Reading Uni Vs Royal Holloway - GEOGRAPHY!!

Hey,

I graduated this summer with a 2.1 in BSc Geography from Royal Holloway. Three years ago I was in your position trying to decide between RH and Reading. I decided to put RH as firm and Reading as Insurance. Here is how I made my decision:

1. Applicant Visit Day: I visited both uni's twice, on the Open Day and on the department visit day. Going to view both departments and comparing them I found really influential. Though Geography at Reading seemed really friendly I felt the approach at Royal Holloway was more individual both from the students and lecturers. This was something that definitely transpired to my time as a student.There's something about walking down the corridor and being on a first name basis with a lot of your lecturers that makes you feel the lecturers care. Of my friends from school I'm not aware of anyone that had such an individual level of care during their uni experience

2. Look at NSS: Sometimes it's difficult to tell from a visit day how happy the students in the department are. if you're every unsure just look at their National Student Survey scores. Ever since I started my degree I know the department has always achieved around 99% satisfaction which makes it one of the best in the country.

3. Research: This is where people's opinions's will vary. I really wanted to be taught by lecturers at the top of their field. Also my friends that had been to uni before said that a department really into research allow their students a lot of flexibility to conduct their own research (again something I was quite keen to do). I believe it was top 10 for research when I joined but now it's ranked 2nd in the UK, joint with Cambridge which was a big deal for me.

4. Social aspect: I was aware there was a certain stigma about the social aspect about RH, but I had an amazing time. From a Geography perspective the GeogSoc are the biggest society on campus and do a range of events throughout the year e.g. Pub Crawls, Christmas Formals, London/Brighton night's out, Staff vs Student Football and rounders. The university in general I found well located to do a range of social aspects. It really depends on what you're looking for but for me it was about having a decent nightlife and shopping centres. Outside of Geography, throughout my degree I've been countless times to clubs in Kingston, London, Brighton, Windsor etc but I ended up preferring the SU club nights on campus, it was cheaper, could get home in a 5-10 min walk and everytime I went out I was guaranteed to see friends from my course/halls/society.

In terms of what finding out about the quality of teaching I know The Guardian incorporate into their league table which can be found here: http://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2015/may/25/university-guide-2016-league-table-for-geography-environmental-studies. I hadn’t realised how low Reading was on the league table, I think it was higher when I initially applied.

I'm sure there's a lot more I could add as I honestly had the best 3 years studying Geography at Royal Holloway, if there's any other q's you have just let me know!

oh also Spain was the most amazing trip ever, behind my 2nd year field trip to Malawi.