Red tulip, if DD was choosing now she would opt for Clifton or city centre.
She was in a self catering flat of 12 in Stoke Bishop. Once a week she had to get up at six to then get the Uni bus into the city centre in order to get the once an hour bus to her GP placement. She was also unlucky in that the alpha female in her flat, not a medic, stopped attending anything from about October, turned nocturnal and developed a heavy drug habit. DD should have asked early for a switch, something her now best friend did successfully when she found herself in a similar situation. SB is supposed to be more social, but if things go wrong it is quite isolated. You can’t easily stay in the library if you need quiet, or meet friends at Wetherspoons, as you are dependent on the bus, and no corner shop if you run out of food (or you get home and find your food has been ‘borrowed’) I also understand that the private halls may be better managed. The SB security seem to have been instructed to hear no evil, see no evil, smell no evil. Fine if your course has a fairly relaxed approach for freshers, unfortunately that is not the case for medicine.
That said, it is each to their own. DD had taken a gap year, and her social group at school was not druggy. (Other groups did experiment, but by sixth form her friends had worked out they were not interested.) DC are quite different and there is quite a range of views about what should constitute ‘the University experience’. Curiously when I have posted before, there are regular posters who would claim the party lifestyle was not an issue in SB, then I would get several PMs from MNetters whose DC were also struggling.
I was surprised to hear mumsneedwine say that Bristol was very organised. DD was in the first year of a new course and I think you would have to work quite hard to find anyone, staff or student, who shared that view. The course should have settled down now, so hopefully things should be better. DD says she has spotted signs that things have changed, eg they are now apparently super strict on attendance. That said she would choose Bristol again. The city and countryside are gorgeous, the placements are good, and she has liked the early clinical placements. Oddly the need to organise yourself, work with peers, and take responsibility for your own learning has proved an asset in her, COVID distanced, intercalation year.
The first year was so tough that we then helped her buy a small car. The University pay if she gives others lifts to placements, and there were always people who wanted them. An extra expense, but further down the line their is scope to save money by living full time in hospital accommodation. DD knows her placements for the next two years so will get a place in Bristol for next year but probably won’t bother the year after.