Reputation of Bristol & Manchester University

I don't know about either of their chemistry departments, but they are both part of the Russel Group, the UK's equivalent of the Ivy League. I know Manchester is the UK's biggest uni in terms of students and my history teacher studied in Bristol and is quite positive about it.

I live in Manchester and every single relative in my mums generation had gone to Manchester Uni, and though biased, it is a good uni- it's Russel group and in the top 60 in the world (according to a mate that goes there). The city is also amazing for student life with a wide variety of clubs and cultural places to visit.
The only downside is that the Uni campus is in the middle of some serious roadworks so it can make it a bit of a pain getting around, but that's minor as well as temporary.

Thanks that was helpful! Since you know the uni pretty well, I heard about the largest student busy type of thing, so did that affect the quality of teaching or feedback in any way? Do they do a good job of managing the sheer number or did any of your family complain about it? That's something I care about too

The teaching and style of management seems to be working, I mean, all my family came out with first class or 2:1 degrees :shrug: .

If you look on thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk, Bristol ranked 13th best for Chemistry and Manchester 16th best, largely it seems because Bristol asks for higher average grades.

Overall as a university, Bristol's ranked 24th, Manchester 25th.

However, when so closely ranked, I'm always interested in looking at related subjects too. For Physics, Manchester ranks 6th, Bristol 16th. For Biology, Bristol's 16th, Manchester's 17th. For Mathematics, Bristol's 8th, Manchester's 23rd.

Nice family! What did they read there?

A whole range but at the moment, I have family studying optometry, politics and law.

I'm an international student and I have the choice of reading Chemistry at either Bristol or Manchester university, and I'm into city life loads & clubbing is nice but not essential, but I'll also be looking at a postgraduate degree in the US so reputation internationally to me, would anyone who knows these two choices have any input to add, either from experience or from general opinion? Tuition fees will roughly be the same so cost is out of the equation, it's all a matter of which university is the better one in sciences, Chemistry in particular. I also don't mind the craziness of partying in Manchester or the rahs in Bristol haha

Also, Manchester seems to draw pretty mixed opinions, what's up with that? Haha is it actually one of the top UK unis?