Bath vs Durham vs Leeds vs Nottingham vs Liverpool

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all doing well. I'm currently facing a bit of a dilemma and would appreciate some honest advice in making a decision regarding my university choices for Business Management with a placement year.

I've received offers from the University of Bath, Durham, Leeds, Nottingham, and Liverpool. Each university seems to have its strengths and drawbacks, and I'm finding it challenging to make a final decision.

I've heard good things about Bath and Durham, but there are concerns about the atmosphere, with some describing it as a bit dystopian. There are also reports of a lack of support, housing crises, and less-than-pleasant experiences at Durham. But Durham has a nice campus and strong business affiliations. On the other hand, Bath is a bit expensive and when i visited the city, it felt very far away from the real world, as there were only students or elderly. But they offer charity work alongside as part of the degree module, as well as two 6 months placements which allow me to gain more outside work experience.

Leeds and Liverpool appeal to me due to their lively cities. Leeds has great professors, but I'm wary about the strength of their connections for placement years compared to Bath or Durham. Liverpool has an amazing city vibe, but I've heard mixed reviews about the teaching quality. I love the city but I'm unsure whether the teaching is as good as the other universities. I haven't visited Nottingham yet, but it's consistently praised for balancing university life and culture.

I value both my learning experience and the overall environment, so I'm torn between the academic reputation and potential drawbacks of each university. If anyone has personal experiences or insights that could help me make a more informed decision, I'd greatly appreciate it. Brutal honesty is welcome!

Hi everyone,
I hope you're all doing well. I'm currently facing a bit of a dilemma and would appreciate some honest advice in making a decision regarding my university choices for Business Management with a placement year.
I've received offers from the University of Bath, Durham, Leeds, Nottingham, and Liverpool. Each university seems to have its strengths and drawbacks, and I'm finding it challenging to make a final decision.
I've heard good things about Bath and Durham, but there are concerns about the atmosphere, with some describing it as a bit dystopian. There are also reports of a lack of support, housing crises, and less-than-pleasant experiences at Durham. But Durham has a nice campus and strong business affiliations. On the other hand, Bath is a bit expensive and when i visited the city, it felt very far away from the real world, as there were only students or elderly. But they offer charity work alongside as part of the degree module, as well as two 6 months placements which allow me to gain more outside work experience.
Leeds and Liverpool appeal to me due to their lively cities. Leeds has great professors, but I'm wary about the strength of their connections for placement years compared to Bath or Durham. Liverpool has an amazing city vibe, but I've heard mixed reviews about the teaching quality. I love the city but I'm unsure whether the teaching is as good as the other universities. I haven't visited Nottingham yet, but it's consistently praised for balancing university life and culture.
I value both my learning experience and the overall environment, so I'm torn between the academic reputation and potential drawbacks of each university. If anyone has personal experiences or insights that could help me make a more informed decision, I'd greatly appreciate it. Brutal honesty is welcome!

im in a similar position with a choice between, Bath and Leeds. What did you end up doing and how did you make the decision?

I still haven't decided, I'm leaning more towards bath for academic and it's placement years but Leeds had a better overall uni life. I am still very conflicted and my careers officer at college was no help. But I did some investigation on graduate cases examples and bath seemed to have better career prospects but Leeds had that busy and collaborative community that could outweigh the opportunities given at bath. So I'm still stuck lol

haha. this is exactly me at the moment. I don't know what I want to prioritise. I keep picking one and then immediately changing my mind to the other.

I feel like I'll be smarter in bath but more depressed and broke. I went to the bath summer school and it was nice but the community felt a bit quiet. Where as the classes in Leeds are really full and chaotic, it may force character building skills upon me. Have you visited both unis?

yes I agree. I went to both open days before offers started to be handed out and last week visited the Leeds offer holder day. I do have the feeling that by going to bath I could regret my decision due to the social life, however if I chose Leeds then I think I would be less likely to regret my decision. I don't know about you but it just seems to me a shame to turn down Bath, but maybe I need to look past that.

I feel like the prestige of bath is hard to pass and a lot of people think Leeds is just place for students go to party. I guess you have to consider, do you really care about reputation or staying true to yourself. What is your degree and where is it better at?

the degree is in politics with economics (at bath) or economics and politics (at Leeds). Honestly the course is great at both, I do really like the Leeds course and some of their optional modules as well as the discovery modules which im guessing they have for yours too. However ofc Bath course is great and is more probably likely to help me find a better job / placement afterwards. I want to decide this week though as I need to focus on revision. how about you?

That's so cool, I'm doing business at both unis. Leeds discovery model seems really good to try a language or go into some sort of specialism. At bath they offer 2 six month placements, which would allow me to leave the uni with double the experience. Im also quite sceptical of how positive the reviews are of bath on here though. I haven't heard a major bad thing about bath, as it seems a little to good to be true.

ah great! I would really like to try and learn a language as I didn't chose one for my GCSE's so in that sense the discovery modules are great. I think im leaning more towards Leeds as I think it would be better for character building, like you said earlier. Im sure bath is great because the only bad thing you hear Is the social life which might not even be as bad as people say. so I wouldn't worry about the good reviews.

If you chose Leeds, will Bath be your insurance because I'm sure the Baths entry requirements are higher?

For my course, Leeds and bath are the same grades. So I will be putting Birmingham as my backup which is one grade below? What’ would your backup be, I’m guessing Leeds if you pick bath?