UCAS firm choice

I have offers from Bath and Leeds for psychology and I am not sure which one to pick as my firm (Surrey is my insurance).

I have come up with pros and con lists but I still am not sure.

Leeds:
pros
-diversity
-lots of optional modules that i like
-nice student union building
-work experience =
- a 12 month*work placement year
- a summer internship or shorter placement as part of your course
- Summer internships on campus.
-can do other modules from other subjects
-many societies that i am interested in
-nice accommodation
-in city centre and 10 min walk away from shopping centres
-abroad and study placement year

cons
-far from london

Bath:
pros:
-small city, there is quite a bit to do (since there are 2 universities here). Bristol is also only a 15 min train away
-nice accommodation
-has societies i am interested in
-placement programme
-offers many part-time jobs aimed at students (so they don't interfere with your studies, unlike conventional part-time jobs) that pay much more than other part-time jobs (usually ~£8-10 per hour)
-liked the campus when I visited

cons
-lacks diversity (white, upper-middle class) but there are asians
-more expensive
-quieter = not a city
-work load
-no placement year or study abroad option

Reply 1

emilyxsierra

hi!
i go to leeds so can answer any questions you have about it. i don’t study psychology (i study law) but i’m doing some psych modules next year and am def gonna do a psych conversion course anyway after my degree.

anyway i really like leeds as a place, the city is really nice and far more friendly than london (where i’m from). the diversity there is decent, and there’s also lots of things to do (less than london but still more than enough). the uni is nice as a whole too, and some departments have really nice facilities.

what i would say in regards to diversity, is that the uni is diverse in terms of student body, which is nice, the local area however is not as diverse. still more diverse than probably bath, but i can think of other big cities where the locals are a bit more diverse.

i would say, however, i am VERY unimpressed with the law school, it’s highly disorganised, teaching is not good, support is poor and the facilities are lacking etc. compared to other law schools i’ve visited and considered firming. obviously the psychology school may be different as all the schools are separate, but that’s just my experience of the law school. i do know of people who have just finished their first year of a psych degree at leeds and they really enjoyed it, so that’s promising.

the student union is also nice, however, it really doesn’t play that much of a role in most students lives, so i wouldn’t go to a uni just bc of this as most people i know hardly use it. the main reason people do go there it seems is to use the co op. so i wouldn’t consider this a huge factor in choosing leeds.

also, which accommodations did you look at that are “nice”? as i can say for sure some of them are not very nice at all lol. some are (like central village, cityside and james baillie) but those are super popular and you’re quite unlikely to get a space in them due to demand (everyone i know who applied to those ones did not get a space air ended up in clarence dock which is notoriously unpopular due to it being a 40-50 minute walk from campus with no bus service as they cancelled the bus recently). so again, id say don’t base your entire decision off of this, as in general most unis have a mix when it comes to accommodation- some of the halls are nice, some are not and it’s really just luck whether or not you get a good one. so i wouldn’t base your decision of off just this as getting a good accommodation is not guaranteed.

i would bear in mind as well, how important study abroad is to you. as when i was looking at leeds they made it sound like it was really easy to get onto and very accessible. however, since actually coming here it’s been revealed you must get a high 2:1 in your first year exams to be eligible. it doesn’t matter if you get for instance a 2:2 and then do really well in your second year exams, they only consider your first year grades. additionally, there’s a lot of demand so it can be quite competitive to get the uni abroad that you want or the placement you want. plus, they advertised (to my cohort anyway) that they would provide funding for a year abroad and have since revealed they were unable to secure it so you have to fund the entire year with no support from the uni, whereas some other unis will help you with the cost of living.

this overall sounds quite negative lol, im not trying to put you off as i do actually really like living in leeds, and am happy at the uni now. i would say this is more to do with the people i’ve met and my general life there though, over anything specific the uni has done as i think i mainly like it because of the vibes of the city and due to my friends

i can’t really advise about bath as i haven’t visited the uni, bristol is a nice place though and near to bath so even though bath is smaller, i wouldn’t say you miss out as you can get to bristol really easily.

overall, if i could choose again i probably would firm a different uni, HOWEVER, this is not because of leeds the city or even the uni of leeds as a whole, it’s because of the law school at leeds which is very poor in my (and all my course friends’) opinion.

Reply 2

emilyxsierra

i forgot to add as well
leeds isn’t actually that long of a journey from london. if you drive, yes it does take a while. however there is a direct train to st pancras which takes 2 hours, which is quick considering for instance the train to bristol from london also takes about 2 hours and bristol is a lot nearer than leeds is distance wise.

Reply 3

emilyxsierra

last thing sorry ahah
i forgot to say i did a lot of research into psychology when i was applying for uni as i was undecided between law and psychology (and now wish i’d done psych lol). so from my research, idk if this matters to you, but bath does have the better reputation in terms of psychology degrees. it’s considered one of the best in the country (bar oxbridge and like ucl) for psychology degrees. so idk if this would be important to you