Bristol or Exeter for Philosophy?

[Socy]

DS1, as a 'mature' student (he's 21) has just applied to uni to start in September. Amazingly he's had 5 offers, all unconditional as he completed FE 2 years ago. He has narrowed the choice to Bristol or Exeter. He prefers the look of the course at Exeter but loves Bristol as a place, and has never visited Exeter. Obviously Bristol has the better reputation, but I'm concerned that the course will not be what he is looking for (having discussed with a philosophy lecturer I know). What would you recommend?

(And completely agree, its the "obviously Bristol has the better reputation" which has skewed discussion and is blatantly not true.)

Completely agree with Herc about the ludicrousness of MNers who claim they know, because their DH does this or that. There are some notable culprits. One's DH does something to do with medical admissions at Cambridge, or did. So she knows everything, allegedly (but frequently gives dangerously misleading advice). One's DH does something to do with inspecting schools, so she knows all there is to know about all secondary schools of whatever type everywhere. Milly's recruits. Etc. But Herc recruits too. Directly. And the wives (could be husbands in theory of course) claim parity, because they've been told by DH! It's called hearsay Milly and it's not regarded as equally valid. Which is Herc's point! And also a bit Little Women. I'd tend to value advice from those actually working in a field, to the reported suppertime conversations of those married to them.

Beck if you look at the profiles of top chambers Bristol grads will be in the tiny minority. For every Bristol grad there will be twenty Oxford and Cambridge, possibly more. For the very good reason that those are likely to be the brightest and best, in an academic setting such as the Bar.

I know that, Molio. My point is that there will be at least a few Bristol grads. But not many Exeter grads.

But my bigger point was that that only matters if you want to be a barrister. And that it was a very specific example which the OPs son shouldn't take into account unless it was likely to be relevant to him. It was an example of one of the generalisations that one uni was better than another which really doesn't matter unless it's specific to you.

My dd got an offer from Exeter for Philosophy and Theology. She was very tempted because she loved it when she visited, and there is a very well known female theologian there that she was very keen to see more of. But in the end she decided against. Her main reason was the "cosiness" . The campus is very self contained, and, while that felt very comfortable she was afraid it might feel a bit insular and school like. I would imagine that it would feel even more restricting to a mature student.

molio, I do get where you're coming from completely, and I am very sure everyone on this thread is who they say they are ... but I just wanted to point out there's no way to verify it. Just saying it because while I take your point, there's a limit to how much anyone can really stand on dignity given we're anon here.

"For every Bristol grad there will be twenty Oxford and Cambridge, possibly more. For the very good reason that those are likely to be the brightest and best, in an academic setting such as the Bar."

And the other very good reason that the Head of Chambers is also likely to be an Oxbridge man...................

As Beck says, this is a bit narrow for the thread :). But no it's quite clearly not anything as silly as that Hakluyt. If you look at the profiles of the younger generation of barristers in the top sets they're pretty impressive. It's bound to be the case that there are exceptional students at plenty of other universities, but it's significantly more likely that there will be more of them coming from Oxford and Cambridge. They've already had an initial sift during the admissions process and that's been followed up with generally excellent individual tuition. Hard to see how that doesn't make a difference.

Thanks for all the input on here. He has decided on Exeter, based on the course descriptions and clubs available - too lazy to go and visit, but it is a long way from home, and at this time of year empty campuses wouldn't give the right impression anyway. He is planning on some nights out in Bristol (the music scene was his initial reason for applying there)