Arrrrgh! How to support DC in uni choice

[SinuousTendrils]

So DD has finally decided on PPE for her course having pivoted between literature and maths all year.
At last year's open days she loved Warwick's philosophy and maths courses but was not keen on the campus or the idea of living near Coventry.
She loved Durham, loved the PPE course but is concerned about the number of public school types (after ruling out oxbridge for this reason) It is also far away from home.
She felt right at home in Sheffield but isn't sure if the course is as good....
She has no idea what to do but wishes she could take the Warwick course in Sheffield.
Dors anyone have knowledge about the PPE course at Sheff? Warwick was a particular draw as they teach continental.
Thank you.

@Justonemorecoffeeplease Well yes if it’s about money and not continuous learning. There’s pros and cons. My DD1 did a 4 year degree. Mid August birthday. Taking a year out was delaying her getting the high paying career she wanted so she’s much better off by not doing a gap yah. I’ve no idea why some dc don’t work out next steps in y12/13. What stops them?

Some of the most successful people I know pivoted completely after their degrees and are now high earners in unrelated fields. It's not essential to have it all figured out at 16.

And some of the happiest people I know aren't high earners at all - it's not a priority for all of us 🙂

There are other choices for PPE, Exeter and Edinburgh do tend to have a lot of privately educated students, Manchester which doesn't (it looks like the degree is in a single School but shared across departments), Lancaster ditto (if she hates campus universities in general, it won't be for her, but if it was just Coventry/Leamington she hated it might be better), which seems to be across only two departments.
Various London options also might suit?

I am a lecturer but not in this area (I'm in STEM) and I would say that 3 years is a long time to spend in a place you don't like, but most people do end up liking the place they study. However the type of people there are not make-or-break. I studied at an institution often mentioned as a finishing school for privately educated types but I didn't know a single public school educated student personally while I was there. I'm sure there were plenty in my classes but I just didn't mix with them!

DD is at York. Lots of private school kids there. Sheffield sounds like a better fit politically. DD is left-of-centre and locks horns quite often, but she is doing social policy!

I grew up in Coventry- not offended at all- but there are some nice parts not very far from Warwick Uni, it very much depends which roads you go in and out on. That said if DC don’t like it then they don’t like it, and both of mine chose their uni based on gut feeling at the open day- both very happy with their choices.

By Russell Group standards, York has a relatively low proportion of privately educated students. Sheffield is probably lower, to be fair.

@Piggywaspushed maybe they were all in her halls then! No idea on the figures, in first year DD said she was surrounded by private school who looked down their nose at her for having gone to a comprehensive.

Was it Derwent?

When I was there Derwent was distinctively different.

It was many years ago but it did have adown to earth reputation. I still remember the fellow student with a Porsche who was on Blind Date,though! And the girls from a (apparently well known) school who very literally turned their backs on my friend when it turned out the school she went to with the same name was not theirs, but in Edinburgh (unbeknownst to them ,a very posh school).

No, Anne Lister. Love the idea of a student with a Porsche! 🤣

When my DS applied a few years ago Anne Lister was off the table because of its price so it may have been that perhaps?

He was exactly as you might imagine...

My dd chose the city she felt most comfortable in. She didn’t regret it for a minute and had a fabulous time. Student life in Sheffield is fantastic. I have several family members and friends who have been there and their feedback of both the city and the university is, without exception, positive.

Dd did well, got a good degree classification, and got into the first postgrad scheme she applied for. She misses student life though and is going back soon to see all the friends who are still studying there.

3 years is a long time to live somewhere you dislike.

I don’t have figures for St Andrews and Lancaster or Bath, I think Bath and particularly St Andrews will be quite high. Bath similar to Bristol and Exeter possibly.

Anyway The Tab says:
Durham 39.1%,
Imperial 33%
Edinburgh 31.8%
Oxford 31.4%
Exeter 30.3%
UCL 29.5%
Cambridge 28.2%
LSE 26%
Bristol 24.6%
Newcastle 22.3%
Warwick 19.8%
KCL 18%
Nottingham 18%
Leeds 17.4%
Manchester 16.3%
Birmingham 14.2%
York 13.4%
Glasgow 13.2%
Southampton 12.5%
Cardiff 12.2%
Liverpool. 12.1%
Sheffield 10.2%
QMU 7.7%
Queens Belfast 2.0%

Hopefully I’ve copied these accurately.

So nowhere has 50%. No one is totally surrounded by privately educated dc. However at quite a few universities there will be halls favoured by private school dc so this is intel needs to be sussed out if dc will not accept privately educated dc.

Actually yes they do. Many bright DCs who struggle in large state mainstream schools can have fees paid under their EHCP for private mainstream schools as they are cheaper and more appropriate than independent specialist schools.

My DS3 currently living in Jesmond
i absolutely love Newcastle, had never been until this year, the concept of disliking ‘the toon’ is wild

@HangryDenimViewer But the vast majority at Newcastle ARE from state schools!

This. My cousin did this and loved it.

You’re a bit late to the party, Floppy. Leamington is soulless and boring.

If we want a full picture, the private school percentages need adjusting for internationals ( not included in state vs private published breakdowns) who are rich almost by definition ( 35k of fees plus living expenses with no access to student finance) as a v high % of them will have been educated privately or in state schools that are quasi- private. Somewhere like LSE, Imperial or UCL likely has the highest % overall- eg UCL - 30% of the domestic 50% plus say 80% of the other 50% is more than half.

@AllJoyAndNoFun Why are privately educated international students acceptable when home ones are not? Where’s the logic in that? They are privileged in their own countries and you can easily check which unis have more international students but some of them will have been educated here. In general the Tab list is pretty accurate.

DS2 is having an fantastic time at Cambridge. In fact he was home educated to GCSEs and went to a state 6th form, which was the same for DS1. I think he would have been under challenged anywhere else.

Peak MN that there is no other Uni aside from Cambridge that could challenge a clever kid 😂

I think @AllJoyAndNoFun meant you need to add the number of privately educated and international students together to get a true picture, as both are privileged.

@koink Do home students really go around worrying if international students are privately educated? If they pay full fees, they probably are and are spending circa £100,000 or more on course fees! Are dc so shallow that they worry about this? It’s a case of - just choose the best uni for the course you want and can get into. Don’t be unhappy at a uni in the back of beyond if you want a city and vice versa if a city isn’t ideal. Far too many young people are brainwashed into thinking they cannot and should not mix with others. It’s wholly wrong. Would they think that st work 3-4 years later? Only apply if they think there’s mostly state educated employees? It’s a complete nonsense.

That's always my thought on international students (thinking of my alma mater, LSE, particularly, given its percentage of international students nowadays) - although there are (or were until quite recently, if it is no longer a thing) some international students sponsored by their home governments, who may be less likely to have attended fully fee paying schools?

Slipping back a few pages, I seem to have left the actual A level requirements- AAB - out of my suggestion of the University of Birmingham as an option, but that is probably irrelevant.

I was only answering a question 😂

Yes. Kazakhstan for example sponsors its students at elite universities on the condition that they will return and work in Kazakhstan after finishing university. The students are not paying themselves and many of them are not rich at all.