Struggling to decide on a Uni

Hi all, I applied back in December when I was 100% sure of my top choice but, while waiting for decisions I find that I am struggling to decide between my top 3. My top 3 choices are Aberdeen, Stirling and Edinburgh (I already have an offer from Stirling). I know that I'm still waiting to hear back for the other two but if I manage to get offers then I have no idea where I would choose to go. Anyone got any insights?

Thank you, any help would be much appreciated!

Reply 1

totallyfine

Go to any offer holder days they offer so that you can see the departments in more depth. Visit the towns and decide if they are places you want to live in. Look at the modules on offer and think about which course would suit you best

Reply 2

UoA Enquiry Team

Official Rep

Original post

by student123333

Hi, this is the University of Aberdeen rep account. Congratulations on your offers so far! It's definitely a difficult to weigh up universities and something you may go back and forth on in the coming months, and so give yourself some time to think it over and find what feels right for you. If you have any questions about Aberdeen please do ask, and I wanted to give some general advice for thinking about your choices which I hope is helpful.

I would recommend having a look around this site for students of each of the unis you have offers from to see what the general consensus is. You can ask students of different unis what their experience is like and get a first-hand idea of what it might be like to be a student there.
It's also worth thinking about the cities and what appeals to you. Do you want to be close to or far away from home, do you want to be in a big or small city, are there things/places in that city that you're interested in or will be good for any hobbies you have; those sorts of factors should definitely be on your mind as well as the actual courses of each of the universities. Even if you're not able to visit all of the unis you get offers for you can try and do some research on what's important to you about where you would be studying and living.
Then it would be worth having a look on each of our websites to see what appeals to you about the courses eg. course content, projects you will get to do through your degree, prospects upon graduation, that sort of thing.

Just so you know Aberdeen is having an Offer Holder Day on the 23rd April and you'll be getting communications about that via email, and if you can going to this and other university's offer holder days can be great for getting a better idea of what the campus looks like and imagining yourself there. If you can't make that date we also have campus tours running throughout the year which you can book here: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/study/campus-visit.php

- Matthew, Enquiry Team

Reply 3

TopBun

Q1 - have you visited them?

If no, then get along if you can (in term time will give you a feel even if you cant get to an Open Day, sometimes you can ask Uni and they will organise a tour for you, Stirling did that for my daughter)
If yes, which did you like? A uni is so much more than the buildings, its the people you would be studying with, the clubs /socs you could join, the setting / context of the campus etc etc

Q2 - Which Uni has the course content, connections and outcomes that best suit your needs?

There will (likely) be all manner of mandatory and optional modules. Do you like the look of those? Industry connections, placements, employability etc all matter, because you are (usually) going to Uni to get somewhere career wise

Q3 - What research have you got on the accepted grades (rather than offer grades) for the courses you are choosing?

A lot of Unis have a been accepting below the "standard offer" grades in recent years, some not so much. How do the offers fit your grade expectations?