terrified of choosing the wrong uni

so last year my predicted grades were awful, so i ultimately decided i'd take a gap year and reapply with my actual grades. turns out the grades i got were literally the same as my predicted, but for some reason i was still in denial about this so skipped clearing and took the gap anyway.

now im basically stuck. my dream uni was sheffield, but i emailed and they said i probably won't get an offer, or any RG for that matter. all my friends ditched me when they left for uni so picking the right one is so important for me; literally my whole social life is dependent on my uni experience atp.

i've applied to sheffield, newcastle, nottingham trent, sheffield hallam, and reading - because the last three are the only ones i have any chance of getting into that seem to look alright. still, i keep seeing people talk badly on them literally EVERYWHERE, and at this point idek what to do because it seems that everywhere i can realistically get into either has **** nightlife or is dead in general, or is awful academically with a terrible reputation (im looking at ntu lmao).

any advice? i quite ltrly don't know what to do.

Reply 1

ageshallnot

21

Original post by kiremio

so last year my predicted grades were awful, so i ultimately decided i'd take a gap year and reapply with my actual grades. turns out the grades i got were literally the same as my predicted, but for some reason i was still in denial about this so skipped clearing and took the gap anyway.

now im basically stuck. my dream uni was sheffield, but i emailed and they said i probably won't get an offer, or any RG for that matter. all my friends ditched me when they left for uni so picking the right one is so important for me; literally my whole social life is dependent on my uni experience atp.

i've applied to sheffield, newcastle, nottingham trent, sheffield hallam, and reading - because the last three are the only ones i have any chance of getting into that seem to look alright. still, i keep seeing people talk badly on them literally EVERYWHERE, and at this point idek what to do because it seems that everywhere i can realistically get into either has **** nightlife or is dead in general, or is awful academically with a terrible reputation (im looking at ntu lmao).

any advice? i quite ltrly don't know what to do.

Subject? Grades? Ultimate aim? Why is RG so important to you?

Reply 2

totallyfine

9

I know its tough but try to stop focussing on reputations. A lot of that is meaningless and just good marketing.
Try to decide on the modules on the course and the aspects of social life you want. Look for the positive rather than trying to spot the bad things (nowhere is perfect and anywhere you go, its really down to you what you make of it).

Hi,

I agree with the replies in looking for the positive rather than looking out for the negatives, look at what the courses offer in relation to what you're looking for, see if you can talk to current students and see how they are getting on with the course and in uni life too. I would advise you to probably stay away from reputations because people tend to comment on the negative only, it's unfortunately rare that someone makes the effort to leave a review with positive feedback. You ideally need to talk to current students who are deep into the course and the lectures too! Then make a pros and cons list from there really. Hope this helps.

Best of luck,
Katie (Film Graduate)
University of Wolverhampton

Reply 4

University of Sheffield Students

Official Rep

14

Original post by kiremio

so last year my predicted grades were awful, so i ultimately decided i'd take a gap year and reapply with my actual grades. turns out the grades i got were literally the same as my predicted, but for some reason i was still in denial about this so skipped clearing and took the gap anyway.

now im basically stuck. my dream uni was sheffield, but i emailed and they said i probably won't get an offer, or any RG for that matter. all my friends ditched me when they left for uni so picking the right one is so important for me; literally my whole social life is dependent on my uni experience atp.

i've applied to sheffield, newcastle, nottingham trent, sheffield hallam, and reading - because the last three are the only ones i have any chance of getting into that seem to look alright. still, i keep seeing people talk badly on them literally EVERYWHERE, and at this point idek what to do because it seems that everywhere i can realistically get into either has **** nightlife or is dead in general, or is awful academically with a terrible reputation (im looking at ntu lmao).

any advice? i quite ltrly don't know what to do.

Hey,
I am really sorry that things all seem very confusing and stressful at the moment.
It can be hard seeing people saying bad things about universities, but ultimately people can have bad experiences wherever they go and it seems that most of the people who talk badly about them have not been to the University and it is more of a reflection on them than the University itself.
All of the Universities you have picked are bigger cities so they will have a good nightlife. And wherever you are, people will always make it a great time, it is more about the people than the place, and wherever you are you will find people you get along with. All of my friends who didn't get into the University that they wanted to originally, said they are actually much happier that it ended up that way.
I understand that there is a lot of hype about Russell Group Universities but in the grand scheme of things it really does not make much of a difference. As for social life, you will get a mix of people at all Universities, and at Nottingham Trent and Sheffield Hallam you are in cities where you will mix with students at the other Universities too.
I know it's really difficult now, but things will work out okay.
If need any help feel free to reach out to the page, there are lots of students who have experience with this and can offer advice.
Evie (4th year medic UoS)

Reply 5

King_George_Weah

14

The Russell Group tagline is somewhat misleading as it’s based on research output and with all due respect not all RGs are equivalent except in subjects like Medicine or Dentistry or VetMed.

You need to endure first and foremost the university you go to offers the course you want to study in a way that ensures you’ll get the most out of it and graduate with a decent grade. Of course a decent social scene wouldn’t be bad either.

Reply 6

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by kiremio

so last year my predicted grades were awful, so i ultimately decided i'd take a gap year and reapply with my actual grades. turns out the grades i got were literally the same as my predicted, but for some reason i was still in denial about this so skipped clearing and took the gap anyway.

now im basically stuck. my dream uni was sheffield, but i emailed and they said i probably won't get an offer, or any RG for that matter. all my friends ditched me when they left for uni so picking the right one is so important for me; literally my whole social life is dependent on my uni experience atp.

i've applied to sheffield, newcastle, nottingham trent, sheffield hallam, and reading - because the last three are the only ones i have any chance of getting into that seem to look alright. still, i keep seeing people talk badly on them literally EVERYWHERE, and at this point idek what to do because it seems that everywhere i can realistically get into either has **** nightlife or is dead in general, or is awful academically with a terrible reputation (im looking at ntu lmao).

any advice? i quite ltrly don't know what to do.

Your uni won't determine your social life. You will determine your social life.

School leavers find this hard to grasp, understandably, as for most of their lives their social life has purely been determined by circumstance i.e. who you go to school with. However at uni and beyond as an adult, your social life is up to you to develop - any uni has more than enough people with enough varied interested that you can find groups of people you will gel with well. However it's up to you to go and find them, and you can't just rely on the "we sit in the same lessons all day so we're friends" to carry you through that.

That aside, in terms of grades, you could always plan to resit to improve if that is necessary. However as noted elsewhere in this thread, uni "name" is not as important as you think outside of a few areas (investment banking and management consulting mainly, and honestly for those Sheffield etc are probably not great options anyway still). Most grad schemes don't care where you studied (or what you studied) and the degree is just a tick box anyway.

You need to worry less about what school leavers think and more about recruiters think. And most recruiters don't care what uni a given candidate went to, they care about their work experience, how well they do in assessment centre activities, and what they've done outside and around their degree to develop relevant transferable skills (and how well the candidate is able to communicate these).

terrified of choosing the wrong uni

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