What is studying in London really like?

[Tamar86]

DD is very keen on applying to university in London - UCL is her top choice (modern languages), and she also likes the look of Kings (European studies).

I’m concerned about:

The cost, especially in second and final year. Worried we might really struggle to afford accommodation. I know you get a slightly bigger loan in London, but worried it won’t be enough. We live several hours away, so commuting not an option.

The student experience - I’ve heard stories about most students commuting/living really spread out etc etc so it is hard to get to know people.

I actually did a 1 year masters at UCL myself. But I was older, already living with friends and able to commute in from a cheaper location, so slightly different. I didn’t need the social side of the uni, and I didn’t really get to know what it was like. Anyway, I expect things have changed in 20 years.

Not sure whether I should be fully supportive and enthusiastic, or the wet-blanket voice of reality.
It’s an expensive mistake if the experience turns out not to be so great in reality.

Dd also likes the look of Cardiff and Nottingham, which are much more affordable, and maybe offer a more standard tight-knit student experience. But of course UCL has more international prestige than either of them.

Planning a road trip in the summer to look at them all. London as a city is more exciting than Cardiff or Nottingham, let’s face it.
So it would be useful to have some up-to-date facts and personal experiences to discuss and weigh up.

I saw a few posters recommend Brum.
I was watching a YouTube video where someone compared their time studying in London VS Studying in Birmingham
He said he found Birmingham a lot less safe and often students were targeted.

I've also read that in the "studenty area" of Selly Oak there's been quite a few muggings.

Actually, what I said about Camden was:

It’s also worth looking at where the off campus socialising takes place and popular areas to live in after the first year when choosing halls and looking at rental costs budgets. It used to be centred on Hammersmith for Imperial and Camden for UCL. It might be cheaper to live in Bethnal Green but if everyone is going out in Camden and that’s where all the house parties are, Ubers and tube fares will soon add up. It’s not ideal to be taking night buses and tubes alone.

IME, Hammersmith and Camden were the most popular areas for going out for Imperial and UCL students respectively. A lot of students chose to live out in those areas or nearby eg Caledonian Road or places that were well connected to both Hammersmith/Camden and the university ie without multiple buses or tubes. It may have changed in the last couple of years with the current rental crisis, but as I said, it is a good idea to find out the popular places to live when looking at budgets 🙄 Especially if you want to avoid the biggest downside of going to university in London - it’s easy to feel socially isolated.

It’s a good question to ask actual current students (rather than their parents) at open days or on TSR.

This page from UCL might be useful as it lists suggested areas to live in with average rental prices:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/students/news/2023/may/where-live-london-if-youre-not-halls#camden

I quote 😂:

Camden is possibly the most popular place for students and young people living in London. Right in the heart of London, it's renowned for some of London's most eccentric clothing, old cobbled streets and celebrity spotting. It's perfect for shopping, with many main high street retailers and independent shops in sight. Of course, there's also the entertainment aspect, with Camden being home to one of the many hot spots where London's best night life takes place, as well as several cosy, old pubs. The area is also home to one of London's best street food markets, where you can find affordable cuisine from all over the world.

There are lots of other suggestions too. Surprisingly, rental prices in Camden don’t seem to be that different from Mile End (where QMUL is) or Acton.

DD has not received any direct financial aid from university for her year abroad. Whilst some of her friends chose to study in France, DD went the Teaching Assistant route and that was all organised through the British Council and the French counterpart.

They sorted out the work visa application (the fee was in the region of £80(?)), but for France IIRC DD had to go into London for a visa interview. I'm not absolutely sure as DD took care of it by herself.

Sorting out accommodation in France was tricky, despite DD's school helping her set up a bank account etc. In the end she rented through a specialist company that does rentals for students/ young professionals much like a private student hall. Her friends at university applied and got places in uni halls.

In her placement, she's in a big city and the French gov pays 1/2 her transport fees, as well as a salary. DD has been very lucky with her placement and she has enjoyed it immensely. We have not needed to subsidise her whilst she's been in France, with her salary and minimum student loan!

In contrast, she says that her friends at universities in France have had extremely heavy workloads, and she's glad to not be doing that.

@Needmoresleep would it be terribly cheeky of me to PM you about your rental? Thank you.

I thought I said Camden was a bit off limits unless you are well off. Maybe I didn’t make this clear. It’s not a cheap area now for a student rental.

Lots of students try and live together and purpose built student flats are available. Of course zone 3 is cheaper but students can be spread out. Zone 3 is big!

@Tamar86 DD did MFL. Yes y4 living can be an issue. DD must keep in touch with MFL friends or others doing 4 year degrees, eg engineers. I think London does make it harder and many dc have the option of home. It’s just that sort of place. I really would look elsewhere. There’s no shortage of city universities with great MFL degrees. The only thing about London is that students can leave it late to look for housing unlike some places.

Joining in here. DD has been all round the houses over offers but now thinks it would be churlish to turn down UCL over the other offers. I’ve offered to do the halls research this week so if anyone has any tips, I’d be grateful. She has a matured CTF covering tuition fees and our household income means she will not qualify for any maintenance loans. We had rather hoped we’d be off the fees hook after school fees but I think we’re being naive. DD is willing to work but having done the Oxford application I think the ‘no job’ policy there has left her with the impression term time working will ruin success at a degree level…! So far the cheapest halls which are a reasonable distance look like they are around £245pw with a shared bathroom.

DD has been to school in London since y7 so is very familiar with it. She does want to live away from home (fair enough) but accepts years 2 and 3 are likely to be at home (especially if she is paying 😂)

From memory, the halls system includes UCL halls and shared intercollegiate halls with other London uni colleges. Catered ucl halls were Ifor Evans (Camden) and Ramsey (Bloomsbury). Self-catered include max rayne (Camden, next to Ifor Evans) but there’s loads of others too (Grafton, Campbell House, both th in Bloomsbury) and then of course all the privately run ones too. Intercollegiate ones included commonwealth Hall.

Things have probably changed loads but when I was there there was a chance of halls in the third year as well as first. London-based friends tended to live out for one or two years but then live at home in the third year.

I stayed at Ifor and Max Rayne in the 90s! I would have much rather been central as that’s where the fun was! But things will probably have changed so much since my time 😏

@PotentialUCLmum she could get the minimum maintenance loan no matter what your earnings which for London is over £6000. That will help.

Thanks @mondaytosunday i need to gen up on this. I thought tuition loans were for all but maintenance is means tested?

My DD is in her first year at Kings and living her best life! We are from Wales so she does get more financial help than under the English scheme but we do still have to support as well. However she has gone from a shy introvert into a confident young person with some great friends and has already had some amazing experiences thanks to the vibrancy of London. She is currently in uni halls and was is looking at a house share next year with a mix of current flatmates and course friends. Having said that she has friends in Cardiff and they are also having fabulous times! All I can say is London is expensive but worth it to see her flourishing.

Hiya OP! I was an LSE student less than a decade ago. It makes me sad to see all the hate for international students. We're not all super rich and cliquey y'know! I came here on scholarship but a lot of others took loans in their home country, in the hope of getting a plum graduate job in the UK to pay it off.

I had a good mix of friends and most of my international friends are still here, living in London, so I have a free place to stay. I'm now in Manchester, married with kids etc to a Brit and work in London sometimes. But if I have a holiday, always a free place to stay! Uni mates were BMs at my wedding.

I'm probably out of date on costs, but I fail to see why a 'campus uni' or smaller city guarantees more tight knit friendships. Halls are a great way to make friends, yes but societies are probably where the best friendships are formed. This is true for most universities. I joined pole dancing, Music, gaming etc and had a great time! As an aside I think a lot of the people who say London is less social would've struggled at another uni. There's no guarantee of readymade friends. Of course, some people happen to click with those in halls, some don't. But that's no reason to claim that the uni is a problem.

The one thing that's unparalleled about London is the career opportunities. Major employers have insight days in office. Of course, they also have them online now but let's face it you can't hold individual conversations online. I impressed one guy so much he offered to have me in for unofficial work experience to meet his team.

As a MFL student this will be quite important for her. London may be more expensive but it'll be worth it.

I second the suggestion above to take a look at Edinburgh. It is much smaller than London but is a buzzy capital city. Accommodation is much more reasonable than London. DD has just applied for halls for next year and all her choices (self catered, shared bathroom) came in at between £6000 and £6500, and there are a few available below £6000. Not sure yet how accommodation in later years will pan out as there have been changes in the law affecting rented properties in Scotland which I think are still shaking down. Another plus is that all students aged under 22 get free bus travel throughout Scotland and free trams in Edinburgh, which makes it easy to get around the city and take advantage of everything it has to offer. Much of this would apply to Glasgow as well, though we didn't look there so I don't have any personal knowledge.

maintenance loan is means tested but there is a minimum amount available to all students, regardless of parental income.

Studying and social life is fine. It’s just cost, if you can’t afford to cover them they will need a job, which is fine.

My kids went to school in London but chose other universities in England as they and we wanted them to experience life away from London.

Without doubt though, the best feedback from their friends has been from Edinburgh. Everyone seems to love it without fail!

Edinburgh for MFL with a year abroad I think is 5 years. For MFL it’s just not worth it! Far better to stay in England where the MFL courses are very good. Those saying Edinburgh are maybe not looking at MFL which is 4 years anyway. If you need to study further it’s taking a long long time.

@PotentialUCLmum Oxford is way cheaper than London. They don’t want students working in term time but they are short terms. What’s wrong with working in the holidays? If it’s UCL and work or Oxford and work in holidays, I know what I’d choose!

My DD went to Bristol and did loads of taster events in London. Holidays are for these. She did not miss out and neither did anyone else. Plus many employers know Oxbridge students and others aren’t around in term time. Students just need to plan and employers really do visit unis outside London!

Edinburgh is still only 4 years for MFL with the 3rd year spent abroad, the same as English unis. This also applies for other Edinburgh courses where students have the option of a year abroad - the year abroad is an alternative to the 3rd year, whereas at most other unis it is an extra year.

Agreed. DS has time abroad at his Scottish uni and it’s not “extra”, it’s part of the 4 year degree.

Some like to write off Scotland because of the first year/extra year but it’s a big mistake - many Scottish unis offer free tuition for the 4th year to RUK students so it’s just living costs that are extra. And might save those “emergency masters” students splurging a fortune on a masters as 3 years uni life wasn’t enough for them! There’s a big benefit to the first year for some as well - as the breadth of subjects can help decide on any changes/alterations and allow time to settle in. It’s worked brilliantly for our DS.

4 years for Edinburgh sounds like an attractive option, as then presumably all your friends would still be around in the 4th year when you returned from your year abroad. Whereas at a lot of other universities, half of them would have left.
High entry requirements though, even compared to UCL (though not quite as bad as Durham). Whilst she might well meet them with a fair wind, it really piles the pressure on.

And much higher entry requirements than Bristol, since it turns out DD’s school is on a list for getting a contextual offer from there. Bit surprised about that, but it‘s a bonus. I don’t think she’d be eligible for one anywhere else. If she did like Bristol, it would certainly take the pressure off.

Bit of a nuisance to get to Bristol, but perhaps we can look at it on the same trip as Cardiff.

@RefreshingCandour both Edinburgh, St Andrews, Heriot Watt and now Glasgow charge RUK students for all four years, plus obviously the accommodation costs too. It was the deciding factor for my DD not choosing Glasgow (when she applied it wasn't yet confirmed they'd charge for the fourth year). I know they aren't the only Scottish unis but the ones most mentioned here.

Strathclyde don’t!

@Tamar86 Yes, I think the fact that almost everyone does four years has some advantages. My DD was less bothered by having to pay for a fourth year because she wants to do a year abroad and her linguist sister did four years so she sees it as fairly normal. She also got a contextual offer from Bristol due to her school, but for her course it was only one grade below the Edinburgh offer. I’m surprised the Edinburgh offer for languages is higher than it is for UCL.

Yes, @PumpkinKnitter I was surprised too at the disparity in entry requirements. Bristol would be BCC which is pretty much the lowest we’ve found anywhere.

Most seem to be AAB-ABB.

@Tamar86 Wow! That is incredibly low! Very hard not to at least make it an insurance option.