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I dont know which offer to accept (Physics)

I have offers from Imperial, Manchester, Bath and York. I've wittled down where I want to go to between Manchester and York but can't decide between them. Manchester seems to have the best reputation of my offers and is harder to get into than York so it seems silly to consider York but i'm not sure. I visited both and York left a better impression on me, the facilities are great, my interviewer seemed really nice and the visit made me excited to study physics. He even sent me a letter saying that he enjoyed our conversation and some general feedback without my asking. When I visited Manchester the city was alright and the campus great but both were bleak in places and while the department is very impressive I feel like the sheer size will make making connections with academics harder (whereas York seems personal and it seems I already have an in). I just don't know how important where I do my undergraduate degree is if I plan on pursuing physics to a higher level
and whether it's sensible picking a AAA offer over a A*A*A offer just because "I got better vibes". Any insight would be helpful.
Reply 1
I think it is very sensible having your firm being somewhere that feels right.When it comes to the content of the courses, especially for the hard sciences, the topics covered and difficulty will be essentially the same. 90% of the content will be the same for Physics anywhere you go, the last 10% of content is ususally guided by the lecturer research. The difference in your two offers that you have mentioned are 2 grades, I would be inclined to say that this difference is negligible compared to how happy you would be at a particular university.I think the most useful thing to consider if picturing yourself spending the next 3-4 years in and around the facilities where you will spend the majority of your time. May seem obvious but this is what helped me make my decision.
Reply 2
Original post by D_Rkman
I think it is very sensible having your firm being somewhere that feels right.When it comes to the content of the courses, especially for the hard sciences, the topics covered and difficulty will be essentially the same. 90% of the content will be the same for Physics anywhere you go, the last 10% of content is ususally guided by the lecturer research. The difference in your two offers that you have mentioned are 2 grades, I would be inclined to say that this difference is negligible compared to how happy you would be at a particular university.I think the most useful thing to consider if picturing yourself spending the next 3-4 years in and around the facilities where you will spend the majority of your time. May seem obvious but this is what helped me make my decision.

Thanks for your input, I do think going with your gut is 9 times out of 10 the best way to go. I'm just deciding whether york's campus is that much better enough to justify the difference in graduate prospects. If there even is that much of a difference. Do postgraduate courses care much about what uni you came from??
Out of interest what was your choice in the end? Where did you go for what?
Reply 3
Original post by saculsotnas
Thanks for your input, I do think going with your gut is 9 times out of 10 the best way to go. I'm just deciding whether york's campus is that much better enough to justify the difference in graduate prospects. If there even is that much of a difference. Do postgraduate courses care much about what uni you came from??
Out of interest what was your choice in the end? Where did you go for what?


Well one of my professors did her undergraduate at Reading before moving to Imperial for PhD so York isn't going to 'rule you out' or anything like that.
Of course when it comes to PhDs what matters much more is whether there's a supervisor at the uni offering a project you're interested in.
Reply 4
Original post by Sinnoh
Well one of my professors did her undergraduate at Reading before moving to Imperial for PhD so York isn't going to 'rule you out' or anything like that.
Of course when it comes to PhDs what matters much more is whether there's a supervisor at the uni offering a project you're interested in.

Do you think I should pay special attention to the department's research interest if i'm gonna do an integreated masters or will it not matter much until postgraduate?
Reply 5
Original post by saculsotnas
Do you think I should pay special attention to the department's research interest if i'm gonna do an integreated masters or will it not matter much until postgraduate?


There will always be projects from a wide variety of fields; perhaps some more from one area than others if the department has a particular focus. But you're almost certainly going to change your mind or plans in the next three years anyway so I wouldn't make it a deciding factor before you even start. My personal statement might have been all black holes and Standard Model and dark matter but now I'm more into environmental physics.
Reply 6
Original post by Sinnoh
There will always be projects from a wide variety of fields; perhaps some more from one area than others if the department has a particular focus. But you're almost certainly going to change your mind or plans in the next three years anyway so I wouldn't make it a deciding factor before you even start. My personal statement might have been all black holes and Standard Model and dark matter but now I'm more into environmental physics.

Yeah, Manchester has like 90 active academics as staff though so maybe it'd keep my options open most to go there! Who knew choosing where to go to university was a difficult decision
Reply 7
Original post by saculsotnas
Thanks for your input, I do think going with your gut is 9 times out of 10 the best way to go. I'm just deciding whether york's campus is that much better enough to justify the difference in graduate prospects. If there even is that much of a difference. Do postgraduate courses care much about what uni you came from??
Out of interest what was your choice in the end? Where did you go for what?


There is barely any difference between York and Manchester in terms of prestige or graduate prospects. They are both very good universities, so is Bath.

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