Nottingham Uni generally and also geography degree

[Billybadgers]

We went to Nottingham Uni yesterday and my son loved it as did we. He wants to study geography and the course looked great but isnt ranked really highly. How did people find Nottingham Uni and specifically geography.

Ds2 has just finished Year 2 and has enjoyed Notts a lot. The uni gym, the general vibe of Nottingham generally. All good. I was so happy that he got catered Rutland because it was the cheapest by a long way. They all start looking for houses very early for year 2 so watch out for that.

I don’t have a degree and I’ve never popped up on the numerous Oxbridge threads or the numerous ones on being a medic. I leave those to the MN glitterati! So why the pile on? Not sure why I’m the subject of the attack dogs. Mn at its worst and not helpful to
op.

Maybe all the other students at Nottingham are making coffee and not hitting the heights of equity research (hopefully my share portfolio is enhanced by this)? However I am absolutely sure Nottingham students don’t lack academic focus or “wow”.

Interestingly despite not sitting at the top of the RG league tables Nottingham punches above its weight in most of the "which unis did xyz industry recruit from". It tends to do especially well in Law (after Oxbridge and Durham), is usually in the top 10 for tech and in the "second tier" for banking along with Durham, Bristol and Edinburgh.

I would say that looking at DDs various friends and the children of family friends who go to Nottingham academic work takes up less of their time than those at Oxbridge, the better UoL colleges etc. Most of them have very active social lives and significant sports commitments. The latter is perhaps not surprising given many will be attracted to Notts by its facilities. Maybe the ethos that there is more to life than just academic work and therefore the need to develop skills in time management and working efficiently stands them in good stead in the job market?

@londonmummy1966 Exactly. Other universities are similar. If you want a job involving getting on with others, it’s often time well spent running a society, being part of a team and having wider interests. Obviously crunching numbers in research makes some people tick but others enjoy using their other skills in business. Plus a bit of critical thinking too!

Quite, for lots of students a balance between study, following their interests through clubs etc and socialising and making new friends is what they are looking for.

Incidentally Nottingham is the only university to have broken the Loughborough monopoly as the top sports university over the past few years.

Incidentally Nottingham is the only university to have broken the Loughborough monopoly as the top sports university over the past few years.

Actually Brum won BUCS indoor athletics last year 😀 tho Lboro remains unbeaten at BUCS overall.

Agree tho, Notts sports facilities are great.
Also it depends on your sport - Ds is at Lboro and it’s certainly not the top UK uni for his sport (Nottingham or UWE is that, probably).

Thank Clary, yes, I did. Wish I could edit.
Sorry. Hopefully others will have worked it out too.

Hope OP hasn't been put off by the bun fight. UoN is ace and so are its students.

Ah, UWE. Probably even more UG centric Gosh, I really thought I was too old to learn new insults, but truly, every day's a school day out here in the ether.

I didn’t mean to insult anyone, so I’m hoping you don’t mean I did.

All I was trying to say was that yes, a uni can be great for sport across the board - I would put Nottingham, Brum and obvs lboro in that category - but also it’s worth considering, if you do a specific sport, that uni X or Y may be better. There’s another chat about cricket for example. Ds plays American football and UWE has an excellent set up, as does Nottingham, Just another example.

@clary Probsbly directed at me. Most comments have been! I thought I was complementary about Nottingham. I think it’s a great uni to go to.

I would have thought the wording 'top sports university' made it pretty clear I was referring to the overall standings rather than in any specific sport @clary.

And Loughborough do not, in fact, 'remain unbeaten' at BUCS since Nottingham took the overall title in the 2019-20 competition.

I beg your pardon @thing47 you are quite correct - that’ll teach me to listen to Ds who has told me in the past that Lboro had won BUCS every year!

It's clearly time to stop when I don’t even check my facts before pontificating! 😳apologies again.

Absolutely not aiming insults at you, honest!

My comment was a reference back to the description upthread of Nottingham as a 'UG-centric party university', or words to that effect. Until this week, it had never occurred to me that a university focusing on its undergraduate population could be considered to be such a bad thing (but I guess it's now out there that Oxford definitely doesn't - and that that is a good thing...).

DS and his fellow master's cohort found the teaching and support during their MSc to be limited.

Ds also looking at UoN for geography! It is on the list due to sport really. Our elder ds is just finishing at Notts Trent and he has loved his time living in Nottingham. We are going up to the open day in September so hope to get a good idea of halls as ds not really wanting catered.

So perhaps don't choose it for a masters degree, but the OP's DC is applying for undergraduate anyway, so the comment about the university being UG-centric may actually have encouraged them...

My DS did Geog at Nottingham - turned down offer at Exeter for same course on the advice of his geography teacher who said Nottingham had one of the best courses for BA (as opposed to BSc). It’s a great city to be a student. The course is fairly restrictive in first year (compulsory modules that in some respects overlapped with A level syllabus) but after that the range of modules was extensive. Good support for third year dissertation (compulsory) and he went straight into a professional career in which he has been successful for 4 plus years now. All in all a very positive experience!

A friends DC is doing a PhD there - Geography Dept. Researching for a major public body. Went there for undergrad too. It’s simply not true to say it’s poor. I tend to think most successful dc are self starters. Plus the unhappy DC wasn’t doing Geography and seemed to miss supervision as at Oxford. So clearly it wasn’t going to be the same. Slagging off all the undergrads is a bit much though.

I do find the snobby attitude to universities on this board amusing. Is it RG? If so, is it a higher RG and all that twaddle.

Let's face it most of our DC wouldn't be doing degrees were it not for grade inflation and universities wanting bums on seats.

Many at Oxbridge are there thanks to being hot housed at private school.

DD is working hard at "uni" and her part time job. Studying, socialising - she's having a great time but I'm not sure it's going to help her get a better job than if she'd gone into an entry level job after A levels.

Time will tell but in the meantime I'm happily living vicariously through her 😊

😀no apologies necessary, it's a myth that Loughborough students, and alumni, like to propagate. Can't really blame them, they don't want the truth to come out… 😂

Actually… (and I know it is not relevant to the thread really) Lboro has won the BUCS overall trophy every year it has been awarded – see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Universities_and_Colleges_Sport#:~:text=The%20accumulation%20of%20these%20points,Loughborough%20in%20the%20overall%20standings.
Also here – even more times that Wiki says (tho this is from L uni itself) https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2023/july/lboro-crowned-bucs-champions-with-record-points/

In the 2019-20 season UoN did indeed gain more points over the events that ran, and well done to them; but the season wasn’t finished bc of Covid and was declared void. No one won. The many events planned after end Feb 2020 were cancelled. To say anyone won that year is a bit like giving Germany the Euros cup right now on the basis that they have scored more goals.

Anyway. As you were.

My dd has just finished year 2 at Nottingham and she'd be the first to admit that she hasn't been particularly academically-focused so far! And her friends sound similar. These are girls who got all As and A stars at A Level; I think it's perfectly possible to be academically able but not academic, as such, as that's how I'd describe my dd. I'm sure everyone at Nottingham isn't like that, but some unis definitely attract the students who are more into their subject. My sister went to Liverpool, was very into her subject, and found that others around her just weren't. She regretted not going somewhere else. I suspect it's because people who are prioritising nightlife/socialising/sport are more likely to choose Nottingham/Liverpool/Leeds/Newcastle than Oxford/Imperial/Warwick. Makes sense to me! I'm sure there are still plenty of academically-focused students at Nottingham, but maybe they don't make up such a large proportion of the cohort as at Oxford.

If Nottingham are UG-centric in terms of support then I dread to think how bad things are for PGs though! My dd doesn't do Geography so maybe it's better than Psychology!

@BeaSure Why is she bothering then? Why have the costs associated with it?

I agree that there were academically able dc before uni place expansion in 2013 and 1992. If Bums on seats unis don’t add much, why not get a job after A levels? I think if you take academic subjects at A level, you are bright enough if you get As. Have you tried doing a MFL A level for example? Plus years ago CCC was good enough. Plus: 2/3 of Oxford students are state educated. This will increase further. I do think some degrees aren’t great but that’s for young people to decide. They don’t have to apply and spend £££ thousands do they?

Why is she bothering Why have the costs associated with it?

Because she wants to go to University. She loves her subject, - joint honours with a MFL - enjoys studying and works hard for her grades. I'm the one who is wondering if it's worth it.