Good universities for Geography???

Reply 20

winningjojo

Durham entry requirements are higher than Oxford!!

Reply 21

scbond

Original post by winningjojo

Durham entry requirements are higher than Oxford!!

Probably because they have arguably the best Geography department/course in the country.

Reply 22

rosiesaurus

15

Original post by scbond

Touch of snobbery?! It's a good yet small uni and people there love it.

No, I live there :biggrin:

Reply 23

DavidCrow

9

Original post by scbond

Probably because they have arguably the best Geography department/course in the country.

Durham's course is definitely up there with Oxbridge, and I agree with you that it is arguably better. However, I was lucky enough to receive an offer from both Oxford and Durham, and despite loving both (I've been on Durham and Oxford summer schools), I couldn't really turn down the opportunity to study at Oxford.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 24

swbp

10

Durham/UCL/ Edinburgh are brilliant for geography, but have really high entry standards

Other good ones are Kings, Royal Holloway, Sheffield, Exeter, Sussex, Southampton and Queen Mary

Reply 25

scbond

Original post by DavidCrow

Durham's course is definitely up there with Oxbridge, and I agree with you that it is arguably better. However, I was lucky enough to receive an offer from both Oxford and Durham, and despite loving both (I've been on Durham and Oxford summer schools), I couldn't really turn down the opportunity to study at Oxford.

Usually the way it goes...Oxford does still have one of the best global reps and that's what I'd have done.

Reply 26

scbond

Original post by rosiesaurus

No, I live there :biggrin:

Haha fair point! Supposed to be really nice town but with an hour to spare before the choices are final I changed my mind and changed it to Manchester...which I subsequently turned down anyway lol.

Reply 27

swbp

10

Can I just add, any of the top 20/25 would be an excellent choice for geography. They're all fantastic universities :smile:

Reply 28

KatyPiee

OP

12

Thanks! These are allll so helpful, I looked at Royal Holloway and now it's one of my choices!
I would love to go to Kings too, but im not sure on the entry grades?? The opnly think about Royal Holloway is that its quite far out of London? Also, we've just had a talk today at my school on studying abroad, so does anyone know of any foreign universities that are good for Geography?

Reply 29

chr1stopher11

14

Original post by KatyPiee

Thanks! These are allll so helpful, I looked at Royal Holloway and now it's one of my choices!
I would love to go to Kings too, but im not sure on the entry grades?? The opnly think about Royal Holloway is that its quite far out of London? Also, we've just had a talk today at my school on studying abroad, so does anyone know of any foreign universities that are good for Geography?

I liked Royal Holloway too but I was put off by the location. If you are doing A-Levels and one of your A-Levels is Geography then they will ask for AAB. Here is the link:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/undergraduate/entryrequirements/name/geography/alpha/GHI/header_search/

I know that Hong Kong University (HKU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) are supposed to be quite good for Geography. Both teach in English.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 30

winningjojo

Original post by scbond

Probably because they have arguably the best Geography department/course in the country.

True though I prefer the look of courses elsewhere personally I like York and Plymouth.

Reply 31

GiveMeAChallenge

York only does environmental geography...leeds and sheefield are both great though!!! :biggrin:

Reply 32

Hanshen

8

Have you considered Loughborough? I studied Geography at Loughborough and it's been a good degree thus far. I actually took Loughborough over Durham, Holloway, Sheffield and LSE (call me crazy I know), but that was primarily because of the training facilities on offer (I play sports so it was a no brainer at the time). Seriously though, it is a strong department. It tends to get extremely high calibre academics, although it is quite transient as geography departments go. It depends what you're interested in though really, I personally am looking to carry on to a PhD and will (if all things go well) be taking up a Masters at Warwick or Cambridge this year in a completely unrelated field. Either way, neither Geography, nor Loughborough held me back.

Everyone has their own views though, and certainly all the departments that have been mentioned so far are great for undergrad Geography. It's a tough choice, and one I'd be excited to make if I were you. I'm sure you can't go far wrong with any of the aforementioned.

If you want to know any more about Geography/Loughborough I'm the programme president this year so am pretty well placed to field any more specific enquiries you guys may have.

Best of luck to everyone applying.

Reply 33

swbp

10

Original post by Hanshen

Have you considered Loughborough? I studied Geography at Loughborough and it's been a good degree thus far. I actually took Loughborough over Durham, Holloway, Sheffield and LSE (call me crazy I know), but that was primarily because of the training facilities on offer (I play sports so it was a no brainer at the time). Seriously though, it is a strong department. It tends to get extremely high calibre academics, although it is quite transient as geography departments go. It depends what you're interested in though really, I personally am looking to carry on to a PhD and will (if all things go well) be taking up a Masters at Warwick or Cambridge this year in a completely unrelated field. Either way, neither Geography, nor Loughborough held me back.

Everyone has their own views though, and certainly all the departments that have been mentioned so far are great for undergrad Geography. It's a tough choice, and one I'd be excited to make if I were you. I'm sure you can't go far wrong with any of the aforementioned.

If you want to know any more about Geography/Loughborough I'm the programme president this year so am pretty well placed to field any more specific enquiries you guys may have.

Best of luck to everyone applying.

I can really connect with this, as this year I chose Sussex for geography over Holloway and Sheffield. There are so many other things people need to take into account other than university rankings.

My tutors were shocked when i told them i hadn't chosen Sheffield, but to be honest I didn't like the campus and I think i'll be much happier where i'm going :smile:

Reply 34

karenina_chen

Original post by chr1stopher11

I liked Royal Holloway too but I was put off by the location. If you are doing A-Levels and one of your A-Levels is Geography then they will ask for AAB. Here is the link:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/undergraduate/entryrequirements/name/geography/alpha/GHI/header_search/

I know that Hong Kong University (HKU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) are supposed to be quite good for Geography. Both teach in English.

I have already received an offer from HKU for Social science(GEO), but I have no idea about whether it is good or not in geo study~ It seems to be a quite small deparment in HKU ~

Reply 35

catoswyn

15

Original post by KatyPiee

I'm not temped by Oxbridge, I don't think I could handle the pressure! hahaa, my sister is at Oxford doing french and spanish at the moment and she doesn't seem to stop.
I think Birmingham and Queen Mary are my top two, with York and Royal Holloway then Dundee as insurance, unless I find anything else amazing.... thanks for all your help!!

P.S. In June I'm going on a Geography open day at Queen Mary, Is anyone else going?

Where do you live at the moment?

Royal Holloway is in the middle of Surrey and quite cut off... ie there is hardly any public transport, the uni is at the top of a big hill and the nearest town Egham is very small. The train to London is slow because it is the Waterloo line and though they say 40minutes its a bit longer than that. However, lots of people do love the place, especially those looking for a country experience so do go and see for yourself. I just thought I'd say because its about as different from going to Birmingham or Queen Mary as you could get!!

Have you checked the Guardian Guide to University Subject Lists (on line) These are quite good starting points for considering different departments.

I've heard that Bristol, Southampton, Exeter and Durham are very good courses.

Studying abroad is interesting but a bit different. If you study abroad the fees will be much lower in most cases. c.£1600 for instance per year in Holland or Dublin as opposed to £9000 here. In the EU you get the same offer and deal on fees as a home student so if Dutch people are offered a loan or money for fees you get the same. HOWEVER you cannot apply for a maintenance grant so would need to have enough money to cover your living expenses for three years. Lots of students work when they get there but you still need a chunk of cash to start with. Scandinavian countries such as Sweden also offer some degrees in English but living costs are very high there.

The structure of the degrees can be different. Degrees that are offered in English tend to be modular and more general than ours. So in Holland you do a degree in say 'Arts' which may include modules in Geography related subjects but it might be hard to find a pure Geography degree in the same way as we have here. (Dublin offers the same sort of system as us though). In addition you tend to be tested and passed on each module as you go so that you take exams all the way through the degree in Hollland rather than in a lump at the end in 'finals' like we do here. You'd have to research USA/Canada and the like but its unlikely they'll be cheap!

Anyway, good luck researching and making your choices!

:smile:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 36

rosiesaurus

15

I'm really tempted by southamptons geography and oceanology/geog and archaeology courses :smile:

Reply 37

kunoichi

20

Loughborough, plymouth, reading, Birmingham, Aberystwyth are supposedly all quite good.
Also of course Durham, Oxbridge, Cambridge etc

Reply 38

RocknRap

7

Original post by winningjojo

Durham entry requirements are higher than Oxford!!

Original post by scbond

Probably because they have arguably the best Geography department/course in the country.

This just means competition for places is high so they can fill up all their places with A*AA quality students. Oxford could easily do the same (as could other top geography departments) but it chooses to give out AAA offers instead. And wrt Oxford, its admissions process (extra essays, tests, interviews etc) means that entry requirements and predicted grades don't need as much weighting in the decision process.

There is of course a correlation between entry requirements and department quality - top students will be attracted to apply to the top universities. But once you get to a certain level, using entry requirements to rank departments becomes obsolete. E.g. It'd be perfectly valid to assume that Oxford's department it better than, say, Bournemouth's department because Oxford's offer is AAA and Bournemouth's offer is only the equivalent of BBC. But that wouldn't be the case when comparing Oxford's AAA requirements and Durham's A*AA requirements.

For geography Durham definitely has one of the top departments but I'd say that alongside Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and LSE it's very hard to distinguish a pack leader.

To the OP - the aforementioned departments are the best in the country so definitely apply to one or more of them - aim high if success is what you want. Bear in mind that LSE only does human geography though it does have modules in environmental policy etc

Reply 39

winningjojo

think uae have a very good department also.

Good universities for Geography???

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