Cardiff or Swansea Uni

[holidaysaregreat]

DD has put Cardiff as first choice of uni & Swansea as insurance. She is going to study geography. Has anyone got children studying geography at either of these unis? How do they find it? I prefer Swansea (but it’s not my choice!)

But Bristol give Contextual Offers to a massive slice of schools, thus making the requirements the same. Exeter gives a non-contextual range which is only one grade up from Cardiff - and at the Cornwall campus the standard offer is lower.

@Yesandall Yes Bristol was a contextual offer & I think Exeter was actually lower than Cardiff ABB. Exeter do decent offers for (aspiring) state schools. I’m pretty sure one of my 6th formers got into Exeter with BBC for history. I imagine it depends on the subject.

@Georgiepud that sounds good that they match people up. What a nice thing to do!

My eldest went to Swansea and is now doing a part time masters there... we've lost her to Wales now, she loves it in Swansea. BUT... there are not many jobs...

Can you elaborate a bit @ChubbyPuffling ? Do you mean part-time jobs for alongside studying?

Thanks for starting this thread, OP, DD has just started to look at universities for Physical Geography and Swansea looks great.

Very few part time jobs for students to do whilst studying, closure of so many local industrial works has increased demand for jobs... nor are there that many graduate ones for after. Teaching or council/govt departments usually require some level of Welsh speaking (reasonable as they are in "Welsh Wales").

Hmm, thanks @ChubbyPuffling , DD will definitely need to work while studying, so that's something to bear in mind.

@ChubbyPuffling I hadn’t thought about that & had assumed there would be part time jobs at uni or in mumbles. Cardiff currently first choice & still keen after offer holder/open day this week. Apparently the geography lecturer is really lively & gives a great presentation. I’ve yet to find out as I’ve been at work both times she’s been over.

@TheClangyClunk we really enjoyed their open day. The staff were great & I think they do both physical & human in first year. The residentials/trips look great & the area around Swansea lends itself to geography.

Thanks @holidaysaregreat.

Be aware that Geography at Cardiff is either Physical or Human and the two are taught in 2 different faculties. To my knowledge, there is no opportunity for choosing modules from both sides, which is the more usual setup at other universities, which share a common first year and then lean more in one direction as the qualification progresses, depending on chosen modules.

Sometime you never see that great open day lecturer again either! Dc might not choose their module. It’s a bit of a lottery.

Bristol is definitely better and probably has more jobs - it’s bigger but is more expensive. One tiny area of Swansea cannot provide jobs for thousands of students. It might be much better for her to work in the vacations.

Is she scared of private school pupils or is it just you who are not inclusive @holidaysaregreat? Rather poor advice about Exeter. She could try Falmouth campus.

@OhDear111 I really liked Exeter & was encouraging that as a first or second choice. The course looked really good & the campus & city were great.

I’m not a fan of the rah brigade - as someone from a working class town in the Midlands it was constant jibes about my accent for most of my first year in Bristol. It gets tiresome. DD has no accent & we live in a nice suburb of Bristol. So Bristol was off the list in any case. I don’t think DD has opinions either way about posh kids.

Dh’s niece did geography at Cardiff, loved the university and city so much she’s failed to graduate yet (at least that’s our assumption, she will finish in July we hope. She’s planning on staying. It’s a nice city, my dd went there too, quite cheap for housing

As far as accommodation is concerned, you can opt for a quiet flat in Cardiff in halls, there’s also a female only option. There’s fancier private halls if you have deeper pockets. Once in private accommodation if they don’t want to share, bedsits are fairly affordable, my dd had one in a non student area as she really isn’t into all that, we paid £650 a month 2 years ago for a one bed flat fully self contained and all white goods included

@holidaysaregreat You are a bit dated saying “rah”. Should I use some nasty term about you? I can think of some but I’m polite. You should teach tolerance. We are not all the same. Respect goes a long way I find.

My DS is in 2nd yr doing Geography at Swansea and I would agree with you about the halls selection. My DS’s flat was matched so at least one other person came from a similar home area, one was on the same course and they were all deferred students so had gap years in common.

For studying Geography Swansea instant field studies on the beach on the other side of the road/trips to Gower, Pembrokeshire, etc

And they have Varsity with Cardiff every year. DS has friends at Cardiff uni and it’s only a short trip to visit.

I think I know which lecturers you mean! They don’t just get wheeled out for open days - my DS is taught by them and always finds their lectures engaging.

Is it possible to do only do Physical Geography modules at Swansea? I'm guessing so, as that's what the course is called, but wasn't sure when it was mentioned upthread about doing both in the first year. DD is only interested in physical.

@Hedgehogsaremything is the current website correct, that there is a fieldtrip to Iceland?

Cardiff is the better city to live

@OhDear111 I can assure you I have never poked fun at someone because of their background. It’s a bit tongue in cheek but yes they did used to say ‘rah’ quite a lot. The nasty jibes were aimed AT me. It’s a real thing - people assume those with a Black Country accent are stupid & make fun of it. Personally I don’t see the humour in it. I’ve never made fun of someone speaking in a posh accent. We’re all different.

@TheClangyClunk my understanding was that they do the same modules at start of Year 1 & then separate into Human & Physical. We did go to a few open days though so I may be wrong.

We really liked the geography lecturers at the open day & they did some interesting talks. One of the sessions we logged on to computers & looked at ice caps & another was a talk about the Grand Tour. Both really different but interesting.