Exeter or Southampton

[ExetervSouthampton]

Trying to choose between Exeter and Southampton. Overall uni rankings are v similar (13th and 16th in Sunday Times Guide); student experience and teaching quality similarly ranked; subject rankings within two places of each other. We haven't visited either (for reasons I won't bore you with). Which would you recommend please? Will be insurance

There's absolutely tons of first year accommodation at Exeter.

This is what Exeter about 1st Yr hall accommodation if you put them as insurance

DD has offers from Exeter & Lancaster for MFL but Lancaster is the lower offer? She doesn't know which to chose so I'm interested in why Lancaster is rated higher on this thread please? Sorry for gate crashing!

DD did MFL at Southampton. She exceeded their offer and was given a £1000 bursary so worth checking if they are still doing that.

No idea. Noone on here is an expert, some have experience if their kids have gone to either one. One of my dcs is at Exeter and loves it.

@Stugs Thanks for responding and good to know. DD really liked Exeter from her visit.

It's not just about the rankings but Lancaster MFL is ranked 11th, Southampton 13th and Exeter 19th in Complete University Guide.

DS crunched all the stats so let me reel them off from his table (be warned he's a nerd!):

Lancaster - ranked 12th overall in Sunday Times Guide (cf Exeter 13th); ranked 11th overall in Complete University Guide (cf. Exeter 19th); ranked 12th in Sunday Times Guide for French (cf. Exeter 16th); ranked 13th in Sunday Times Guide for Spanish (cf. Exeter 15th); ranked 3rd in Complete University Guide for French (cf. Exeter 12th); ranked 3rd in Complete University Guide for Spanish (cf. Lancaster 9th).

So on every metric above Lancaster beats Exeter for MFL. It does on Student experience and teaching quality too (according to Sunday Times).

But don't get me wrong - both are great unis. For some reason Exeter made DS a contextual offer whereas Lancaster didn't - so Exeter's offer is lower. But Lancaster always been his favourite.

All best to your DD wherever she goes! x

ranked 3rd in Complete University Guide for Spanish (cf. Lancaster 9th).

Mis-typed there - should read Lancaster 3rd, Exeter 9th.

But, to reiterate, both are brilliant! Just depends where your DD wants to go. We are in SE so DS quite wants to go north and says he will get more for his money so can socialise more!

Thanks all. DS is firming Lancaster and insuring Southampton I think. Accommodation guarantee for insurance the decider between Southampton and Exeter - will get him to double check it tomorrow.

I went to Exeter to read Classics and Latin (albeit around 13 years ago). It's a nice campus, close to the City Centre. It's a pleasant campus, a wide choice of active societies etc. The teaching was good and I was well supervised. It is also considered a good research uni.

I stayed in the newer hall which was comfortable.

The only downside I experienced was that there was quite a large cohort of private school students. I personally felt that this led to a an aura of snobbery and elitism towards non privately educated students, which was relatively divisive. It may be different now, and this is just my personal experience, but thought I would share it. (Just to say, I was educated privately myself, so I am not criticising private schools, but definitely noticed some uncomfortable attitudes and views in some (not all) of my peers).

I still enjoyed my social life, outside of these groups, and made good friends, but it was a noticeable feature.

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor yes, we been told that too. Also DS is at well-known private school and says he wants to get outside that bubble and mix in the real world. Insuring Southampton and firming Lancaster. Thank you for adding to this thread

Exeter has bumped up in popularity this year. I think it markets itself far better than some other similar institutions and offers a wider range of 'interesting' subjects. I teach at a pretty ordinary comprehensive and three of one of my A level classes have firmed Exeter. It's been years since anyone has gone there prior to this (and they were on the same corridor as Princess Ann's son!). Maybe this will start changing its intake - I know both Bristol and Exeter are trying to have broader representation.

Glad your DS has decided. He'll have a ball!

I think Bristol have put their money where their mouth is with their very wide-ranging contextual offers, and have offered these for long enough for the broader representation to be properly reflected. I know DD would get a contextual from them and the only other place I have come across that would do the same would be St Andrews. Exeter are nowhere near this kind of level (along with most other places) although obviously they do offer for candidates anyone might agree upon being disadvantaged.

@ExetervSouthampton Thank you, those stats are so helpful and makes sense, I'll pass them on! Good luck to you DS as well.

Name change fail....

Has that Bristol activity actually made a difference though flannagan? At the end of the day, he cost of living in Bristol is still prohibitive, so , contextual offers or not, prospective students still aren't applying.

Lancaster alumni here, its a terrific university good call your DS. Lovely area, the city is safe, friendly and relatively cheap. excellent transport links and loads of sports/clubs and societies, something for everyone. I have a lot of friends who've worked there for a long time and love it, which says a lot. One of my DC is starting to look at universities and Lancaster is also their top choice, they mentioned escaping the private school bubble too. Interesting.

I know nothing about Southampton or Exeter but will always remember privately educated chalet maids on a gap yah discussing their universities and one said "Exeter is very rah!" which made everyone laugh. They may be trying to change that though.

My DS was not over-joyed by MFL at Exeter ... not many module options and not many teaching hours. Nice beach though.

Piggy, that is a good point. The Times figures from last year put Exeter at 35% and Bristol at 27%, so Bristol definitely better, but clearly room for improvement. Anecdotally, at our school students do not describe Bristol as 'posh', 'only for Oxbridge rejects' etc whereas they do for Exeter and Durham.

Oh, interesting!

Bristol is bigger, of course, and , on the whole, has a more political ( woke, if you will!) student body.

At DC's school Bristol is definitely considered a bit more edgy than the others mentioned.

Yes, Bristol has a reputation in DS1 year as a bit edgy and a lot of drugs ( no idea)

Exeter, Nottingham or Bath seem to be popular here.

Can help will halls info re Southampton if needed.

I think this is spot on @Flannagan Although the private school metric is a bit simplistic Bristol has made very significant strides over the past half-dozen years. Exeter if anything has managed to go backwards. Low participation areas again, whilst still poor across the board, has seen a better improvement at Bristol. Whether some of the living cost challenges put a break on Bristol’s progress remains to be seen.

although as the OP’s DC has plumped it seems for Southampton as their insurance all quite academic. 😀 and hopefully - no disrespect to S intended - they secure the grades needed for their first choice at Lancaster.