Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Bristol or Nottingham?

Never seen one of these threads for English and I'm having a hell of a time deciding between unis at the moment.

Last year I went to Durham uni and I dropped out for a combination of reasons (including personal issues) one of which being I hated the atmosphere in my college there and I found it very stuck up and pretentious, both with the people I met and with the whole "We might not be Oxbridge..b-but, we are JUST AS GOOD!!" attitude - I'm aware I had a particularly bad experience and loads of my friends are now loving it there, but it just wasn't for me.

My top choices this year are currently Bristol, Nottingham and UCL - however I'm much less keen on UCL because of the cost, and I prefer the less rigorous courses at the two former unis! I have no idea which to choose - I want a great student experience but I'm also very worried about graduate prospects.

Any help or advice on either uni would be greatly appreciated, I'm getting to the end of my tether with it all!

Reply 1

QHF

Original post by kaylazb

My top choices this year are currently Bristol, Nottingham and UCL - however I'm much less keen on UCL because of the cost, and I prefer the less rigorous courses at the two former unis! I have no idea which to choose - I want a great student experience but I'm also very worried about graduate prospects.

Any help or advice on either uni would be greatly appreciated, I'm getting to the end of my tether with it all!

Well, both departments have decent reputations and what you're looking at is probably a choice between two good options -- which doesn't make it easier but might be some comfort! It looks like Bristol's English degree is a bit more programmatic, with a compulsory chronological movement through English literature and less flexibility, while after the first year Nottingham's course is structured along the lines of 'pick X modules from at least Y different subject areas'. Nottingham also have a bit more scope for students to dip into other subjects in their first year, and to study creative writing formally. Both of these approaches have their advantages, but you might want to think about whether one of them is more attractive to you than the other.

When it comes to graduate prospects, Bristol's name perhaps carries a little more weight than Nottingham's, but both are widely-recognised universities. Potential employers are likely going to be looking for people with a 2.1 or first from a university they've heard of who also have (and in some ways this is more important) relevant experience. You can do all sorts of things with an English degree -- my first job after graduating with one was in medicine -- but you want to be thinking about getting extracurricular and work experience on the side during your degree. If you're ambitious, Bristol might be a better location for getting that kind of experience & making connections than Nottingham (UCL -- well, London -- blows the other two out of the water on this point, but it sounds like you've ruled that out).

I haven't lived in either city so can't really comment on the general student experience. Nottingham's likely going to be a cheaper place to live than Bristol, though.