Bristol or Warwick for Philosophy?

[Coroico97]

DS has offers from both and slightly prefers the content of the Warwick course - with politics and law. Am wondering if anyone has a view on how different the two unis are with face to face vs online now? Also in terms of enjoying student life without a car maybe Bristol would be better? I know Warwick is spread out and he might have further to travel. Any views of any aspect gratefully received! Thanks.

Are you looking at PPL at both universities? Or just Philosophy at Bristol? If that is the case, they are not comparable courses. Single honours Philosophy is quite different. So if he’s not applied for identical courses, then I would think the course he likes most should take precedence.

Bristol is a city university. You can live in halls near the uni for first year or be a short bus ride away at Stoke Bishop. After that students can rent flats and houses very close to the university in Clifton. You can easily be only a short walk away.

Warwick is campus. First year students live and study on the campus in first year. Subsequent years they will be a bus ride away, for example, in Leamington Spa. Bristol discourages cars because there’s very little student parking. I don’t know Warwick, but I cannot imagine cars belonging to students are welcome either. I therefore think being without a car is the norm for the vast majority.

Bristol has more going on because it’s a city. Warwick is more self contained. But he probably needs to choose based on course if they are not the same.

I'm Warwick alum so majorly biased. My housemate did philosophy and I think enjoyed it.

I love the city of Bristol but back in my day the uni was known to be quite 'raa'. My sister in law went there and very much fits that stereotype.

Warwick was a great place to go and Coventry is a much better city than people give it credit for.

One of my sons did PPE at Bristol, absolutely loved it. 2002-2005.

Thanks all. @TizerorFizz - he has offers for PPL and straight Philosophy at Warwick and Philosophy st Bristol. He is definitely favouring PPL I think but wondering if Bristol might be a better place to be. I think, as you say, he needs to decide on the basis of the course. Thanks for your comments. We/he will visit both. Not managed any Open Dsys yet🙄! Hoping both unis will have more in-person and less on-line by then.

Are they doing offer days this year? But he does need to have a look around. You can easily visit Bristol and look around Clifton. Then visit Stoke Bishop where there are more halls. There are some in the centre too.

I have not visited Warwick uni but I’m sure you could visit and have a look around. It’s not in Coventry. Both Leamington and Coventry are a bus ride away. So what type of experience does he want? I would look at employment stats too. What do students do upon completion of the degrees? What does he want to do? Which course provides the best route to a career?

Thanks @TizerorFizz. We will certainly visit both. Sorry to be thick but is an offer day different to an open day? Also good idea to look at employment stats. He is interested in maybe doing a law conversion course at the moment but this could change. Not sure he really knows.

@Coroico97

Yes. Only people with offers are invited. There’s a better chance of having a sample lecture and meeting staff. Fewer people there so you can ask questions that matter to you. Check if they are having them.

My DD did a law conversion conversion course. She went to Bristol but a different subject. It might help him to do some law in that case. She didn’t, but both universities have plenty of students aiming for careers in law and are well respected by recruiters. DD couldn’t do everything the law students did but she did go to law careers events and I think she did debating. I would see what each uni offers in terms of joining the uni Law society or debating clubs. DD was at Bris a while ago so things change.

Many warwick students live in Leamington and use the uni bus, get a bus pass

Don’t need to have a car in Leamington

Or they choose Earlsdon and same, bus and use city center

They are both good. I think Bristol is slightly better but I am not an exper on philosophy. I have had 3 children at Bristol who loved it. My son's friend went to Warwick and was happy there although I think in years 2 and 3 he seemed to have quite a bit of commuting from accommodation (he has a car). My sons' school is mostly non white and some of their friends therefore picked Warwick and London because they felt Durham and Bristol might be too white - despite that my white sons have lots of friends from Bristol by the way who are not white but I was mentioning it as I had heard some of the asians boys pick London or Warwick because they felt it might have more of a racial mix than Durham or Bristol. I just looked up the stats in case I was talking rubbish and see Warwick is 64% BAME and Bristol 19% BAME.

Warwick is 38% BAME according to Times University Guide….can’t remember stats from Bristol but they are in the teens.

Those stats don’t matter to some students though. What the DS wants to learn about should be a top priority. I think 3 subjects always gives more options but it will be more work. That’s inevitable. The Law element at Warwick could be very useful. Both will ensure he has great career prospects. When you go for law jobs, they always ask why you didn’t study law. So with 3 subjects there’s plenty of reasons to say they had an interest in law but wanted to explore other fields too.

The university of Warwick absolutely is in Coventry.

I have no agenda re Warwick and Bristol and if my stats were misleading we should correct them. I found the Warwick one here "64% of our undergraduate students identify as BAME" warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/aboutus/equality-diversity-inclusion/

I suppose the 38% and 64 % could both be right if people are self identifying as BAME for the Warwick survey and in the Times ones are not counted. Also I do not want student saying I will not go there as most people are rich or are white or whatever it might be as par of the point of university is to mix with people who are very different from how you are.

I went to Bristol (to study philosophy funnily enough!) in the 1980s tho so I imagine (hope) the course has improved.

Bristol is very spread out - main halls two miles from uni, uni a mile from city centre, station a mile further away. Of course there will have been lots of building since 1980-whatever but the structure cannot have changed.

I had a good time there but it was not diverse at all (I cannot recall a single non-white person ever anywhere) and full of what we then called Hooray Henrys. No doubt it is much better on both counts and I don't suppose Warwick was much more diverse 40 years ago

Warwick is really not spread out as in, it is a lovely campus university; 2nd and 3rd years tho do tend to live a bus ride away in Leamington Spa so I guess that's an issue. Is it bikeable?

Bristol is a big city with all the opportunities and issues that brings; Warwick is not and it is not really near a big city (Coventry )so it does depend what you want from uni life.

Agree go to offer days if you can - my DD found them really helpful.

My was that it is 40 years since I went to uni btw. Also should add I did joint hons philosophy and MFL so single hons phi would be a bit different from my experience (and as I say, I imagine the course is improved as frankly (looking back) it was a dog's dinner in 1982).

We loved Warwick when we went to the open day, but yes one is a campus one, one a city Uni so very different

It might be a good idea for your DS to look at the curriculum and subjects offered at both.

Bristol is known for being very 'woke'.

Of course, your DS might prefer that (or he might not).

It's your son's choice and one he needs to make independently and take ownership of it with facilitation from you.

In my opinion the course content is important but so is happiness and feeling at ease where a young person is. If they dislike their environment they will not shine whether the course is perfect or not. Life often requires a compromise.

When mine were looking the location mattered a lot. DS discounted Durham because he felt it was dull (he would have spent most of his time on a train to Newcastle!). Therefore he chose Bristol as his back-up. He discounted Warwick entirely because it was a campus uni.

With dd we visited Edinburgh, Manchester, Exeter (I can't remember the other choices - she detested Exeter - campus and town - regardless of the course).

My son is doing history at Warwick and really enjoying it. One of his best friends is a PPEist and is happy with his course. The humanities teaching is all f2f now as far as I know: there's a brand new humanities/arts building and DS is loving being able to use that.

I thought there might be more of a campus bubble atmosphere at Warwick than there seems to be. DS and friends have regularly been clubbing and to parties in Leamington and Coventry almost from the very beginning. They're living in Leam next year. There are lots of buses - I gather the commute can be a pain at rush hour but it's a short journey at other times. None of the people DS is living with next year are planning to bring cars.

As far as philosophy's concerned, Warwick offers more modules in areas other than the anglo-american tradition - eg continental philosophy- than many universities. I read philosophy decades ago and loved the sound of the Warwick course, though I went elsewhere. I don't know much about the course at Bristol.

Most lawyers I know who did law at university (including me) wish they’d done something different at university then done the conversion course. I have certainly used little of what I learnt in my degree in practice and much of that was reiterated in professional finals in any event.

Warwick has a strong reputation for continental philosophy - I don’t know about Bristol but presumably it is more analytical like most UK universities? If so the approach will be hugely different as between the two, so the course content should perhaps be the deciding factor? As far as I can see (a DS is a philosopher) Continental philosophy is much more fun.

DS did an MSc in political thought, followed by an MPhil and now a PhD which straddles history and philosophy. Continental philosophy has been the order of the day since his first degree.

I would agree with @Definitelyrandom on the basis that DH always says that reading History (economic history in his case) made him a much better and more rounded lawyer than if he had read law.

The university of Warwick absolutely is in Coventry.

Coventry uni is in Coventry

Warwick university is at Westward Heath, 4 miles from Coventry and 2 miles from Kenilworth

Def I adored my law degree however. Half of lawyers read law and I don't think most regret it. i still use things I learned on those modules all those years ago which were so interesting eg when I was watching that TV thing about the Duchess of Argyll I remember reading that case and what is needed to be technically adultery under English law, never mind topics such as what are "rights", philosophical issues and then very interesting case law on all kinds of topics which have set me up for a legal career in a way I don't think a year's law conversion really does.

Thanks so much everyone for very interesting and useful insights. Discovered my DS does have dates for the offers day at Warwick. It is his decision of course but from what I have read I think the university and the PPL course will suit him very well.

4 miles from Coventry City centre, not Coventry. It is in Coventry, as the university's address states.