British Students: Which unis should I apply to?

[Bingo_01]

^^ (excluding London, cause $$$ y'know)

 

for Economics, Physics or Maths 

 

and if you're currently a student at a British university from overseas, how are you finding it? 

[seokminhee]

I personally wouldn't know. My brother went to Newcastle and my sister went to Sheffield.

I can link some sites that rank UK universities by the 3 subjects you provided~

1. Top UK Economics.
2. Top UK Physics.
3. Top UK Maths.

EDIT: St. Andrews seems to be a common one, besides Oxford and Cambridge?

[Sapphic]

It would help, honestly, if you told us what your grades are like. Because it might be all well and good recommending applying to Cambridge or Oxford (both of which are very expensive, and I'm guessing you're an international student so it's going to cost even more) but ultimately it would be of no use if you can't get in due to grades.

 

Personally, Exeter and Bristol are good places to go otherwise. And they're fairly easy to get to London, to and from, in comparison to cities in the North/North of the Midlands.

[Shownu]

Look at league tables and look up the Russell Group unis. Those are usually the most reputable ones.

 

For Economics or Maths, I always recommend LSE, but since you don't wanna go London, Warwick is a good place for Maths-y subjects and so are most other Russell Groups.

[adamyul]

i'm in sheffield n my flatmate does economics n loves it

 

wouldn't advise warwick cause everyone i know who goes there thinks it's dead boring

[baiichi]

Warwick is good but agree, it's really boring there.

 

Tuition wise, LSE actually is the cheaper top uni and you can apply for scholarship before officially going there,

 

University of Surrey has been rising in Physics I think. Heard good things about Southhampton, too.

[Bingo_01]

thank you all for your replies ~~ 

I personally wouldn't know. My brother went to Newcastle and my sister went to Sheffield.

I can link some sites that rank UK universities by the 3 subjects you provided~

1. Top UK Economics.
2. Top UK Physics.
3. Top UK Maths.

EDIT: St. Andrews seems to be a common one, besides Oxford and Cambridge?

 

oooh what did they think of Newcastle and Sheffield? 

 

I'll look into St.Andrews more! 

It would help, honestly, if you told us what your grades are like. Because it might be all well and good recommending applying to Cambridge or Oxford (both of which are very expensive, and I'm guessing you're an international student so it's going to cost even more) but ultimately it would be of no use if you can't get in due to grades.

 

Personally, Exeter and Bristol are good places to go otherwise. And they're fairly easy to get to London, to and from, in comparison to cities in the North/North of the Midlands.

 

I'm doing the International Baccalaureate and my HLs are in Economics, Physics and Maths! I'm not sure what my predicted grades will be yet but reckon I'm on track to get 38-40 points. I also have IGCSEs and achieved 6A*s and 3As. 

 

Why do you recommend Exeter and Bristol out of curiosity? 

 

Look at league tables and look up the Russell Group unis. Those are usually the most reputable ones.

 

For Economics or Maths, I always recommend LSE, but since you don't wanna go London, Warwick is a good place for Maths-y subjects and so are most other Russell Groups.

 

I looked up the Russell Group, but there are so many universities in it and some of them are ranked really badly in league tables. 

 

i'm in sheffield n my flatmate does economics n loves it

 

wouldn't advise warwick cause everyone i know who goes there thinks it's dead boring

 

Ooooh another Sheffield person, what do you think of the city? 

 

Warwick is good but agree, it's really boring there.

Tuition wise, LSE actually is the cheaper top uni and you can apply for scholarship before officially going there,

University of Surrey has been rising in Physics I think. Heard good things about Southhampton, too.

 

Are you at Warwick? 

 

Hmm I considered LSE but just the living costs in London... (on top of the tuition fees)

 

On the league table I was linked earlier, Surrey is ranked 20th though?

[seokminhee]

oooh what did they think of Newcastle and Sheffield? 

 

I'll look into St.Andrews more! 

 

My brother enjoyed it and has now got a job as an Events Manager at a local nightclub in Newcastle. He is doing pretty well money-wise lol. And my sister liked Sheffield, and she became a Manager for a firm that would sell products to different clients. She is now in Australia doing a job there. So the two of them are doing pretty well~

[aux]

I'm doing the International Baccalaureate and my HLs are in Economics, Physics and Maths! I'm not sure what my predicted grades will be yet but reckon I'm on track to get 38-40 points. I also have IGCSEs and achieved 6A*s and 3As. 

 

I'm currently an overseas student at Cambridge (Biology though), and those grades seem fine! It really depends on which college in Cambridge you apply for, and how you do in the interview with your (prospective) Director of Studies as well.

 

But yeah, overseas tuition is $$$$ 

[Bingo_01]

I'm currently an overseas student at Cambridge (Biology though), and those grades seem fine! It really depends on which college in Cambridge you apply for, and how you do in the interview with your (prospective) Director of Studies as well.

 

But yeah, overseas tuition is $$$$ 

 

omg Cambridge... goals. Did you do the IB as well and what unis did you apply to?

[adamyul]

Ooooh another Sheffield person, what do you think of the city? 

tbh i love it

 

the facilities are amazing, the students union has been ranked the best in the uk for like nine consecutive years or smth, nights out are a blast and the teaching is pretty great

 

i live in london but i can't deal with the price of living and the amount of people in such a small space

[aux]

omg Cambridge... goals. Did you do the IB as well and what unis did you apply to?

 

No, I applied with AP exam scores but I know ppl who did IB, which is a lot more comparable to A-levels. While your grades may determine whether you get an interview or not, in the end it's up to your interviewers/Director of Studies. Some colleges may also require additional entrance exams depending on the subject you choose as well :(

 

I only applied to Cambridge but I wouldn't advise that if you really want to go to uni in the UK lol... St Andrews is a popular choice, especially if you want to do physics, and Durham seems to be making its way up as well.

[Bingo_01]

No, I applied with AP exam scores but I know ppl who did IB, which is a lot more comparable to A-levels. While your grades may determine whether you get an interview or not, in the end it's up to your interviewers/Director of Studies. Some colleges may also require additional entrance exams depending on the subject you choose as well :(

 

I only applied to Cambridge but I wouldn't advise that if you really want to go to uni in the UK lol... St Andrews is a popular choice, especially if you want to do physics, and Durham seems to be making its way up as well.

 

Last question I swear haha - for your interview, did you have to fly over or could you do it via skype?

 

I don't know if I should apply to St Andrews as well as Oxbridge :/, I spoke to my UCAS counsellor about St Andrews and they said that they have a weird admissions process where they've rejected candidates who've received offers from Oxbridge and that our school hasn't had much luck with the university in the past year. But you never know until you try I guess  

[aux]

Last question I swear haha - for your interview, did you have to fly over or could you do it via skype?

 

I don't know if I should apply to St Andrews as well as Oxbridge :/, I spoke to my UCAS counsellor about St Andrews and they said that they have a weird admissions process where they've rejected candidates who've received offers from Oxbridge and that our school hasn't had much luck with the university in the past year. But you never know until you try I guess

 

It really depends on the college but they also hold interviews in Canada, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and other countries if that's more convenient. I would suggest flying over since you get to see what the college accommodation, facilities, etc. will be like.

 

Yeah, your counselor probably knows the admissions statistics better than I do lol and since you're limited to I think five unis on the UCAS it might be best to choose strategically... really, if you have any more questions, feel free to pm me and I'll try to answer as best as I can 

[Bingo_01]

It really depends on the college but they also hold interviews in Canada, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and other countries if that's more convenient. I would suggest flying over since you get to see what the college accommodation, facilities, etc. will be like.

 

Yeah, your counselor probably knows the admissions statistics better than I do lol and since you're limited to I think five unis on the UCAS it might be best to choose strategically... really, if you have any more questions, feel free to pm me and I'll try to answer as best as I can 

 

Thank you very much!! Yeh, if you're still on OH later in this year when I actually apply, I'll be sue to shoot you a PM

 

My counsellor told me to apply strategically too! 2 reach, 2 match and 1 safety  

[yl95]

^^ (excluding London, cause $$$ y'know)

 

for Economics, Physics or Maths 

 

and if you're currently a student at a British university from overseas, how are you finding it? 

 

 

I personally wouldn't know. My brother went to Newcastle and my sister went to Sheffield.

I can link some sites that rank UK universities by the 3 subjects you provided~

1. Top UK Economics.
2. Top UK Physics.
3. Top UK Maths.

EDIT: St. Andrews seems to be a common one, besides Oxford and Cambridge?

 

 

It would help, honestly, if you told us what your grades are like. Because it might be all well and good recommending applying to Cambridge or Oxford (both of which are very expensive, and I'm guessing you're an international student so it's going to cost even more) but ultimately it would be of no use if you can't get in due to grades.

 

Personally, Exeter and Bristol are good places to go otherwise. And they're fairly easy to get to London, to and from, in comparison to cities in the North/North of the Midlands.

 

 

Look at league tables and look up the Russell Group unis. Those are usually the most reputable ones.

 

For Economics or Maths, I always recommend LSE, but since you don't wanna go London, Warwick is a good place for Maths-y subjects and so are most other Russell Groups.

 

 

Warwick is good but agree, it's really boring there.

 

Tuition wise, LSE actually is the cheaper top uni and you can apply for scholarship before officially going there,

 

University of Surrey has been rising in Physics I think. Heard good things about Southhampton, too.

 

 

I'm currently an overseas student at Cambridge (Biology though), and those grades seem fine! It really depends on which college in Cambridge you apply for, and how you do in the interview with your (prospective) Director of Studies as well.

 

But yeah, overseas tuition is $$$$ 

I'll reply to all of you as a whole since there seems to be a lot of misinformation on this thread. I'm speaking from someone who went through the admissions process three years ago and whose brother is in his final year of school. In addition to that, I pretty much lived on The Student Room for several years of my school life/my dad works in education lol. To give a bit of background, I'm studying Maths at Imperial --to be more precise, I'm about to graduate. I applied to Oxford, Imperial, UCL, Bristol and Manchester initially for Maths and CompSci and switched three weeks in at IC.

 

- @seokminhee, St Andrews is a very respectable university but there are many universities nearly as good as those (they only happen to pop up more because obviously specialist universities like LSE and Imperial don't offer all subjects)

-@Sapphic, I know OP is international but if you're a home student, all tuition fees will be the same at 9250 pounds (Oxford and Cambridge are no different...)

- @Shownu, LSE doesn't even offer a straight Maths degree. They only offer 'Economics with Maths' and 'Economics and Maths' and its reputation for Maths isn't nearly as stellar as it is for its Economics degrees; Warwick is much better in that respect. For Maths, there's an abbreviation called COWI which stands for 'Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, Imperial' denoting the Top 4 unis for Maths. Roughly the ranking goes Cambridge > Oxford > Warwick = Imperial but these differences are pretty minor

- @baiichi, honestly wouldn't really rate Surrey as highly as the top RGs still (general consensus among most people) 

- @OP, I wouldn't straight away disregard London *just* because of its price. The top ones for Econ are pretty much Oxbridge/LSE/Warwick/UCL, the ones for Maths are COWI then Bristol/Bath (UCL actually isn't that great for Maths) and for Physics, it's Oxbridge/Durham/Imperial etc

[Bingo_01]

I'll reply to all of you as a whole since there seems to be a lot of misinformation on this thread. I'm speaking from someone who went through the admissions process three years ago and whose brother is in his final year of school. In addition to that, I pretty much lived on The Student Room for several years of my school life/my dad works in education lol. To give a bit of background, I'm studying Maths at Imperial --to be more precise, I'm about to graduate. I applied to Oxford, Imperial, UCL, Bristol and Manchester initially for Maths and CompSci and switched three weeks in at IC.

 

- @seokminhee, St Andrews is a very respectable university but there are many universities nearly as good as those (they only happen to pop up more because obviously specialist universities like LSE and Imperial don't offer all subjects)

-@Sapphic, I know OP is international but if you're a home student, all tuition fees will be the same at 9250 pounds (Oxford and Cambridge are no different...)

- @Shownu, LSE doesn't even offer a straight Maths degree. They only offer 'Economics with Maths' and 'Economics and Maths' and its reputation for Maths isn't nearly as stellar as it is for its Economics degrees; Warwick is much better in that respect. For Maths, there's an abbreviation called COWI which stands for 'Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, Imperial' denoting the Top 4 unis for Maths. Roughly the ranking goes Cambridge > Oxford > Warwick = Imperial but these differences are pretty minor

- @baiichi, honestly wouldn't really rate Surrey as highly as the top RGs still (general consensus among most people) 

- @OP, I wouldn't straight away disregard London *just* because of its price. The top ones for Econ are pretty much Oxbridge/LSE/Warwick/UCL, the ones for Maths are COWI then Bristol/Bath (UCL actually isn't that great for Maths) and for Physics, it's Oxbridge/Durham/Imperial etc

 

No, lol I really don't think I can afford London. I visited a friend who is studying there and she is paying £850 a month in rent (and the place wasn't even that nice tbh) and she has to spend so much on transport/going out.. like there is no way I can afford that on top of tuition fees haha. Scholarships are hard to come by for internationals as well :( 

 

I've chosen my two reach schools though: St Andrews and Oxford

 

Will probably put Edinburgh/Durham/Bath as my matches and Warwick/Exeter/Sheffield as my safety! 

 

I actually looked up the RG unis and I was surprised at how easy it was to get an offer from them. 

[Allegra]

No, lol I really don't think I can afford London. I visited a friend who is studying there and she is paying £850 a month in rent (and the place wasn't even that nice tbh) and she has to spend so much on transport/going out.. like there is no way I can afford that on top of tuition fees haha. Scholarships are hard to come by for internationals as well :(

 

I've chosen my two reach schools though: St Andrews and Oxford

 

Will probably put Edinburgh/Durham/Bath as my matches and Warwick/Exeter/Sheffield as my safety!

 

I actually looked up the RG unis and I was surprised at how easy it was to get an offer from them.

Actually I'm on £200 a week and living in Chelsea in a really nice flat. You can definitely pay less than 850pw - there are students paying 160. So many of the best schools are in London.

 

Once you go below the Top 5 it isn't really hard to get an offer if you have the grades (speaking from experience). Oxbridge and Imperial are tough because of interviews; Imperial has crazily high entry requirements especially from 2018 entry (Oxbridge still a bit harder to get into but the gap is small). LSE is very competitive as well since so many people apply per place without interviews to shine at.

 

I know many internationals who cope fine and they aren't all rich.

[Bingo_01]

Actually I'm on £200 a week and living in Chelsea in a really nice flat. You can definitely pay less than 850pw - there are students paying 160. So many of the best schools are in London.

 

Once you go below the Top 5 it isn't really hard to get an offer if you have the grades (speaking from experience). Oxbridge and Imperial are tough because of interviews; Imperial has crazily high entry requirements especially from 2018 entry (Oxbridge still a bit harder to get into but the gap is small). LSE is very competitive as well since so many people apply per place without interviews to shine at.

 

I know many internationals who cope fine and they aren't all rich.

 

Like Made in Chelsea, Chelsea?! 

 

I'm pretty certain to have ruled out London for studying though, definitely for undergrad but will consider it for a 1-year masters! 

What do you think of my current university choices though?  

[Allegra]

Like Made in Chelsea, Chelsea?! 

 

I'm pretty certain to have ruled out London for studying though, definitely for undergrad but will consider it for a 1-year masters! 

What do you think of my current university choices though?

Yeah, the Made in Chelsea Chelsea. It's a lovely area but we did get lucky with flats. I think you should first decide the degree you want to do before you choose your university choices since, for example, Oxford doesn't offer a straight Economics course; you can take PPE or E&M, though. They're a good mix for entry requirements but I'd have a look at the course structures for the university courses before finalising anything.