in their spare time. (sorry for the generalisation – I’m aware that a lot of Oxbridge candidates are not like this)

So, I applied for Exeter, Warwick, Edinburgh, Nottingham and Bristol. However, I didn’t like the modern campus or atmosphere at Warwick, I felt I may be claustrophobic in a place like Exeter and I loved Bristol but the course was Liberal Arts rather than English and Spanish which I want.

I know Edinburgh is a really good uni but, on visiting, I felt the Spanish course was far too literature based and I would feel really uncomfortable living so far away from home. (London) So I decided on Nottingham as I felt the type of people, campus and city were much more to my taste and I also really liked the broadness of the English course as I’m really keen to study linguistics as well as literature. Anyway, I made my decision in a rush as I was worried about accommodation going and ultimately decided that being comfortable and enjoying the course was more important than prestige or rankings.

I know Nottingham is still a really good uni and it is in the top 10 for English. I’m just worried that I am wasting my potential or damaging my job prospects by going for a lower ranked Uni.

I know I’ve already firmed but there’s always clearing or re-applying. Any thoughts? Thanks

I know Edinburgh is a really good uni but, on visiting, I felt the Spanish course was far too literature based

Not sure why you think that. Edinburgh's Spanish degree doesn't have any compulsory literature modules.

Oh, are you sure? My course at Edinburgh would actually be called English and Spanish Literature and when I went to the offer day both the teacher and the students were talking about how a lot of it was literature based

Well obviously you're going to have to do English literature modules but I can't see any compulsory Spanish lit modules. http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/16-17/dpt/utspael.htm

Oh, I see. Basically, you probably already know this but with Edinburgh you do 3 different subjects in your first two years with 40 credits each. So I have a compulsory Spanish module (Spanish 2) and a compulsory English lit module (English lit 2) which are set. I can then either choose a completely different subject like Maths for my third subject or choose two from the list of modules which are on the page you just posted and are worth 20 credits each. In other words, they are just extra modules. But I do see what you're saying in that I could choose to do extra modules which are not literature based.
This is the core Spanish module which I would be doing for the first two years. At the bottom it says that half would be language exams and half would be literature. (in spanish haha) http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/16-17/dpt/cxelch08004.htm

Quite complicated to explain but hope that made sense
What I did like about the spanish course at Ed is that it is all taught in Spanish which surprisingly not many unis do anymore but oh well

I'm afraid you won’t be able to totally avoid reading Spanish books if you want to do a degree in the language, but the literature component of the Spanish 2 module seems to be minor. Nottingham on the other hand has at least one compulsory Spanish literature module.

You said you were interested in studying linguistics as well as English lit; why not take linguistics as your 'outside modules'? I don't mean to sound pro-Edinburgh, I'm not, you should go where you will be happiest.