Bristol or Edinburgh for physics?

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I can't imagine for a moment that the physics course at Bristol lacks academic rigour!

What offer did you get, if you are doing a Foundation degree? Could you have been given a contextual offer of some sort?

My offer is to pass the year with 65%. To stay in Manchester, I need 75% (distributed in a specific away across all 12 units).

I can't be sure, but I suspect you've got a contextual offer from Bristol, because you have a non-traditional background, come from a poor performing school or similar. I'd snap them up on a bargain of an offer!

It is pretty foolish to worry about getting a low offer - your first graduate position will be based in part on the university you went to and your degree class, not the offer you were made on entry!

Not to go completely off topic, but I was referring more to the typical A-level offer - i.e. AAB/ABB.

Bristol seems to have less options than Edinburgh though, and I'm not keen on the emphasis on labs.

So academically I'm leaning towards Edinburgh - can anyone make a case for Bristol?

The lab work in the Bristol curriculum only accounts for a small percentage of the credits, there was a post somewhere on here recently where someone posted the student handbook they are given when they start the course with all the details about the modules and credits etc.

EDIT: Actiually I just double checked it, its actually 1/3 of the mark, at least for Core Physics A anyway, I assume it would be similar for the others.

How much lab work is done in Edinburgh?

First year labs account for 10/120 credit points, you'll have labs from 12-5 (with an hour for lunch) every week. So it's basically one afternoon a week spent on labs, second year that only increases to being from 10-5, which means it's one day a week of labs, 4 days of lectures.

As for Edinburgh requiring higher grades to get it, it's maybe better worth looking at the average UCAS points of people who accept the offer and get in, rather than the offer itself. When it comes to that (for 2013 according to the Guardian), Edinburgh has 514 v 498 for Bristol, so on average there is less than a grade between any given physics student at either university.

As for options, first year in bristol has 50 open credit points of your choice, second year is entirely closed with no options, third year you choose either 5 or 6 courses depending on if you are BSc or Msci respectively. These come from a list of about 12-15 different options, and constitute either 50 or 60 credit points total, with the remaining points being compulsory modules.

edit: If I missed anything, please let me know!

How rigorous an education would you say the Bristol course provides? Graduating from Bristol, would you say that one would have an equal knowledge/understanding of physics as from places like Edinburgh/UCL/KCL/Manchester/other places of a similar calibre? I know this might be impossible to answer, but I'm just interested in what your sense is.

First year labs account for 10/120 credit points, you'll have labs from 12-5 (with an hour for lunch) every week. So it's basically one afternoon a week spent on labs, second year that only increases to being from 10-5, which means it's one day a week of labs, 4 days of lectures.

As for Edinburgh requiring higher grades to get it, it's maybe better worth looking at the average UCAS points of people who accept the offer and get in, rather than the offer itself. When it comes to that (for 2013 according to the Guardian), Edinburgh has 514 v 498 for Bristol, so on average there is less than a grade between any given physics student at either university.

As for options, first year in bristol has 50 open credit points of your choice, second year is entirely closed with no options, third year you choose either 5 or 6 courses depending on if you are BSc or Msci respectively. These come from a list of about 12-15 different options, and constitute either 50 or 60 credit points total, with the remaining points being compulsory modules.

edit: If I missed anything, please let me know!

Hi, I didnt really want to start a new thread about this but can I ask how easy is it to speak to lecturers outside of lectures to ask questions etc please?. Ive heard some uni's have "open door" policies where it can be pretty easy to speak to someone, even at odd hours and then others such as Edinburgh (that someone on another thread just mentioned) can be quite difficult to get to see anyone sometimes.

Thanks.

I'm not exactly sure what the universities policy on it is, but for the most part, lecturers will hang around for a little while after lectures to answer any immediate questions, and will also specifically set aside an hour or two a week where you can go and talk to them/ask any questions.

You can also just hit them up with an email, they'll let you know when they are free so you can go and talk to them. You can always just try going to their office, but quite often either a) they won't be there, or b) they'll be busy and sort out a time when they are free. It does depend on who the lecturer is really, more than anything else.

((note my experience of this is limited as i've never felt the need to ask any questions outside of lectures, with the exception of a couple at the end of lectures, so this is just my impression and from having spoke to people who do go and see lecturers))