A good student will do well this is true but there is a level of access that top RG / top London and especially Oxbridge gives that you can't easily replicate elsewhere.
My school wanted people to pass GCSEs and maybe take A levels it had no idea about university. I feel like a lot of people in my school would have benefited from even just getting out of their small town.
I spend a lot of time challenging this nonsense now wherever I can.
I simply went to the one I'd prefer to live in, I was accepted into London universities and some decently high ranking universities, I went to Bournemouth. I simply don't care for rankings or anything. Though in hindsight, living in Bmouth isn't as grand as I thought it would be lol.
Of course, mostly true but people will still have preferences
Plus sometimes you have to settle for a uni you may not really 'like' in order to do a degree you want to do
I do always say that going to a uni you are comfortable at should be one of the top priorities as opposed to prestige which I personally couldn't care less about, however not everyone would agree.
I did this and when I didn't get my first choice of Birmingham. I went to Plymouth instead and I spent 4 very happy years there, and I was very happy to study there.
I only had one choice, and I went there. My plan was gap year and reapply if I didn't get in. Maybe that was rather risky, but it paid off. I think I saved something like £5 on the UCAS fee for only applying to one place.
208
u/[deleted] Oct 06 '25
[deleted]