i wish it wasn't the case with brunel. the thing is, however much you go to a uni just for the course you live there. you live in the area and you hang out with people and go drinking, or for food, cinema, whatever. if brunel was in a decent area or had more than one real club it would make a huge difference. but you've got to live somewhere for 3 years so choose very wisely would be my advice.
honestly i didn't go out that much this year at all. i went out way way more in a foundation year and first year. i was just so soooo bored by the course that I lost all motivation, which led to me just not caring about the degree anymore. a better course backed up by not living in a bad area with one place to hang out thats not expensive would make all the difference.
I've visited a fair few friends and seen the uni's area's they live. Manchester is pretty well set up for a student, some good uni's. i forgot what the area was called but a heck of a lot of students live there, like 6-7 clubs and 24 bars all without like 10 mins walk. we had a good weekend
even though i was close, because i was applying in clearing and without much choice i applied without looking around. then when i went to give them some paperwork and stuff i didn't really look around. the best advice i can give is, try and visit while students are still there, walk around properly, go into nearest town, check everything out. maybe go down with a few m8's rather than parents and have a few drinks, check out the bars, maybe clubs, shops, the uni and so on. If you can't stand the place and think its boring as hell, you just probably won't enjoy it. check out the i dunno, 3-4 uni's you can probo get into that are good for in this case engineering, and choose the one that you think you'll enjoy living in most.
and near the riverside (i hope)