Undergraduate Biology/Liberal Arts advice needed: UCL and Birmingham

Hi all

I'm responding to my UCAS offers in the next few days, and have narrowed it down to two options: MSci Biology at UCL, or the Liberal Arts and Sciences course at Birmingham. At Birmingham I'd major in Biology and study around 80% Bio modules, and spend the remainder of time on a foreign language. I'm basically having a really hard time deciding. Both courses appeal, but the level of flexibility at Birmingham to gradually focus in on Biology or retain a Bio/languages split throughout my degree really appeals to me. Plus on the Liberal Arts/Sci course they have a focus on careers and employability from the get-go, with career events/talks held for Liberal Arts Students, internship opportunities, and great study abroad options. (SA is quite important to me)

On the other hand, I am a bit apprehensive going into the Birmingham course as it is a brand new course this year. Not a reason for alarm in itself, but it is on my mind. Also, at UCL I'd be on course to graduate with an instantly recognizable degree from an excellent University. To what extent this matters I'm not sure, as Birmingham is also a highly respectable place. I'd love to get some outside opinions on this, as I'm sure there are large numbers of people out there that would choose UCL over Birmingham at face value. I'm just honestly not sure if they'll be a big difference in career prospects between UCL and Birmingham, with a good degree. But I'm pretty out the loop on this topic so advice would be appreciated. How much does 'prestige' matter? But anyway, there are still some chances for lang study on the UCL course but much more limited. And their study abroad options are far narrower than what is available at Birmingham.

Initially I loved the Birmingham course, with its flexibility, apparent career focus, and US style major/minor system. But recently the doubts are creeping in, when thinking about the risk of taking a new course, versus the high profile of a UCL degree and the advantage of taking a degree that is recognizable to employers/won't need quite so much explaining.

Sorry for the very long post, I just want to make sure I make the right decision. And I want to make sure I choose one for the right reasons. Not based solely on reputation (which sounds like a bad idea), but on the other hand I want to avoid basing it only on my idea of an ideal course if there is going to be some significant disadvantage to my career.
I'd like to get some outside opinions on these options, particularly concerning career prospects (if there even are any significant differences), prestige/profile of Uni to employers, and whether I should put more weight to these rational considerations, or pay more attention to my personal preferences in this case. Any help would be very much appreciated :smile:

Thanks for reading and responding! :smile:

Reply 1

paddlesnap

Out of pure prestige, if I was you, I'd pick UCL. If you prefer Birmingham's course, go for that.

Reply 2

Soontobesuper

If I were you'd I go for Birmingham, for your intro you seem much more interested in it! It would reaaly be purely down to Prestige bu B'ham is coming up and If you can sell your experiences at Birmingham to the employer you should be ok :smile:

If I am honest I thought you were going to talk about the new Arts and Sciences course at UCL which is supposed to rival Birmingham's! From the sound of it seems to be giving a lot more choice than what theirs is.