Exeter vs Cardiff

[TheSacredCow]

DD trying to choose between Exeter and Cardiff, and we are going to offer holders days soon, which may help to decide.

We are working class and DD will be first from the family to go to Uni. We aren't massively wealthy. DD is concerned that she wouldn't fit in at Exeter, as she has heard the majority of students are privately educated or from wealthy families.

I am worried about Cardiff because it is much lower on the rankings than Exeter, and I have heard it is known for being party central. DD is a quiet, alternative studious girl, loves music, but doesn't like drinking, enjoys socialising but not heavy partying, so may find it difficult to fit in here.

I wonder if anyone has children at Exeter and Cardiff and could give me some insights?

[Millipedewithherfeetup]

Bubbly... I have no idea ! My dd has not met anyone who has gone through state schools ! But... as I've previously said it has not made any difference to her at all, she has not felt in any way inferior ! They are all clever kids who have worked hard to gain their places in Exeter and I say good luck to all of them whatever their background!

[CottonSock]

Some good comments already about cardiff. Not a campus as such. Love living there. It's very green, lots going on

[BubblesBuddy]

In 2015, the stats reported that Exeter had 33% privately educated students. So how come your DD hasn’t met any of the 67% who are the majority? How odd! It can’t have changed that much in 2 years!

[BubblesBuddy]

Because you are not necessarily paying for exam success but music, drama, sport, and lots of other opportunities. A far more rounded education. My DD had a place in a grammar school but we did not take it up. Not every comprehensive is what you describe. In my LA, that doesn’t even describe the secondary modern schools in the main.

It is obviously true that comprehensive schools can be poor, but don’t assume all private schools are fantastic either. They are not. The children work hard at both. They are not spoon fed in private schools and many Work very very hard. So whatever you think of the schools, it does not mean the pupils have not worked their socks off. I do if course take my hats off to pupils who have coped with poor teaching and underachievement is not acceptable anywhere.

[Millipedewithherfeetup]

My dd currently an under graduate at Exeter. .. she is now in 3rd year and has not met anyone who has come from a state secondary (as she has done)... but it has not made one bit of difference at all !!! They are all in the same boat at uni ! They all have the same deadlines to adhere to... some do go and spend their summer holidays in fabulous places with their famous. Some don't !

[BackforGood]

If that were the case Bubbles - that Privately educated dc have no advantage over state educated, then why on earth would anyone pay the £££ it takes to put a child through private school ?

[Crumbs1]

BubblesBuddy - that is quite a naive view. They may have worked hard but there really is no comparison. To gain 4/5/6As from a comprehensive where the syllabus isn’t completed, where there’s a culture of low level disruption and where learning isn’t ‘cool’, to achieve in the face of cancelled lessons and supply cover, in classes of 30 at A level really, really doesn’t compare with the experience of carefully tutored small groups of academically selected pupils with every possible advantage.

[Crumbs1]

My daughter loves Exeter but someone from a big city environment might find it a little insular as it’s tiny as cities go. Quite town and gown with university very distinct from local population. Mine did love it on first sight and it is a fantastic place to start spreading their wings. Nice place for parents to visit too!

[BubblesBuddy]

Private school children have worked just as hard as anyone else. Possibly harder because expectations can be very high. I really do not understand why people have to be so tribal!

[elisaveta]

I work at Exeter. We have a good mix of students. Most of the students I have dealings with have some kind of job (not in Daddy's firm). They tutor, work in restaurants, shops etc. Overall it seems a pretty well balanced place.

[marmiteloversunite]

Exeter uni is growing very fast. I would be surprised if your DD couldn't find a group of people that she likes within the university. It might just take a few weeks to find her people. If you want to know more general things about the city feel free to pm me. Exonian born and bred!

[Fifthtimelucky]

My daughter liked the look of both Cardiff and Exeter and we visited both last year. Cardiff was first, and she loved it. When we visited Exeter later the same week, she realised that she really wanted a campus university so ruled out Cardiff.

Exeter is still near the top of her list, but Birmingham probably favourite now.

And no, Warwick doesn't offer music degrees.

[Namechanger5555]

Same Tigger I achieved a perfectly respectable degree but socially it was very challenging having very little in common with anyone. Very lonely but I did make friends outside of uni and love Exeter as a place.

[TheSacredCow]

Thank you all for your helpful comments. DD is applying to study biological sciences. We will go to both the offer holders days and hopefully this will give DD a better insight to what the courses are offering. We are also going to stay overnight at Exeter so that she can take a proper look at the city (she has already looked round Cardiff and loved the city).

[TabbyTigger]

Bubbles I know galleries and museums aren’t expensive, but they are surely a culturally middle class activity. My parents wouldn’t have known Picasso from Van Gogh, and neither did I until my twenties. At Oxford I was made to feel very much like this was weird, and I definitely felt like an outsider. I belonged there academically, but absolutely struggled socially as a result of my class and upbringing.

And as a sidenote - hockey to me has always been a relatively “posh” sport!! We just had football, netball, and cross country. My DCs never did it at school either.

[BackforGood]

I know nothing about Exeter, but Cardiff is a lovely City to be a student in. It does't just have the University, but has Med school and teaching hospitals with lots of trainees in all sorts of medical professions. Really compact City that you can walk around.
Some people find it a bit odd initially that there isn't "a" campus etc., but buildings are spread out in different places. Quite a lot of accommodation is about a half hour walk from Lectures etc.
You are able to access all that a capital City offers without having to travel great distances - be that International Sport or Classical or pop/rock music.
When we looked round, I felt the really let themselves down with a poor open day (as also many of dd's friends also said), but I know quite a few who have studied there who loved it.
Also good transport links to lots of other areas of the Country.

[NotSupposedtobeHere]

She'll be worked hard at Exeter. All the bought educational privilege in the world doesn't help when you're faced with a lecturer expecting the highest standards of you. Academic staff really do not care about wealth or class - indeed, NOT having your educational privilege bought for you is shown, over and over, to be a far better preparation for university study than being tutored via buying an education.

[Rhynswynd]

My dad went to Exeter and my brother lectures at Cardiff.

Both great universities. Neither my dad nor brother are posh.

Make the choice on the course and what the campus have to offer.

I lived in Exeter for many years and I love it.

[BubblesBuddy]

I come from a family with no connections. Ditto my DH except in the world of structural and civil engineering which he has forged for himself. Both of us tried our hardest to show our DC how to grab opportunities because we couldn’t give them everything. We are not short of money but when DD wanted to be a barrister I can assure you any leg up from us in that career was impossible. She had to do it herself and she did. All her mini pupillages were down to her, not us. Likewise getting a pupillage. I have met many of her friends who also have not had connected parents. So it does not have to matter where you came from. My DHs ancestors were straw plaiters and farm labourers not so long ago. Education gives a bright child a fantastic chance but they also have to learn to ditch the chip and be positive. Confidence helps of course and this is more important than post A level non jobs.

[Namechanger5555]

Few years too late but thanks Buddy I certainly was/am jealous. Had never even heard of those kind of opportunities and didn't have the right connections or speaking voice and confidence to be successful in the opportunities I did go for.

It was certainly a case of not fitting in and having very little in common with people around me and the OPs daughter is right to be mindful of that. Not to say she shouldn't go however.

[jeanne16]

My DS is at Cambridge and went to a London private school. He says he has no idea what type of school any of his new Cambridge friends attended. He says no one cares and it has never occurred to him to ask. There are a lot of myths around how important this all is.

[Agyne]

Both great cities to be a student in but Exeter is a better uni imo.

[BubblesBuddy]

I think these days when students are unhappy they start again elsewhere. It doesn’t have to ruin your life namechanger.

It really is not the case that everyone will have done internships over the summer! You were obviously unlucky and you appear to be jealous. What does it matter to you if students had done internships after A levels? It is what you do on the course that matters. You too can apply for internships.

[SluttyButty]

My dd has had an offer from Exeter for Law for this year. She goes to a state school in the Cotswolds and would rather avoid getting caught up in the ‘country casuals’ set as he calls it and she really liked Exeter. It’s not her first choice but it’s a serious consideration should her first not come through.

[Namechanger5555]

In a seminar at Exeter University we briefly discussed what we did over the summer as an ice breaker. I was the only one who had worked over the summer. In a call centre.
Every single other person had been on an internship in daddy's firm or similar.

I loved the city and the locals of the city. I wasn't aware of its reputation when I applied and didn't notice when I looked around. I was very unhappy when I went there and it has held me back throughout the rest of my life.

Definitely worth being aware of whether you will fit in.