University Choice

[WineMerchant]

Hello, I don’t post very often, so apologies if I don’t follow any conventions correctly 🙂.
My ds has had an array of offers for Uni. One is a top 10 ranked Uni and highly ranked course , the others are all average-ranked or worse. He has decided he wants to go to the most lowly-ranked because he liked the lecturers and the atmosphere of the uni’s location, which is London-based.

I understand his preferences, but the main offer is better in every other respect - and was his favourite before he visited for interviews (he particularly liked the course). His job prospects would seem to be materially different between the two courses he is considering.

What should I do? I know that it is his choice but fear he is about to make an expensive mistake. However, he is very sociable and I can see the attraction of London over the quieter location. I know he thinks he will be happiest there, but surely the social side isn’t everything?

** ds's rent of £700 a week

Saying that if that's all he wanted to do we'd probably support him, so I'm talking bollox 🙄

It really depends on what he is studying. My course at my citys lower ranking university will see me walk into well paid work with fantastic earning potential. I've probably a brighter future than someone studying Art History at the RG uni in the same city. Those on STEM courses in the RG will probably fare better than me by a long shot.

ds's rent of £700 a week

I can safely say that whatever the degree, if it involved paying that much in rent, none of ours would be taking it.

**MONTH not week

If its the degree from the National Centre for Circus Arts in London, they have a very international cohort and their graduates have a really good employment record.

Even so you can learn circus skills without taking on a lot of university debt. Anyway it is up to parents to decide what they will fund. Had my 5 had some life long desire to do something and shown huge commitment to it even if it did not meet what I think is sensible for a degree I would have considered helping them. As it was I am happy with the choices of my 2 at Bristol currently (Rent about £500 a month each I think which I pay)

I am struggling to think of anything I wouldn't support my children to do degree wise. I made my choices at 18 and they do likewise. This is the very worst thing about current funding that some young people loose the freedom to make their own choices,

I really struggle with blanket MN statements like 'London Universities are not the most social' or London students live in the suburbs and don't have fun. Especially when posters don't tell us why they are able to speak with such certainty.

I studied at LSE and had a great time. I had been at boarding school and simply wanted to live in the capital. DS studied in London and stayed for his Masters despite having an Oxford offer. (And lived in Zone 1, albeit ex-Council with no living room.) DD is only applying to London Universities for a year's intercalation. A lot of her friends studied in London and so she is happy about the balance between pros and cons.

It is fine for some students to prefer London. The problem is that OP has given us far too little information for us to be able to advise.

Wish you could tell us more about course or unis. The fact he was interviewed though is interesting and suggests something very job/vocation focussed. Which is good in any event. Is it Art?

I understand your concerns and personally would not financially support a place on a poor course in an expensive city. You are ideally supporting a degree nit a lifestyle. Maybe suggest a year out to work and earn money to save for living in London? Could he get a work experience in London? Has he lived in London?

Also to add he may be better off financially not doing a degree than doing a low ranking one.

This is the very worst thing about current funding that some young people loose the freedom to make their own choices,

To be fair, back when I went to university (early 1980s, having initially done nurse training - not all degree at the time - and worked for a while first), there were more things which didn't qualify at all for student grants and I suspect Circus Skills would have been one of them.

We also take the attitude with our three that higher education is education, not necessarily training for a specific occupation (unless it is both, of course. We would neither have expected nor tried to forbid them from following in our own footsteps). And that we will always support them. Even if it means us all having to live together again for the rest of our natural.

I suspect that that will spur them on, if nothing else does...

I really struggle with blanket MN statements like 'London Universities are not the most social' or London students live in the suburbs and don't have fun.

Needmoresleep was n’t it your DS who hung out with his London school friends in at least his first term before finding new friends at LSE? Most from outside London don’t have that luxury of a ready made circle of friends in London to ease that social transition when starting a new student life.
Other universities (like Durham which I think has been mentioned in the thread as an alternative) have an environment which facilitates easy socialising for first years before they grow their friendships. Despite being in a quiet location.
Studying in London has lots of advantages but the OP wanted to counterbalance her DS’s starry-eyed view of London as a social mecca.

I have heard accounts from many previous undergraduates from all over. Those who are neither Londoners nor international students but have attended London universities are generally very positive about their experience. Many though have also said that they would have had easier social networking in their first term if not their first year if they had gone to a university outside London and, comparing to their friends, a more typical early student experience.

Send summer, my objection is to the dogmatism, when people fail to explain why they are so sure that such statements, like 'London students dont have fun' apply to all students. London offers some great Universities and it seems a pity that MN is so negative.

DS made some great and lasting friends in his first term. Yes he had friends at other London Universities, but this is not uncommon. There are so many students in London, and it is an easy place for those elsewhere to visit. Curiously he saw a lot of friends from Oxford, because initially Oxford students seemed to be on the Oxford Tube just about every weekend. DD similarly noted that Bristol emptied significantly at weekends during the first term. Perhaps the idea that students pack their trunks, settle effortlessly into their new lives and are not seen for the next three months applies to some (and MN DC seem to be a very specific breed of social titans) but perhaps not all, wherever they come from or wherever they are studying.

Not everyone enjoys London, but then some found Oxford really tough at first and indeed over the longer term. And our experience, and that of some other posters, is that Bristol can be very difficult indeed if you dont find your tribe quickly.

To some extent it is luck. What is frustrating is the way just the mention of London encourages some to roll out unevidenced prejudices.

OP has given so little to go on. It is near impossible to advise.

Curiously he saw a lot of friends from Oxford, because initially Oxford students seemed to be on the Oxford Tube just about every weekend. DD similarly noted that Bristol emptied significantly at weekends during the first term.
Lots of students need their security blanket whether it be relationship somewhere else or a visit home. Londoners find it particularly hard not to return home if they are near enough. Especially if all their friends come back at once. The security of the known.

The fact that many students can have mixed experiences, especially at the start, does not prevent the London set-up being more fragmented socially initially. On the other hand there is the big draw of both London life and research impactful institutions.

Purple, that was the old system too when I went I am afraid too in the early 1980s - minimum tiny grant nothing like enough to paying the rent (unless you can from a very poor home) and then you had to hop parents would top up to full grant . IN 1979 for term 1 my notebook says I had £305 from my father and £117 ("state grant"). My parents had no obligation to pay that - looks like he made it up to the full grant and that the minimum grant was about a quarter of he full grant whereas today students have it easier in that the minimum is about £4300 out of London and full about £8k so about half. (Leaving aside the issue that some will be paying back the loan elements)