Universities?

[rachel ^_^]

:eng101: right i need some advice

i'm researching unis, even though i'm only in my As year right now, as i know it'll take me ages to make a decision about where to go and what to do!

ideally i'd like to do a degree/foundation in journalism or writing, as i'd like to be a journalist, and i would also like to go somewhere with some kind of string orchestra/string group because i'm a keen violinist

does anyone have any suggestions of courses/unis that might be good?

or any general advice on finding the right course/uni?

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

[TheSheep]

lol im in my GCSE year and im trying to work that out aswell.
my brother went to lots of uni open days i think and if you want to go to a good one you should look up universities from The Russel Group.

[rachel ^_^]

oooh that looks interesting! thanks!

[GorillaBearBear]

I don't know about the music thing, but UEA and Warwick both do courses in English Literature and Creative writing which might interest you, I'm not sure.

What you probably want if you want to go into journalism is a degree in English Language, really?

[rachel ^_^]

i think anything englishy would be okay or an actual journalism course

and thatks! i shall check both of those out! :)

[Village Idiot]

Well, your limited very much by your choices already. You need to first go through and find the uni's that do the course you want, combined with the orchestra your after. Bear in mind, its rare for a uni not to have a string group, there are societies for pretty much everything at my uni. But if your after proper facilities and practice rooms and stuff, look for a uni with a music department.

A fairly large decision that few people really look at that much, but I've found crucial, is deciding whether you want to go to a campus uni, or a city uni, and whether you want a town or a city.
Its just the difference between having everything within walking distance, or needing to travel miles every day to get to lectures.

Finding the right course is harder, as its hard to tell exactly what you're going to enjoy until you're there. Try and get some work experience working for a newspaper, or get involved with/set up a newspaper for your college (yeah, i know, you're 6th form college probably goes on about work exp no end, but they're right), it'll let you know whether you actually want to do what you're planning.
Check out some league tables, by the times or something, ones that are specific for that course or area of study. The top universities in one field are by no means necessarily the top in another. TheSheep mentions the Russel groups, these are 20 universities that are top in the country in terms of research, and get extra government funding for their research departments. If your doing a science, all brilliant. Otherwise, useless.

Open days are important. They let you see around the uni, and will give you a lot of info on the course. Go to a fair amount, but don't totally swamp yourself. Make sure you have been to all of the uni's that you apply to though, it sounds obvious, but i know people who didn't think so.

Get lots of brochures as well. Most of the uni's send them free if you apply for one on their website. I ended up with about 3 bookshelves full of the things, right pain.

I can't really make any suggestions im afraid, being a biochemist means i have no knowledge at all about the area that interests you.

[The Visioneer]

Some Unis do a course called Broadcast Journalism which might interest you?

[rachel ^_^]

thanks! everyone is being real helpful! :)

[Ferg]

The best idea is, once you've got some kind of list of 'maybes' then actually go and visit them. Be it on an open day or just of your own free will. This is because while a university may look good (or bad) on paper, the actual feel of the uni and the city when you're there can be completely different.

Some of them will just feel right, and others wont.

The place will need to have the right course and a decent rep, but you'll also feel like you could see yourself living there if its the right place for you :)

[Roxsie]

Come to Aberystwyth :D

Tis lots of fun with some music burseries and great departments :D

[Gingerlord]

Well if you travel to Chester at all drop me a line.

I myself am keen on Uni but i'm 24 without qualifications so it's scary for me cuz i'll have to start again in education.

My close friend completed media and journalism in Manchester and loved it. She went to Nottingham first but hated the place so changed to Manchester and said it was excallent

[rachel ^_^]

hehe thanks guys getting lotsa good ideas! :)

[Turkey Sandwich]

I don't know about the music thing, but UEA and Warwick both do courses in English Literature and Creative writing which might interest you, I'm not sure.

What you probably want if you want to go into journalism is a degree in English Language, really?

If you're looking for a balanced course including Language, Literature & Creative Writing (all covering a wide variety of approaches), come to Chichester Uni. Although there's no strand which, to my knowledge, is purely dedicated to journalism.
Anyway, that's what I'm doing and I expect I'll end up doing some journalism at some point.

The Creative Writing, is, incidentally, (according to a recent nationwide survey) the most enjoyed course of its kind anywhere in the country. :eng101:
It's also useful to take with language, a combination which many universities don't offer. That way you can combine learning techniques for good, interesting writing with decent knowledge of grammar and professionalism.

Not sure about the orchestra stuff. We do have one or two, but we're more about the choirs down here.

[Darkscull]

don't panic if you aren't getting much information yet.

I didn't think about specific universities at all until the official ucas event where pretty much every major university had a stand set up somewhere and every 6th form in the area went to grab prospectuses and such (not sure whether that was lower or upper sixth though), but i still managed to go through the prospectus of pretty much every single university i'd consider going to and filtering through until i got a short list.

that's a thing to remember: you don't pick A university, you pick 6. and then from the ones that offer you a place, you pick 2, one firm and one insurance. so try and resist the urge to get so involved in one place that you think it's perfect and neglect to find other equally (or almost equally) good places. it's likely that a place you find perfect is also liked by a lot of other students, and so competition will be high.

I wouldn't put too much trust in websites of universities or the ucas website listing courses (although the latter is good if you want to see which places have what course titles without trawling through prospectuses), because the specific course information is often not accurate/up to date. whereas prospectuses are written and printed specifically for your year (so also, don't get prospectuses too early, wait until the right one is released).

the main advice that you should have been told countless times already even if you've only just started thinking of applying: first thing is work out what you want from your course. don't get stuck in thinking of a specific degree title or anything, because different universities vary in what they include in degree schemes, and what you want may be under different titles in different places.
then when you're looking at universities, first thing to look at is whether the course they do is one you want, then look at the other stuff you want and/or sort out open day. you don't want to fall in love with a campus and be disappointed when they don't do what you want (or end up doing something you hate because you liked the rest of the uni).

as has been said, most universities have their own orchestras, if not several, and there are societies/groups for everything. plus you can set up your own, if you find enough people. so don't put too much importance in that, although it's certainly worth investigating.

anyway, technically not about choosing universities, but it applies if you want a wide range of choices, and i always try and work it into the conversation when talking to AS students: AS levels matter. your final grade at A level is your AS and A2 added together with most A levels, so if you got 50% in AS, that counts as 25% of your A in total, and if you then got 100% at A2 you'd get 75% total.
my teachers were very annoying in 6th form. during AS levels, they said they didn't really matter, and you could do more work at A2 to get better grades, then first thing at the start of upper 6th, the same teachers said that our AS grades were disappointing, and that they governed how much we could get in total and we should have worked harder the year before!

which reminds me, be realistic with required grades when looking at courses. unless it's changed already, universities decide to offer you a place or not on your predicted results (which are the most inaccurate things in the world, by the way), which are calculated from your AS level results, and even if you know you'll get higher in the end, you need good enough predicted results to even be considered on a course.

sorry if any of this sounds scary, it isn't really, just make sure that you don't doss too much at 6th form (not that i'd ever say there's such a thing as too much dossing, but you get what i mean)

[Disgruntledgoat]

I'm at Portsmouth.

One of my friends is coming here next year for the journalism course (that is supposed to be fairly good) and I have a friend here already who is heavily involved in the Orchestra and music department here.

And it's quite nice here. Really.

[rachel ^_^]

aw thankyou peoples, i have many places to check out now!