Best thing and worst thing about your uni?

[Unichat]

my son is in lower sixth - looking at unis - and he asked me and his dad what were the best and worst things about our university days. I went to Oxford: Best - fantastic lecturers/tutorials; Worst - the judgement from private school students (who outnumbered us state school plebs) about my dress sense/hair/accent (this was in early 90s so sure it has improved). Husband went to Leeds - best was the nightlife; worst was the food (he was catered). What are your best and worst features?

DD who would have been a contemporary, though not in Wills, would agree completely, especially druggie flatmates. No spiked drink, though a flatmate was left outside in a suspiciously confused state after a sports initiation.

She has enjoyed the last couple of years on placement and living outside student areas a lot more. Cheaper too.

LSE for me was everything I wanted at the time. Central, London, really international, loads of gigs, interesting course, as far from my girls boarding school as it was possible to be. Food in Passfield was awful, so we lived on cheap Chinese and Cypriot food.

@Unichat DD went to Newcastle. She loved the city so much that she stayed after graduating last year and is living and working there. She enjoyed her course, made some lovely friends and generally enjoyed being a student (apart from exam and dissertation stress, which you would get everywhere anyway). The only downside I would say was that her cohort was over 300 and there really was no opportunity to build up a rapport with the teaching staff.

Interestingly, according to Which? Newcastle is one of the best cities in the UK to eat out in, and I have to agree with this.

Only one of the halls offers catered - Castle Leazes, but by all accounts it isn't great (neither is Castle Leazes either).

I went to St Andrews and graduated in the early 90s. Best was the beauty of the town, and two gorgeous beaches on the doorstep. My tutorial room looked out on the sea, and everything was easily within walking distance. Self- catered hall for my first two years with very good food. Academically rigorous course with excellent teaching staff. Dundee and Edinburgh within reach for days out, shops, pubs, theatre.

Worst was the size meant it was difficult to totally avoid people you’d rather not bump into. Two ex boyfriends would quite often appear around street corners …

OP just on the year out thing - there are a number of unis where the year out is compulsory (mine was back in the 90s) - that was across most of the courses in the whole Business School (was probably the Engineering Dept too) so whilst some friends doing traditional 3 yr degrees (History, English spring to mind) I would say that almost everyone I was friends with all did the same 3rd yr out and came back for 4th year.

Academic here. This is a really fascinating thread but I'd encourage your DS not to put too much stock in MNers experiences of HE.

I've worked at my current institution - old university, RG, slow to change, very traditional - for nine years and many aspects are totally different from when I first started there.

So MNers thoughts on the best and worst parts of their mid-90s or mid-00s university experience aren't likely to chime with what those institutions are like today. I think comments from very recent graduates and some current students (not those at open days) are the most helpful. I'd suggest your DS starts this thread on The Student Room.

But, really fascinating to read, OP 😊

hanging food out the window in a plastic bag to keep cool

We did this in halls - we had a fridge but the kitchen could be accessed by anyone so people raided it. In the end most of us got those cool boxes you take camping and filled the freezer with freezer blocks for our cool boxes instead.

I agree with you @KStockHERO, which is why I posted DD's recent experience of Newcastle.

Yes I also agree @KStockHERO - I did say that I hope and imagine Bristol has changed.

I also was able to post DD’s recent Leicester experience, tho inevitably this was quite personal to a) Covid and b) her degree subject. Still, may be of use to someone.

Two here:

Durham - late 90s
Best: Small town, my department was fab, college bars = cheap beer and a variety of venues to obtain cheap beer from, the amusement of having "The Castle" as your address didn't wear off, wafting around in a gown for formals was rather Hogwarts-esque
Worst: Small town, horrendous class prejudice and anti-local sentiment, cobbles combined with beer = lots of sprained ankles, better like hills. Tourists, Oxbridge rejects with a chip on their shoulder they'd had to come up to "the north" and some generally obnoxious twats.
Ultra-worst: I went to Klute sober once. It was terrifying without beer to numb the cheesefest

De Montfort - last few years (disclaimer - includes the pandemic which was uber shit everywhere)
Best: My department who were absolutely fantastic, mega supportive, the closest knit group of staff and students and you couldn't have a bad day without people noticing and checking in on you.
Also good: student support services - really good (I had a mental health mentor who was FAB), IT was generally very good, lots of support available from the Library in terms of support with information search skills, statistics, academic writing etc - help without utter spoon feeding, campus has lots going on in terms of random fashion shoots being done or videos being recorded of dancers and other randomness - although an old fart now, I liked that going on around me.
Worst: There are courses where the entry requirements are, to put it bluntly, a bit shit which mean that student services could be full of people who'd been suspended from courses for not realising they needed to reapply for student finance each year etc - took up a lot of time and stopped others getting appointments, the wait for the lift in Edith Murphy, timetabling sometimes thinking that you're Usain Bolt and can make it from one side of the big campus to the other in 5 minutes flat, the UCU strike playlist dance party thing going on outside lecture buildings where the playlist was shite and they were really unpleasant towards students trying to enter the building.

DD's experience at Exeter MFL graduated a couple of years ago:

Best: really lovely course with exciting modules and caring staff.

Worst: hills! Everything seems to be at the top of one. It's a lovely city though and near moors and coast.

My experience at Bristol was modern languages and Classics late 80s.

Best: loved the course. Made lifelong friends. Gorgeous city.

Worst; constant bloody sexual harassment from the teaching staff.