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Nottingham or Birmingham for English Literature/ American Studies?

I'm looking for some kind of guidance or advice thatanyone might be able to offer me in choosing my firm university for UCAS (withmy insurance choice being Aberystwyth for English Literature). As the titlesuggests, my choice is between Nottingham for American Studies and Birminghamfor English and American Literature. Until recently I had it set in my mindthat I was going to choose Birmingham as I'd originally applied for joint honorsEnglish and American Literature degree at Nottingham but got rejected andinstead offered the single honors American studies. But after actually going tosee what the course entailed I was really impressed, so now I'm really unsureabout what to do. Now, I know there isn't any definitive answer of which isbetter for me as they both have their own merits, but I'm really having troubledeciding which will be best for me, so any advice would be useful from anyonereally, maybe something that I've overlooked or something I'm putting too muchimportance on.
So, to make things easy, here's a list of the pros of each;

Birmingham, English and American Literature (AAB):

. I really liked the look of the campus, by far the nicer of the two
. Possibly the more 'prestigious' course to a possible employer (no offense toanyone doing American studies! it's just because I'd never even heard of ituntil I applied for it as part of joint honors, even though it really does looklike a great course)
. The campus is right next to a train station to the city centre, which looksreally handy, meaning I could be home in less than two hours if need be
. It's exactly the course I applied for
. Study abroad

Nottingham, American Studies (ABB):

. The lower offer, which I could comfortably attain, while the AAB forBirmingham is quite unlikely so it'd be a bit of a gamble if I put it as my first
. They really drive home the fact that it's one of the top places whereemployers go (so what's more important, the University or the degree?)
. I really enjoyed the sample lecture. Not to say that I'd be picking this on awhim, looking at the course and meeting the professors/ students this lookslike a course I'd really love to do for four years (with the extra year beingstudy abroad)
. In general, the whole department (including students) seemed to be a lot morepassionate about the subject and put a lot more effort in to showing it, whenwith Birmingham I only really saw the American studies side of the course whichisn't that helpful when it's 'ENGLISH and American LITERATURE'
. Great internship opportunity

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

Reply 1

LouiseJHudson

Go for Nottingham. I've chosen to do American and Canadian studies there over Birmingham as its the only university in the country that has a full department of professors dedicated to the subject, who specialise in the course. This is much better opposed to just having lecturers come over from the history, english and politics departments, which Birmingham do. Plus, the course in Nottingham is much larger as it has a 100 places for the stand alone subject (not including the joint honours), whereas Birmingham only has about 30 places overall.

Hope this helped! And I hope to see you next year if you attend Nottingham!

I picked this subject because I couldn't decide if I wanted to study English or History at degree level. Since I love both subjects, I assumed American Studies was the best choice for me because it opens areas of knowledge in English, history and politics, plus, I am passionate about American literature and history. This way I can choose which area I want to specialise in when I finish my degree :smile: