what university provides nice and high quality living experience

[tropicalfish]

Following on from the interesting St Andrews thread, Which universities/towns provide the nicest/easiest accommodation for their students. I am looking for a university for dd that provides good overall experience in the time that they are there also taking into account whether they are able to meet friends through their place of residence. Am very interested in hearing of peoples experience good or bad.
TF

What subject is she hoping to study and what are her predicted grades? These facts make a difference to the university that is recommended.

I think it's pretty easy to make friends in a hall of residence
Even if you're not keen on those on your corridor if you mingle , join groups / clubs / societies you're interested in you can easily make friends

I think it's very important to stress that if you don't feel you fit in you can move if you want to though

For example if you find yourself in a house full of party animals & you prefer a quieter life style you can talk to student well being & get yourself moved

hi,
At the moment yet to take AS levels but 9A*s and 1A and she wants to do medicine. Interestingly, was talking to a friend whose son's first year experience on albeit on a different course hasnt been too happy, with not meeting anyone where he lives and with lots of choices of where to eat meant that he didnt develop friendships with people as he didnt see the same people on a daily basis. Im curious about where would be a good place to go where you can make friends more easily and would be a nice place to live.
Thanks
TF

If she's planning on applying for medicine you are asking complete the wrong questions!

Look on student room for specific medicine advice.

Oh and it should be her looking by the way not you!

titchy I disagree, there is nothing wrong with helping your DC with their research. I helped all four of mine one way or another. They wanted me to.

Oh helping is fine I agree! Perhaps the OP was badly worded - I was just reacting to 'I am looking for....'

Nottingham halls are very friendly and on campus . Nice medical school too.

Medicine is incredibly competitive. Your DD should be scrutinising entry requirements and focusing on medical schools where she stands a good chance of getting an interview. If she gets a place, she will make friends (medics spend so many hours in lectures and seminars they bond very quickly). If she gets more than one offer, then she can weigh up the pros and cons of where to live. Usually, only 40% of applicants are successful. She needs to be confident and determined that Medicine is her vocation.
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My DS is applying for medicine, and we didn't even look at residences at open days, believing it to be completely irrelevant! With medicine, they need to apply to where they have statistically the best chance of an interview. As Fairywoods has said, only after she is fortunate enough to get more than one offer, would it be the time for your DD to consider accommodation!

Agree that for medicine you can't be choosy.
For any other degree I think the big difference is between campus and city.
It may depend on where your DC has grown up, are they used to city life?
Campus unis, at least in the first year give a self contained comfort zone.

DS1 is at Warwick All the accommodation is in self catered "flats" or "corridors". His flat is one of 30 in a block, 2 minutes walk from lecture theatre and student union and yet with large green spaces outside. He is shy and studious and from a rural background. He has made friends within his flat and those in neighbouring flats. Some doing his subject but also others. They share a kitchen and that is the social hub, they share cooking much of the time and eat together. In the second year they have to live off campus and he has a house share arranged. This has suited him perfectly but of course all DC are different. Others may prefer the buzz of city life.

thanks for your replies and advice. I guess once as results are known and ukcat is done then will have to decide.

What are people's experiences of doing medicine in London thus creating more commuting time and time spent doing chores rather than living on a campus where cooked meals etc are more accessible.

I think the OP asks a very reasonable question. I thought the thread on St Andrew's was very interesting, and information is power. Dh's niece reports the same trouble in Bristol - the halls were very expensive and very noisy, and there was a mad scramble for 2nd year accommodation before anyone had really had a chance to make friends and decide who they wanted to share with.

Given that university now costs £££££ and probably many of us have the benefit of hindsight as well and might have chosen differently had we had the internet back in the dark ages, it makes sense to do some research and try to help our dcs make an informed choice.

It goes without saying that a dc has to have their own opinion and put in the necessary work, but pointing out that X is 5 miles out of town or Y is full of hoorays or accommodation at Z is awful is hardly interfering too much in a very important decision.

Accommodation makes a massive difference to uni experience. If you are allocated a place in a flat for example you will be with 6-10 others rather than 100+ others in a hall and if you are catered you will be eating with others several times a week, you could be on your own much of the time in a flat. You simply don't get to know as many people in a flat as you do in halls.

I disagree Heels. DS1 is in a self catered flat, uni accommodation, and knows a huge number of people! With self catered accom, they still have the option of joining others for a meal, or cooking together with their flatmates, or going to each other's flats for meals. I think it gives them much more freedom. DS didn't want to be tied to a set time and place for meals, but I know that different unis have different systems in place.

Look on student forums for opinions about accomodation. Look on google maps and street view to see what the surroundings are like and how far from where your dd will be spending her days. Think about getting home after a night out- are there night buses or will taxi fares start mounting up. Catered halls are very restricting- what if you want to eat out?

In my opinion location is the key.

'In my opinion location is key.'

Except for medicine when simply getting an offer is key - and damned difficult. Applicants really can't afford to start restricting where they apply to based on location.

Sorry, I mewnt location of accomodation. Obviously you have to get q place first! I thought this thread was about accomodation!

I also disagree with Heels. I suspect that DS would have met far fewer people and eaten most of his meals alone if he had been catered.
If your DC is the outgoing sort who socialises easily then I doubt it makes any difference.
In a small flat in isolation you are limited to immediate flatmates whereas in flats in halls there are always plenty of people around.

Another factor to consider is that if you end up with insurance uni, or clearing, then you come low on the list for allocation of halls at some (not all) unis. I remember on last year's UCAS thread there were some DC who really struggled to find accommodation.

"What if you want to eat out?" Ha! How times have changed. I don't think I ate out once at university. It was halls then a Young Ones experience in a condemned house. There was serious one-upmanship about how dreadful one's house was. My friend at Warwick won hands down. He had a leaking gas pipe hanging off the wall and no door on the bathroom. Ah, them were the days.

The only people who "ate out" were the Sloanes, who went and lived in country cottages miles out (because they had cars) and patronised dining establishments as opposed to at best a curry house. I was mistakenly invited into the Sloane enclave before it was discovered that I was a) not flush and b) had been to a grammar school

You mean you never went to a friend's flat for tea or bought a bag of chips?

we live in London so hence am thinking going to university in London may not be that appealing. They are unlikely to get first year accommodation and even so will have a commute and perhaps have to make their own meals. Medicine is a very stretching course and I am thinking it may work out better to go to campus university.
Does anyone have any experience of doing medicine in London UCL or Imperial, how did they find their experiences of accommodations.
Thank you Brenda, that accommodation problem highlighted at St Andrews is a significant issue and like you said it is possible to do quite alot of research now online.

Oxford? Easy to get to from London and in most colleges you can live in for at least 3 years if you want to. If you're worried about time commuting or doing chores then Oxford (or probably Cambrige too but I'm less familiar with it) is an idea, since everywhere is so close together and if you live in college then you can get all your meals cooked for you if you want and accommodation comes with a cleaner. And for medicine it's not really any more competitive then anywhere else I wouldn't think.

I have to say, tropicalfish, your last post doesn't really suggest you've been taking in what others have said about how difficult it is to get an offer for Medicine. It's rare to have any choice and lots of good applicants get no offer at all. Accommodation is surely way down the list of factors your daughter would be considering if she is lucky enough to get two offers and has to choose between them.

Anyway, medical students will end up travelling all over the place for their placements. London-based students can be sent to hospitals outside London. I don't know how much travel there is for students studying in other places.