Why Maths At Warwick? A Guide To Choosing Your Subject And University
Choosing what to study and where to study it is an important decision when it comes to university. You want to study something that you enjoy, and be at a place where you’ll be happy for 3 or 4 years. I want to use this blog to talk about my experiences applying for university, how I chose Maths, how I chose Warwick, and advice for you to make your decision.
My Experience:
Being both organised and geeky, the best way for me to whittle down the choice of university was with a spreadsheet. I went to the university league tables, and wrote out what the top 30 universities in the UK were for Maths (when I was beginning to think about university, I was undecided between studying Maths or Maths And Computer Science, but thought that the subjects were close enough that just looking at the Maths rankings was indicative enough). I then eliminated some based on location – I knew I didn’t want to study in London or Scotland, and got rid of some other more Northern universities – I live in the South of England and wanted my parents to be able to visit me in a day and not have to stay overnight or drive for 10 hours. I catalogued the entry requirements for each course, what degree I would end up with (an MMath or MSc), whether it was a city or campus university, and how many miles from home it was. I knew wanted to go to one of the top universities, so I started at the top of the list and worked down, looking at the websites for each university and course, mostly looking at what kind of modules I would get to study. I also looked at when the open days were, and went to the open day or talked to their stand at the UCAS fair I went to in Year 12. All of this research helped me to narrow it down to the 5 I wanted to apply to (Oxford, Warwick, Southampton, Nottingham and Bristol, if you were curious), but the course that stood out to me the most was the Warwick course.
How I Chose Maths:
As I said earlier, I was on the fence between studying Maths or Maths and Computer Science. After some A Level experience, I realised that I was a lot more comfortable with the maths content than I was with the computer science theory. For me, this decision was made a little bit easier by how flexible the Warwick Maths degree was. So far throughout my degree, I have been able to take up to 25% of my modules from outside departments, and in second year I took 2 Computer Science modules. Knowing that I would have the option to do this made my decision for Maths, and my decision for Warwick a little bit easier (as well as there being the possibility of being able to change course).
How I Chose Warwick:
Most of my process for choosing Warwick was explained in the first paragraph. From all of the information online, it felt like Warwick was the obvious choice and best fit for me. Then I visited the campus on an open day, and it felt so right. At the open day, I looked around the accommodation, went to a Maths talk and got a general feel of the campus. I could picture myself studying here for the next 4 years, and enjoying it, and knew it was the right choice – all I had to do now was hope they gave me an offer!
My Advice:
- Decide what course you want to do, or at least the general discipline. Personally, I think that the course is more important than the actual university, since a lot of your time will be taken by studying, it has to be something you enjoy!
- Look at which universities are good for your subject. You can base this on the league tables, or student satisfaction, or word of mouth if you know older students studying your course at a university!
- Go to open days if you can! It’s really nice to be able to see your potential universities in person, and then it gives you an incentive through A Levels to get the grades for your first choice university. If you can’t make it to an open day or offer holder day, there are lots of videos on YouTube from students at different universities giving their perspective!
I hope that this has helped you get a better idea on how to choose your subject and university, and if you have any questions please comment or message me!
