Choosing a city and university in the UK

Coolwhip

I live in Manchester and attend the University from time to time. Because of the sheer size of the campus and its vast foreign student population you are unlikely to experience "British Culture" directly unless you make an effort to travel around a bit. Wandering through the campus I tend to hear many conversations in languages other than English and many nearby restaurants are of Asian origin. Compared to other universities, I don't find the campus particularly attractive or "user friendly", but if I were a foreign student I would probably find friendship amongst fellow countrymen.

Manchester has a few good museums and theatres, two Premier league soccer teams, and a rowdy club scene, but I suspect many students steer clear of the city except for occasional shopping trips to standard chain stores found in all British cities. Good countryside lies within an hour of the city but a car is advisable to see and enjoy it properly. In two hours you could be in the Lake District or the Welsh mountains.

Thanks for replying fresco! (a lot of topics, it seems, just slip by everyone unanswered)

I am using an organization called 'across the pond' when I'm applying for universities in the UK. They are in contact with some eleven Universities:

Bath
Bristol
Lancaster
Manchester
Essex
East Angelina
City and Kingston in London (not really too keen London)
Swansea in Wales
Aberystwyth
Aberdeen

So these are basically the choices I have. Do you have any recommendations? As far as I know they are all excellent universities, what I'm looking for is a place where I maybe won't feel as alienated as I suspect I would feel if I moved to, say, London.

From this list I would probably recommend Bristol and would advise against Essex, Lancaster and East Anglia (which have rural campuses and tend to be isolated from the town), Aberdeen (Scotland) is good but its a long way from "England".

I figured I'd make a little update on this topic. It's been a long time since I've visited A2K!

I took frescos advice and applied for Bristol, where I have received a
conditional offer, and I'm fairly sure I'll have the grades. Going for
neuroscience! The rankings I've read lists University of Bristol third in
England for biosciences just after Cambridge and Oxford. So, that's good
news I guess

Nice to hear you are making progress on this.