Hello Ben, really appreciate the detailed and insightful answer. Before going ahead with other points, how good do you genuinely think the York Econ program is? Also when you refer to department quality-focused ratings, do you mean RePEc? I’ve referred to it and as per it the rankings for my options are LSE, Warwick, Nottingham, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Sussex, Sheffield and Cardiff. If not, please let me know which and where York and Birmingham also come in those rankings.
How would you personally rank Nottingham, York, and Birmingham? It’s most likely to come to those three. I would take Birmingham if I received their scholarship for econ students - they've got a scholarship of up to 40% of the tuition fees. If I can secure that I will spend only 15768 pounds on tuition which would save a huge amount of money. It would reduce interest payments and help pay off student loans far earlier so I can’t say no to that.
I’m doing this through an agent and they have a tie-up with Warwick, Manchester, Birmingham, and York. Hope that helps me secure Manchester as well but Warwick will be very difficult. And you got me, I thought Manchester is better than Nottingham for sure and my agent also said the same. I get it being big and that might help secure jobs a bit easier.
And thanks for sharing information about their specialties. I am not particularly inclined towards any due to not having sufficient experience and knowledge to make a final decision. However, I have done both my dissertation as well as an internship for which I formulated a research paper in the field of international economics/trade using the RCAI index and I thoroughly enjoyed both experiences.
I'm not too keen on dev eco cause I've heard job prospects and the probaility of Skilled Worker Visa after it is very bleak. I genuinely have 0 exposure to health economics. And to sum up - if I get Warwick or LSE, I would gladly accept. Coventry is also the lowest in living cost if I'm not wrong. Then I would prefer Nottingham over the rest except I would have to think twice if I secure Manchester or the Birmingham Scholarship. And as of now, I would prefer York over the rest unless I get the Birmingham scholarship.
Regarding living cost etc - I don't drink, smoke or party much, I'm the typical studying type of Asian lol. I lived in a college hostel for 1.5 years and loved the overall course, profs and batchmates but the accomodation was really the bare minimum - one room as three sharing with literally no space to move. So I frankly don't mind sharing it if I can save on rent; it's really not something that will get to me. I'm not interested in pursuing a PhD, it's something I might do later after several years of work experience.
However, I have been into distance running since 2016 (I actually did my entire schooling in the UAE) and want to take it seriously in the UK for which I will incur cost on food etc. I've lived in big cities, relatively quiet places and currently the most notorious traffic offender in my country so I can fairly adjust to most things. Thanks once again and I will share how things turn out - I'll make a final decision in Feb mid after receiving a reply from the remaining unis and let you know.