To ask for people’s experience of the university of York

[UOYMUM]

Just that really, it’s DD’s firm choice. Do you know someone who’s gone to York recently or did you go yourself? What was your experience? What advice would you give to someone starting there in September?

Admin is dreadful. Kids seem happy enough.
My dd did til end of October last year, then took leave of absence and is starting back this September.
It seemed to rain an awful lot, she asked for extra outer wear and boots!!

It's a campus so you can feel a bit isolated.
I found it drier.
Travel connections are good.

My brother loved it there. He's really built his life round the place and the contacts he made there.

My son’s about to go into his third year- he loves it and has been really happy. The city is gorgeous, the campus is nice (very sixties) and green. He’s made great friends. Hth

DD was there, graduated 2021 (which obviously came with its own challenges). She adored it, became an honorary Yorkshirewoman. Which college are you looking at? I was impressed that the library stayed open throughout covid.

Following. DS2 firm choice too.

I was there a very long time ago when it was tiny. The campus is lovely and the city is even lovelier. It really gets under your skin. One of my friends’ daughter graduated a couple of years ago and has stayed there, it’s her home now.

It's a wonderful university in a beautiful, safe, friendly town bursting with opportunities. Don't hesitate.

Dh works there so I am biased but it does seem to be a good place with happy students. We have a son with ASD (hence may not go too far afield) and would be very happy if he went there, which is not something most of the academics I know would say about their workplaces.

The advice dh always gives is engage with the teaching, go to the lectures and classes. How well you do correlates better with that than with how well you have done in your A levels.

Ds was there, graduated around 8 years ago

He loved it. It’s not massive like some campus university. manageable and relatively compact. Accommodation was fine There’s lots going on .

Person who posted who said they can become isolated - I haven’t a clue what that’s about…that would apply to any campus and then it’s down to your kids personality.
my ds spent a lot of time off campus - bars, gigs, nightclubs, eating out and his job was in the city centre. they rented a house off campus for 2/3rd year, which is pretty normal for all campus universities, so certainly not isolated.

he did well, thought teaching was good. But like all arts degrees I was horrified how little face to face time (lectures and seminars) they had - but then I did science with a full on few free periods timetable. 🤷🏼‍♀️. I think it hurt more becuase he was one of first cohort to pay £9000 rather than the £3000 it was and that we’d be financially planning for (well it was still free when he was born and up to primary, so we were always on back foot-🤷🏼‍♀️🙄)

at time he went it was rated highly - and he’d have agreed with that

I think be careful about taking advice from people whose kids have been in uni for last 3 years. ALL students have had a horrid time largely, completely alien to what it should be like. They would probably all say they felt isolated, or admin was crap, or lectures were poor, or god forbid, some of them graduating this year still don’t actually have a result 🤦‍♀️. It was exceptional times, it was extraordinarily hard on them . Talk to people who went there before Covid to get a balanced view.

Yabu.

I’d say, as science graduate, MOST important thing is to go to tutorials. This is where you can sort out your issues, concerns and often where you’ll get set questions similar to exams. Don’t ever miss tutorials - we’ve all skipped the odd lecture and read up after without too many issues
obviosuly for science I couldn’t miss practicles either 🤣🤣🤣

and always a
ways ask the dumb question you’re afraid to ask- it isn’t dumb, it’s just others are too scared to ask it too🤷🏼‍♀️🤣🤣

My son is there and having a good time (except for some 2nd year exams not being marked but that isn't a problem that only affects York). It's a great city.

Without wanting to be the thread police I'd suggest you move this to the higher education section (where you may find other threads about York).

Rain? East of Pennines it rains a lot less than a lot of places in the country 🤔
This is just nonsense - it’s pretty low down on table of rainfall on cities in uk 🙄
https://www.freeflush.co.uk/blogs/freeflush-rainwater-harvesting-blog/30077441-which-is-the-rainiest-city-in-the-uk

I lived very near York till I left home, thenson went to York years later, and my DB still lives there, and yep, when there’s been heavy rainfall in the dales it can flood, fairly dramatically, but that’s because all the dales rivers run off into the Ouse so it’s a shit load of water coming down the hills and 3 mountains at once.

you should try coming to west of Pennines to Lancashire - now here it pisses down with rain a lot.

My son did history there, graduating in 2018. He liked it and made good friends.

My kid was there for one term a couple of years ago.
He left due to not getting on with his housemates and not realising he could move.
He had mentioned it to his tutor who sadly didn’t pick up that he was unhappy.
It was incredibly distressing as my son has ASD and he was very unwell mentally in the end.
Once he came back home and we started contacting the various admin people, they were absolutely lovely and totally supportive and helpful.
Sadly, the damage was done and my son couldn’t set foot on campus again, inspite of having new accommodation.
I think it was an unlucky sequence of events.
What we learned- if you are neurodivergent, make sure you got through DSA for support.
Talk to duties and support people, they have your best interests at heart. If you don’t get the answer you need, go back or find somebody else.

What we wish other people had done- teach your kids that they will be in contact with other students from different backgrounds and also ND students and there is no excuse for gossiping and bullying behaviour. If the house situations feels wonky, find a way to talk with somebody about it.

The uni he is at now have a tutor that is trained to support ND students and they are really good at this pastoral care.
Tbf to York, they were very very good once the whole issue had been flagged, but it was too late by then.
Also, some of the accommodation is dreadful, really dark and depressing and not well maintained and other halls are absolutely lovely. I’m sorry I can’t temper which was which now

I went to York, many years ago now and absolutely loved it. Campus set up meant you're often able to easily meet up with people and you generally can't walk far without bumping into someone you know. Occasionally that was annoying but mostly lovely.

Only thing I was conscious of was that for a small minority it wasn't as lively a city as they then realised they'd have wanted in terms of alternative music, 'cool' nightclubs. However for proper clubbing, Leeds is doable and it may well have changed.

I felt very safe in York in general and it was perfect for me. Weekends for general spent on campus and you'd go into the city on weekdays as the student scene was more active on those nights. Loved it!

Yorks a lovely city and it’s dry on this side of the Pennines. Very touristy, plenty going on although for clubs people go to Leeds
I think the quality of teaching depends on the department generally good though. Admin and support are good.
York has excellent public transport and lots of cycle routes. On the mainline so easy for trains

Advice take a bike with you
Thwre are currently cheap bus fairs on the coastliner bus to Whitby or Scarborough, £2 each way until the end of October so take advantage of the offer!

I know a few people who went to York - they all loved it.

Lots of ducks also 🦆

BIL (younger than DH) went there and enjoyed it. The city was lovely when we visited.

Apparently the ducks get very aggressive during mating season! They had signs up warning students.

My DS is starting there in October

My eldest DC went there and loved it, middle DC is there now and she loves it too. I was told that you should pick your city not just your uni and that's exactly what they both did. They both made great friends, and would recommend it to anyone. As a parent I always felt it was a safe city and freshers week was very well managed. I know the latter sounds daft but I feel lockdown put middle Dd behind when it came to going out out, so it worried me more than perhaps it should. It was very much 'we go out as an organised group, so we'll get you all back to campus and dropped at your flat door" which I thought was lovely.