Uni of York vs Uni of Manchester vs Uni of Nottingham

Looking forward to some helpful feedback. I'm an incoming MSc econ student for the Sep 2024 intake and I've secured an offer from the Uni of York already. I've also applied to LSE, Warwick, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sussex, Sheffield and Cardiff.

My credentials - 6.95/10 GPA from one of the best universities in India, an 8.5 IELTS band, a 155 GRE Quant and 157 GRE Verbal, a conference presentation, I've been a part of my school and college athletics team and represented at the cluster level, also represented my college in debate tournis.

To be frank, I'll drop Sheffield and Cardiff now even if I secure an offer.
I understand LSE is as close to gone, Warwick and Manchester would be very difficult but think I can secure Nottingham and Birmingham.

How would you rank the three - Nottingham, Birmingham, and York for their econ programs? Also I am aware Manchester is really really good overall and is still top 75 for econ but from your perspective how does it compare to the above three as well?

Hello Ben, really appreciate the detailed and insightful answer. Before going ahead with other points, how good do you genuinely think the York Econ program is? Also when you refer to department quality-focused ratings, do you mean RePEc? I’ve referred to it and as per it the rankings for my options are LSE, Warwick, Nottingham, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Sussex, Sheffield and Cardiff. If not, please let me know which and where York and Birmingham also come in those rankings.

How would you personally rank Nottingham, York, and Birmingham? It’s most likely to come to those three. I would take Birmingham if I received their scholarship for econ students - they've got a scholarship of up to 40% of the tuition fees. If I can secure that I will spend only 15768 pounds on tuition which would save a huge amount of money. It would reduce interest payments and help pay off student loans far earlier so I can’t say no to that.

I’m doing this through an agent and they have a tie-up with Warwick, Manchester, Birmingham, and York. Hope that helps me secure Manchester as well but Warwick will be very difficult. And you got me, I thought Manchester is better than Nottingham for sure and my agent also said the same. I get it being big and that might help secure jobs a bit easier.

And thanks for sharing information about their specialties. I am not particularly inclined towards any due to not having sufficient experience and knowledge to make a final decision. However, I have done both my dissertation as well as an internship for which I formulated a research paper in the field of international economics/trade using the RCAI index and I thoroughly enjoyed both experiences.

I'm not too keen on dev eco cause I've heard job prospects and the probaility of Skilled Worker Visa after it is very bleak. I genuinely have 0 exposure to health economics. And to sum up - if I get Warwick or LSE, I would gladly accept. Coventry is also the lowest in living cost if I'm not wrong. Then I would prefer Nottingham over the rest except I would have to think twice if I secure Manchester or the Birmingham Scholarship. And as of now, I would prefer York over the rest unless I get the Birmingham scholarship.

Regarding living cost etc - I don't drink, smoke or party much, I'm the typical studying type of Asian lol. I lived in a college hostel for 1.5 years and loved the overall course, profs and batchmates but the accomodation was really the bare minimum - one room as three sharing with literally no space to move. So I frankly don't mind sharing it if I can save on rent; it's really not something that will get to me. I'm not interested in pursuing a PhD, it's something I might do later after several years of work experience.

However, I have been into distance running since 2016 (I actually did my entire schooling in the UAE) and want to take it seriously in the UK for which I will incur cost on food etc. I've lived in big cities, relatively quiet places and currently the most notorious traffic offender in my country so I can fairly adjust to most things. Thanks once again and I will share how things turn out - I'll make a final decision in Feb mid after receiving a reply from the remaining unis and let you know.

Glad to share that I've also accepted by the University of Birmingham recently! It's a conditional offer that requires me to confirm acceptance by 29th Feb. I'm leaning more to York over Birmingham as it's higher ranked by REPEC and economics at Birmingham is part of the Business department. But if I secure a significant scholarship - more than 7000 pounds, I would be tempted to accept Birmingham. Still waiting on a response from the remaining unis and especially want a reply from Nottingham, Manchester, Warwick and LSE soon. @BenRyan99 Please let me know if I'm right about this. York is slightly lower than Birmingham as per QS but significantly lower in THE rankings. But for RePEc York is 61 and Birmingham is 120 and for ARWU also Birmingham is 151-200 while York is 51-75.

You've got plenty of time before the offer deadline, and even then that deadline doesn't really mean anything. You're only tied to a course once you pay the course deposit. Given courses generally have different and overlapping offer acceptance deadlines, it's common practice to accept multiple offers and then only decide once the deposit deadlines come around - confirming your preferred course and pulling out of the others.

Given your first offer deadline is still over a 1.5 months away, you've got plenty of time to chill and wait to see what other offers come in - there's no point overthinking it now.

Actually I've talked to Warwick at an open event and they said they would revert in April and Manchester said they would reply by April end. Nottingham said they will take around 6-8 weeks to reply and that would be by 29th Jan-mid Feb. I hope they accept cause now they seem to be the only ones who will revert before Birmingham deadlines. Or else I'll have to consider dropping Birmingham, keeping York as safety and hope I get one of the three.

Okay, I'm struggling to see a question here?