York vs Bath for Biology undergrad

Congrats!! I also got an offer from Bath, but didn't choose it in the end.
To give you a surface comparison:
York is in the Russell group. This doesn't really mean much socially nor does it give you any idea on the quality of life and teaching there. It sometimes gives your CV a few extra brownie points depending on the employer, or in further education.
17th in the UK, overall. (source: Guardian)
York has been voted high for teaching-quality, year after year. It is well-known for being great for research-based subjects, offering a lot of funding for research and having collected a handful of research achievements, including leading in research regarding robotics. It is also home to big libraries with lot's of history, you even have access to the library within the cathedral there. I wouldn't say York has any "focus" like Bath does, as they have plenty of rewards and high rankings in subjects over the board, including film, science, and sports.
There are plenty of support networks within York, they take student well being very seriously. Across platforms I have seen the fact the staff are generally very friendly quite often, and most students have felt at home there and settled in fairly quickly. This includes academic supervisors! Mainly for academic help, you can book meetings with them to talk about your next steps and ask for advice throughout your degree, and if you have any problems. There are multiple services available for mental well being, too, including anonymous ones ran by students who likely have had similar issues.
I feel people tend to forget that some universities in the UK do offer scholarships and bursaries. York offers a few: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/fees-funding/uk/scholarships/There are a few more, go look!
Apparently, uni of York has an abundance of clubs and societies for just about anything. Saw one entirely for Douglas Adams.
As for the city, if you love historical architecture, namely medieval, then it is the city for you. From what I remember, it is continuously ranked quite high in several categories for the UK. In 2024 it was ranked most popular UK city, and it has a good nightlife with cool bars and clubs if that's your type of thing. In the day, it has a good selection of museums, modern and historical attractions, such as a theme park, plenty of both big retailers and independent, small stores. It also has a really, really, reeally beautiful cathedral, and a cute, little ghost shop. It's also known to be a very friendly and accepting city, in regards to minorities, etc.. Safe, also.
However, the university is around 2 miles away from the city centre.
How expensive? It is okay, not too good, not too bad, on the more expensive side. One of the highest when compared to other cities up north, but better than London type-beat. I do know the student union at York have been working really hard to help with student's cost of living.
Bath (assuming you mean University of Bath and not Bath Spa) is ranked 7th. (source: Guardian)
Bath has been known for having quite a good ranges of seminars and lectures for their subjects. Looking across different social platforms, the teaching being really good seems to be a common opinion. The University is known for being very sporty, and is overall very STEM, social, and business-focused. Not the best for creative subjects. Despite not being Russell job, it still is a very well-respected university. Some students even argue it should be, the quality of the university is that good.
Support is said to be really good. Last year they ranked 1st for student satisfaction. They have their own app for exclusively Bath students mental well being. It has all their well being resources in one place, including an AI that you can set daily reminders and a journal section to put your daily moods and thoughts. Seems to be mainly offered by the university via staff and professionals, not any ran by students. There might be, though, as they do mention well being events taking place throughout the year. It was a bit hard to find more specifics regarding their support that aren't said directly from the university.
Bath also offers scholarships and bursaries: https://www.bath.ac.uk/guides/the-bath-bursary/When I was researching universities, Bath definitely had one of the best selections of funding available when considering UK universities don't really do extra funding. There were a few more, including sports and art scholarships. Make sure you go read them in more detail!
I saw some people were upset with how the University was up a hill, away from the city. (mood) Comes with the bonus of green scenery though, as it is closer to the countryside.
It is also a beautiful historical city, albeit Bath is more abundant in Roman history and Georgian architecture, compared to York's medieval. I'm sure you've heard of the Roman bath's there, one of Bath's main attractions. Nightlife has been reported by students as okay, there are a few club and bar options, but it's not amazing. I would say it's more relaxed and not potentiall overwhelming, rather than poor. Though, I do think it's important to note it is on the smaller side city-wise, and there are two, very big universities there. I would assume there are a lot of student's within the population there. So, knowing it's a touristy city, it is safe to say it's going to be quite busy and lively either way.
The cost of living... while I don't know how it is compared to the cities up north— Bath is one of the least affordable cities in the UK. Thankfully, it is around 40% less expensive than London, I guess? It is around 2 times more expensive than York, not much difference.
Both are in the top 150 world-wide for universities.
Rankings aren't too important at the end of the day, focus on the course and whether the accommodation and city is somewhere you'd be happy living for the 3-4 years.
When looking at accommodations... check google maps and the accommodations respective website. The university I ended up choosing had a few accommodation options that looked really good on the both their own and the university website, but when I looked around the area and checked public/student posted photos on google maps... well. Not the best. Additionally, some of their websites, like accommodations managed by Unite, offer cool interactive maps if you look at their gallery.
Generally, I do think reddit is a good place to see what people say about certain parts of the university. Like, regarding accommodation, reddit and google map reviews is how I found out about loud, disruptive building work that had been going on at one of the accommodation options. That was not clearly mentioned on either the university or accommodations website, lol. I've also seen a few reddit posts saying Bath has a lack of care for AI-generated work or work not actually written by some students, which is a bit concerning. If you do look on reddit, avoid the 6thForm subreddit— apparently it has a few university "tier" lists that are pretty **** and in general have just ended up making new students nervous with their extreme opinions. boo.
For the course, I can't help there as only you know which course is best for your interests and career goal.
I do have a small, kinda time-consuming exercise to try and help you decide, at least it helped some of my friends when they were deciding:
Starting with one university, look at the modules for your course offered. Write down all modules offered for that course (compulsory and optional). Then, put all modules that sound interesting to you, are on topics that you love/interest you, and modules which will be helpful/are necessary for your career choice in bold.
Count the ones in bold up, then count up the amount of modules offered on that course in total. Write it out as a fraction (example: 10 / 25 (modules liked / total of modules) ) then convert it into a fraction.
This will give you a general idea of how helpful and interesting the course will be for you overall. Of course, it doesn't take into consideration if any modules will be cancelled, changed, or full when you enroll, nor does it take into consideration how many optional modules you can pick. This is not a concrete idea of whether you enjoy the course. You might like a module you didn't think you would, etc, but I hope you get the idea.
Then, do it for the other university on a separate list.
By the end, you have two percentages and two lists that you can look at side-by-side and compare. I also told my friends to put modules that they feel are extra important to themselves in a different color, just in case there is any module they feel like they'd be pretty upset if they did not do it. You can also do little out-of-10 rankings for each universities underneath their lists, based on your opinion.
(eg. course overall: 5/10
campus prettiness: 5/10
accommodation: 5/10
city: 5/10)
Looking into the modules offered is something you should definitely do when deciding, anyhow! Not sure if these two do, but some universities offer Offer Holder open days. I think it's a bit late now, but if there is one coming up, try your best to go. If not, book a campus tour.
Sorry for rambling, I hope this helps a little bit.

Hi,
I am a gap year applicant and got 2 unconditional offers from York and Bath, but I am not really sure where would be best, since they are similar in ranking. Any advice in terms of teaching quality, living in the city, student support, or anything else you think is important would be great.
Thanks