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what would be the best university to go to for politics out of my offers

I've received offers for politics BA for Queen Mary, Nottingham, Leeds, Birmingham and Kent.

Things I want
* would like to stay in London
*want a highly regarded department
*want a fun city to live in
*want the best employment prospects for me after 3 years. Notice I want to know my employment prospect after 3 years since reputation and contacts can improve over that time
* good social life
*good music scene, a place where I could start a band. Where would.be the best.
Original post by nevergiveupnow
I've received offers for politics BA for Queen Mary, Nottingham, Leeds, Birmingham and Kent.

Things I want
* would like to stay in London
*want a highly regarded department
*want a fun city to live in
*want the best employment prospects for me after 3 years. Notice I want to know my employment prospect after 3 years since reputation and contacts can improve over that time
* good social life
*good music scene, a place where I could start a band. Where would.be the best.


It depends mostly, one would presume, on your academic interests. I would pick QMUL, because after Cambridge, and maybe St Andrews, it has perhaps the best faculty in the History of Political Thought in the UK (Quentin Skinner, Gareth Stedman Jones, Richard Bourke, Barbara Taylor, etc.). I don't think any of your other choices have a similarly world-leading faculty specialism (although at QMUL, most of these are technically in the History department). That said, Birmingham and Nottingham have a strong enough faculty, and a couple of heavy-weights (e.g. Peter Burnham and Michael Freeden, respectively).
Original post by Zeno of Citium
It depends mostly, one would presume, on your academic interests. I would pick QMUL, because after Cambridge, and maybe St Andrews, it has perhaps the best faculty in the History of Political Thought in the UK (Quentin Skinner, Gareth Stedman Jones, Richard Bourke, Barbara Taylor, etc.). I don't think any of your other choices have a similarly world-leading faculty specialism (although at QMUL, most of these are technically in the History department). That said, Birmingham and Nottingham have a strong enough faculty, and a couple of heavy-weights (e.g. Peter Burnham and Michael Freeden, respectively).



What about prestige and prospects. Is Queen Mary a well respected university. International, does it have the potential to be greater admired in comparison to my other choices. I kinda want to go Queen Mary, but ain't sure whether it will surpass the reputation and prospects of my other choices in a few years. Am I wrong?
Original post by nevergiveupnow
What about prestige and prospects. Is Queen Mary a well respected university. International, does it have the potential to be greater admired in comparison to my other choices. I kinda want to go Queen Mary, but ain't sure whether it will surpass the reputation and prospects of my other choices in a few years. Am I wrong?


It depends entirely on what you want to do. In the unlikely prospect that you wanted to enter the field of the History of Political Thought, QMUL is one of the best universities in the world. If you merely want a degree, pursuant to a graduate job, then Nottingham probably has a slightly better reputation that Birmingham and QMUL. That said, I imagine you want to balance academic quality, institutional reputation, and quality of life. How you do that is up to you. IMO, I would attend QMUL or Nottingham; both have strong faculties, and pretty good general reputations. Similarly, they are both, especially Nottingham, great places to live. Birmingham, in all honesty, is a bit of a dive. You should also probably consider the expense of London.

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