u/Potential_Good_1065

So I have an unconditional offer from Cambridge to study law (it’s the highest ranked I think). I know Cambridge is a very prestigious university, particularly for law, but I’m still not sure whether to take it.

I really liked RE at school and would love to do a degree in it. I particularly enjoyed learning about Buddhism and Sikhism and I think knowledge of those religions can really help me with a graduate role. I much prefer studying RE to law.

Wrexham also has the edge on Cambridge because it is in Wales and Wales are probably my favourite sea creature. I’m pretty sure they filmed I’m a celeb there too at one point. Only thing I’m worried about is Ant & Dec coming out of nowhere and making me put Ant’s balls in my mouth, but I suppose I don’t have to do it.

I also love Deadpool and he owns Wrexham’s football team which gives it a further edge on Cambridge (whose football team is owned by some random dude who isn’t my favourite superhero).

Whilst I’m not discounting the prestige of law at Cambridge, but I’m edging much towards RE at Wrexham for the reasons I’ve just mentioned. I’ve rejected offers from Bradford for LLB KSI studies and Wolverhampton for LLB garlic mushroom farming. Cambridge law and Wrexham RE are my only choices now.

I’m totally incapable of thinking for myself and can’t be arsed going to the open days or conducting my own research to decide which one I like better so I’ve decided to make a Reddit post to let random people on the internet decide where I spend the next 3 years of my life 😊

I’ve seen a lot of posts asking whether drinking alcohol is necessary when going to the pub. I’m not really a drinker myself but was invited to the pub by a couple mates on Thursday. I accepted the invite but decided I wasn’t going to drink. Big mistake.

When I arrived at the pub and ordered just a Pepsi max, my mates immediately confronted me with insults such as “wet wipe” and “sober sausage.” I thought they were just having a laugh. They weren’t.

They then informed a member of pub staff that I wasn’t going to be drinking, the member of staff then grabbed me, and had my friends assist him in taking me to the dartboard. Once at the dartboard, I was tied to the wall with handcuffs, with my back of my head touching the dartboard.

The staff member then announced to everyone in the pub that they get one free dart throw, and if they hit my face they win a free shot. This was obviously very scary, as my face has only been used as a dartboard once or twice in the past.

Thankfully, everyone missed. Unfortunately though, they decided that, because everyone missed, I needed an alternative punishment for not drinking alcohol.

They kept me tied to the wall on the dartboard, but instead of throwing darts they force fed me all different types of alcohol such as beer, cider, wine, vodka, rum, tequila, sourz, WKD, you know, all the dangerous stuff. They did this until I was blackout drunk and had thrown up 17 times.

I woke up hours later in my mate’s uni accommodation, which he had transformed into a makeshift hospital room sort of thing. I noticed I had a cannula in my arm which was hooked up to a vodka drip. He then walked in and told me that, if I could split the G in 3 attempts, he would set me free. Luckily I succeeded and was able to make it to my 9am on Friday.

But the moral of the story is, if you don’t drink, don’t go to the pub… or else…

I’ve been rejected from both Oxford & Cambridge to study maths with musical engineering. I’m absolutely devastated because now I have to go to LSE. It’s ranked like 3rd or something. It’s just an awful uni and I wouldn’t want to be seen dead there

I’m thinking of not bothering, and just going to live a remote life in the Amazon rainforest and hope a tribe brings me in. Not ideal but it’s better than any of my future career prospects now.

Does anybody else feel like uni ranking culture is extremely toxic? There are people that have worked so hard to get into their first choice uni, only to be told by people that it’s a shit uni because it’s not high up on any rankings.

Of course, they are good to help people make decisions. Obviously some unis are better than others for certain courses and rankings can be helpful for this, but for me it feels like the rankings are used to shame people who don’t go to one of the better unis rather than helping people make decisions.

Also, if you are going to listen to university rankings and use them for what they were intended for, don’t listen to random people on the internet. It’s not possible for these people to have visited every university in the country and decide which ones are good/bad for you personally. Even the genuine sources and rankings such as the complete university guide, whilst more reliable due to actual research, evidence and student input, cannot decide which university is best for you.

Got rejected from law at uni of Sheffield after results day didn’t go to plan. I’m now going to study law at Sheffield Hallam uni in September.

People told me not to bother with Hallam. If I’m honest, the city of Sheffield was irresistible, so I decided to still go for it. People said that Hallam would not give me a good chance of being a solicitor or barrister at a top commercial/corporate law firm.

Here’s the thing: I’m not bothered about being a solicitor or barrister, nor am I particularly interested in commercial law or business law. I’d love to work in areas of law that better suit my interests; criminal law, sports law, immigration law, property law are my main legal interests, I’d love to have a career in one of those areas.

I’m not really sure what I’m asking. I’m just venting more than anything, but if anyone does have anything to say or advice to give please comment, thanks!

Bit of a 2 parter really, I’ll use law as an example:

Obviously, when a legal employer is looking at freshly-graduated candidates, they’re likely to choose candidates from top Russel-group unis with high reputation and prestige. My question is, how much does reputation & prestige matter later down the line in 10 years for example? Will it still matter, or is it mainly just at the start of your career?

My other question is this: how much value does relevant work experience carry? If you graduated with decent grades from a mid-tier uni, and got a decent placement whilst there, how strong would your CV be to employers?

First off, I don’t think Zack should’ve done what he did. I’m not justifying it. But the hypocrisy from Reform saying that Zack should be arrested for a social media post after months of saying that nobody should be arrested for social media posts is ridiculous 😂

Okay, if you’re in year 12 I’ve got some advice for you that I wish someone had given me in year 12.

Ultimately my situation is different to everyone else’s, the advice I could’ve benefited from is different to the advice you’d benefit from, but the advice I’m gonna share with you is some advice which I believe benefits absolutely everyone no matter who you are, and that is this: go to as many open days as possible.

I’m gonna describe this using the mistake I made. I went to an open day at the university of Hull. I quite liked it. The grade requirements were BBB which were the most realistic grades for me at the time. I thought ‘fuck it’ and just applied to Hull on UCAS. I just put Lincoln as my insurance despite never having been because I was dead set on going to Hull because I liked the open day.

Then, when exam season rolled around, I started feeling more confident. My first exam went well, then my second, then my third. Then, all of a sudden I felt like achieving higher than BBB, and I changed my mind about wanting to go to Hull, and I now wanted to go to a Russell group uni.

Being based in Yorkshire, my 3 main choices were York, Sheffield and Nottingham. York and Nottingham were full on my course (law), which left only Sheffield with clearing places. I decided to book the open day after exams, and went down to see what it was like.

As soon as I stepped foot in Sheffield, I could tell it was the place I wanted to be. It just felt reyt homely. I knew I wanted to go to uni of Sheffield after that day. Although I liked Hull, I loved Sheffield.

What’s the moral of the story? Well, if I’d have done that open day BEFORE the start of exams instead of after, and realised before exams that Sheffield was the place I wanted to be, it would’ve motivated me to put in the extra graft to give me a better chance at getting the grades I need to get into my dream uni.

So, pretty much, don’t get your heart set on one university after one open day. If you go to an open day and like the uni, still go to more. I personally think you should aim for 3/4 open days throughout year 12 and 13. Not only does it give you a feel of what uni is like and what the city is like, but it also acts as a motivator. It’s like self-actualisation on Maslow’s triangle.

Yes, if you go to the uni you’ve been to on open day, you might LIKE it, but if you go to more open days, you might find a uni you LOVE.

Everything I’ve said so far is advice that benefits everyone, but the following 2 paragraphs may NOT be suited to everyone, so just keep that in mind:

Also, be ambitious. If your predicted grades are BBB, for example, don’t let that put you off applying for a Russell group. If you’re willing to work hard you should always apply to and visit a Russell group uni, don’t put a limit on yourself like I did. Of course, there’s absolutely no guarantee you get in, but if you don’t get in and end up at the non Russell group you were planning to go to in the first place, you’re no worse off, so it’s definitely worth applying and looking round. Yes, you’ll probably be disappointed if you don’t get in, but it’s worth trying and like I say, you’ll be no worse off.

My advice would be to firm your favourite uni (no matter the grade requirements) and put the uni with the most realistic grade requirements as your insurance. I know it sounds obvious but it wasn’t obvious to me at the time. Like I say, you should visit a few open days before you do this. The UCAS application is not supposed to be something that takes you a couple days so consider your options. Just a warning though, I’m just an 18 year old on the internet, what I’m saying here isn’t absolute fact. I’m just giving you advice that I THINK would be beneficial based on MY own experiences, just keep that in mind.

That said, I’m VERY confident the advice about going to as many open days as possible benefits everyone who reads this no matter your situation.

Disclaimer: if you’re not willing to work hard, still go to an open day, and if that still doesn’t motivate you to work hard, I probably wouldn’t bother applying to a Russell group.

tl;dr: go to as many open days as possible and apply to your favourite unis, no matter your predicted grades, if you’re willing to work hard

But yeah, I wish that was the advice I was given. I’m losing sleep from stress waiting for results day, which I don’t think would’ve been a problem had I followed this advice.

I didn’t even think this was a hot take.

And going straight into Nigel’s bank account!

It’s very unlikely, but it’s possible that the people of the US decide that they want me as the next president and overthrow Trump to put me in charge

Uni of Sheffield told me that their law course is likely to go into clearing, which is good, but their requirements are AAA for law. Exams went well so there’s a good chance I do get it, but there’s also a good chance I don’t. When I went to the open day at uni of, and so on Monday I firmed Hallam (more info on my last post) and I’m going to register interest in a clearing place next Thursday like UCAS told me to.

Now I’m guaranteed to live in Sheffield which is the main thing, but I’m still really stressed about which uni I go to. How lenient are Sheffield in clearing? Will it actually make a significant impact on my future if I end up studying law at Hallam instead of the uni of?

Honestly I’m stressing the fuck out and there’s still another 7 weeks until I know for sure what I’m doing, I suppose I’m just looking for reassurance.

When I was doing my UCAS university application at college earlier in y13, I was at a low point in my life mentally. The college advised me not to apply for any Russel group unis as I was unlikely to get in due to BBB predictions. I applied for law at the university of Hull, because their requirements are BBB. At the time of applying, Hull was the only university I had been to, and I quite liked it whilst I was there, despite it not having a great reputation. I made Hull my first choice, and pretty much selected my backup and insurance choices at random. I put Lincoln as my insurance which automatically declined my offer from another university I’d applied for, Sheffield Hallam.

But then I started to change mentally. For the better. I am in a much better place, and was feeling so good during exams. They all went really well. Then I thought, in the middle of exams, what if the college were wrong. What if I am good enough for a Russel Group. So I spoke with my parents and told them I wanted to go to the university of Sheffield. This was a long time after I thought I’d already sorted my UCAS application. My parents were happy with my decision, so I phoned UCAS and they told me to apply for Sheffield through clearing.

Now, I had a clear plan. If I got the grades required for Sheffield, I would go there in September. If I got the grades but there was no space for me there through clearing, I wanted to go travelling for a year and apply properly the following year in 2027. If I didn’t get the grades necessary for Sheffield at all I would go to Hull.

But yesterday, everything changed. I went to look around the university of Sheffield and absolutely loved it. I loved the city, the accommodation my friend had recommended to me, and the course at Sheffield. I would absolutely love to go there in September. But having been there it made me want Sheffield, as a city, even more than Hull. I started stressing out and didn’t sleep much last night. I mean, I had a dream inside of a dream. I dreamt of BOTH scenarios (Sheffield and Hull) in one night. I was so happy in the dream where I got into Sheffield and so upset in the dream where I didn’t. That dream accurately portrayed how I’d actually feel should either scenario happen.

So it got me thinking today, I loved Sheffield so much yesterday. Whilst I think Hull is a much better city and uni than people make it out to be, I fell in love with Sheffield yesterday. Then I remembered back to my UCAS application, I’d put Sheffield Hallam as one of my offers. They’d accepted me on BBB, just as Hull have. I logged onto UCAS today and realised that accepting Hull as my main and Lincoln as my insurance, that automatically declined my offer from Hallam. So now I’m in a bit of a sticky situation.

My first choice uni is now Sheffield and second choice uni is Sheffield Hallam, but on UCAS it’s Hull then Lincoln. I just wish I’d have bothered going to more uni open days than Hull to make a better choice. That’s irrelevant now, but I’m just a bit confused on what to do and it’s stressing me out. Of course, I wouldn’t mind Hull, but I’d rather Sheffield Hallam and I’d MUCH rather the uni of Sheffield.

I’ve booked an open day at Hallam for 4th July.

I love playing Forza. I love driving around the map and exploring new places, as well as trying different race routes. I’ve loved playing since FH2, but I just don’t care much for cars. Sure I have my preferred cars in the game, but I’ve never really been a car person. Does anyone else have this?

Struggling to score free kicks with Mexicans for the Sanchez objective because I can’t win any. I’ve tried turning handballs on and have only won 1 free kick in 3 games