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Econs & Politics Degree.. Edinburgh or Manchester?

If I want to study Economics & Politics, which would be the better choice overall, Edinburgh or Manchester?

I'm considering many factors:

1. Academic standard
2. Reputation/Prestige
3. Cost of living
4. Location
5. Safety
6. Social scene (shopping, partying, sports, etc.)
7. Career opportunities + Recruiting

Would love to hear from all you guys with advice or opinions to share :smile:

Thanks!

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Manchester.

There both very good unis. I would say Manchester has a better social nightlife

Reply 3

prospectivEEconomist

edinburgh for prestige

Reply 4

ycang

Is it worth the extra year, going to Edinburgh over Manchester?

Reply 5

vmleigh

wow, i am in the exact same position as you! same course, same universities. i had my heart set on going to manchester, but to my disbelief i got an offer from edinburgh yesterday... so now i'm torn!

i don't have the opportunity to visit either university, so any feedback from anyone here would be hugely appreciated! :smile:

Reply 6

ycang

I can't visit either I'm international :frown:

What are the pros and cons of each university in your opinion?

Reply 7

aivilo

ahh finally i find a thread like this.. i got an offer from manchester to do economics and politics and im still waiting on edinburgh to do politics, altho i would want to change the course n combine it with econ if i got the offer (quite probable).
I wonder where the heck i should go?? these unis are not my first choices, but since i ruined my first i will hv to go just wherever n then im reapplying in the fall. which would be a better uni to spend just a year at? edi is of course cheaper lol but manchester could allow me to study this econ if edi didnt. no really im not enthusiastic about either one, but oh well. ppl seem to love manchester, edi - i havent heard any praising comments about it. im international too btw.

Reply 8

ycang

What's your first choice may I ask? These two are pretty good imo but I just don't see a point in going to Edinburgh where I as an international will have to pay for an extra year's fees and living expenses. The city's really picturesque and pretty though!

How does the transfer after your first year work? Also, what do you intend to work as when you graduate, and do you think employers prefer a pure econs degree or an econs+pol degree?

Reply 9

aivilo

My first was lse where i initially put a politics course, but as i got an offer for the joint course in manchester (and bath) i figured the personal statement was pretty equal for both subjects, changed my course at lse, and this of course was a mistake..i got feedback telling i shouldve spoken still more about econ. otherwise mere politics couldve worked :frown:

im not gonna transfer cuz they dont take any transfer studs, ill simply apply to 1st year like as if i had never spent a year in manchester or edi..
im international but from an EU country and for me the scottish system actually pays everythin so id only pay for accommodation. so if i can change the politics course at edi to this joint honors, it would be better for me to go there from a financial point of view.

i wondered about this joint thing too and whether its any good but if u want to do a masters at least then u can go to either poli or econ, or combine like "Political economy" or something. yeah i hope employers dont view it as a drawback but at the same time u see a lot of politics students who r working at banks, so in that case i think having a joint course works even better for u then.. but of course it works worse than simple economics! im not that theoretical to do only economics, thats y i went for politics too.
conflict resolution is also something that im hugely interested in n i think this social sciences degree is gud for it! what r ur plans?
but hey if ure really gonna come to manchester then its fun u no at least one potential student already :wink:

) im going to visit the city starting from feb 24 :smile:

to SEE it really.

Reply 10

aivilo

oh i see u still have lse on ur list, lucky u! u did the same as me haha.. started with government. if u got the offer from lse for government would u still choose it over manch or edi joint course?

Reply 11

ycang

Can't quite make up my mind actually!It would be a nice problem to have but I reckon I don't have much of a chance tbh. My grades were only AAC, that's just borderline acceptable and LSE's really competitive even if its just for govt and not their killer econs courses. I still believe studying govt at LSE is more valuable and lucrative than even econs at Manchester tho! Its just that the latter has a much nicer campus feel where you can do sports and enjoy being around lotsa students.

You're really lucky to be able to visit! Where are you from?

Reply 12

aivilo

i think that having lse on ur undergrad diploma makes u highly valuable for employers simply because it has such a reputation that it seriously kills! altho, it is commonly known that lse is way better for graduate studies.. then again who cares? but what i see is that manchester among london is the most targeted place by grad employers in 09 and all in all manchester has the best employer review if u look at the european and world rankings (not the UK tho, i wonder y?) and manchester is top 9 in europe n top 29 in the WORLD i mean thats huge! edinburgh is 6th and 23th (http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2008/regional_rankings/top_european_universities).. on the other hand manchester apparently isnt the best for social studies - edi tops it n lse is like top 5 in the world :smile:

still employers dont go as far as lookin the subject tables, its the general reputation of the uni id say, so any of these unis r pretty gud.
about ur chances with lse.. well i had the government course there pending for like 3 months n then i got my "genious" idea that ruined my life about changing the course and in like 2 weeks i was rejected, so that about that. as long as u dont hear from them then obviously u have chances. i think u should figure out what u want to study, would u be happy with simple politics? i for one want to back it up with economics so that i can assure that i wont "have" to take up some job in the media cuz im really not interested in it! economics is like assuring that u hv a totally diff type of career there - working with numbers if u like.

i went to the open days at lse last summer n really enjoyed the central location, i dont necessarily care about sports n such so it didnt bother me. but yeah im happy to be able to check out manchester before making any decisions!
can i ask u when did u graduate from hi school? i see that u r 21 yrs old (from ur profile) which is comforting cuz i will b 20 when i start n i feel "old" but thats how ppl get out of high school in finland, at 18 or 19 :frown:

Reply 13

ycang

LSE's probably so reputable that doing Govt there puts you in a better position to snag a high-paying job or to work in a bank than you would doing Econs in Manchester, especially if you wanna go into IB and stuff.

I'm from Singapore and I had to serve 2 years in the military, hence my age :frown:

Yea its been a complete waste of time but looking on the bright side, I'm gonna complete it in 2 months!

Reply 14

aivilo

wow two years that is extremely long, especially if it's mandatory. well u can be proud that u pulled it through (or will). singapore? to be honest i was looking at the national uni of singapore as 1 choice :smile:

) i really like ur country and want to go there on exchange at some point or work or just live a while!
u will have a hard time choosing ur universities if u get the offers, good luck with it :smile:

i just wish edinburgh would get back at me asap so i could figure out what the heck i want to do with my unis n my life:s

Reply 15

ycang

Yea I don't know what's taking them so long. Edinburgh and LSE in my case. I kind of wish they'd reject me at least.. But then again perhaps not, I'm just being impatient! NUS is pretty reputable but I feel like I need to get away from everything here to experience being in a foreign country and living independently! Its so much more exciting when you travel somewhere faraway for uni. I might go for NUS if I wasn't Singaporean.. Though I don't quite like their buildings' architecture, it just makes the school look so dull and boring. Very utilitarian. And the weather's hot and humid all year round too!

Reply 16

aivilo

what is sure is that u won't escape the humid weather by going to the UK haha! i don't know probably edinburgh is the rainiest cuz it's so on the shore. people ask me why i don't want to stay at helsinki uni because it has a good reputation in europe etc but no i must get away from everything i'm sick of being up in north! and the unis i have in the UK beat any uni in finland in a snap so i'm excited.. it will be a great great experience.

Reply 17

ycang

I don't think any place in Europe can beat my country on humidity. Its has a tropical climate so its warm all year round. I think winter and summer temperatures only vary 2-3 degrees celsius, if at all! I know how people always go on and on about how rainy the UK is and how gloomy and bad the weather in Manchester can be, but after searching Wikipedia this are my findings:

Rainfall/Annum
Manchester: 806.6 mm
London: 583.6 mm
Edinburgh: 668.0 mm
UK Average: 1125.0 mm
Singapore: 2370 mm :eek:

OMG

As you can see, the UK has nothing on Singapore when it comes to precipitation. Even so, I don't find that it rains too much here.. Perhaps the high figures are due to a lower frequency of rainy days but a much larger volume of rainfall each time.

YOU CAN STAND UNDER MY UMBRELLA, ELLA, ELLA, EH, EH, EH

(This is serious sidetracking from the original topic lool )

Reply 18

aivilo

Hahah i can't believe u took the time to check the rainfalls?! yes it's getting off topic and so but never mind.. :biggrin:

uhm yes manchester is kinda rainy. tho i must say i sort of like the rain, and if it's paired with some nice heat then i'd call it paradise! but how's it with tsunamis, do you get a lot of warnings in singapore? i find berkeley a highly luring university in the US but the thought of being hit by a huge tsunami (that is predicted in california, just don't know when) is a bit frightening! have u considered any other countries than the UK? i had many but it narrowed down to the US n the UK. however i definitely want to do my masters in the US, if nothing else!

Reply 19

aivilo

ok i posted sth here then clicked on sth n it mysteriously disapperaed hmm.. basically what i said is that i was reading through the site rules about staying in topic :wink:

n that i think it's worth going to edi by train for a day while in the UK. n that i hope to fall for something in at least one of those cities so that i can be enthusiastic about going to study in either city.. i'll let u know my very personal views then haha.
(n after i posted this, my previous msg appeared, too, so i deleted it. clearly im very virgin on the forum)