Manchester Uni pros and cons ?

[Anasnake]

DS is very keen on Manchester to study Law. Just looking for any info as have had a mixed reaction when talking to people.

I went there. Best years of my life. Now feeling wistful and jealous!!!!

If it helps I knew loads of people who did law and now have high flying careers. Everyone I know has been successful in doing what they wanted to do.

I lived in an old fashioned hall in Victoria park in first year, catered and with a great social life; I shared a bedroom and there were shared bathrooms. I loved it!! I wouldn't have wanted to be in a more sterile newly built hall with all mod cons. I was so busy doing stuff and socializing and the communal facilities helped with that.

There was crime, as in any big city. Mostly in the first term when people from rural locations were not acting in a very streetwise way, e.g. leaving a purse on a washer in the launderette and it getting stolen, or walking through parks alone in the dark.

they have been spending a lot on uni buildings over the last few years so i imagine the lecture theatres etc are very good.

think about how far from home the uni is..this was his furthest option and 1 hours flight or 5 hours driving has been too far - though its clarified his ideas post uni and he no longer wants to work abroad. we have found that 2-3 hours works a lot better

In the year to July 2017, there were 95 student deaths. They were not all at one university but there is only one university that’s been in the press over student deaths. It is entirely possible there were student deaths at Manchester as the rate is 4.5 deaths in every 100,000 students. At 40,000 students it’s unlikey Manchester has no deaths. It does have quite high crime figure as you would expect. It’s a case of being streetwise and staying safe.

We are already in the North West so Manchester is fairly close. Thanks for all the info, he's currently thinking about Lancaster too which is very different. It's up to him.

We are in the minority as were totally underwhelmed by Manchester. The subject presentation was not great, they spent more time on telling us about Manchester itself rather than the course. It felt that they hadn't planned what to say about the course - the presenter asked the course director for extra information and they said they didn't know and they did not offer any taster sessions (unlike everywhere else we have been to). The extra curric music looked good but the course presentation was a let down.

hellohah - if you are in the accommodation office at Manchester. i wonder if you could do what some uni's do with hall allocations. They have a couple of questions in the application process, to work out what people are like (I think broadly they see if you are a party animal or not) and they try and allocate rooms on that basis.

This would have meant my sociable son who loves clubbiing/partying would have been with similar minded people. Rather than being with 3 foreign students who didnt drink or party at all and 2 students who went home each weekend. Hence he ended up going to freshers events by himself and is possibly why he got picked off at one of them and his things stolen.

It would have made it so much easier to make friends. He has actually found uni less busy socially than at home in our rural place

The accommodation at Oak house is not really that awful.
Bog standard uni self catering, one of my dc is at Manchester and their first year accommodation at Oak house was directly comparable with older dc who went self catering at Bristol and Newcastle.
It is not the ritz but perfectly fine.

Amazing city - miss it a lot. Victoria Park is a great area.

DS is there, he loves it (in second year of a science degree)

DD has now two new flatmates who had accommodation elsewhere and asked to move to oak house because it's more fun and better value for money. The two who left, one stayed there but wanted an ensuite, the other decided uni wasn't for them. Seems oak house is actually quite popular despite being the cheapest.

My daughter is at Manchester and loves it. The city is great and the course is fab. She has met some wonderful people and has made some great friends. The downside is that the University is massive and very impersonal - has abit of a money making feel to it, guess they have to get the revenues in to fund such a HUGE establishment. Strikes are the longest of any University so daughter has lost at least 6 weeks of study and no essays marked. Manchester is a city so of course there is crime- so you have to be careful. Can’t say DD is anything but happy with her choice and time there so far.

Forgot to say that my daughter’s accommodation was Woolton Hall. Fully catered, clean shared bathrooms, lovely socials and formal dinners, great grounds, but a little more expensive. Buses every 3 mins to the Uni and City. But kitchens are like small cupboards with a cooker with two rings and a toaster to service 15 kids, nowhere for them to meet and chat but in the corridors or in their rooms - they don’t seem to mind. Would avoid Oak House - from what my DD says it’s constant parties, drugs, noise and some of the rooms are like prison cells.

But kitchens are like small cupboards with a cooker with two rings and a toaster to service 15 kids

Presumably because the residence is fully catered (if you literally mean, all meals, every day, Oxford / Cambridge college style)? In contrast, though, at Birmingham, even the flats in fully Meal Plan halls have decent sized kitchens.

@Anasnake, I appreciate that this is a fairly ancient thread, but where did your DS choose in the end? One of DS1's friends did his undergraduate degree in Physics at Manchester and is now doing a PhD there and another is currently applying to do a PhD.

Another zombie thread about Manchester!