Physics MSc vs Theoretical physics MSc

Hey, I got an offer from UCL for physics MSc and from KCL for theoretical physics. I'm still waiting for answers from Edinburgh regarding theoretical physics MSc, but I wanted to ask how big of a difference choosing physics over theoretical physics is.
I'm certain I would like to do theoretical physics but I'm not sure if it matters whether to study theoretical physics MSc at Edinburgh or physics MSc at UCL.
UCL is also higher in most rankings but I'm not sure how dependable they are.
I would appreciate any advice.

What i heard is that in the first 2 years of any physics course, u can always move to theoretical or back to normal (vice versa) because the first 1-2 years are similar. Once you get in the Uni, ur pretty much in, not like they can kick you out tbh. I also recieved offer from UCL and KCL and waiting on Imperial and they're diff courses. Idk which one i wanna do either, because I like theoretical but I also like experimental yk??

Hey thank you for your answer, but I'm asking about the difference in MSc programs and those are only one year.

Hey, I got an offer from UCL for physics MSc and from KCL for theoretical physics. I'm still waiting for answers from Edinburgh regarding theoretical physics MSc, but I wanted to ask how big of a difference choosing physics over theoretical physics is.
I'm certain I would like to do theoretical physics but I'm not sure if it matters whether to study theoretical physics MSc at Edinburgh or physics MSc at UCL.
UCL is also higher in most rankings but I'm not sure how dependable they are.
I would appreciate any advice.

The name of the degree is irrelevant, the content (i.e. modules) are what matter.

Also are you referring to an MSc (usually 1-2 year postgraduate taught degree) or MSci (4 year integrated undergraduate masters degree)? They are very different.

MSc (1 year), I looked at the courses and it's still pretty hard to decide. There is a lot of overlap of courses between them. And I'm not sure if the unique points I did find (mainly the compulsory modules) are that different.

I mean if anything that seems to illustrate my point that the name difference is entirely arbitrary.

In any event, I updated my comment before with some other bits, so look specifically at that. When it comes to masters level onwards you need to be specific what you're looking for and if you're not sure of what it is you want to do, then you need to start with that

Thank you! I'm still very much torn between astrophysics and particle physics so It's hard for me to give a clear answer for that. I'll try to think about that and decide (hopefully before the offer expires).

Do you know where I can find the type of speciality a university has?
I'm sure some are better at certain subjects than others but I'm not sure where I can find reliable information about that.

Look at what areas of research they're doing and how many researchers they have in a specific area etc. If they have more researchers, they're doing more research in a given area, and (harder to gauge perhaps for undergrad students but still a factor) what "quality" that research is (where it's getting published etc) and how much funding they seem to be winning for it, are all ways to gauge that.

I tried to compare them using REF2021 and that's helpful for comparing their research in general but is there any site you recommend that can provide more specific information?

Looking at their sites is somewhat helpful but still confusing since all of them have research in almost the same areas but I can't see an indication of which is considered stronger, besides the numbe of people but is that sufficient?

Look at who is at each, what they have published, when, and in which journals, and how frequently. Look to see what if any big grants/fellowships they've won.

For postgraduate research you can't just rely on some league table ranking (I mean you can't really rely on those for undergraduate course comparisons either but I digress), a lot of it is just that you need to do some digging yourself to understand who does what in your field, which names are the "big names" and what are the up and coming areas of research that are attracting a lot of funding etc.

This also necessarily means you need to be focused and specific in what you are looking for. Even in broad fields like theoretical astrophysics or high energy physics there are many smaller areas in those that people focus their research on. So you need to look at those things and figure out what it is specifically you want to do in the areas.

It might be helpful to speak with your lecturers and personal tutor about your broader interests to identify more specific ones and understand where experts in those areas are based.