Nottingham vs. Sheffield: Can't make my mind up.

This is a personal debate that I've been having with myself but I'm still struggling to come to a conclusion.

I've firmed American Studies and English at Nottingham, a course I personally think is quite interesting, but I still do not like the city of Nottingham.
On the other hand, my insurance (English Language and Literature) at Sheffield is a course that I would enjoy and is in a city that I really like, but the course is still not as interesting as the one offered at Nottingham.
I'm considering switching my firm to Sheffield and vice versa but I can't make my mind up.

Is anyone else having/had this situation? What decision did you come to? Anything would be helpful really, I don't want to screw up my time at Uni because I made the choice to go to the wrong one.

tl;dr: Should I do the degree I find interesting in a city and uni which I'm not really a fan of? Or do a degree that isn't as interesting (but still enjoyable) in a uni and city that I much prefer?

P.S. Sorry if this doesn't read like a post for the English forum, not terribly sure where else to put it.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

The Empire Odyssey

21

Original post by Real Human Bean

This is a personal debate that I've been having with myself but I'm still struggling to come to a conclusion.

I've firmed American Studies and English at Nottingham, a course I personally think is quite interesting, but I still do not like the city of Nottingham.
On the other hand, my insurance (English Language and Literature) at Sheffield is a course that I would enjoy and is in a city that I really like, but the course is still not as interesting as the one offered at Nottingham.
I'm considering switching my firm to Sheffield and vice versa but I can't make my mind up.

Is anyone else having/had this situation? What decision did you come to? Anything would be helpful really, I don't want to screw up my time at Uni because I made the choice to go to the wrong one.

tl;dr: Should I do the degree I find interesting in a city and uni which I'm not really a fan of? Or do a degree that isn't as interesting (but still enjoyable) in a uni and city that I much prefer?

P.S. Sorry if this doesn't read like a post for the English forum, not terribly sure where else to put it.

Oh that is a very tough one!

I'm not sure if you can up and switch your firm and insurance if you've confirmed it by UCAS already. Just double check.

This is a tricky one because the course and where you live share a MASSIVE part of your degree and uni experience.

But I would personally pick course over place. Now, I LOVED my first uni and where it was located. I made a bunch of life long friends who a year later, still keep in contact and still see. Which is just great. But I ultimately made the decision to leave because the course just was not delivering the way it had promised. Now it was good, but I was missing Philosophy way too much from A-level and that uni I was at didn't offer it me, so I made the decision to leave.

It came with its ups and downs. The ups is that I LOVE my course. It's heavy but I just love it so much and made the right decision. Downs is that I have a lot less friends in my current uni and it has been somewhat of a lonelier and less fulfilling experience than my first uni. But friends are always reassuring me "you moved for the course and its job aspects". And that's what I did move for.

The city is lovely, one of a tourist city, it has enough things to do, and its closer to home than the city my first uni was situated in. But, I think ultimately, if you don't like your course, you will go through hating it and that can have a negative mental impact on the way you do your work, and the way you socialise. It may make you leave by the end of 1st year and then you'll be in an extra 9k debt like myself.

So I would lean more towards experiencing the right degree course at the right uni, rather than the city. And I sometimes go by the motto "it's not where you are, but it's who you're with that counts". If you make friends then that's all you need. You guys can do many things together, in and outside your uni city. I've done that a few times. Your degree course is more important cause once you leave your not-so-much-loved uni city, you can literally leave because of the better job prospects you have received because of how hard you worked for your degree. That's how I would see it anyway.

Hope that helps a lil' bit.

Reply 2

Real Human Bean

OP

Original post by The Empire Odyssey

Oh that is a very tough one!

I'm not sure if you can up and switch your firm and insurance if you've confirmed it by UCAS already. Just double check.

This is a tricky one because the course and where you live share a MASSIVE part of your degree and uni experience.

But I would personally pick course over place. Now, I LOVED my first uni and where it was located. I made a bunch of life long friends who a year later, still keep in contact and still see. Which is just great. But I ultimately made the decision to leave because the course just was not delivering the way it had promised. Now it was good, but I was missing Philosophy way too much from A-level and that uni I was at didn't offer it me, so I made the decision to leave.

It came with its ups and downs. The ups is that I LOVE my course. It's heavy but I just love it so much and made the right decision. Downs is that I have a lot less friends in my current uni and it has been somewhat of a lonelier and less fulfilling experience than my first uni. But friends are always reassuring me "you moved for the course and its job aspects". And that's what I did move for.

The city is lovely, one of a tourist city, it has enough things to do, and its closer to home than the city my first uni was situated in. But, I think ultimately, if you don't like your course, you will go through hating it and that can have a negative mental impact on the way you do your work, and the way you socialise. It may make you leave by the end of 1st year and then you'll be in an extra 9k debt like myself.

So I would lean more towards experiencing the right degree course at the right uni, rather than the city. And I sometimes go by the motto "it's not where you are, but it's who you're with that counts". If you make friends then that's all you need. You guys can do many things together, in and outside your uni city. I've done that a few times. Your degree course is more important cause once you leave your not-so-much-loved uni city, you can literally leave because of the better job prospects you have received because of how hard you worked for your degree. That's how I would see it anyway.

Hope that helps a lil' bit.

I know this is one heck of a late reply, but I do seriously appreciate the advice man.

When I read your response I was like "okay, I'll stick with my firm". The main appeal of the American Studies and English course at Nottingham was the scope of what I could study, but particularly the potential focuses of film and politics what were interested me the most.

But I was looking over the module choice for Sheffield and found that it offers plenty of modules in film as well, if not more. And some of the modules offered there are also really interesting and appeal to my interests in things like linguistics. And I found that I could take optional modules in politics as well.

Basically, I'm still super conflicted. Sheff appeals way more to me in terms of the city and the uni itself but my only real interest in Notts is the course. But now the course as Sheffield offers things which initially drew me to Nottingham's course. I suppose its about how broad of a degree (in terms of topics) I want. I feel that I would be happier studying in Sheffield but the course at Notts is one that still interests me, despite the fact that some of the things that the Nottingham course offers are also available at Sheffield. I feel that some of the opportunities offered at the Nottingham course could be extremely useful in advancing my future career (mainly the possibly of switching to a 4 year long course with a year in America). Going to have to be a bother again, but have you got any thoughts? Apologies if my wording is confusing btw.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

The Empire Odyssey

21

Original post by Real Human Bean

I know this is one heck of a late reply, but I do seriously appreciate the advice man.

When I read your response I was like "okay, I'll stick with my firm". The main appeal of the American Studies and English course at Nottingham was the scope of what I could study, but particularly the potential focuses of film and politics what were interested me the most.

But I was looking over the module choice for Sheffield and found that it offers plenty of modules in film as well, if not more. And some of the modules offered there are also really interesting and appeal to my interests in things like linguistics. And I found that I could take optional modules in politics as well.

Basically, I'm still super conflicted. Sheff appeals way more to me in terms of the city and the uni itself but my only real interest in Notts is the course. But now the course as Sheffield offers things which initially drew me to Nottingham's course. I suppose its about how broad of a degree (in terms of topics) I want. I feel that I would be happier studying in Sheffield but the course at Notts is one that still interests me, despite the fact that some of the things that the Nottingham course offers are also available at Sheffield. I feel that some of the opportunities offered at the Nottingham course could be extremely useful in advancing my future career (mainly the possibly of switching to a 4 year long course with a year in America). Going to have to be a bother again, but have you got any thoughts? Apologies if my wording is confusing btw.

A tough one. I do understand what you are going through. A degree is often sought for two things in terms of area of study: some people like their degree to be broad as possible to get the most out of their subject (like myself) but there's others who love to focus on similar topics throughout their 3 years which is fine. You need to decide which one you would prefer. If you solely want to focus on politics and film, you need to make sure which uni has the best modules for that. Things to include is whether you're better at coursework or exams. How many words are coursework task and how long exams are. When I applied for uni I looked at this and there was one uni had 50/50 for all its modules. But the coursework were all 3000 words and all exams were 3 hours longs.... No thanks! You need to tailor to your strengths when looking for this.

Have you studied English Language at A-level? Usually first year if you don't have too many compulsories, you are allowed to pick a few modules from any degree programme such as mechanics or Japanese studies. This isn't offered in 2nd and 3rd year. So you need to make sure whether you can pick the Linguistics modules in 2nd and 3rd year as part of your degree course. Also some English degrees are funny. For example, if you pick more of a language focus in 1st year and not enough literature, they might have you focused purely on language throughout your degree. So make sure you look up their degree system.

A thing to consider is that, universities are within their right to change their modules without given notice. So it might be a good idea to get into contact with the uni and say "from looking at the website, are these modules guaranteed to stay for the next academic year". It's around this time unis are consulting their departments about module feedback; selection and deletion.

It's a good idea to be thinking about your career. However, you need to be firmly gripped on your career as some change mid way through uni. If you dead-set on joining the career you mentioned, then go for that uni. However, it might be a good idea to think "what if i want to change careers... has making this choice pigeon holed me just to this degree?" So I think you should explore our options and always have a plan B with careers.

You have to consider the uni itself in terms of what you, as a student will be getting from it. Is their Student Union good, are they good at helping their students, what's accommodation like can you afford it? How easy is it to get a part-time job - is this the city i want to live in when I leave uni? What are graduate prospects for this city like?
All these things you should consider. I think its hard to tell but if you can by any means just pop along to the city and walk past or in the unis to see which one you have a more "connection" with. Some people feel that "it's the right uni" and some still aren't sure but I don't see what hurt it will do if you try. I visited so many unis when i applied and neither 4/5 were right for me. So maybe go visit the city and see which one you like the best. Be best to try and visit when it's sunny. Nottingham is horrendous when it's raining and dull!