How did you choose what universities to apply to?

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Looked at the top 20 of a few league tables. Discarded any unis that I knew I definitely didn't want to go to. Chose 6 from whichever were left based on recommendations from my maths teacher and general location/favourite cities.

Reply 41

jsp13

went to a UK Universities Exhibition in my country
chose unis based on both reputation and on my chances of getting in
my budget also played an important role since UK unis were quite expensive but found that most of them are in the same range

Reply 42

ooze

Angelil

Did anyone else here actually make relatively few uni visits?
I think I visited Exeter only 2 or three times before getting there, and Oxford only once before interview. Bristol also only once. I didn't visit my other 3 choices at all.

Mmm, just cambridge a few times and edinburgh twice (once was for a gig ..). Made Edinburgh my firm as soon as I got back home.

Reply 43

Charlybob

Choose between campus or city uni.

Choose North, Midlands or South.

Choose the level of uni you want to go to. (Eg if you want to go to Oxbridge type unis.)

That narrows it down a lot. Enough to make it feasable to visit the open day for all the unis left. Just choose which you like from visiting them.

Reply 44

francescarella

i ordered all the prospectuses of london unis that did drama/theatre, and manchester uni cos i was going to apply there anyway as thats wher i live. i wanted to move to london tho cos of all the drama links with west end and the social scene etc.

from that i picked london south bank bizarrely enough. then went to a ucas convention in manchester n from that i picked queen mary and royal holloway.

i was going to apply to oxford for english as well but decided it wud have been silly as its not the course i want. i admite i did pick certain unis cos of their standign in league tables but as many people have sed, league tables are all crap anyway.

and i only really put central down as a last minute search on ucas website lol as i needed a final choice and thought i'd put it down and give it a go. lol.

i went to the queen mary and manc open days, then got offered interviews at all of the places, then wen i got my offers i decided i didnt actually want to go anywhere other than central and here i am now :smile:

so to recap for resources:
ucas website, order uni prospectuses, go to open days, ucas conventions, ignore leaugue tables. but the thing i would say most of all is follow your instincts. you will just know when a uni/course is right.

Reply 45

Angelil

steelmole

Looked at the places that were in relatively small cities that were good for doing physics. I also let the random number generator on my calculator pick one of my choices.

Haha, brilliant :rofl:

And did you go to that choice?!

j_dogg

Because the college I was assigned to was Girton. I love everything about it....beautiful college, which is meant to be quite a close one and just has some great qualities, however I really didnt want to be so far from the centre. Im not a cyclist (I guess i will have to be), and I cant imagine having to cycle in everyday (Im sure its not as bad as i think! The main thing is is that i dont want to sweat on my way to lectures lol....I go to the gym, but its usually quite cool in their and alot easier to cycle on a machine than on real roads! Also what do you do when its pourin with rain (as it usually does in England)?
I have friends going to Caius, Emmanual, St Johns and St Catz and they all are in the centre, so i feel slightly out of it all :smile:

Just wear fewer clothes if you think you'll sweat while cycling. And put a jumper in your bag for you to put on once you reach your destination if you think you'll be cold on arrival.
As for what to do when it's raining - some cycle regardless, but I personally found it very physically unpleasant and potentially dangerous on the one occasion I did it as it can **** up your brakes and of course you get soaked. So when it rains, I walk.

Reply 46

Cirsium

mackemforever

Now I know that this question has probably been asked many times before but I wanted to see if we could get a topic going with a list of useful resources and advice for those who are trying to choose unis (including me!).

So, post away.

I went to a Higher Education conference thing (a few lectures, and then every major uni in the country handing out their prospectus) and got one from everywhere that wasn't too far away. Mostly I looked at Russell group etc (i.e. ones I'd heard of and new were reasonable). I applied to Oxford, because everybody said it was the best; Bristol - because it's obv good and I could do Bio and Maths JH (one of the very few places where I could); Warwick, because I could do mathsy options there too, and the musical facilities really appealled, and York because it topped the Biology league tables regularly and had a year abroad option. Then I looked at the other prospectuses I had for some backups and picked Leeds (Bio and Math JH again) and Birmingham (I had about 3 left that looked reasonable, and B'ham I could do the year abroad again. Bath's grades were a bit higher and Mum said Leicester was a horrible city :p:

)

Didn't visit any before I applied as I didn't have the money :p:

Reply 47

j_dogg

Yeah, Girton is a pretty cool college, and the distance is only really a problem until you get there and then you'll probably forget about it. Girton is a pretty massive college and fairly insular because of the distance - but I've never heard anyone from there complain about that. You won't sweat on the way to lectures, mainly because it's mostly downhill, and secondly because it'll generally be fairly ****ing cold (I've had to cycle to Girton a fair bit for supervisions).

And, if it's raining, there's nothing stopping you getting the bus, which stops just outside of Girton and takes you into town (and goes the other way, I believe).

Don't be disappointed with your choice, you're gonna love Girton and forget about all these worries once you get there.

Reply 48

username163242

I chose the University I'm going to by the course, which I fell in love with.

Reply 49

*pitseleh*

Angelil

I didn't visit any of them with an express purpose of looking around the universities. :redface:

But I'd been to Oxford and Bristol lots of times in the past, and I'm in Cardiff pretty much every day of my life... so I knew three of the cities quite well. I'd only been to Warwick once, and I've still not been to Durham, so those choices were a bit more risky.

Anyway.. I started by looking at league tables. I don't actually think that league tables are good for much else at all, but as a starting point I think they can be very helpful. I picked about 25 'top 30' universities, and made a spreadsheet with loads of categories (including grade requirements; distance from home; my feelings about the course; cost of living and several more) and basically whittled them down by looking at them like that.

My final choices were Durham, Oxford, Cardiff, Bristol and Warwick.. and the only one I really wish I hadn't applied to in hindsight was Warwick, so I don't think my decision-making process could have been too badly flawed. :smile:

Reply 50

affinity89

I started by considering everywhere lol.
Then I crossed universities off that didn't offer my course (History), were too far away or too close, that didn't offer the modules/course structure I wanted etc.
With the universities left I looked at things like the student handbook, as I've found these are a lot more informative than the well, propaganda they all give out to prospective students.
Once I'd narrowed it down, I started visiting them, meeting lecturers and the like.
In terms of my final five, I tried to ensure that I dealt with all possibilities and had a choice for both my firm and my insurance, with a ratio of 3 firm universities: 2 insurance universities.

Anyway, good luck where ever you apply / go.

=D

Reply 51

~Ally~

It was easy this time round: there was only 1 course i wanted to do, and only 1 uni does it, and that uni Ruuuuuulllllllleees! :biggrin:

Reply 52

Zoeeee

I wanted to by the sea, and fees were less in Wales so I applied to 4 welsh unis and 2 random english ones! Didn't look at league tables at all and decided on my firm after visiting most of them.

Reply 53

$loth

Firstly I asked one of my media teachers (as I was applying for film/ tv production), and he sent me some recommendations which I looked through. I a range of five from the one's he recommended based on the course, resources, reputation in the industry etc.

Reply 54

Crosseyed And Painless

Hull was the only place out of London that did the course I wanted to do. Then I picked 4 others out of London that did a similar course (Kent, Portsmouth, Lincoln, Manchester Met) and a similar course at Hull.

Reply 55

Wez

Same as most people.

I looked at the top 10 uni rankings overall and then for my subjects. I eliminated some because they didn't offer my course and others because they were too far away (St. Andrews!) or in London (no point applying to 4 London unis unless I really want to live in London). That left me with Oxford, Durham, LSE, Bristol and two insurance choices, Exeter (who then gave me an AAA offer...:|) and Sheffield.

Reply 56

Kater Murr

Angelil

I've visited York. That's it.

Reply 57

NDGAARONDI

Well respected universities that had excellent RAE scores that were interdiciplinary.

My choices were as follows:

Durham - criminology
LSE - social policy and criminology
City - law
Queen Mary - law and politics
Leeds - criminal justice and criminology

Had I went to City or Queen Mary then it was an intention in becoming a barrister or solicitor. The other three had more of an emphasis on actual interest with a possibility of further studies, such as MPhil at Cambridge. In terms of graduate prospects, I have the civil service, Government, police etc available to me.

Reply 58

HCD

Bekaboo

] were reasonable).

Didn't visit any before I applied as I didn't have the money :p:

This, but I went on school-sanctioned visits to Southampton (local) and Oxford (travel = hell in a packed minibus). I recall sitting in a school computer room, and making some perhaps poorly-informed decisions:

Imperial - dominating the league tables (sans Oxbridge), so thought why the hell not - applied on a whim without serious thought. Hooray for serendipity!
Southampton - wanted a crack at the CERN scholarship, it was local, seemed nice enough and good enough
Warwick - league table + prospectus
UCL - league table + prospectus
Oxford - encouraged by school for being on the "Oxbridge List" which I believe is based on GCSE and AS grades. Chose the college based on the open day. Actually would have liked to apply to Cambridge, but I thought that without Chemistry there'd be no point in applying for NatSci. Probably should have checked rather than believing teachers, but never mind, eh?

All's well that ends well! :biggrin:

Reply 59

The Sherminator

HCD

So how would have Cambridge NatSci worked out then? Don't you need to do 2 sciences there?

And then you would have to put up with Land Economists, surely you couldn't bare that for at least 3 years?? :p: