The Student Room Group

Scroll to see replies

Essex clearly. Though Birms has a better overall rep.
Reply 2
i'd say birmingham! the uni is ace and the philosophy department was impressive! the city is good as well. it would have been my first choice but i live too near!
Reply 3
Birmingham clearly IMO. Nice campus, nice city, better rep.
essex campus is located in 200 acres of beautiful parkland. granted birmingham is a better for its location city wise but london is only 40 minutes away on the train from essex. essex has a way better rep than birmingham for social sciences and was ranked higher in the rae and qaa so if you want a better education in the subject then essex is the right choice but if you want city living then b'ham.
Essex has better teaching.
Reply 6
Essex is really great for social sciences.
Reply 7
But Birmingham has the fetish society :P
Reply 8
How can Essex be considered great if its not even in the top 10 for social sciences.
Reply 9
Are you referring to undergraduate ranking?
Reply 10
Yes.
Reply 11
Essex is academically great for social sicences.
Reply 12
It depends what you want to go into afterwards I think. If you are looking at reputation, Birmingham has the better overall reputation and you would not have many troubles later in life based on the university you went to. If you want to go into something directly related, then think whether they may possibly look at how good your uni was for your subject. However, if you eventually want to go into something that's not directly related then they will only look at the overall reputation of the university. They're both quite decent though.
Reply 13
yeah both are quite decent so just look at the course n location?
Reply 14
foraquid
Hello there (my first post),

I have to decide which uni to go to, between Birmingham and Essex, both to study Politics and Philosophy at undergraduate level, I’m after any advice going.
Cheers

I would say Brum simply because im probably going to go there lol for International studies and political science
Reply 15
Whichever you like better on the open day. They are both academically reputable departments.
v2006
How can Essex be considered great if its not even in the top 10 for social sciences.

the rankings take into account a variety of factors including spending, student/staff ratio etc and essex may have not done as well on those BUT if you look purely the teaching reports and the research reports then essex has one of the best social science departments in the country...

the essex economics department is top notch, most lecturers have studied at prestigious institutions such as lse, cambridge, harvard, princeton, northwestern, warwick, ucl, oxford, ucla etc...

many graduates from essex go on to study at places such as lse, cambridge etc...
Reply 17
Do you think the place where you do your masters in IR or politics matters more than the place you did your undergraduate degree. For example someone that went Birmingham te mastered at LSE compared with somene that went LSE and mastered at LSE, would they be on par with eacother.
at the end of the day it should not really matter too much as both have phd's from the same place...although it would obviously be more beneficial if you attended the lse for undergraduate studies also...
Reply 19
Shuky
Do you think the place where you do your masters in IR or politics matters more than the place you did your undergraduate degree. For example someone that went Birmingham te mastered at LSE compared with somene that went LSE and mastered at LSE, would they be on par with eacother.


Er, yes. Obviously....