Lancaster or Edinburgh?

Mum of Lancaster student here so not sure be much help. English is a popular course at Lancaster. My eldest studies physics there, but the youngest wanted to check out English on open day and the course looked pretty good.

So Lancaster by the sounds of things has a better lifestyle. its a campus uni which is what you want. And its ranked higher.
But, Edinburgh has the better modules, and city lifestyle

Lancaster when I visited felt really safe. I stayed in the city for 2 nights August bank holiday and its lovely. It's not as big as Edinburgh, but its great and you can catch a bus right from campus to Morecambe (the 100 bus), another place I went to and that's a lovely seaside resort. 2 bus rides away and your in the lakes. Or you can catch a bus to Blackpool, or train to Manchester. Shes doing freshers week right now and loving it. She's in a townhouse in Grizedale. So in a group of 12, and also she's been chatting since April to her subject group (they found each other on social media on freshers group page) , so she's also met up with them. The Library at Lancaster is immense. Its huge, and they are having another third added as an extension which is crazy. Plus is got various eateries on campus such as greggs, subway, sultans(which is a chips, kebabs wraps burgers etc), burrito bar, burger place, and 2 supermarkets, and many more. Its collegiate, which means you belong to a college and they organise their own freshers week. So far there's been instagram bingo by taking pics round campus, quizzes, DJ sets in your own flats, dressing up nights, and you have your own college bar which you can book in sixes. Its its own little contained town.
Buses to city are about 20mins and very regular and free bus every Wednesday to the main sainsburys (if you show the receipt) Lancasters got 2 shopping centres and lots of bars, and couple of clubs which currently are bars where you can book tables. Daughter went to Glow last night and still had a form of experience with DJ on screen, co2 cannons and lazers still. My daughter feels really safe there. And move in day was well organized.
I would say in the days of covid: Join the social media groups around spring next year, and you will get added to subject groups, accommodation/college groups too and get making friends to start with leading up to September, it really helped with settling in and having lots of new mates right from the get go.
Wish could be more help. There's a student called Maria I believe does English and creative writing on here so she may be able to tell you more

Thank you, this is very helpful. 1-0 to Lancaster so far; I wonder if someone can equal that for Edinburgh? Lancaster does sound lovely though.

Lancaster as a place is okay.
I wouldn't rate the pubs and clubs. There's not that many shops in the city centre. It's a miserable night out. Freshers is usually busy but then it calms down. It's pretty though and there's some nice walks if you wanted to explore.
Lancaster uni as its self contained campus is lovely, if you fancy a quieter life. It's lovely for walks and the buses to town are every 5 mins or so. You could stay on campus and never leave. 1st years get priority on campus though. The gym is a 5 minute walk down the driveway and there's plenty of places to eat and shop, there's co-op, Costa, a beauty salon, Spar, banks and a market day on Thursday. The WiFi is good and reliable.
The teaching is good, the quality of the lecturers is what I noticed. There's reasonable support, the college staff are brilliant and the porters are really helpful.
There's a bus direct to the train station which is useful.
Days out are organised through the colleges, there's some good ones if you get bored. Some colleges have their own kitchens so you can cook your own food if you live in the centre.

So don't choose Lancaster University because of Lancaster. Look at the university only. Lancaster really isn't exciting.

This is really helpful, thank you. I do prefer a quieter atmosphere but I wouldn't like to get too bored, but as you said the university itself is the most important thing. Which would you say is "better" purely from a quality perspective?

Edinburgh for international prestige and gorgeous city. Sure, it's not a campus; but, your faculty is located in central Edinburgh and it's basically like its own campus. Very, very quaint and quasi Hogwarts-y. The English department is also internationally renowned (I really do mean this). However, one big con of Edinburgh's would be that it relies too heavily on its prestige/reputation and doesn't do much to support its students. Hence, low student satisfaction ratings as everyone's expected to self-study everything and anything (much like what you're expected to do at very traditional and old universities like Oxbridge).

Lancaster, on the other hand, is very hands-on and prioritises student care/support/teaching. I suppose the slight downfall would be that while its reputation is admirable in the UK, it doesn't compare to Edinburgh's historical prestige in the academic world overseas. What's more, the city's as lush as Edinburgh...

What are your other choices?

Oh no, you lot really aren't making this too easy for me!
Cambridge, Durham, St Andrews and York.

It's a tough one. I do think you should prioritise student satisfaction for your department + location. Even though I'm from Edinburgh and had a great time at the university, I do wish I had more support. Granted, I didn't do English Lit, so it could be better/worse. That said, for English Lit, I don't think historical prestige counts for too much. You want to enjoy your course and feel like you're receiving the tuition that you're paying for. I imagine you'd receive that satisfaction at either Lancaster or St Andrews because both of those universities really do prioritise teaching and student support.

As an aside, I had a friend who did English Lit at York and he had a great time. So, yeah... You have a lot of options.

What kind of careers are you interested in? One thing you could take advantage in Scotland would be being able to take option courses in practically anything. I'd recommend doing something to boost employability in a specific sector (assuming you have something in mind). What A levels did you do?

If you are ambitious, and want to work as a journalist, in TV, or within publishing or other competitive career, go for Edinburgh for sure over Lancaster. I can tell you now that a lot of top employers will see Edinburgh as a top 10 university at the least, regardless of the domestic rankings. International rankings are more highly regarded by employers, governments, and the global public, given that they measure prestige far better than UK ones.

Edinburgh is a 15th century university city, full of amazing buildings and intelligent, diverse people. One of the great cities in the World for history and culture. That said, getting an offer for English at Edinburgh is going to be tough, potentially even for you. They are much more lenient to those from poorer backgrounds who attended weak state schools, however.

Lancaster is also a very good university, one which should really be in the Russell Group by now, given that it is arguably slightly better academically than Liverpool, QUB and Newcastle. It doesn't have the history, beauty, or famous almuni of many universities in the Russell Group, which is why many top students don't apply there.

Okay, that's good to know employability wise (but has scared me off a bit seeing as my other choices are also competitive) - I come from a not particularly high achieving grammar school where I attained the top grades in my school, at least at A level. Would Lancaster be an easier bet? I ask as there's no point considering how prestigious the university is career-wise it it's unlikely I'd even get an offer in the first place!

You should get an offer from 1-2 prestigious universities. Durham, St Andrews and Edinburgh (in no particular order) are the best universities within your chosen pool (after Oxbridge). I see no UCL or Bristol though? Lancaster is not worth going to if you have AAA or better.

Right, thank you. Currently I'm thinking Cambridge, Durham, St Andrews, Edinburgh/Lancaster, York so I have at least one safe option (York and/or Lancaster). I really can't afford to live in London so UCL is out and Bristol seems to have an appalling amount of suicides?

Okay, that's good to know employability wise (but has scared me off a bit seeing as my other choices are also competitive) - I come from a not particularly high achieving grammar school where I attained the top grades in my school, at least at A level. Would Lancaster be an easier bet? I ask as there's no point considering how prestigious the university is career-wise it it's unlikely I'd even get an offer in the first place!

Bristol is a brilliant university, in the same bracket as Edinburgh. The suicides there are unfortunate, but this tends to happen at many elite universities, whereby some students arrive with mental health issues prior to the course starting. I was one of these at another top university.

Bristol is a brilliant university, in the same bracket as Edinburgh. The suicides there are unfortunate, but this tends to happen at many elite universities, whereby some students arrive with mental health issues prior to the course starting. I was one of these at another top university.