Tell me about Warwick

[Warwickk]

I got some really helpful responses the other day when I asked about Durham - now it's Warwick's turn.

I have at least been to Warwick, and although DD hasn't yet, she's going to the open day next month.

I'm curious about second and third year accommodation. I think some live in Coventry and some in Leamington Spa, and my question is - why do people live in Leamington? Coventry looks much closer and must surely have more amenities / nightlife etc.

Please explain, and tell me what else is good and bad about Warwick!

Dd went to Warwick. She lived within walking distance of the uni in Coventry. It's a lovely uni and she enjoyed her four years there.

I went to Warwick and DD is there now in her 3rd year. I lived in Cov in 2nd and 3rd years and loved it. But then I was v into indie clubs and gigs. DD lived there last year in FarGo which is a cool area near the Herbert art gallery. This year she's in Leamington so getting the best of both worlds. It's a fantastic uni with a brilliant arts centre. The campus is leafy with some stunning architecture and a great way to slightly cocoon from the world when you've left home for the first time.

Ds graduated from Warwick two years ago and lived in Coventry in years 2 and 3. The bus to and from leamington was a pain and meant staying on campus all day as travelling to and fro was time consuming, but perhaps this has improved.
ds also lived within walking distance of campus and I don’t think the area was particularly rough. His rent was not too pricy and three of them shared a house with two bathrooms, dishwasher, spare box room…so pretty nice for student accommodation.
sports centre is excellent, parts of the campus are quite attractive, ds was in lakeside. Campus accommodation seemed pretty reasonable compared to some places.
Travel to London and Birmingham is easy which is convenient when the time comes for job interviews and assessment centres.
ds was not overly impressed with pastoral care: he was assigned a tutor who seldom checked in with him, although he didn’t need/ask for any support. She did ask if he has a job post graduation but didn’t ask him anything about it so seemed to be a box ticking exercise rather than a demonstration of any real interest.

I adored Warwick; I lived in Cov (couple of bus rides from the Uni), due to having a young DS at the time & single parent/mature housing on campus was at least double the cost, so my experience probably doesn’t mirror a ‘normal’ students experience!

The small property (off Red Lane) was in the amusingly monikered ‘Paradise’ area, but was managed (but not owned) by the Uni. We lived in the same road as several other student families so we had a good, supportive community.

Leam is beautiful but expensive (even back in the 90s), many students lived in Canley & Earlsdon.

The campuses were fabulous; I was mainly in Westwood as I was training as a teacher but main campus was a just short walk across the road for the main library/Rootes/bookshop &, of course, the Arts Centre. We used the Lecture Theatre at the Arts Centre every week for full year Education lectures, as well as daily use of the Library etc.

At the time, the brilliant nursery was on the Westwood campus, and catered for tutors & students’ children alike; it was a second home for many of us with a fabulous extra support network.

I know that many people here post with regards to their 17-18 year olds, but as a young single parent of 19/20 when I started, having this perspective way back then would’ve been very useful. Warwick has always had many mature students & post grad students with children, as well as visiting lecturers from overseas.

Many students on courses on the main campus lived on the Westwood side, so there was never a case of ‘Westwood’ v ‘Main Campus’ rivalries! There was a good flow of students between both.

Tesco & Sainsbury’s are close, and Coventry itself had a good range of stores.

In all, a brilliant experience.

Sorry meant to say Economics was better ranked at Warwick, not Durham. By quite a margin.

None of it is rough- by a long way. Anyone who thinks it is must be very sheltered. No housing estates like the ones I grew up on, that’s for sure!

I went to Warwick 20 years ago and pretty
much everyone lived in leamington and there were always buses. I think they could be quite full late at night after an event at campus, and I recall taking the occasional taxi or there was always someone sober who would drive you home if you missed the last bus. I really wouldn't worry about transport as I can only imagine that the service is better these days too!

In leamington there were lots of house parties, a few pubs and bars and one evening a week we would go to a nightclub. Also sometimes went out in Coventry too. But most of the social life was still campus based as the union was big and held good events. Again I imagine as a student these days, there are even better events and more choices.

As a university I found it was very academic, and I would say it's not necessarily the coolest one to go to! But living in halls and being on campus in the first year was a lot of fun. I had friends at places like Newcastle and Exeter who definitely had a more varied social life. But I did enjoy it and have lots of good memories from that time. The main downside I felt from being at Warwick was not making many life long friends. I am not sure why, but from my friendship group, very few moved to london after uni to work, and we just seemed to lose touch quite quickly. This was pre social media though; so probably less of an issue these days.

But I have an excellent degree from there, so no regrets really. I also think being on campus kept my teenage antics more controlled... I saved the really wild stuff for my twenties in london! Would I encourage my kids to go there? I'm not sure really... but it felt very safe and innocent in comparison to city universities, so maybe!

My daughter is in her second year and lives in Kenilworth. Kenilworth is a small town nearer to the Uni than Leamington, she chose to live here as she's not really a party girl. Kenilworth is really nice but small, there's a train station in the town so you can get to Cov and Brum easily. She didn't want Leamington as its that bit further away and the buses in the morning can get full. It's much cheaper than Leamington too!

My son did a masters at Warwick. The second and third year were in 'Tutbury Avenue'....nice house, but his flatmates left after a bachelors degree and he went back to halls for 4th year. Accomodation was good, and I thought good idea that most (all?) student out-of-uni houses were overseen by uni, so if there was some sort of landlord dispute there was a third party to sort of adjudicate.
I think a bike is very useful kit.
The arts centre is brilliant. Not just for uni stuff, but 'proper' tours go there, eg 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue' recording. My son doing electronics but was very involved with the 'arts' scene at the arts centre.

Coventry definitely has very rough areas. I used to work for a NHS department which meant visiting sites and there were times we needed the police to come with us! These areas aren't near the university though.

As others have said, no issues with buses from Leamington, they are very frequent. In terms of nightlife, it depends what you want. Neither Coventry or Leamington are what they were 10-15 years ago, and the younger people I know tend to go into Birmingham for their nights out anyway.

Warwick is a lovely campus though with some great facilities - we have used them as 'members of the public' - frequent visitors to the Arts Centre which attracts some good names, the climbing and sports facilities are great, as well as their e-sports centre. There's Aldi within walking distance of the campus next to Tesco.

I notice they guarantee accommodation for all first years, whether you firm them or not, which is a big plus. Or at least they did this year.

Seems lots struggle about whether to apply to or firm Warwick. It’s right up there in terms of the rankings and employability…but just doesn’t tug the heart strings for many when they visit. It seems like it’s head or heart….do they choose the one that’s academically strongest but not so cool, or go to one a bit lower down the rankings which has the big city vibe or the historic university feel.

There's a certain snobbery re Leamington and Coventry. Coventry is seen very much as the slightly trampy end whereas leamington is much more upmarket (in places!!).
Save their money, live in Coventry. Much closer to get to uni too?!

DH and I went to Warwick. Years ago but we lived in Earlsdon for 2nd and 3rd years. Didn’t find it rough at all and never had any issues. Had friends who stayed in Leamington and they were also fine. For nightlife I seem to remember we generally stayed on campus. Top Banana was a weekly draw if I remember rightly! For shopping etc we took the train into Brum. Generally we stayed on campus during the day. It was definitely a ‘bubble’ uni which suited us. Been back to Cov recently for the water park. Didn’t feel ‘dodgy’, felt like any other city really.

Save their money, live in Coventry. Much closer to get to uni too?!

DD would be in this camp I think. Upmarket is not really her thing.

DS and I really liked the campus when we visited, some of it has a sort of businessy feel, and some is greener and more relaxed. He liked the walk through the woods to the science bit.

Another good point is that halls prices cover a good range, from very cheap to less so. My niece is there, in 3rd year. She’s found pastoral care to be pretty good and she’s been extremely happy with the teaching. She feels quite stretched and that it’s definitely ok to study hard. Nightlife isn’t the wildest, but you definitely don’t have to sit home alone!

Top banana on a Monday night... such fun!

This has been so helpful, thanks everyone. It's good to hear such positive things about Warwick, and to find out a bit about Coventry and Leamington.

DD went to an offer holders day in Warwick (we stayed in Leamington Spa the night before). She summarised it as "There's nothing wrong with Warwick but it's not Durham".

Full disclosure: She started at Durham yesterday and is loving it so far (appreciate it's early days!).

I think it's difficult to choose on paper, there's nothing like visiting a place to get a real feel for it. Eg She also visited Nottingham which she thought she'd love but didn't in reality.

She's never been to boarding school and had little idea of places/perceptions/stereotypes which in hindsight was a good thing. She did know she didn't want a big city though. Choosing is a minefield, I think the city vs campus is a good place to start. The irony being she definitely preferred campus ..... which Durham technically isn't!

Sorry I rambled a bit there and not sure if this helped at all.

Tell her the biggest Primark in the world is in Birmingham, which is a 20-30 minutes train ride from Cov!!

This thread is making me want to study at Warwick- and I'm nearly 58!!

Seriously, it has a lot going for it but I think your DD will go for the place that she feels is right for her.

Dd is going to rent in Earlsdon this year. I'll let you know how she gets on. The area from Earlsdon to the uni looks nice. Dd was in one of the cheapest Halls in the first year (Cryfield Standard) and her rent is very similar next year (bills Inc.) There was a recent BBC article about student housing where they singled out Coventry as not having shortages.
Dd loved being on campus last year and could have lived on campus again as they are well off for halls but decided to live out. There's a sports and Arts centre and loads of societies.
We live in London, so dd didn't feel she needed a big city as she can have that any time. She liked having a 12 minute walk to lectures through a nature reserve last year. (Life Science Dept.)
I'm planning on visiting her and going to Leam this year.

@itshappened and a pint of purple. Those were the days!

Just to add dd did visit B'ham for the day as she has a friend at Uni there.

Bits of Coventry are a bit rough, but the uni is on the south side and that is generally all right
I agree with this. I've travelled through that part of Coventry a fair bit by bus and it's quite green with large houses and private schools from what I can see.

Sorry I rambled a bit there and not sure if this helped at all.

I know exactly what you mean - somewhere can look perfect on paper but just doesn't appeal for some reason. It has to feel right I think. I thought she'd like Bristol, but she didn't really. But she did like Birmingham 🤷‍♀️
(Great intel about the Brum Primark btw)

I have my fingers crossed for Warwick after reading all these positive experiences, hoping the open day is sunny as that always helps!