bath, bristol or exeter

[coffeewith1sugar]

my dd doesn't know which one from above offers to firm and insure. She likes all the courses they offer and the uni. They all bring things to the table she likes and dislikes and can see herself in any. Shes so confused as what to do. Bath has the year placement. They are all located far from home. Should she choose by best reputation? would it make any difference to employers anyways where she graduated as long as she does well. Or placement year getting work experience is more important with getting graduate jobs. Thanks to anyone who could help her decide her course is in psychology by the way.

Yes, you're right. Ds skypes us a lot which helps.

Hi, coffeewith1sugar - I'm a current Bath student as my name would suggest.
'Its long winded, can cost a fortune in train fares, for a handful of placement with 100's applying and do the same thing up to 10 times must be very disheartening for many If they can't get the job. ' - IME most big companies will reimburse the train fares. Of course you have to have the cash on hand to start with, but it's not as expensive as it may seem. (I got interviewed in Birmingham for a placement which ended up in Scotland, the company were great about reimbursing travel). I don't dispute that it's longwinded or depressing, though!

On the living in the city thing - you say it probably wouldn't be too much of a hassle getting a bus up to campus. In theory, no. In practice, yes. Tell her to Google 'bathimpact buses' to see what the student paper is writing about them!

DD (final year Maths at Bath) says that there are plenty non and social drinkers there, partly probably because there are so many doing Maths which is pretty intensive and doesn't lend itself to hangovers and the like.

Buses are a nightmare as the centre is almost always clogged up with traffic, DD tends to walk up the hill in the morning, and get the bus home (she currently lives in the centre).

bath student relieved to hear companies are generous to reimburse train fares. The placement is something dd can see is beneficial, initially she was trying to weigh up whether the process would be a nightmare at the expense of her studies as some of her friends who went for a sandwich course pointed out to her, each companies require different process of sifting applicants , some required presentations involving student expense of paying for professional type posters, displays etc. These were for marketing placements. But in fairness maybe this is the norm to get into marketing sectors, dd wasnt seeing it in context.
I'm glad to hear (by the sounds of it) you got your placement in Scotland, hope you are or enjoying it. DD took your advice looked at the bus situation in bath, so far it don't look too good, sounds very chaotic and needs fixing. She is really going to have to think this one through whether its worth the compromise for the 1st year living, but I suppose in the 2nd she will still have to endure city centre living. Or hopefully they will have sorted a better transport system.
myvision your post has reassured dd that there are others like her. She's hoping others won't be be too put off from not making friends with her because she's not a social drinker or into clubbing. Ideally a society for non drinkers??

After 1st year people don't tend to live in the 'city centre' as such - if you get hold of a U18 or 18 route map, you'll see 'Lower Oldfield Park' down in the bottom left hand corner. That's where most of the non-freshers live (excepting a very few who live in town), and that's one of the reasons it's incredibly difficult to get a bus to campus from the city centre in the mornings - the buses are already full!

May I ask bath student was it easy to find accommodation after the 1st year, did you house share? Was it more expensive then halls? Thanks in advance I'm thinking Bath is very expensive area to live the maintenance loan isn't going to cover the whole of the rent (need to put a contingency plan in place for yr2)

In DDs experience, it was relatively straightforward to find shared accommodation after first year - IIRC there is a website for Bath students (which includes Bath Spa students) listing available houses with vetted (I think) landlords. Majority are in Oldfield Park - DD looked at 4 or 5 before settling on the one they had for second year. Costs were broadly similar to halls (although she was in cheaper SC halls).

sorry, hit send too soon - yes, majority of places are shared houses for 4 or 5, so you need to start sorting out groups around Christmas, I think the website opened about February, but hopefully bathstudent has more current info

DD2 is in a shared house in Oldfield Park which I presume was easy to sort out as she just told us when it was all arranged. She was in a house of 5 in 2nd year and is in a 4 for this year. If we are really lucky you can even find a parking space right outside for unloading!

my vision & nice cardigan not too daunting then in year 2. Wow need to start accomodation hunting Xmas, New year time. Glad you told us this. Would have to commit so soon. But I suppose best rental properties get snapped up quick. Is there some kind of in house Bath uni faculty property search/help for students in year 2 and beyond or do they have to do all this privately? nice cardigan that's a thought parking?? DD has so much stuff.

There is no need to start looking as early as Christmas it was nearer to feb/march for 2nd year and June for this year because they were all abroad or on placement so not even in Bath.

I wanted to come back and update everyone who contributed on this thread which has immensely helped DD and also thank you all for the support and advice you have given. It's been a long time and realise this has now become a zombie thread.

To cut a long story short she missed her offer for Bath by a few marks so went to Bristol. She wasn't as gutted as we thought she might have been as in reality she had good choices with either uni. She was however gutted at losing the placement more as Bristol didn't offer it.

It's been 6 months since she started. She is absolutely loving the course it's everything she hoped for, not one module she hates and is really thriving academically and personally. Lecturers have been super supportive. Loves life in bristol to the point she doesn't come home that often. Only seen her 5 times since she started. She has a internship and apprenticeship all psychology related. She knows she wants to go into research or being a quantitative psychologist, if there is such a thing. So although she didnt get into her original uni. It's all turned out good so far. But if it wasn't for help from everyone on here she wouldn't have put in place contingency of going about gaining some valuable research and work skills that she is really enjoying doing at the moment. Plus looking realistically at her future since some on here had already done a psychology degree or had dealings with departments.

Once again, Thank You everyone who helped DD. (Hope those who contributed are still around).

coconutty this time last year DD was in your DS position, it was stressful, I feel your pain. Luckily this thread helped her think things through. DD was very lucky in that although DD had achieved equivalent to bath 3A offer she got A*AB they wouldn't accept her as she had missed the conditions of her offer, however Bristol did. Otherwise she would have been looking at clearing or gap year and me creating another thread.

I would say that a good supportive friendly department is very important consideration, not meaning spoon feeding variety but one that don't mind a few questions or for a bit of brainstorming. But it's hard to know this before hand apart from experience from others. It's really hard to decide i bet, especially when they have heard negaitive views on Bath.

He has 3 good choices and I can't believe I'm going say the same thing as others have told DD last year . He can't go wrong with any of them. What I will say with what I've seen with DD is that part of the university experience is very much enriched by really utilising the support and work/internship schemes that are available to them. DD also found going to speciailist events, festivals, attend talks from guest speakers etc there's a ton of things they can go and experience makes a huge difference to their life as a student. Good luck, fingers crossed with his exams in the summer.

Glad to hear it's working out for her (I would put Bristol above Bath anyway). My daughter loved Bristol too.