Philosophy - Exeter, Warwick or York?

[Bonsoir]

All three offers are unconditional.

Which set of modules does she prefer?

Un?ess they already have results that is pretty unusual . Has dc visited each campus?

Both DDs best friend and the DS of my best friend are in their first year at Exeter reading philosophy. They both seem to love it, do you have any specific questions about the course or place?

Exeter has research interests in continental philosphy which is slightly unusual for the UK but it all depends on what your DC thinks of continental philosophy, it's a love it or hate it kind of thing. If you DC studied in France the philosophy they will have come across would have been heavily continental.

Warwick also research interests in continental philosophy but has a very large philosophy department which allows them to offer options in all areas.

I'd visit and go with your DC's hunch over which place he/she thinks they would like best.

It's for a French girl who took her bac in 2014, hence the unconditional offers. She is more or less decided that her choice is between Exeter and Warwick.

She has visited everywhere twice - pre-UCAS and post offer.

i have a philosophy degree, but it and I are too old for me to have any specific knowledge about those courses

i would say that the potential breadth of the subject is huge, and that if she feels she would be equally happy living in any of those cities then she needs to look at the available modules - who offers more moral/political/ethics, or metaphysics/linguistics/logic, and how these fit in with her interests.

She is a very clever girl who ought to be going to Oxford or Harvard but whose adolescent trauma got in the way. She needs intellectual engagement and a nice environment.

All UG degrees will cover moral, political, metaphysics and epistemology in the first two years and offer options in these and other areas. What options are available in any given year will depend on who is on research leave, who fancies teaching something new, etc.

She should toss a coin and see how she feels about the result.

LOL at coin tossing - that is pretty much where she was after our conversation yesterday that prompted me to ask MN for wisdom/insight!

For a nice environment, Exeter has a beautiful campus with views over to the Devon hills. DS (who went to Nottingham) thought Warwick looked like a business park (pleasant but not stunning).

Ds is in his second year of a Philosophy degree. Not at those unis, but have just asked him and he says 'word on the street' is Warwick. ('Especially if you want to be an investment banker' apparently). That's the advice of a 19 year old for you.

I have sympathy with the "business park aesthetics and IB ambitions" view of Warwick and that's probably not right for this particular student.

The coin toss was a legitimate suggestion. You can only do so much to make the best decision and if they both seem good then she could have a great time at either. There is no way of knowing the crucial factors anyway, like which one will happen to have great classmates she will really bond with or which one will have an inspirational teacher.

She should toss a coin...if she is disappointed with the result, she should go to the other one!

I'd go with Exeter I think.
DD has applied for Philosphy this year (has offers elsewhere) and it was on her shortlist - interestingly she's doing OIB and so has a French view.
All three universities are excellent - although Warwick comes top out of the three on Philosophy league tables (if you believe them)
The Exeter course and modules were very broad and there is also a very international focus at Exeter both for students and course-wise.
Warwick and York are pretty much campus based whilst Exeter has the city feel without being too daunting.
York is a lovely city and has the advantage of being close to other cities such as Manchester and Leeds. It also has good rail links and easy access to airports. My DSS went to York and loved it - very good student life and reasonable costs.
I can't say much about Warwick - we visited once (to see castle) and didn't really enjoy the town.
Exeter has the advantage of being coastal (my preferences sneaking through :))
If she can't decide she could check out the alternative university guide Push that looks at things the standard guides don't or join the Philosophy thread on Student Room.
Hope this helps

I went to Exeter if there are any general qs you have.

Id pursuade anyone to go there it's great!

She needs intellectual engagement and a nice environment

My sense is that Exeter might suit her in those circumstances. It's smaller, and very focused on the "student experience"

Exeter, by the sounds of this particular girl.

Warwick university is not in Warwick but 8 miles away and on the outskirts of Coventry the other side of Kenilworth. Warwick students tend to either live in leamington, kenilworth or Coventry, students don't live in Warwick town.

If she is currently living in a big city she may find all those choices a bit of a change in terms of size of town/city & things to do. York would be the least worse from that perspective.

Communications to France are far easier though, from Exeter. My niece graduated last year and home was the South of France. She just hopped in and out fairly inexpensively through Bristol. London is also more accessible from Exeter than York.

Molio - surely you jest??? The train service to York is miles better than the train service to Exeter. Sadly. And a flight from Bristol, starting in Exeter and using the train, is a right pain because of the distance from temple meads to the airport and the fact that you have to go by rackety coach. And that's before factoring in the paucity of flights and the frequency of cancellations.

No GB she found it dead easy, and cheap. But I think a biddable friend used to run her up to the airport which makes things simpler of course (not that ease of getting home is anything other than a very minor factor in uni decisions). Yes, you're probably right about the train to London but then I was thinking of car/ miles too. And at several points in the endeavour parents usually have to lug a whole lot of stuff up, and then at others they have to lug it all back - for those journeys Exeter is way easier (though again, that aspect is peripheral).

I'd go for Warwick. Exeter is too safe and comfortable and that's lovely for the first year, it could be constricting after that. Warwick is a much more buzzy, politically active place.

There are a lot of generalisations on this thread. IME as academic staff and knowing a different discipline/department in each university, but both quite well Warwick is as full of the "Yah" stereotype as Exeter.

Any university which requires AAB/AAA level A level results will be socio-economically selective, because in this country (as in many others), socio-economic advantage manifests in part as educational attainment. Here, it starts from around the age of 3.

Most Warwick students live in Leamington, which has similar kinds of pockets of middle-class cosiness and poverty as has Exeter.