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

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).

Great I chanced on this thread. Y12 DD wants to study French and Spanish too and we have booked for Lancaster open day in July. It’s her number 2 choice (after Oxford which is just a punt and not hopeful of or over-invested in!). Your statistics OP so useful.

she also has Southampton as definite on her list (already visited and impressed) so trying to decide between Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle and Nottingham for other two places to apply to. Good luck to your DS

PS. My DD also wants to broaden her experience beyond private school - so not applying to Durham, Exeter etc. I think that’s great!

Brits living in Sweden for last 5 years. DD wants to study languages in Uk in 2024. Lancaster first choice but she likes Aberystwyth too - we holidayed there when kids were young. Would Lancaster as 1st and Aber as insurance work. Aber good for languages I think.

am amazed that higher education thread now has so many ppl talking about MFL. Is it no longer in decline?

PS. My DD also wants to broaden her experience beyond private school - so not applying to Durham, Exeter etc. I think that’s great!

My privately educated dd goes to Exeter. She loves it and lives in halls with no privately educated people, does a sport with almost no privately educated people and has a bf who went to a comp. It's a bit short sighted to ignore unis as if life were some social experiment.

Go and visit the place

@MaleMFL Yes. Still in decline. The elite DC are on this site!

Exeter is grammar/private school favourite. Southampton less so but is ranked higher for MFL on CUG than Exeter. Depends what uni you like the look of really. Also many MFL departments squeeze you in. Not enough students to go round.

Aberystwyth? Why? You can do so much better for MFL. It’s awful to get to and remote. It’s very low on CUG for MFL and overall (53rd). Surrey would be so much better.

Better universities are Bristol, Durham, Southampton, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds, Exeter. You need a decent sized department. Mfl departments have reduced in size in lots of places have reduced breadth of MFLs snd options. People who say they did MFLs at uni 30 years ago find these departments hsve closed!

MFL grads should always go to the best overall university and one with a myriad of options. When getting a job afterwards, employers don’t care much about what you studied though . They want the softer skills. What transferable skills have you got? What career do you want and will it actually involve MFL? For many it doesn’t.

Some universities will have higher privately educated Dc. On MFL degrees it’s because these schools actually teach it! Dc are encouraged to do MFL. State schools often see it as unimportant. So don’t pick a uni on this basis. Pick on prestige and quality. Privately educated Dc are only people after all. Not monsters!

@TizerorFizz thanks for your insight and I have no issue with privately educated kids as mine are. Useful to hear about Aber not being known for languages and your suggestion of Surrey as an alternative lower tariff option - I have looked it up and you are right about that. Lancaster is certainly very good for MFL but we will also look at the other universities you suggest in your post. Thank you

@MaleMFL You are welcome.

Can I just comment that wanting to be around 'like people' is completely natural. Especially age 18.

Whether it's state, grammar, private or public school.

I really admire the DS/DD's that want to get out of their comfort zone but let's not appreciate that wanting to be among your peers is also natural.

I think too much is made of what education sector DC came from . My DC is now in second year, came from a highly selective school and has no idea what type of school most of his friends went to. It really doesn't matter. They find their tribe but it's not what school or type of school they went to.

This.

I see that your DC is probably going to go with Exeter. For balance if anyone else is thinking of Exeter everywhere is very walkable, Lafrowda to city centre is 12 mins. I agree that that Exeter does have a higher percentage of private school students but the vast majority are exactly the same as grammar school students. I think it is a standard joke that some are very 'rah' but they tend to be boarders who prefer catered in first year. In my DD's house one went to private out of six students.

The only downside of Exeter is that the price of 2nd and 3rd year accommodation is on the high side, same as Bristol, Bath etc which doesn't help attracting a broader range of students.

The accommodation is plentiful, though. There is very little else now in the city. For illustration, the old Pyramids swimming pool is now closed and they are going to convert the building. Everyone says it must be social housing and not student housing as the local view is that there is already too much.

I went to Exeter from a comp. I'd say the distinction is not simply private/state, more group 1: prestigious boarding schools, and group 2: the ordinary middle class who went to comps, state grammars and private day schools that are 'only' 15k a year. I didn't see much mixing between these 2 groups.

I disagree with this. Exeter is a walk up a hill from town. Southampton is out of main town and that is really a bus ride to get anywhere which isn’t main campus or main halls - so much so that you get a free bus pass with halls fees as much time is spent on buses.

This would also be my feedback from friends kids who went to Durham, Exeter, Bristol, St Andrews ….. and then within the boarding school group there were hierarchies within depending on their schools ranking eg Eton, Winchester etc ……they all know which halls or colleges at these Unis to apply to to keep to their own….

Has he visited Lancaster? I had to decide between Lanacaster and Exeter and the visit swung it for Exeter. Lancaster was pretty grim in comparison. Irrespective of which has the edge in terms of the course the overall experience shouldn’t be discounted.

Exeter MFL is excellent with a really good range of module choice and flexibility. V friendly and helpful lecturers. It’s not a bus ride out at all - it’s a 10 min walk from lecture theatre to town centre.
I get rather tired of the pretty outdated ‘rah’ comments. It’s pretty diverse these days.

Aber is quite limited for languages. I’m also a bit surprised at the love of Lancaster. It’s a small dept, which can be good, but means less module choice.

@Ooonafoo Bristol only had 2 halls where boarders go in any number. Dd met people from various bsvkgrounds though. These were catered halls. Fewer non boarding students want catered and they won’t share bathrooms!!

This is exactly my point - 2 halls in great numbers seems a lot given the small % of boarding school pupils across the U.K. - it seems that there is a proactive tradition of keeping to their own type….my neighbours DS had no idea this was “a thing” and ended up in one of these halls - he could hold his own - v middle class, private prep, state grammar - v social and well rounded … did loads of theatre etc - but he was aware that he was subtly socially excluded as he was far down the pecking order

@Ooonafoo These halls are not full of ex boarders! All students were welcomed! It’s a mix but boarders do like them.

This DS just needs to find his friends snd not worry about others. If he’s partially privately educated, he fits the narrative so what on earth was the issue? Did he want to be invited to everything? People do tend to work out who they get on with and who they like. No shortage of possibilities I think. What’s “holding his own”? In what way? Bragging rights? Size of family home? Holidays? School attended? Academics? Drinking ability? Nights spent out on the town? Probably the best advice is just concentrate on yourself. Looking over your shoulder all the time is wearing. It will be in life too.

It’s just that some boarders preferred the catered halls, put up with old furniture, put up with shared ancient bathrooms and both are in Stoke Bishop. Many Dc (definitely on mn) want self catering and modern. They don’t all want Stoke Bishop. Therefore the majority in all the other flashy halls are state pupils. No one seems to say they see those as exclusive. However the boarding pupil might well be a square peg in a round hole in one of these halls. Also the two halls in SB are definitely not exclusively boarding and swaps are possible if a DC doesn’t like it. DD was in one but friends were from a variety of backgrounds. You like who you like. Working class tend to stick together too!

It's funny because at Birmingham, all the ex boarders congregate in Chamberlain - where the most expensive and downright swanky accommodation is. Perhaps it is really about catering rather than the actual furnishings and bathrooms.

Are you OK?

Your response seems a bit rattled.

Rattled? Why? Just explaining. These halls at Bristol are catered. Yes. That’s an attraction but to lots of others too. I don’t think sharing bathrooms is an attraction but boarders don’t mind it so
much. Elsewhere uni accommodation is perceived to be different - expensive equals better off students. Not at Bristol. I don’t really see what the issue is to be honest. Everyone should find their friends. No one is friends with everyone and boarding pupils are a minority. It’s not difficult to look elsewhere and be happy. My DD didn’t make comments about poor students with parents on benefits!

It’s so sad I think and all credit to the pp whose DC wants a broader experience. When DS was choosing he was adamant he wanted to avoid these unis for that very reason.