[lunlunsharon]

I am currently holding offers from Durham, Manchester, Birmingham and Royal Holloway. Since I live faraway from UK, so it is quite hard for me to visit these unis and the departments...

I don't have many ideas about Durham and Birmingham. How are these places like? (maybe their locations, school reputations, music department?)

What's more, I am quite certain that I am going to firm Manchester, but I found something interesting about my conditions. (They will accept my local public examination results.)

Durham: 5555
Birmingham: 555
Manchester: 554

As Manchester seems to have the lowest requirement for me, so I don't know how to do with my insurance choice...

[Metamorphosis646]

Studying music at Birmingham was a disappointing experience for me (the department wasn't particularly friendly and the lecturers seemed to have favourite students). There wasn't even as much going on in the city as I thought there would be. I can't comment on what studying music at Durham would be like, but Durham is a really nice city. I think Manchester should be good as your first choice, as there seems to be a lot going on in the city culturally.

[lunlunsharon]

(Original post by Metamorphosis646)
Studying music at Birmingham was a disappointing experience for me (the department wasn't particularly friendly and the lecturers seemed to have favourite students). There wasn't even as much going on in the city as I thought there would be. I can't comment on what studying music at Durham would be like, but Durham is a really nice city. I think Manchester should be good as your first choice, as there seems to be a lot going on in the city culturally.

Huh?! What happened? I mean, what have they done on students? Could you please tell me more of it...?

[Metamorphosis646]

The lecturers at Birmingham seemed to have favourite students from very early on, who would particularly be encouraged in performance and composition- it somehow just 'happened' to have been decided by them who would lead sections in the orchestras, get solo concert opportunities or have their compositions specially performed by university ensembles. There didn't seem to have been auditions for these kinds of privileges, which meant that everyone didn't get an equal chance of being considered. Sometimes it seemed to have even been decided from before students started the course which students would be promoted- for example, if someone had been to music school (such as Chetham's or the Purcell), that person would 'coincidentally' be getting performance opportunities which other students did not. Of course, if someone had been to music school, then it was great for that person to be getting such opportunities, but I think that not giving everyone equal consideration can lead to resentment and may have been part of the reason why students in the department weren't particularly friendly. Also, if students were unhappy about something to do with the course, quite often they seemed to find themselves being given lower marks.