Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Mechanical Engineering, not sure about choices

Good afternoon everyone!
I'm an access to HE student, and I've applied for these uni's for mechanical engineering, and I'm a bit lost.
BTW, in the access course, the grading is pass, merit and distinction, there's a test or essay at the end of each unit, no final exam. All my results so far are solid distinctions. There are 45 graded credits in total.

- University of Nottingham - Offer recieved, 30 distinction, 9 merit, 6 pass. This is way lower than I was expecting, so there's a nice surprise.
Ranking: Excellent general international ranking (top 100 worldwide), top 10-ish nationally for Engineering

- University of Lancaster - Invitation to interview, but I would miss 3 classes if I were to go, so I'm having second thoughts, as Lancaster does not appear to be the best anyways.
Ranking: Lower than the rest

- University of Bristol - Invitation to a maths test and interview. I'm confused about Bristol, although they seem to have a stronger academic reputation than the others, it appears that Bath and Nottingham have much better industry connections. Also, the maths test would make my already intensive workload much heavier, as it includes subject I'm not studying at the moment. Just how much better is Bristol than the others?
Ranking: Excellent, for both engineering and general ranking.

- University of Bath - They said they were going to contact my tutor to ask about my progress. My tutor will definitely give excellent feedback, so this should go well. Lovely area, so that's a plus as well.
Ranking: Excellent for Engineering in national rankings (just after Bristol, top 5 in most rankings), not so great in the international general ranking.

- University of Exeter - this was my backup option, as the entry requirements for access students are quite low. They don't seem to be well known for Engineering

Edit: I'm planning on doing the year in industry. Bristol allows it, but doesn’t seem to have many connections, and not a lot of students go on placements there. Bath and Nottingham seem much more helpful with this, but I’m not sure because there’s not much info to go on. Bristol, Bath and Nottingham seem the nicest but that might be because I only went to those 3.

Which Universities would you say are best? I'm quite confused as to which one to go for. I've been to Bath, Nottingham and Bristol, and all 3 uni's were very nice in their own way, so that didn't help me in making any decisions lol.
If Bristol is better, is it so much better that it's worth the extra effort?
Could someone maybe help me out and give some tips, or rank them in order of preference?
Sorry for the scrambled post :smile:

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 1

Student-95

Forget about the rankings and come up with your own criteria. Make a list of the things you mentioned (industry connections, the uni facilities, the area etc.) as well as things like like cost of living, financial support, course content/structure/assessment, sport clubs/facilities, nightlife etc. and give them a weighting based on how much you care about them. Then go though each uni, score them against the criteria, apply the weighting and see what comes out on top.