University of Essex or Winchester?

[Joanie]

I can't decide which to choose as my firm. Essex or Winchester?
If you're going, have gone, or have a friend who has gone to either of these unis please tell me what you/they think or thought of the uni. Please talk about EVERYTHING you can, from social life, to academics, accommodation to even the people etc.
I just want to know I can study and also have a good time and not be bored.
Tell me which one you think I should choose as my firm. Obviously I'm not going to base my decision completely off of what randoms off the internet say, but it'd help loads! Thanks!
Oh and I'll be doing media studies, undergrad.

[Liz]

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co...ia+Studies

Have a look at this and have a look at the graduate prospects column for both of these universities. Winchester is better than Essex but neither is very good. Basically what this column means is how likely you are to get a job that needs a degree to do it after university. 100 is most likely, 16 as in the case of Essex means not likely at all, so this media studies course leads either to unemployment or a dead end minimum wage job. Winchester is 38 so a lot less than half. You will notice that none of the universities have high scores in graduate prospects. This is because media studies is known for being a non vocational degree that doesn't lead to work. It is also looked down on by employers because it is considered to be a waste of time sort of degree that is done by people who can't do anything else or who haven't got the intelligence to do anything better, so always round a degree in media studies is bad news.

You may be attending a school that is giving bad career advice. Some schools tell their students that they are too clever to do an apprenticeship, this isn't true some apprenticeships ask for higher A level results than either of your two university choices. Going to university does not automatically mean that you will get a better job. Your two choices of universities and degree mean that you are most likely to get the same job as you would have had you never been to university and had gone straight into work after leaving school. Some schools tell their students that they have to go to university because this makes the school's league table look better.

To get a better job from doing a degree than you would have done had you just gone straight to work after school you have to study for a vocational degree, something like engineering, or medicine or nursing. These jobs require a degree in the subject for you to be able to do them.

A non vocational degree like media studies doesn't lead to any job. However it still leads to the same amount of debt and it still costs the same to study.

When you have finished your degree you won't be able to get any of these kinds of jobs.
http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/types-...media.aspx

This is because the people who have done apprenticeships in the media industry have been trained by the industry and have work experience and so they know what they are expected to know and be able to do. Employers find this knowledge much more useful than that gained from a general media studies degree that isn't work experience and this is one of the reasons why the job prospects for a media studies degree is so poor.

What you now know is that you will be studying media studies for your own interest only that means that you will be getting into debt of about £50000 for something that is for your own interest and doesn't lead to a job. With this in mind the social life is less important than the course as £50000 is a lot to pay for a social life.