THE UNIVERSITY
The Management studies at UMIST are done in a rather new building, pretty fancy, very open, nice and stuff, light colours, lots of glass and things, next to the main road. It's not uber-large, but hey, it's enough. The sort of place your parents will ooh and aah at. I absolutely like it.
The people are generally allright, decent people, even male/female mix, lots of Asians around. You have the whole range of people when it comes to academics; some people less motivated, some people more motivated. This place is no different from others in that regard.
Facilities are very decent; there's three large computer rooms that are open late, library very close by, cantina inside the main building, and everything you need very close. It's within the city limits after all. It's not grey and stuff however; it's still close to the "greener" part of town.
HALLS
Halls are generally nice. Open, green, traditionally English, plants crawling up the walls and such. A word of warning however; I went with catered and paid a lot for it, yet the food is (by Scandinavian standards) not super-all-that, and I tend to buy stuff anyway. Thus, I would recommend going with a non-catered room with a washbasin in it. There's microwaves, fridge and stuff in the shared kitchens.
I believe first-years are guaranteed a place. The halls are rather close, and even the halls further away have remarkable 10-minute bus service. There is, however, an unmentioned £100 fee for Internet connection in your room, possibly a £10 gym fee, and don't count on the hall computer cluster being any good. Overseas students will have guaranteed second-year hall accommodation I believe; UK students will have to find local, which is relatively easy.
COURSE
Let me put it this way; the UMIST management course is acknowledged as one of the best management courses in the UK. It is possibly not THE best, but at this tier, there's little difference. I had cracking grades and picked UMIST over St. Andrews and Edinburgh, but really, if you just get into a good one, it's less about the ranking and more about your own efforts.
What is Management then? The best description would be "a little bit of everything". We have accounting, maths, organisation theory, psychology, law, marketing and more - and the second and third year modules are VERY diverse.
Why is this good for me? Because I'm an all-rounder and so have a hard time deciding, and now will get a decent bit of everything. In my second and third year I will probably specialise in accounting and finance, as well as taking modules in marketing, law and operations management. Is that good for you as well? To be quite honest, you should consider a more specialised course if you've decided upon your future career already, such as Accounting and Finance at Manchester University. I was unsure of where to specialise however, and so this management course, with a very wide base in the first year and specialisation in second- and third years, is quite decent.
Career wise, there's a number of presentations, or probably more than most other places at least. I don't have any worries over not getting a decent job afterwards.
Sociality-wise; hey, it's smack close to the city, what do you expect?
Note that I tend to be very critical though, and if I had gone to any 'lesser' university I would probably have consigned it to eternal damnation; however UMIST is definetly an acceptable choice. If you have the grades, and want a business education, then do put it on your UCAS form.