Solve the dilemma!

I have applied for G100 Mathematics and I have two offers so far:


*Offer - Bath A*AA (Excellent sports facilities) (Excellent for Maths)

*Offer York AAB

I also intend to apply for a 'ABB' University and at the moment Glasgow is, on balance my preferred destination. Feel free to suggest others though!

- Glasgow ABB

These are the three offers I require for my strategy; which would give me three options, depending on how January goes, for when I need to decide to make an offer a Firm or Insurance choice.

This leaves me two spaces, with three more I want to apply to! If I were to receive offers from the below they would replace one of the above options of either my high, middle or low offer.

Imperial A*A*A (Admittedly slim chance of offer, and would be difficult to obtain grades, but most prestigious University and in arguably best city in Uk)

Nottingham AAB (This would be alternative to York. Better for Maths? Better nightlife? Not as reputable as York overall.)

Bristol AAA (Alternative to Bath, lower offer easier to obtain and also in the City which would suit me better, however I really value the sports facilities and quality of maths course)

So which two out of the above three should I apply for? After applying to Bath and York, it was unfortunately only after this that I realised I was looking into the rankings to much and was forgetting where I would prefer to live.

I could apply to

Bristol and Imperial - This would give me more chance of a city for top choice but would mean York over Nottingham

Bristol and Nottingham - Good city for all my choices this way If I receive offer, but would I regret not applying to Imperial if I got the grades?....

Nottingham and Imperial Because Imperial is a small chance this would mean my first choice would probably be in a fairly quiet place, in Bath.


I really cannot decide whatsoever, I need to make a decision by this weekend, any help would be appreciated.

As long as you're happy enough with York, I'd forget Nottingham - it's not like it has a world-class maths course that alone makes it worth applying to regardless of any other factor. You sound like you'd be happiest in a city (although Bath is hardly dead, and it close to Bristol anyway), so in your position I would apply to Bristol and Imperial.

Thanks for your reply! So do you think that Bristol is, on balance, a better University(for me) overall than Bath, than Nottingham is than York?

Or are you saying that York is better than Nottingham, which simply leaves the other two. If so which would you recommend out of Bath and Bristol lol?

By the way, did you take STEP? I know there is information on it here, but I hadn't planned on taking it. Apparently some people have offers from Imperial that are A*A*A (a stretch as it is!) in addition to STEP. How much of a detriment to your A-level results would you say it was, assuming you took it?

Thanks

I think you need to take into account the availability of cock in each of these cities.

Ah, so you're voting for Imperial?

I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with London. Is it slut central?

I think you don't sound unhappy with York, whereas you sound vary wary of Bath. Bath was one of my top choices (also for maths, although I didn't do STEP I'm afraid) ... but that means nothing, and a lot of people wouldn't like it. So yes, IMO you should forget Nottingham and apply to Bristol and Imperial ... unless you actually like Nottingham.

If you do, then comes the choice - would you rather regret something or avoid Bath? In your position, I would give myself the best chance of not going to Bath and apply to Bristol and Nottingham, forget Imperial.

I have to admit I haven't yet visited Nottingham and Glasgow. I've heard good things about Nottingham though, described as a smaller version of Manchester. And although I know I shouldn't read into rankings too much Nottingham has been rated 20th overall and 14th for Maths, whereas York is 9th overall and 32nd for Maths. Which degree would be valued most?

Never go on ranking alone is my advice. Unless you are a machine the character of the place matters so visit them all. There is no set rule - you may find that the department seems merely 'good' but the brilliance of the rest of the university in academic or other matters kind of rubs off on you (or vice versa).

Rankings change. What won't change is that York was founded in 1963. Nottingham is much older- there were points where Nottingham was top 10 overall.

You need to decide what constitutes, most importantly, a happy productive working environment to YOU.
To me, Maths at Nottingham is slightly more prestigious than Maths at York and Maths at Warwick or Durham is definitely more prestigious than either.

I don't think that the overall ranking of York has necessarily impressed itself massively on the populace in the way that Warwick has. And it's about equal with Leicester overall anyway, which itself is often underrated.

Please don't base your decision on me or anyone else - that would be too much responsibility to bear (I've never visited any of those universities apart from York and Bristol and Bath wouldn't have even have been on my radar because they are so far away from me).

This table suggests that York is better than Nottingham for Applied Maths for instance:
http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=6643

but you'll find all kinds of tables online saying different things.

Please make a visit to all of those places to see how you personally feel about them and the people who teach and study there. You were worried about Bath feelling too small and York, too, was a small university but the Heslington East extension must have surely served to increase student numbers. I just didn't like the feel of the place at the particular time that I studied there (several years before they revitalised the campus) and I must declare that as a biased opinion rather than fact.

Did you consider Edinburgh too?

Do you have a preference of university type? e.g. (ancient, redbrick, 60s)