University of Glasgow vs. Edinburgh

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I am an EU student, I can't afford visiting both of them. It's a big decision so I am looking for an honest opinion? Or should I just trust guardian ranking?

Reply 21

Jackso

Original post by nelumbos

Which one for psychology?

Glasgow generally has a better reputation for Psychology (pretty consistently ranked in the Top 10 for the UK) and was rated as the higher course in the 2008 RAE (Research Assesment Excercise.) Personally, that'd be the one I would choose, although you can't really go wrong with either. I guess I'm not biased towards either one seeing as I'm going to be taking Psychology elsewhere.

Reply 22

yothi5

Go to Glasgow. My friend studies in Edinburgh and says it's full of annoying Americans already

Reply 23

nelumbos

Original post by Jackso

Personally, that'd be the one I would choose, although you can't really go wrong with either. I guess I'm not biased towards either one seeing as I'm going to be taking Psychology elsewhere.

Where are you taking Psychology?

Original post by yothi5

Go to Glasgow. My friend studies in Edinburgh and says it's full of annoying Americans already

You mean the university or the course?

Reply 24

Jackso

Original post by nelumbos

Where are you taking Psychology?

Long story but I don't know yet. Most likely somewhere in England.

Reply 25

Norton1

Original post by nelumbos

I am an EU student, I can't afford visiting both of them. It's a big decision so I am looking for an honest opinion? Or should I just trust guardian ranking?

They're an hour apart on the train. If you have only a day in the country you could easily do it.

Reply 26

yothi5

[QUOTE=You mean the university or the course?

The uni.

Reply 27

Ocarinaoftime

First of all, we need to rid ourselves of the misconception that we'll get stabbed if we go/live in Glasgow. You won't! It has some sort of reputation and it's mostly exaggeration.

I got a rejection from Glasgow and an Unconditional from Edinburgh and I was absolutely gutted that Glasgow didn't want me, I love Glasgow city and feel strangely at home when I'm there! The university is beautiful and highly ranked. I love where it's situated and that the Kelvingrove gallery is so close. I love all the wee places to go that suit my interests like The cathouse, Solid Rock etc, the night life caters to what I want. Plus, as someone who regularly goes to gigs, being in Glasgow facilitates that obviously :P I also loved the look of my course at Glasgow. Needless to say, Glasgow and Edinburgh were my 1st and 2nd choice and I'm not sure who I would have went with in the end, I think it would have been Glasgow though, I just love it there. :P This sounds incredibly bad, but if I don't feel right being at Edinburgh in my first year I'd probably try and transfer to Glasgow but again, it seems unlikely since I was rejected in the first place! :frown:

I love Edinburgh too though, don't get me wrong. The university is obviously highly ranked which matters a lot to people, I loved the visit day on the 7th March, the new college is just stunning and the people making speeches were funny. I then went to the old medical school to go to my subject specific talk and loved the course content, it's exactly what I want to study. :biggrin:

The tour of the building was lovely and the tutors couldn't have been nicer as well as the current students. I also love the city, it looks stunning. I like all the museums and galleries as well which are close at hand. I have never had a night out in Edinburgh so I couldn't comment on that but have found an awesome looking place called The banshee Labyrinth I'd like to go too. :biggrin:

I never go shopping in Edinburgh either, I usually go local or Glasgow so I also couldn't comment much on that but I have been inside the malls and in the High Street and it pretty much has everything you'd want I guess.

If you're lucky enough to be in the position to have a choice between the two of them, see which one is more suited to you in terms of location, what it has to offer and the content of your course. Both universities are undeniably great either way, I'm sure you'll enjoy whichever you choose! :biggrin:

Reply 28

KCosmo

Original post by 0404343m

In 20 years time, you might be thanking your lucky stars that employers don't care about rankings, especially if the university you picked on the back of being 9th rather than 29th had since dropped rapidly. St Andrews has been outside of the top 40 before according to certain UK tables, after all...

I agree that rankings don't matter, but what table put St Andrews outside the top 40? It was 3rd in the UK according to the Guardians table, and 6th in most others this year.

Reply 29

KCosmo

Original post by Fräulein

How do the two cities, particularly the areas around each university, compare?

When researching Glasgow, I've heard everything from "one of the safest places in the UK" to "You'll get stabbed; I promise." And I really don't know much about Edinburgh except that it looks older and the university is ranked higher than Glasgow.

I live in Glasgow, and have many friends already there, but I'm going to St Andrew's myself. Glasgow's great, I really wouldn't be put off by the "rough" reputation it's got. As a student, you'll be in the west end most of the time, which is simply fantastic, and no where near the rough parts. It certainly feels like a different city compared to other parts of Glasgow, and as a student, you'll spend the majority of your time either here, or in the city centre. The nightlife in Glasgow can't really be topped in the rest of Scotland, there is so much of it! My friends seem to enjoy it too, the fact that it looks like hogwarts seems to be a big plus (although loads of scottish uni's look like hogwarts.)

I would definitely have a look at St Andrew's aswell. I've stayed in student halls with friends, and it is very very good :tongue:

Over a third of all students are american, so you wouldn't feel weird at all (I think there's more americans than there is scots :tongue:

) I know met a good few americans up there and they seem to love it (probably because there's so many! :tongue:

) It's obviously in a much smaller town than the other uni's, but that seems a good thing. It's basically an entire town based around the university, the whole place is filled with students! It's more house parties and bars than the big nightclubs of glasgow. Again it's very international, apart from americans, there's also people from all over, and as no-one's really from St Andrew's, everyone lives in halls and flats together, so it's got a good community feel. Being right next to the sea is cool aswell, and it's very picturesque, if you like that kind of thing!

I don't know much about edinburgh, apart from the uni have a great reputation. It's supposed to be slightly expensive, but I wouldn't think the difference would be that great compared to the other two uni's.

Are you limited in the number of places you apply to? I'm just thinking you could maybe apply to all of them :tongue:

All three have very good reputations, a person from one uni wouldn't lose out on a job on account of another applicant being from one of the other two. I'm pretty biased towards St Andrew's, but it is very good, with an armada of americans. What kind of course are you looking at?

Reply 30

kirsti

Well I've lived in Glasgow all my life and im so gutted to be leaving it in September for Aberdeen!, I dont understand why everyone goes on about it being so rough when the city is that big you would litrelly have to go out your way and get on a bus heading directly into a rough patch. The shopping is the second best to London. To echo what everyone else has said, the west end is simply beautiful and the city centre is amazing as there is litrelly 5 of every shop ha! and cineworld is fab.
Edinburgh is more of a touristy place and has a very different feel to Glasgow. I cant really explain it but its a different atmosphere. Glasgow is very laid-back and friendly whereas Edinburgh is more, not uptight, but something along those lines.
If it was me, I would be going for Glasgow but thats just because its more my kind of city. Its more lively :smile:

Reply 31

0404343m

Original post by KCosmo

I agree that rankings don't matter, but what table put St Andrews outside the top 40? It was 3rd in the UK according to the Guardians table, and 6th in most others this year.

It was in the 1990s. The point is: Universities are in some cases 400+ years old. League tables are about 19. Depending on whether they think they'll have 20% of their points on entry standards and 10 on good honours, whether they think they'll include dropout rate or not, and so on, will largely dictate the order of quite a few institutions. St Andrews has done very well since 2000 in these tables, spurred on largely by the trebling of applications Prince William brought. Fair enough I guess, but when they're teaching the same stuff from past papers from when it was accepting virtually everyone (which it was, in the 1990s), one realises that the notion of eliteness that's been ingrained in this generation of under-21s is fleeting. It might well be somewhere else down the line: at least three Scottish universities have had top 10 rankings and been top in Scotland. It's just that most are too young to remember.

Reply 32

K_drury

Hi, i'm an english student looking to do history and am seriously considering Glasgow and Edinburgh. I've been to Edinburgh before and it was beautiful but loved the uni at Glasgow. My main reservation is how cold and rainy it was. It sounds stupid but if it's for four years then i don't want the majority of the year to be below 10 degrees. Also, just off student experience, which do you think is better?

Reply 33

Norton1

Original post by K_drury

The weather is not different enough between Edinburgh and Glasgow to be a reasonable factor in your decision. If you want good weather can I suggest not studying in Scotland?

Anecdotally, my thought would be that Edinburgh has fewer rainy days but less intense sunny days.

Student experience wise, it'll depend on the type of city you like. If you like trendy and busy then Glasgow. If less so, then Edinburgh.