Time to join the brainy bunch

When you go to university, you will go in search of fun as well as qualifications. Polly Curtis introduces our guide to finding the place where you'll spend some of the most important days of your life

My first day at university, I thought I'd made a terrible mistake. Why had I spent two years slogging it out for A-levels only to turn my life upside down? I didn't want to join the ranks of what I thought would be a brigade of lager-swilling, traffic-cone-stealing, baked bean-eating students. But I was wrong. University isn't like that, unless that's what you're after.

The university population is blossoming. The latest figures predict that 50% of young people will opt for higher education by the end of the decade. That many people couldn't possibly fit into one stereotype; you would notice if there were that many traffic cones piling up on campuses.

The students you will meet are not all 18. Some have children, lots have taken at least a year out, others drive cars and go clubbing, more stay home and rent videos. They live in halls, or with their parents, and most will work part-time. It's like the real world - you'll meet lots of people just like you, and lots who are totally different.

What will unite you with the 200-odd students in your halls, the dozens on your course and the scores you will come across at the student union is that you're a pretty brainy bunch, you will probably be short of cash and you have all decided to spend three or more years learning in the same place at the same time. That's enough to make you friends for life.

So what will it be like? Day one will be a whirl of meeting people. Day two will be a whirl of meeting people and forgetting their names. Day three you will wish you had never met the people from day one, and by week three you will have made those friends for life. You might even know their names by then.

Your first assignment will seem like an insurmountable quest. The very idea of writing a degree-level essay will make you feel out of your depth. You will write another, and it will begin to feel normal, and you will realise that you are clever enough. By the second term you will be up all night rowing about quantum physics or metaphysics.

Here are the facts you need to make the choice of where you will spend your noughties, as the class of 2008. The tables show the top institutions in each subject area and the profiles tell you what each university is like. It's all about picking the place that's right for you, not just the one that tops the league table, so balance the course against the university to find your perfect match.

So who are the winners and losers in this year's tables? Overall, Cambridge is still number one, followed closely by Oxford. Number three is Imperial. Beyond that, there's been a mini-reshuffle in the top 10: Nottingham has dropped out and Manchester has crept in.

But the winners are not necessarily the old redbrick universities. Bolton Institute, newly crowned as a university, and Wolverhampton have snuck into the top 10 for philosophy, for example, proving you don't have to be old to be clever. If you want to do biosciences, you might consider Oxford or Cambridge, but you'd do just as well at Aston, which ranks number two.

Reading (first place) and the University of East Anglia (second place) scoop the others in earth and marine sciences. Bangor and Plymouth top nursing, and in the leading 10 for politics, along with King's and the LSE, is the University of East London. The message from these tables is: there are excellent courses at every institution.

And here's another message: going to university is going to cost you. Depending on your parents' income, you're going to have to find up to around £1,175 a year in fees - with the help of loans - on day one; rent will be a few thousand, plus books, and, let's face it, the odd beer. It's not a cheap business.

By 2006, when top-up fees are introduced, that cost will soar to £3,000 a year for the vast majority of courses. For 2005 entry, universities are predicting a rise in applications as students struggle to get in before top-ups.

The flipside to that is that once top-up fees are introduced, you won't have to pay the fees on day one; in fact, you won't have to pay anything until your income tops £15,000 after graduating. And if your parents' combined income is below £15,000, you'll be eligible for a £1,000 grant and a package of bursaries from the university to soften the blow.

From astronaut to zookeeper, via PR agent and IT consultant, you need a degree. You might not be asked about it in a job interview, but you won't get the interview without it. A degree is not only about what you know - it's about how you approach things, your skills, but, most importantly, it's about developing your confidence. Which is possibly the best argument for putting your life in student limbo for three years.

What university also gives you is three or four years to think about what you want to do, while working hard to get you there. It might be your first chance to leave home. But it enables you to do this while keeping the "real world" at bay.

I spent some of my days studying; others I'd be pulling pints or drinking them. I hatched plots to take over the world, while in my politics seminars I tried to find out how to do it. I fell in love and I missed my mum. But my most abiding memory is of sitting on a sofa drinking cups of tea, enjoying endless in-jokes, setting the world to rights and gossiping viciously. I rowed with housemates but they became the most important friends. Yes, we drank - we even made our Christmas tree out of a traffic cone - but I came away a different person. Doubtless you will, too.

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