American Studies - Nottingham or Leicester?

Got offers from both these universities for the American studies course. Anyone got any advice for which one I should choose?

I may be a bit out of date here, but Leicester used to be one of the leading universities for American Studies. Have a look at where their exchanges are.

Yeah I had a look and Leicester's 3rd for American studies, whereas Nottingham is 9th. I'm just finding it difficult to decide as I think Nottingham is the more respectable of the two

Tough call. Have you been to either place? I didn't like Leicester much (my son applied there and also Nottingham for American Studies, many moons ago) but I have two colleagues who went there and loved it. Nottingham is a very pretty campus but you don't spend a lot of time living on it and another friend's daughter went there, ended up living miles out and my friend never stopped worrying. I realise this doesn't help you at all... Academically, you'd be fine at either. If you were going to apply for jobs in a field where American Studies was a degree they knew anything about (and there's a lot of ignorance about it - I got negged to oblivion once for suggesting it to someone) then they would know how good Leicester was.

Yeah thanks I think I'm swayed slightly to Nottingham but I've got until tommorow morning to decide. Thanks for your help!

Hey there. I've had a little look at the department websites. I'd say that from what I can see, Nottingham only has joint degrees for American Studies: i.e. it's American Studies and something. Do you have an 'and something' in your prospective degree here? At Leicester I see it's straightforward BA American Studies.

The only reason I bring this distinction up is because at Nottingham, if you did an 'and something', say in History or English, it would ground you in a methodology related to a broader and more established discipline. You would thus be able to do American Studies as a historian, or as a literary critic with specific modules related to skills in these areas. I'd say that a grounding in the basics of the discipline is really very helpful and you'll probably be grateful for it in the long run.

Ah, I also see you can do the BA in American and Canadian Literature, History and Culture at Nottingham. That might be good too. I'd say that the range of modules seems bigger at Nottingham than at Leicester.

But of course, you also want to think about each of the cities. Do you have any preferences?

But overall it sounds like a really good course! I hope you enjoy it, wherever you go.

P.S. The optional modules at Leicester also seem terribly niche. I suspect they may be the particular hobby horses of specific lecturers. At Nottingham it seems broader, which is good because it should allow for more scope for personal investigation within a broader subject area, if that makes sense.

Yeah thats the course I meant! Also I know it shouldn't be a deciding factor but looking at the website leicester seems to have a great deal more partner universities for the year abroad. Thanks for your help

What does one do with an American Studies degree? I'd never heard of it until I started looking into UK universities and to me it sounds silly. But I'm silly.

One does what one does with an English degree or a history degree or a politics degree, with which it shares many qualities. 60% of graduate careers don't require a degree in any specific discipline. American Studies is offered by high quality institutions such as Nottingham, Leicester and Manchester, to name but three.

I see. Interesting.

Nottingham definitely has a better reputation


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Yes, very. If I had my time over again, I'd consider doing it. However, I believe you are American, so it probably doesn't have an appeal for you. I imagine if US universities ran a course which covered the historical, literary, political and cultural background to the UK, there'd be some takers, no?