Why did I want to study in Manchester? This is a question most people want an answer to.
Manchester is more like a mini London. But it comes at an additional cost as well, which is about anywhere about 2.5X from Manchester. I have travelled all over the UK for about 9 months now, and believe me Manchester is economical in comparison to other major cities. In terms of cost of accommodation and the location you stay. I would have to stay about an hour away from the London city with the price I pay to stay in Manchester centre. The places are cheaper, such as restaurants, clubs and transportation is ok.
The cost of education, well I had gotten into Imperial college as well. Only the tuition fees at Imperial was about 32000GBP which is probably what I pay in total for my accommodation and tuition for I guess the same quality of education. On top of the fees accommodation in London would be another 20000GBP. Compared to London even Scotland is a good option for education, but the negatives are the weather usually it is very cold throughout the year. Manchester has another plus point which is the location which is in the middle of the UK and hence not the coldest but quite windy. London on the other hand is very crowded as well and takes a toll on you physically and mentally after a point of time.
Talking about Academics specifically, Alliance Manchester Business School was one of the top-rated for my specific course, MSc Business Analysis and Strategic Management. This is a management consulting course for companies like McKinsey, Bain and Co, etc. I found my course to have a practical project at the end of the course which was another plus. The quality of the faculty was another main reason why I chose Manchester. The course modules were something I researched very thoroughly as I wanted to understand the course content and the skills I would gain at the end of the course. Lastly the geographics of the people in my course. I had people from all around the globe. Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Columbia, USA, India, Pakistan, and China - it's an endless list with a class of about 100 students. So it is quite fabulous having different perspectives during case study discussions. I also got the opportunity to do a part-time job which are very widely available in Manchester City. My class timings were also something that were very flexible, but too relaxing maybe after paying a lot of money, but the ideology of the courses in the UK are very self-study based, with a lot of readings.
