Any exciting English Literature degree courses out there?

[ZandathePanda]

Dd is thinking of doing Eng Lit an university. She has had 2 outreach talks from Cambridge Uni and loves the city but doesn't want to go there because:

1. doesn't want to be surrounded by private school pupils.
   
2. thinks the course looks old and stuffy exacerbated by the recent media coverage about no black authors.
   
3. wants to enjoy the experience and thinks she'll be under too much pressure (we know 2 people who have dropped out of Cambridge due to mental health issues).
   
   I think Durham may be out of the question if she is not wanting too many private school pupils around her! She likes the course at Newcastle and it seems more 'progressive'. They seem to do well on research.
   Any ideas for other unis to look at?

[ZandathePanda]

.....should add she's in Year 12 and predicted AAAB at the moment.

[Battleax]

Has she looked at courses that include "Postcolonial literature" and or "American literature" in the title?

Going back to do similar would be my aged lottery winner indulgence

[SuperPug]

I went to Cambridge. I didn't go to a private school, didn't have parents who went to university etc.
I'm aware they're doing far more to get a more diverse student population. I was in a college with a mixture of people and my course was the same. No point saying it's not diverse when you're not going to do something about it. I appreciate the issues about the course are a separate issue though.

[MyBrilliantDisguise]

Manchester University has always been fantastic for English Literature. Tell her to have a look at this.

She can do a joint honours with Creative Writing or American Studies and there are film modules she can choose, too.

[Battleax]

AAB Manchester
AAB UEA
AAB-ABB Royal Holloway
ABB Kent
BBB Goldsmiths

For options including post col or American lit.

[Gruach]

Surely the point of education is to learn to meet the rest of humanity as an equal? Rather than to begin every experience with an entrenched (and in this case) mistaken point of view?

Obviously your DD might well prefer somewhere else - but memory and logic also suggest to me that not everyone who goes to Cambridge leaves because of mental health problems.

Neither of the above are good reasons for rejecting a potentially marvellous experience. I can't say how the course might have changed by the time she goes to university.

[pigletpie29]

I did it at St Andrews - did it alongside Scottish history, which was interesting. By that was twenty years ago - and if she doesn’t want to be around private school people that’s one to avoid (it was bloody awful for that, I suspect worse than Cambridge.)

[Hulder]

My experience at a Russell Group instead of Oxbridge was a load of ex-state school kids making assumptions about me because I'd been to private school.

Um, yes but on a scholarship and my parents were on v average jobs and skint. While their parents were company directors who have paid £££ to buy houses in the catchment areas of the local outstanding state school.

So just because she goes somewhere with more state school kids, it doesn't mean they are going to be diverse.

My impression of Cambridge is they are doing a lot to add diversity, the English department was actually working with the students to change the course and was furious at the crap press coverage and if students like your daughter don't go it will never change.

The other thing it has beyond other universities is the amazing opportunities for drama, music, performance, etc etc in student societies. There are loads all supported at a high level for whatever interest your daughter may have. It just wasn't like this at the major RG university I went to.

[ZandathePanda]

Thanks for all the messages. I have talked to her about private school bias etc. already. I think there is an expectation in the media/ schools of 'if you're bright and capable, go to Oxbridge' but I am impressed she is looking at this critically and above all, at whether she will enjoy the course. She doesn't like the content at Cambridge as much as the content choices at Newcastle.

[ZandathePanda]

Thanks for all the info everyone. I will show her the thread. Glad Cambridge are looking at their course too - I will keep an eye on their website to see if it changes. I didn't think they'd be too happy with the press coverage!

[Shen0102]

What sort of jobs is she going to get with the degree? Some degrees are not worth the £30k student loans..#justsaying

[SuperPug]

Agree with gru and shen.
An Oxbridge degree (rightly or wrongly) will considered as more prestigious than some degree choices at other unis. They're not happy with the press coverage but at least they're doing something about it - and ultimately it is not going to stop many high calibre applicants from applying.
In terms of jobs afterwards - close friends work for publishing houses /literary agents etc. All have Oxbridge degrees or degree from RG universities. All of us come from pretty ordinary lower middle class backgrounds.
Newcastle has a great reputation but some courses at other universities (random mixed honours) will not offer great opportunities as a graduate.

[SuperPug]

Completely understand the issue with the course which is understandable. Just a bit sad that a significant amount of state school students don't apply because of a so called image.
I teach Sixth Form so I'm familiar with offers for universities. For English (most RG unis) she should probably look at improving her predicted grades. Currently have students who have been given an offer of A*AS for several different unis. They can give that prediction if they're offering more offers than places and don't expect everyone to make the grade.

[SuperPug]

A*AA - phone keyboard

[Battleax]

As a related aside OP, I happened (unknowingly) to be outside an Oxford SU PoC society (or whatever the official group name is) meeting as it turned out not long ago. It was well attended and very upbeat from what I saw.

Don't let her give up on Oxbridge without proper visits and a good poke around. There's more diversity than you see on the surface.

[TimbuktuTimbuktu]

Durham was great. If she goes to a hill college then it won’t be too private schooly- they tend to cluster on the Bailey. The social support and networks are fantastic and the course was really interesting.

The main modules do tend towards the traditional canon but I think that was actually really helpful as you need to be able to contextualise your analysis. I still managed to focus most of my work on female and post colonial writers, I did a Toni Morrison special topic, wrote my dissertation on post colonial stuff.

Newcastle was my back up choice and I also really liked the course and the department there too. Would have been happy if I’d ended up there.

All Russell groups have a lot of private school students. It shouldn’t put her off the state schools still outnumber them!

A bit of a curve ball but has she considered SOAS?

[ZandathePanda]

SuperPug her school don't predict A at this stage. She got 99 for Englishs at GCSE and the eight others were a mix of 8/A/A.

[NiceCardigan]

DS is in his third year at Durham studying English literature and you do have to do the traditional stuff to give a starting point but the optional courses are really varied. I know his dissertation is about addiction in literature and he’s doing something that includes film and psychology and learning old Norse so plenty of old and new. Yes there are private school pupils but there are at any university.

[ZandathePanda]

Thanks everyone - getting some good info - keep it coming! Timbuktu interesting about Durham.
She really isn't sure what she wants to do after uni except travel. Luckily we will pay her fees and board so she will be debt free. Our only criteria is that she does a degree she enjoys (and I know from that she will want some intellectual rigour but a bit of nightlife too)!

[Peppardew]

Just wanted to say if predicted the necessary grades, she might as well apply to Oxbridge. I didn't, as I too thought wouldn't have got in/couldn't cope with it. I probably wouldn't but do always wonder what if. From meeting people who went, it does really seem a unique experience and does set you up for life career wise at least in my industry. Private school pupils will be plentiful at any good uni I would think, from visiting friends did seem less the case up north, i.e. Manchester, Leeds if do want to avoid that.

[SuperPug]

Good luck to her It is definitely getting harder for students and it's not easy for them to navigate their way around the new A Levels, universities etc.
In terms of successful applications for English that I've seen in the last few years - doesn't have to be lots of extra curricular stuff for the sake of it. The ones who have got into RG unis tend to do extra stuff linked to their subject like doing some work experience in a library, attending free lectures, showing genuine interest in their subject outside of lessons. I know it sounds obvious but some of them don't really bother with this.

[ZandathePanda]

SuperPug that's useful information, thanks.

[Ullathegreat]

Zanda, your DD is right to look very carefully at the course itself. I think English, more than almost any subject, varies enormously from university to university. No matter how prestigious the university, if she's not happy with what she is studying she will probably be unhappy and frustrated (and second guessing whether she should have gone somewhere else).

It takes time, but if there are two or three universities she really likes the look of, I would get her to look closely at the required first year courses/modules.

Often with a bit of digging you can find out what the weekly lectures are on, the reading lists and the assignments. There is usually more flexibility and choice in the second and third years, but if she hates the first year she may not stick around for the second.

[MrsBartlet]

Dd is studying English at Cambridge and more of her friends went to state schools than private schools. You will get a high proportion of private school pupils at any good university. She is in her final year and there seems to be a fair degree of flexibility in what she chooses to study once all the basics have been covered.

It seems very early in sixth form to be predicting grades when they are still finding their feet. Hopefully at the start of Y13 you will get a better idea of her actual predictions as she would need to have some As in there to get offers from Cambridge or Durham. If they don't predict As at this stage you will know your daughter well enough anyway to know if she is working at the right level and showing the passion for her subject that they would be looking for for it to be worth her while applying to Oxbridge. Dds offers were A AA from both Cambridge and Durham and A A* A from Exeter.

Maybe your dd could chat to some students on the student room to get a clearer idea of course content?

She is right to think about the pressure and if she can cope with that - it is very intense. I went to York and I have been amazed at how much more work dd does at Cambridge than I ever did at York. They do expect them to work very hard. Your dd does seem to be very sensible and thinking through all her options thoroughly. I wish I could get my ds (also Y12) to be thinking ahead like this!

[Rose0]

DD does English Lit at Oxford and is of a lower middle/upper working class background (neither of us went to university) and went to a very normal school (first pupil ever to go to Oxbridge/ high FSM and EAL number of pupils), and most of her friends weren’t academic and certainly weren’t posh. She’d never met anyone from private school until starting the course, but honestly hasn’t found that a problem - she says the really obviously posh students mostly get mocked (not in a mean way - they all just rag each other I think!) and the school they went to rarely crops up. It was five weeks into the term that she discovered one of her tutorial partners went to a VERY posh school. Please don’t let it put your DD off. The ratio will never change if more state school students don’t have the confidence to apply! Some colleges are definitely better than others - DD’s is very inclusive and has a much higher state school % of students than other colleges. She also befriended a girl at a UCL interview who’s now at Selwyn College Cambridge which apparently has something like 70% state students - a higher percentage than a lot of other RG unis.

Other unis she applied to were UCL (she LOVED this course, they do tutorials like Oxbridge and it’s incredibly varied. She judt worried about the drawbacks of being a student in London), York, Warwick, and Birmingham. She also loved the course at Manchester (but her best childhood friend is in the year above there so didn’t want to copy!).

We live in Yorkshire, and a LOT go to Newcastle, and one of DD’s friends there describes it as populated mainly with people from Yorkshire + Northern Ireland. She’s in a flat of 10 and 6 of them are from Yorkshire (3 from the same city!). That’s why DD ruled it out (too many people from home) so I don’t know much about the course.

From what we heard Exeter and Durham are meant to have a lot of private school children, but that could all just be nonsense. Exeter has a reputation for being “posh” up here but that could be only because it’s in the south!