Durham v Exeter v St Andrew’s Unis - which would you recommend for a student from London?

[zaeem1]

Hello - would anyone have any advice regarding the above unis please? DS applying to LSE and Cambridge (loves the town), but obviously there are no guarantees at either of these. I know people obviously rave about the three unis above, It’s difficult to gauge the atmosphere at a uni though when there’s nobody there.

St A’s is sooo far - so not sure about that one. Probably you would make friends easily there, but it could all get a bit claustrophobic maybe? Plus not sure there’s any need to spend 4 years getting a degree, when you could do it in 3. A little worried about the cold too and the fact he would need to fly sometimes. There seem lots of traditions there and lots of waltzing around in red gowns, which could be fun, but also, is it a little OTT?

Durham - looks like a nice town, but could it get claustrophobic. Is it very “rah?” Sorry to put it like that, but hopefully you might know what I mean?

Exeter - we have visited this campus a while ago, but not on a tour. Town was ok - would it get boring after three years though? Also, is it full of what he would call “Jack Wills” types?”

Again, apologies for any ridiculous stereotyping here, but we are genuinely trying to weigh up if any of these are worth applying to. Any experiences welcome!

Check about the 4 year issue. DD is going to St Andrews to study physics and has been told she can start in year 2 if her A level grades are good enough and if she thinks she can cope.

When I went to Durham it was very much before random allocation of colleges and there was a HUGE divide between hill and bailey. Having said that - as someone from one of the most deprived areas of the North East who went to Castle - I still did enjoy my time there but it did teach me some very harsh lessons about the preconceptions that come with the British class system. I'd hope it's changed since then but I still think it attracts a certain demographic disproportionately at times. I went there twice - for my first degree and then my PGCE and the quality of teaching on my PGCE was pretty shit at times to be honest.

It is quite a small city though and can feel very claustrophobic during term time - both a positive and negative thing - you will always run into someone you know, but you will always run into someone you're trying to avoid as well. The food in catered halls was shit - the hills are a killer and cobbles when drunk wreck the crap out of your ankles!

Ah I see! It’s about what’s in and what isn’t and JW is out. Well, we are not a ‘cool’ family at all. We just wear whatever fits and DS is very very nonchalant about brands etc. He kitted himself in a lot of dare I say? Primark and Superdry last September (going by this thread we are very behind the times). We discovered the JW name last yr when we were doing uni shopping but only thought of buying some this yr. I will chuckle as he shops and I think about this thread.

Lots of young people do have favoured brands though. Primark is a bit out of favour with some due to low wages paid to fashion factory workers. Ditto BooHoo. Lots of young people are reacting against slave wage fashion. So that’s yet another judgement you might not like!

Shimy, its sounds like a trip to style and beauty.

More seriously though, it might represent the problem. DC and their friends are positively anti-brand. From sixth form onward they would not wear anything with a logo on, other than perhaps a discrete Nike tick or equivalent on sports wear.

It may be the problem that concerns some potential students. Posh but dull boarding school girlies from the home counties judging you on your clothing and "what school did you go to?" and the assumption that anyone they would ant to know is only one Facebook friend removed.

Uniqlo is fine. Staff and customers all look as if they have emerged from "The Big Bang Theory". TKMaxx as well. But then DS was the type who did not understand why you would want more than more than two pairs of jeans and seven T shirts, the latter often being the same one in various colours.

About two years ago we spotted a T shirt in DDs favourite colour so though it was expensive, we bought it and added it to her Christmas stocking. She was astonished. Apparently it was the in-brand of the moment. How could her uncool parents have known? Her friends were equally surprised. She still wears it. Even though I suspect influencers, rappers and Bristol U students have since moved on, it is still her favourite colour.

Needmore DS is the most brand unconscious teen ever. I asked DS2 what his favourite brand was this afternoon, just out of interest. His reply ‘Gucci’. Fat chance of that.

DS2 mostly wears items from the H&M sale rack, doesnt seem to have held him back.
When we dropped him off at halls I did see someone rock up with a Louis Vuitton trunk though and students are occasionally spotted wearing tweed jackets.

the hills are a killer

Never mind Rahs, if mountaineering as part of your daily routine is not your thing, then that's both Durham and Exeter off the list...

And Bristol as well.

I can never follow the brands stuff and wear the same clothes every day (I have lots of identical sets!). I shrunk my Bristol son's T shirt the other day apparently because it cost £1 and it shrinks more easily! He has bought loads of clothes at a pound shop in Bristol so may be that's a thing. His vegan twin just ordered some shoes made of hemp for £100 although they have just had to be returned as he got the size wrong.

I think it is very hard to generalise about what people wear at university. Track suit bottoms seem quite popular for my twins and their friends as they are comfortable and one does not like to waste things like I do too so he and I tend to wear things until they wear out.

It seems that the Universities you are looking at don't fit together in terms of type of location, ie London with Campus, If your DC would prefer Exeter type Uni then perhaps add Lancaster and Warwick to your list. City Unis then maybe consider Bristol, Edinburgh and Newcastle etc

@MarchingFrogs

the hills are a killer

Never mind Rahs, if mountaineering as part of your daily routine is not your thing, then that's both Durham and Exeter off the list...

With the shit food in catered halls and the hills I DID drop two dress sizes in my first term there though! Probably not to be recommended and the food's likely improved since then.

If your DC would prefer Exeter type Uni then perhaps add Lancaster and Warwick to your list. City Unis then maybe consider Bristol, Edinburgh and Newcastle etc

Or Leeds - best of both on the campus / city front? Gentler hills than Exeter / Durham / Bristol, too.

It does depend on the course being what one wants, though.

Exeter without a doubt.

DT’s have lived in jeans, T-shirt and hoodies. DD is more brand conscious. Some of their clothes they have bought from chain stores and most of it they got when they visit their cousins in Colorado as they like the choice they have there.

at people scared of a few hills!

Seriously, you get used to the hills and the cardio is very good for attempting to out exercise the pizza and beer that make up a student diet!

Obviously if you have significant mobility issues etc might be worth consideration before people point out the obvious.

Have you ever cycled around Bristol?

Students are told not to walk over the downs to Halls in the dark, and sports facilities are even further away. DD did cycle, but honestly, not many did. Bikes are far rarer than in London, Oxford or Cambridge. Hills do make a difference. Hills can be one aspect of a University choice, even for students quite happy to take exercise.

Thanks for all the opinions.

I think he’s quite keen on LSE to be honest, but obviously no guarantees of anything so we have to look at all options.

With Exeter, we came out of the station, turned left, walked up a road and then entered the uni grounds through what might have been a back / side entrance. There was some lovely-looking student accommodation blocks right there, but my god, there was a lot of steps to the top. I wasn’t sure if it was my age - maybe at 18 it wouldn’t have been an issue? But even at the top of the hill it’s not flat. I just found the whole thing exhausting tbh. I’m not that unfit - I ran a half marathon two years ago, but I found it quite hard-going, I wonder how the staff manage? Then the walk into town is indirect, so longer than it needs to be,

I once visited friends at University of Kent and that’s on a hill - but at least the hill is flat at the top! I think that was a better campus actually. Similar sized towns and both have the cathedrals obviously, but I think Canterbury has a bit more character than Exeter.

Lots of people are going to be disappointed then as Jack Wills has announced it will not be reopening its Exeter branch. I've walked past it hundreds of times but never bought anything because it's too expensive.

To the person a couple of pages back who described Exeter as a "small town full of rahs", get your terminology right! It's a city. Like Durham, it too has a large Norman cathedral in the city centre. Having lived in or near Exeter since 1998, I think the city itself is more chav than rah, the university is the opposite. DH taught at the university for several years. Most of the prospective undergrads he interviewed were looking for somewhere to put on their UCAS forms in case they didn't get into Oxbridge. Many of the 3rd & 4th year students he taught in a science discipline were not that bothered about the subject or class of degree because they were going into Daddy's business or the City.

I have taught a fair few who have gone to Exeter. For some subjects, it is good. However, my own DDs avoided it like the plague. Its science is poor, to put it mildly. DD2 did a week's work experience with a friend's mum in Life Science. She shadowed some 2nd years. DD knew more science than they did but had done at least 3 years less in education. I don't know anything about Geography there. Yes, there are lots of hills. As you come out of the station and turn left to walk up the hill, you come into the lower entrance, but it's hardly the back gate. Stupidly, they built a sodding great student shopping centre across the proper main entrance around 10 years ago, meaning that for most activities, you need to drive in the "back way".

Finally, beware that around Exeter there are loads and loads of student residence developments, the majority of which are private rather than university owned. There is a lot of local resentment about these in that the spaces could be used for affordable homes for local people, but instead attract more noisy students.

Why St Andrews and not any other Scottish university - out of interest? Glasgow, Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Aberdeen would all be worth considering.

But perhaps first look more into Scotland having an entirely different education system and hence the 4 year university degrees. Certainly not a wasted extra year.

Although it can be a wasted year if you come from Ewngland to Scotland unless you can join in year 2 although it depends on waste. I wanted to get on in life quickly so went to university in England aged 17, graduated in law at 20 and was working as a trainee lawyer in London at aged 21 (and married). One of my student sons would say the opposite - his 3 years at Bristol best of his life, so good he is back in the City this Autumn for post grad.

If time do go and visit. We expected to love Durham and found it a real mish mash. The new buildings are swish but where my dd would actually study was very run down. Student life was very spread out varied enormously between colleges and somewhere like Leeds had far more buzz about it. Exeter medical campus was fab but main campus pretty similar to everywhere else we went. Great city though with lots to do. St A very pretty place and ideal if you want Oxbridge by sea. It’s quicker to fly there than drive to Exeter so depends on what a student would do. Disaster if you want nightclubs and live music. Def visit!

If it helps I'm a Londoner but loved Durham when I was there many years ago. Some of my closest friends now are those I made 30+ years ago at Durham.

I throughly enjoyed visits to DT’s short list of potential Uni’s. With DT’s doing very different subjects - one engineering and one languages, we had family weekends in different places throughout the UK.
We live in London so their final choices of York and Warwick involved three years of long drives to drop them off each term, they enjoyed where they ended up.

To those who think St A's would have depressing weather - it doesn't! Because it's on the east coast, it's often got blue skies. It's a glorious place, very romantic.

Also, the 4yr thing is a big positive as the first two are spent doing a range of subjects before specialising in yrs 3/4.

And the train from Kings Cross is just over 5hrs - probably same time it would take to get from London to Exeter on a busy Saturday.