A-Level results land today and, for many, thoughts are turning to the next stage in your education - university.
Whether you've had one of Greater Manchester's universities down for your top choice all along, or whether you didn't quite get the results you wanted and are now facing clearing, worry not.
There are so many reasons why Manchester is the best student city in the world, from its affordable cost of living to its nightlife to its world-class lecturers.
Here are some reasons you should consider studying right here in Manchester - and start getting excited if you've landed that place.
It's surprisingly affordable
Manchester is the third most affordable university city in the UK, beaten only by Bangor and Nottingham, according to recent research by credit experts Totally Money.
Students at the University of Manchester pay £75 per week for their student accommodation on average (compared with £168 at St George's in London) and also benefit from some of the cheapest city centre to university taxi fares at around £3.50 a trip.
Although if you're taking taxis and not slumming it on the Magic Bus, you probably don't have to worry too much about the cost of your digs.
You can eat well on the cheap
Some of Manchester's most highly-regarded restaurants also come with a rock-bottom price tag, which is great news for those on a tight budget.
From the likes of achingly cool Rudy's Neapolitan Pizza and YES to the Northern Quarter's back-street curry houses (Cafe Marhaba gets our vote) and all the delights of the Arndale Food Court, you don't have to spend big to eat well.
The best street food in Manchester
Fallowfield in general
Will you want to live in Fallowfield once you graduate university? Possibly not - but there's really nowhere better to spend your higher education years.
Although the nightlife isn't what it once was, with the closures of Cubo and Baa Bar, you'll still find plenty of boozers to entertain you, from the likes of The Friendship Inn to The Bar, which replaced the former Font Bar.
You'll also be surrounded on all sides by fellow students, and that's party enough.
You'll be in good company
99,000 people can't be wrong - with four universities to choose from, Greater Manchester's got an enormous student population.
Spread between the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Salford and the University of Bolton, our region churns out around 33,000 graduates a year.
The University of Manchester draws a particularly large crowd, with almost 40,000 enrolled - placing it fourth in the country after the University of London, the Open University, and the Open University in England.
The nightlife's incredible
For many, there'll be a degree of partying involved in working your way to a degree.
Manchester's nightlife offers something for everyone, from the glitz and glamour of Spinningfields to the raucous indie clubs like Mojo and South, from long-running Fifth to the entirety of Canal Street in the gay village.
There's also Warehouse Project towards the end of the year, taking place at Mayfield Depot for the first time and attracting some of the biggest names in dance music.
The campus is cooler than ever
The transformation of the Oxford Road corridor has been rapid and remarkable - the most notable addition to this part of town has got to be Hatch.
The stacks of colourful shipping containers beneath the Mancunian Way are home to a range of street food operators, independent retailers, bars and coffee shops.
University Green's been given a serious facelift too, and you'll now find Brewdog, Five Guys, Mowgli and Takk all facing out onto the lawns.
The music never stops
Greater Manchester comes with a strong musical pedigree - the likes of Stone Roses, Oasis, The Smiths, Joy Division and the Happy Mondays all started here - but the scene continues to thrive long after those days have gone.
There are amazing gig venues of all sizes here, from the tiny (Deaf Institute and Soup Kitchen) to the medium (Albert Hall is in a former chapel and Manchester Academy is literally on campus) to the absolutely massive (Manchester Arena is the biggest indoor venue in the UK and the Etihad Stadium has hosted the likes of Beyonce and Ed Sheeran).
Homegrown musical talents to look out for include Aitch, Blossoms, Larkins, IAMDDB, and CityLife Award-winners Fuzzy Sun.
It's sport mad
Red or blue, love it or loathe it, there's no escaping football in Manchester. Obviously both Manchester City and Manchester United are based here - at the Etihad Stadium and Old Trafford respectively - but the sporting facilities in the region go much further.
The legacy of the Commonwealth Games has left us with world-class facilities including the Manchester Aquatics Centre, Regional Athletics Arena, National Squash Centre and Manchester Velodrome.
You can eat Archie's on the regular
You haven't nailed a night out in Manchester until you've ended it in the bright pink, sugar-laden den that is Archie's.
With TWO on Oxford Road, the burger and milkshake fast food joint found its footing in the heart of Manchester's student neighbourhood and hasn't looked back - they've just opened another inside the Arndale.
Green space
The majority of urban Manchester struggles a bit for green space, but many of the city's best parks are centred to the south-east of the city, surrounding both MMU and the University of Manchester's campuses.
Whitworth Park, Platt Fields Park and Alexandra Park are all in this direction, with All Saints Park and University Green providing smaller patches of grass.
There's also Vimto Park on Granby Row, which boats a huge wooden sculpture dedicated to the fruity purple drink.
Manchester is also surrounded by the Peak District and, a little further afield, the Lake District, as well as beautiful north west beaches.
The easiest commute in the city
If you end up living or studying along the Oxford Road corridor, you'll find yourself on one of the busiest bus routes in Europe - and that means regular rides on the iconic Magic Bus.
The blue, star-spangled 147 buses are some of the cheapest in the city, costing £1.50 for a single or £9.50 for a week-long ticket.
And for those who prefer to be at one with the elements, there's a protected cycleway running right along Oxford Road and Wilmslow Road.
The culture
While all the lectures and partying can seem to swallow up a large chunk of your time, you'll never regret taking some time out to expand your cultural horizons too - especially when so many cultural institutions in Manchester are free to visit.
The Whitworth Gallery is right on the doorstep of the University of Manchester, as is the Manchester Museum.
Then further afield you'll find The Lowry theatre and gallery at Salford Quays, the Royal Exchange in St Ann's Square (worth a look even if you can't afford a theatre ticket - though that shouldn't be an issue with its £7 student scheme), the Imperial War Museum North and the Science and Industry Museum.
It's the shopping capital of the north west
The Arndale Centre and Market Street right in the heart of the city, and the Trafford Centre a little further away, deliver all your usual high street heroes - think Topshop, Primark, River Island, H&M and Zara.
For those who fancy splashing the cash, designer boutiques and department stores line King Street and Exchange Square, and there are some more independent boutiques dotted around the Northern Quarter such as Beaumont Organic and Oi Polloi.
It's also a vintage shopping haven, with second-hand boutiques and record stores all over the Northern Quarter. Afflecks Palace is something of an institution too - set aside several hours to lose yourself in its ramshackle interior.
Famous faces as lecturers
The universities in the region have nurtured some of the world's brightest minds, with some returning to lecturing positions later in life.
One of those is none other than Professor Brian Cox, who serves as professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester.
Guitar legend Johnny Marr has lectured at Salford University, as has comedian Peter Kay.
Famous faces just wandering around
Manchester is frequently used as filming locations for big-budget film and telvision.
In the last few years, that's meant Cillian Murphy et al spotted filming Peaky Blinders, Jared Leto standing outside Leo's Fish Bar while filming Morbius, and Chris Pine tearing up Dale Street in the Northern Quarter filming Captain America.
Just two weeks ago Ed Sheeran himself was seen filming a new music video at a sandwich shop in New Moston. You never know who you're going to bump into.
If you've not spotted a Gallagher brother or a Corrie cast member by your second semester, you're not getting out enough.
Playing like a big kid
The clubs and societies at university are a great way to meet new people and to just have a bit of fun on a regular schedule.
Football, athletics, rugby, netball and hockey are all well-represented, but you can also take part in surfing, ultimate frisbee, snow sports, mountaineering, canoeing and archery.
Away from sport, there are clubs committed to bellringing and board games, poker and pantomime, wine, cheese, rock music, crafting, K-Pop and Quidditch.
Our inventions and discoveries take some beating
Ernest Rutherford figured out how to split the atom here in 1917, the world's first computer was also built here in 1948, and the contraceptive pill was developed at the University of Manchester in 1961.
In 2010, Professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov brought a Nobel Prize for physics to the city for their work on graphene, the world's thinnest and strongest material.
A tiny chapel in Salford was the birthplace of the Vegetarian Society, and let's not forget Vimto - that was made here too.
It's got a radical history
If you're the placard-waving, activist sort - as many students are often stereotyped - you'd be hard-pressed to find a city with stronger socialist and feminist roots than Manchester.
Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst was born in Moss Side while Communist Manifesto writers Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels regularly met here.
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