Bristol Or Imperial?

I can chip in on the 'student life' part as an Imperial student and the cost of living; with the bursary and student loan, living in London is comfortable. Imperial has the highest number of student societies in the country so you will be spoilt for choice in that respect. Bristol does however enjoy more of the 'typical uni' experience; you will almost definitely go out more at Bristol, for example!

Ah thank you! Theres a lot to think about and I suppose I have to really just sort out my priorities in whether building on these traits and building on the creative side!

Yes, I suppose that's what I was asking! So what you mean is, as long as I get the work done, Imperial will meet me half way into providing other people that want to go out and societies to join etc? Well that does ease a worry of mine, thanks!

One thing I would like to say is that I advise that you try and see through the marketing spiel and advertising buzz words, and focus on the details.

The courses do look quite different, and I like the look of them both. The Bristol one, as you have identified, seems more broad: it has accreditation from all of the major engineering institutions, bar the IChemE - although I'm not sure if that is dependent on what stream you go down or what modules you take. It seems quite like a general engineering degree to me, although I could be wrong.

The Imperial degree seems a little narrower in scope, focusing on mechanical and electrical streams, but at the same time appears to focus on a broader range of the overall skills required to become an engineer, rather than bombarding you with lots of maths and theory that you probably won't use outside of academia. It also seems to have an interest in what I suppose I could call trendy consumer products, but much of the design skills are transferable to other types of products and systems too.

Although that's just my assessment from reading the websites. I have never been to either of those universities. But overall I would say that both courses have advantages of "traditional" engineering degrees.

Pretty much. If you put in some work, there's definitely no reason why you can't have a bit of down time. It's not some kind of grim scientist/engineer/mathematician factory. The only thing you have to bear in mind is that everyone is A*/A standard. So, I suppose you have to have the effort and dedication levels of a A**/A* level if you want to do above average.