Red tulip, if you think of any other questions do ask. DD is intercalating at the moment at a local university so at home and easy to ask. .
Probably no need for a car in first year. They had a morning each week in a GPs practice. Lots in Bristol, and others accessible by public transport or a University-paid-for taxi. It just happened that DDs was one of the more far flung. Parking is an issue everywhere but SB, where you can park on the downs.
It’s really the third year, when clinical placements start, where a car comes into its own. Unless your DD is sporty as the sports fields are up near SB and most second year students live closer to the University. (Students are strongly discouraged from walking across the downs in the dark.)
A lot has changed though, since DD started. Covid, the new course, and the switch to using UCAT. DD was only accepted in March and then deferred so she is probably the last one to get in without needing either UCAT or BMAT. Observation suggests that switching from emphasis on the PS to emphasis on the UCAT has led to a different student profile. (But maybe third years everywhere take a superior approach to first years,) Last year her year also had an awkward bulge because they switch intercalation from the end of the second year to the end of the third, meaning they had possibly a third more students than normal.
Covid has had a huge impact. DD had heard that first years were unhappy. I assume it is true elsewhere. DD missed big chunks including orthopaedics when they were sent home last March, and problems continue as so many hospital clinics aren’t running. Let’s hope things can start getting back to normal, or a new normal, after the summer.