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Uni advice

Guest pyramidsong

By Guest pyramidsong
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pyramidsong Newbie

pyramidsong

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i understand this is a perennially fucking tedious subject for anybody above the age of 20 but i'm stuck at the moment and would appreciate some advice. basically i live in london and have done all my life, and i have an offer to study english lit at ucl. i also, however, have an offer from bristol and i'm really torn between them. on the one hand, ucl is (slightly) more well regarded overall, particularly for my course, but on the other hand the difference between them is not vast and i wouldn't mind having a few years out of london, partly because, as much as i love london, i think the whole experience of studying in such a large city would be pretty difficult. any suggestions from efesters?

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pyramidsong Newbie

pyramidsong

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i think bristol would be an ideal place to study for me personally; it has the buzz and eclecticism of a larger city but within a very mangeable size. good music scene as well, but then on the other hand, ucl's reputation is a factor. argh man this is hard haha

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incident Grand Master

incident

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Visit both.

Make sure you get a good look round the campuses, see what student life is like. Take a look at the surrounding areas.

Then decide where you want to spend the next 4 years.

The academic reputation? Should only be a factor where there's a big difference.

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Ed209 Newbie

Ed209

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I live in London and love the city, I'm from the west country and have family who have lived in Bristol for years. I work at a London university, I've studied as an undergrad outside of london, and as a postgraduate inside of london. I know both universities very well having visited them on several occasions ... and my verdict is ...

100% go to Bristol dude.

Being an undergraduate in London is nowhere near the best experience you can get from your university days. I see the undergrads at the uni where I work and its a completely different experience to the one I had, and not in a good way. London's expensive and impersonal. While you live in halls in the first year, after that, students are often thrown to the furthest corners of the city. There's no student area or community. Whereas Bristol has very clear student areas, you and all your mates will live within a short walk of eachother, its so much better.

Bristol, academically is a fantastic university as well. True its not quite at UCL's level, but its still excellent and you'll get an excellent degree there. Honestly, can't stress enough how much I would choose Bristol over London as an undergraduate. Do it.

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BlackHole2006 Newbie

BlackHole2006

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Being an undergraduate in London is nowhere near the best experience you can get from your university days. I see the undergrads at the uni where I work and its a completely different experience to the one I had, and not in a good way. London's expensive and impersonal. While you live in halls in the first year, after that, students are often thrown to the furthest corners of the city. There's no student area or community. Whereas Bristol has very clear student areas, you and all your mates will live within a short walk of eachother, its so much better.
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kaosmark2 Mentor

kaosmark2

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I'm currently a student at Bristol and love the place. Between A-levels and coming here I spent a lot of time visiting mates at unis all over the country, and lived in London for a month doing so, and I can definitely say that Bristol is one of the best places to be a student. Everyone I know here has got more out of it than everyone I know who went to London. A couple of my mates even transferred here from UCL or Imperial mid-course because of various hassle they had there.

If you do come to Bristol though, I strongly advise against picking halls in Stoke Bishop. I did that first time and it was really quite crappy being that far out. I know a fair few people who enjoyed it, but it's a hell of a lot easier if you're in any of the other accommodation.

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LondonTom Rookie

LondonTom

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Go and experience living away from London for a while, I much preferred my time in Bournemouth to any time I've spent in London, it's just a much nicer and calmer environment. I'd imagine somewhere like Bristol also gives you much of more what you can get from London without the hassle and expense. I can't imagine you get the fun of student areas/being close to mates etc. in London. (Even in like the local town Asda, you would end up bumping into course mates etc. :), I do really doubt that you will ever find that kind of community feel in London.

That said I love London (in some ways) but it's nice to experience other areas and properly live in them.

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grumpyhack Grand Master

grumpyhack

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I grew up in Bristol but left in my mid twenties having had a great time in the city. It's particularly good for music. My younger daughter did her first degree in politics at Bristol and loved it too.

Her only observation was that Bristol Uni's Politics course had a lot of people who'd originally aimed at Oxbridge. Rich mummies and daddies and staunch members of the Conservative Club. But despite that she still found a fair number of like-minded souls.

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Ruwise Newbie

Ruwise

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One of the best things about uni is gaining your independence and so I think it is always better to go further than your own doorstep. I, also think it is nicer to go to uni in a smaller place as when you are living on a budget there is less temptation and you have a better student community in small town universities.

That's my thoughts anyway. Enjoy it. They truly are great years.

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Alcatraz Collaborator

Alcatraz

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I study at Birmingham at the moment. It's something completely different to what I was used to living in. Wouldn't change it for the world.

There are however two ideal cities I'd love to ultimately end up in. Bristol and London.

Being from Bath, Bristol was where I went for gigs, music shopping, more interesting food. There are some incredible pockets of Bristol that its hard to find anywhere else in the world like, including London. If you feel like you could do with a change of scene, there are worse places to go than Bristol!

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