I didn't realise that there were so many of em! And so many courses too!!

I've been sat here trawling through possible universities which run courses that my son would possibly be interested in.

My son Steve is typically not forthcoming with information and tends to procrastinate with important things such as this (I really don't know where he gets that particular trait from ).

Apparently he will have to have made his final choices and have his form in about this time next year...which sounds like a long time. But considering he's got to decide on which course he wants to do, then visit the various university's open days that run such a course or similar and then make a decision on which university, it isn't such a long time.

So I've narrowed it down to a list of 7 possible universities:

UWE Bristol
Canterbury Christ Church
Gloucestershire Uni
Oxford Brookes
Staffordshire
Chester, and
Derby

Has anyone had any experience of any of those?

My daughters friend goes to Canterbury and enjoys it very much, I think she is studing Forensics...

My daughter goes to Queens and loves it
Edinburgh is also excellent, know a few kids who are there...

Big decision Trinity we did it two years ago...I had to keep telling myself that it was not really MY choice!!

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NELLIE

I know what you mean...I know it isn't my choice, but I thought if I did some research and booked into an open day or two it might spur him on.

Thanks for the info re Canterbury and Edinburgh...although I didn't even look at the courses in the Scottish Uni's... I would hate him to be so far away, selfish I know

Gosh when I went I had to do it all myself. I had an interview at Oxford Brookes once. What is interested in......or why those Universities?

Well I stumbled out of school with nothing but 2 O levels and a handful of CSE's, so you got further than me SE

Steve is doing A levels in Computing, Maths, Sociology, and Media Studies. I think he's going to drop Media at AS level though.

He is very gifted with computer technology and he also really enjoys sociology. I went to the UCAS site and searched courses on those two subjects and there are quite a few interesting courses open to him.

I mentioned it to him when he got home this afternoon but at the moment he's not responding because he has his head in revision books for his AS exams, which are coming up quite soon.

Fair enough...

well, they were the ones that seemed to have the most options for him really

No experience of any of the mentioned unis..Ive been at brum from the past 5 years (and personally I wouldnt recommend it in case it was an option in case your wondering)..but what I would say is if your struggling to motivate him to take much interest in the whole thing send him on some opendays. I remember getting really excited when I started to look around places, and thinking how much fun it would be to live in all these places and do what i wanted!!

Id keep trying to gently encourage him to have a look at courses, as you say there are so many to choose from. One of things I regret is I chose really obvious choices that Id heard of then I got to uni and discovered there are literally 100s of random but fascinating subjects and courses and jobs Id never heard of that I wished Id look into!! So he should have a flick through some prospectuses..see whats out there..theres so much more choice than at school! Im sure once he starts looking he'll get into it!!

Thanks for that Kathryn

He has got some prospectuses from 'career days' that the school had set up for them. On one of them he went to Bath uni for the day.

I'm sure he'll get a bit more motivated about the options that are available to him once his AS exams are out of the way.

Bath is a good Uni and I'm sure your right he wants to focus on his AS levels. For me going to college was a great escape from home. I loved every minute of it and working life by comparison sucks.......but its been a few years now and I've got used to it.

I know Bath is good...and it's reasonably local to home, which is also an advantage (but probably only for me ). However they don't have much to offer Steve... just the basic computer science, computing and maths, computing and physics courses. That's why I Bath wasn't in the shortlist

Hi Trinity,

I work for the University of Bristol (not to be confused with UWE ) and if I can help with info on your choices then let me know.

A load of my mates have been through UWE's doors and found the experience most rewarding, it certainly has a reputation of being particularly friendly (most ex Poly's seem to)

I personally did my degree at the MMU (or Manchester Poly) and had a great time, I really don't think it matters too much (unless he is choosing a subject that is not 'main stream') - for me it was getting away from home and more about the experience than actually getting a degree (not what a Mum needs to hear right ......?!? :eek: )

Might be worth checking out UMIST (Manchester) if he is interested in Technology / Computing as this is geared up for these subjects.

Thanks Granty! that is most helpful... be prepared for a few more questions over the coming months

erm...no, it's not

Have to remember, from a young lads point of view - a good night scene is very important, in fact ...... number 1 on many peoples list.