Uni& then Working in London

[silentbutdeadly1]

How were DC experience when they went to university in London and then transitioned to working in London for their grad job?

Life style changes etc? Did they keep the same friendship group/flats?

Did they ever go visit their old unis with the alumni card?

Alumni card? Not sure grads go back and see their old uni whenever they went to be honest. They may visit their uni town to see friends, but why visit the uni buildings?

Neither of mine studied in London, but their uni friends have all gravitated to London and they meet up regularly. Probably around 7 or 8 meeting regularly and regarded as good friends.

Can’t speak about London but my husband and I have both been back to visit our universities. We knew each other at the time so have been back together and separately to meet respective uni friends. The buildings hold lots of memories.

Jeremy Bentham’s corpse is great for older kids when they get to the age where they enjoy gruesome stuff. DH enjoys going to weird lectures, personally I see it as a waste of a babysitter so he goes with a uni mate. So yes unis get revisited. Uni friends mostly stayed, and we both grew up in the home counties so found school friends gravitated to London after uni regardless of where they’d gone, as they could live at home and commute if the salary wasn’t great. Now we’re mid 30s people are starting to move out and some have gone abroad (including us but we came back after 3 years).

Did some googling and Imperial has an alumni centre for its alumni to use during working hours

My DD went to university in London and now works in London. She hasn’t got a “grad job”, though. She has a job. She lives at home. Her closest uni friends are actually those she was at primary school with who ended up at the same university. They all live at home too. DD is now doing a master’s degree at another London university (doing it part time). I’ve never heard of an alumni card.

@silentbutdeadly1 One of mine went to uni in London and works in London. Has trained for another career though and not really using her degree. She’s not attached to her old uni in any way. She has a mix of friends from school and other aspects of her life.

DD1 did her professional training in London but didn’t go to uni there. She’s got loads of friends from the training course. She works and lives in London where most of her school friends are based too. Plus most uni friends!

https://www.alumni.lse.ac.uk/s/1623/interior-hybrid.aspx?sid=1623&gid=1&pgid=6415

Alumni card.

@silentbutdeadly1 But is this an important consideration? Many dc move on from uni. They don’t keep the umbilical cord attached.

Tizer, that may depend on which University. As well as the facilities offered in the link above, LSE alumni associations offer all sorts of social/networking opportunities though their groups for lawyers, property professionals, finance professionals etc. I have not checked recently but they also used to have annual alumni lectures, and also their very good public lecture services. LSE alumni groups were pretty active in other places I worked, and when I was working abroad it was a useful way of meeting local people and other expats with whom you had something in common. Oxford and Cambridge Societies seemed to work in a similar way, and the trips sometimes advertised in DH's Oxford alumni magazine to interesting places and led by experts in the field sound fab.

DS, studying for a PhD elsewhere, regularly uses the LSE library when he is in London.

I am now off to look at the gym facilities mentioned in the link. My gym has unfortunately closed down. Perhaps another reason to keep the umbilical cord attached.

My guess that the improved offer is part of a move towards American style fundraising, where life time links with your former college are encouraged, partly in the hope that at some point you will start writing them cheques. Not necessarily a bad thing. The last reunion I attended, albeit pre lockdown, was fun.

I think I would be nice one day to WFH at your old university

Universities aren't really set up for that though......
There are quiet study spaces or noisy communal areas neither of which are suitable for WFH if you have a job that involves meetings.

That’s not practical. I work from
home. I can’t do it from any other space that is not “home”. I need complete silence, multiple screens, specialist software, a PC, not a laptop, and I need to speak a lot. And I wouldn’t want to hang out with lots of students.

My niece went to UCL. She lives in another city and I haven't noticed any particular focus by her on going back but she's not big on social media and we don't chat frequently. She does seem perfectly happy though!

I do think her accommodation situation was much tougher than mine at another university, and actively worked against her making friends, but the course and teaching sounded absolutely brilliant. I don't think I have had a better time overall having spent 2 years mourning leaving my uni and still meeting up with friends there.

@Needmoresleep Many other people network through their professional associations. Or via other training bodies. Or just by being good at what they do. Uni staff are different. They possibly need to attend alumni lectures. Many others don’t need to nip back to uni for this as training and CPD takes place elsewhere. DD1 has been to uni dinners a couple of times - to the department she didn’t study with! However all her networking as a self employed person is done in other ways but she could WFH or network in the bar or library of her Inn of Court.