Oxford Brookes

[prism]

Anyone have any experience of the place? Am in slight panic as DD has applied, but the only person I know who went there said it's awful because he spent all his time feeling like a second-class citizen. He mixed with students who were at the "proper" university but he reckoned they looked down on him.

This was hundreds of years ago (when it was Oxford Poly) so things may be different now- any ideas?

My mate went there - she loved it, did very well, went back to do a Masters and still lives in the area.

I have met some quite posh students from Brooks and I would say it has a bit of a reputation for students who are quite well-heeled, but it runs some very good courses and has a nice location IMO.

It is also much bigger than it used to be, so perhaps it has more of its own community feeling now? So she might not find she particularly needed to mix with anyone who was being a bit of a twit.

Oxford Uni students tend to keep themselves to themselves and probably wouldn't mix with Brookes students all that much. I did my degree at the theology / teacher training college there, and we were regularly referred to as the 'secretarial college'. However, because I do actually have an Oxford degree (but at a non oxford Uni college) we mixed with the other colleges far more. I never saw brookes students at the Oxford union or at any of the Oxford Uni social clubs for example. You only ever came across them at 5th Ave, but rarely saw students from many of the other colleges there (except st catz, for some reason!)

I went on to do a masters at brookes, and again my experience was that they did their own thing.

You see them around about in Oxford, and most are normal / nice - you just learn to avoid the odd ones.

I did my degree in the 90s, so things may have changed since then!

Apologies for poor use of capitals - I'm on my phone and it keeps changing them, and I can't be arsed with the faff!

You get the uni/met thing in loads of cities now - Leeds/Sheffield/Cardiff/Manchester. I really don't think it's anything to stress about. If it's the right uni with the right course, and it 'feels' good when she visits, I'm sure she'll be fine.

Have a good friend who went there in the 80s and loved it - ds considered it but was put off by the what he called the "up their own arses" vibe. It really is subjective though and your dd should visit and decide how she feels for herself .

Thanks for the replies. Yes, the obvious thing is to go there and have a look- we're operating in a bit of a vacuum. But I'll stop worrying about it. I can just concentrate on worrying about the exams now.

I did my degree there about five years ago. I felt in no way like a second class citizen! Yes, there are some snobby arses but you find those everywhere whether it is university or not and we didn't mix with Oxford students a lot, it was mostly them coming to our Union club nights! I agree with the other advice - get up and have a look round, she will get a feel for whether she likes it or not. What does she want to study?

Philosophy. (She will be the 3rd generation of Prism to do it at university- I thought kids were suppose to rebel?)

She's put down York as first choice with Oxford Brookes as potential 2nd. She then decided she wouldn't want to go to Oxford anyway, and so I started trying to get arguments for or against. She's really got her heart set on York, but I feel it's my boring parental duty to take seriously the plan B and make sure she has a good one. Apparently philosophy departments have suffered quite badly from the £9000 fee hike, as people bizarrely think it's not vocational, so the grade boundary might be a bit elastic. In the middle of exam angst at the moment so here's hoping...

York is absolutely gorgeous. It's a brilliant place to go.

ladylech-how did you manage to get an Oxford degree if you wen't at an Oxford Uni college?

I have a niece-in-law who went to Oxford Brookes. York is better. The Oxford Brookes child loved it. She didn't mix with Oxford university students at all. Her parents, who are prats, told everyone she went to Oxford, which was true but misleading. She didn't graduate with an engagement ring to an Oxford University student, to their disappointment, but she did get a good degree in land economy and a very good job.

York's standard offer for Philosophy is AAB, Oxford Brookes' is BBC - that's a big difference! If she has a realistic chance of getting AAB, or something close to it, then she should be aiming higher than Brookes. And you're right about grade boundaries being elastic, though probably at York only as far down as ABB. Really, Brookes should be her last-ditch fallback position (chances are that if she rang Brookes on the day the results come out with, say, BBB, she'd get in), with somewhere with a standard offer of around ABB as the second choice.

Mirry2

I have a theology degree (BTh). So I am entitled to have oxon after my name, but am not entitled to upgrade my degree to a masters (as the ba/ma normal Oxford students do).

This is from Wikipedia and explains it: (Wikipedia page on Oxford degrees)

"The BTh is awarded primarily to students of the various Theological Colleges and Halls enjoying some sort of associate status with the University, such as Wycliffe Hall, St Stephen's House, Ripon College (Cuddesdon)[2] and the former Westminster College, Oxford. Usually, these students are candidates for the ordained ministry of one of the mainstream Christian denominations, but may be drawn from any faith background or none at the discretion of the College or Hall. It should not be confused with the degree of bachelor of divinity (BD), which is a postgraduate degree.

The BEd was formerly awarded to students residing at Westminster College, Oxford, Culham College of Education, The Lady Spencer Churchill College of Education and Milton Keynes College of Education (formery the North Buckinghamshire College of Education)who read concurrently at the University."

Essentially, for my degree and pgce, I was not a matriculated student (did not matriculate until my degree ceremony at the sheldonian theatre), but had several lectures at the various Oxford colleges, joined the Oxford uni students union, but seminars were all taught within my own college.

ok

She's doing the IB, not A levels, so it's a bit different, and I get the impression that York is quite partial to the IB, so if she doesn't get the required 35 points they might let her in anyway. The offer from Oxford Brookes is 31.

Oxford Brookes is one of the better ex-polys, and genuinely excellent if she is tall and has high level rowing ambitions - they turn out GB rowers at a rate of knots.

The whole uni / ex-poly divide thing happens everywhere, simply because they are separate unis and so students don't normally come into contact, so don't make friends.

My son has oxford Brooke's as his second choice I know kids that are there now and seem very happy. His first choice is loughborough which he's set his heart on. Last year they took people on his course that did get lower grades but you have to have a realistic back up we live in north london he didn't want to travel too far . If she doesn't get what she needs she can still go into clearing but oxford Brooke's is not a bad Uni I wish her luck.

Well despite my best efforts she's going for a high-stakes game and put St Andrews down as her second choice. So she'll either get in or it'll be retakes in November . In my day it was easy as philosophy had only just been invented; Descartes was still alive, and they didn't expect much more knowledge than you'd get from reading the sunday papers. Whole different ball game now.

Yes, there's always clearing. The IB results are out on the 6th of July- it's all quite a bit earlier than the A levels. I reckon we might end up having a chat with admissions if she's a bit below the required point score. Only two exams to go- both Biology, tomorrow and Tues, then the whole of school is over. Eek!

I would have thought that Oxford Brookes is probably one of the best regarded former 'polys' TBQH and as such probably attracts a more upmarket crowd. I am sure there is some cross-fertilisation but it's probably not official but entirely based on old school ties etc.....