Should DN go for campus or city uni?

[Stringbean70]

DN lived in London all his life. Is sociable and street wise but not into clubbing or live music. His great passion is football - he wants to go to a uni where he can have a kick about with mates when he has a spare hour at lunch/between lectures.

With that as his top criterion, I’d have thought a campus uni is a no-brainer - green space and football pitches on site rather than a bus ride away? My friend’s DS is at Lancaster and thinks DN would love it - the sporting rivalry between colleges would appeal to him in her view.

Of course DN will assess courses in detail but, as a first filter, do you think he should be looking at campus over city? Londoners like him don’t always go to city unis do they (my DS seems to think they do)?

Ms DS is the same, streetwise, goes to school in London. We live just outside.He is alsomlooking at Campus unis as says he's sick of the city and people trying to nick his airpods! He is deciding between Lancaster as well and Southampton and Reading and UEA, all campus unis and he refused to consider Bham, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol etc. London was always ruled out.

Many years ago I went to 2 city unis for undergrad and postgrad and I agree with them, I would have much preferred campus, certainly for undergrad.

Only exception maybe is if they are massive, massive clubbers or party animals. DS wants to have fun but would be more that happy with campus bars and parties, plus they go out in the nearby towns as well.

I think you need to look specifically at facilities - eg Glasgow is not a campus uni, but plenty of sports facilities close by.

Lancaster is not a super exciting place if you’ve grown up in london.

Also consider if theyre doing a 4 year course with placement or year abroad as well. If the go to Lancaster, Warwick, Loughborough campus places my idea is that first year social life is all provided on or around campus (which would suit my diary lazy son), second year they may be working in a big city anyway or studying abroad and then third and fourth year they should be knuckling down to study and not worried about partying as much 😜

Lancaster is my DS favourite at the moment and people he's spoken to say they go out in Liverpool or Manchester sometimes if they want a city night out. II believe Warwick/Loughborough is the same with Coventry/Bham etc. Presumably Bath students go out in Bristol sometimes etc.

Just checking he knows Birmingham is campus?

Yes, they are a factor for costs. The unis tend to work on a 3 term model for charging rent so you can pay for a lot of weeks that aren't being used!

@Stringbean70 Some have reading weeks between the two semesters. MFL, if you go abroad, usually works on two semesters. Overall it doesn’t make much difference. Your term dates are what they are. My DDs old university used to start in October. It’s now two weeks earlier. Two teaching blocks (semesters) and the second one ends on 3 May in 2024. Then there’s revision, exam period and everyone will be gone by 10 June.

While that's true, @Piggywaspushed, people on the "trimester" model are probably paying for empty rooms over Christmas and Easter too! Just seems worse when they're all in a row at the end.

I would say that Birmingham doesn't actually advertise that it's a semester uni anywhere really. is Christmas and Easter is the same length as anywhere else. He is all done by mid May. No exams. It just seems a bit of a shame they miss out on a lot of the fun uni summer stuff. His accommodation contract runs til June 30th...

His band does a summer concert but with no lectures, exams etc it would be the only reason to stay.

It is a bit odd really. The catered meal plan diddles them out of about 5 weeks too....

I had reading weeks on a three term system with 9 week terms!

Birmingham’s term dates on their website are apparently 26th September until the end of June?

Yes, that's what I mean about it not being clear. But loads of unos publish term dates that aren't actually relevant to all students. Birmingham has medics and they have more weeks teaching. Ds's teaching ends mid May.

Agree with @Piggywaspushed that info can be hard to find and doesn't always apply! For instance, when Christmas/Easter breaks actually are at various places. And whether "exam weeks" are relevant to entirely-coursework-based vocational subjects. Etc etc etc.

My DD knew about the semester thing and the accommodation implications; she's planning on staying there with her friends right up until the end of the contract to get her value for money (and maybe pick up some casual work, which is more plausible in her uni city than back home). Then next year, she could only find a 51-week contract anyway (second-year rooms are another story for a different thread...)

Oh, yeah, the 51 week contracts were a shock!

Loughborough great but DN not good enough to get into any of their footie teams. Course not offered either which is key ofc so rules out immediately

Surely your DN should be looking at courses first, rather than location? What does he want to study? DS1 studied a more niche course which wasn't offered in all universities so we looked at ALL places he could study and then started to narrow it down to where he thought he would enjoy being. DS2 on the other hand studied something which is offered in dozens of universities so in his case he probably could have looked at location first and then the course.

RG unis are held up as the be-all-and-end-all on MN - an increasingly anachronistic and out of touch view as so many employers now recruit BLIND (ie. don’t get to indulge their prejudices see what university their applicants studied at).

DN’s step sister with 1st from Oxbridge had to have that disregarded and made ‘blind’ from her application last year. She got the grad trainee scheme - but some of her Oxbridge and RG friends lost out to students from Bath, Leicester, Keele, Essex and Sheffield Hallam under blind recruitment

You judge and contradict yourself in your post - “surely your DN should be looking at course first”. But then you state that your DS2’s course offered everywhere and location shld have been more of a consideration. My DN’s is offered everywhere too. I am merely asking for FIRST filter advice as to campus or city. You have not added value as yet tbh. Hope u will

@Stringbean70
You could add value to the discussion by saying which subject. It’s perfectly reasonable for @unfortunateevents to say there are, sensibly, different criteria that should be used for choosing if subjects are offered everywhere or not.

There will be campus universities that want CCC for History (say) and others want AstarAA. So predictions matter first surely? You can cut out lots of unis if he’s CCC!

Gosh, you are rude. I am neither judging nor contradicting myself. My point was that depending on what your DN wants to study, there may well be other considerations that should be looked at first above location. DS2 is studying a healthcare – based degree, where the important thing is the qualification at the end and very little weight is given to where you actually studied. So in his case, it made perfect sense for him to look at location first because the value of the degree was going to be the same, no matter where he went. For DS1 there were far fewer options where he could study his chosen degree, with his subject combination, and some unis had a much better standing with employers than others. Deciding in advance that he wanted a city uni would have ruled out the top two choices in his subject area, one of which he actually ended up at and was very happy.

@unfortunateevents I agreed with you! Did you mean me?

Sorry no!

@TizerorFizz I was responding to the OP but couldn't quote her post because there was already a quote in it. And I'm technically incompetent and can't do a cut-and-paste on my phone!😁

@unfortunateevents I am so sorry. I was rude. Terrible evening last night but that is a whole other story and no excuse. I am embarrassed and apologise most sincerely

@TizerorFizz DN wants to study English if that helps?

Hi OP. I am an English teacher! Happy to chat about uni via PM?

@Stringbean70
Ok. English. Most universities offer English. If possible grades are AAA, (or above) that should dictate the first sift and the type of university DN could aspire to. Look at something like the Complete University Guide to see what universities are rated for this subject, then see what typical offers are. If DN is CCC then you will need to look much lower in the league table. BBB too I suspect. English is popular.

A further complication with English is that it’s a degree where holders possibly don’t earn much after graduating. (IFS Reported on best paying degrees) It’s at the lower end. Therefore always aim high for uni to keep the most options open after university. English grads have to compete with so many others for jobs, it’s worth going to the best uni and doing work experience and/or actual work to build up the cv. English grads can go into a lot of different careers but make sure DN understands that employers look for transferable skills, not an intimate knowledge of Shakespeare! (Well unlikely).

There will be sports at all decent universities so don’t put that first. Prioritise the university. Then drill down to campus and other important factors. There will be enough to choose from but do not throw out the best based on sport or campus. Then go and visit a mix.

@Stringbean70 well Loughborough may have ditched MFL 😮 but English is deffo offered there, unless they want to do some specific aspect?