Selecting the right University. Help!

Hello everyone,

I currently trying to identify the best university/course for my needs and was after some advice from those more experienced than myself.

I want to study Special Education & Psychology.

Many people have suggested visiting various universities, although this is pretty difficult for me to do within the time frame I have, as I work full time.

Is there any other ways to determine how good a university is without visiting?

Any information is great!

Reply 1

Duncan2012

What research have you done so far?

Reply 2

jambohardy

Original post by Duncan2012

What research have you done so far?

I've searched via google for the universities which have the course that I'm interested in. I've looked through the modules to get a more detailed idea into what I would be studying within the subject.

After that, I'm not too sure how to gauge how good the university is.

Reply 3

ageshallnot

Original post by jambohardy

Most unis have virtual tours which give you an idea of the physical environment etc.

There are various university ranking tables, but treat them with a large pinch of salt. They are a mix of objective and subjective data mixed together and weighted however the publishing organisation deems fit. You need to look at the details rather than just see that Uni X is 'ranked' 10 places above Uni Y.

Reply 4

TheStudent@Room

Hey man, check out this website, UniStats; it really helped me to make my choice! Data may be available for your particular course.
https://unistats.direct.gov.uk/
Good Luck :smile:

I've just checked for your course and there's many searches. You can compare your choices too, so it's a great tool to use to make up your decision.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 5

jambohardy

Original post by TheStudent@Room

Hey man, check out this website, UniStats; it really helped me to make my choice! Data may be available for your particular course.
https://unistats.direct.gov.uk/
Good Luck :smile:

I've just checked for your course and there's many searches. You can compare your choices too, so it's a great tool to use to make up your decision.

Thanks. I did find this tool after posting this thread. Its a great help.

Reply 6

jambohardy

Original post by ageshallnot

I really appreciate the message. Have a good night

Reply 7

jelly1000

Original post by jambohardy

find out what you can online- look up facilities like the accomodation offered, the sports and societies, gym, e.c.t if thats of interest to you, ask question here in the respective forums, there are usually current/past students lurking around in each one, look up the local area- some unis are in or near big cities, others near smaller cities and some in the middle of nowhere- consider what you would prefer.

Reply 8

caffeinefuelled

Hi there!

When I was looking at courses, I found it helpful to look at a few league tables to start off with (although I remained very skeptical about them) simply because if a university did well consistently across many league tables, I thought that maybe that could mean something.

I considered where I thought I would like to live, and the sort of environment I would like to be in (for instance whether I'd like to be in a collegiate university). Looking at modules for your course is a great way to get an idea, but there will often be a lot of modules listed, and they probably won't all be running when you're actually there (some lecturers may go on leave to do research, and then the modules they teach won't be available), so be wary of basing too much on how many they list, as only a selection will run at a given time.

It's good to see which universities have lots of staff for your degree (I think the larger the department the better, really), and you can usually look this up. Are there any courses that you're considering at the mo? If you can't find the information about staff, etc, I can try to help you or try to have a look and see if I notice anything that might help you.