Manchester vs Warwick vs Leicester for biomed

Again, the misapprehension that Warwick students live on campus throughout their degree crops up. They certainly do for their first year, which most students happen to love - most people who call campus unis boring never went to a campus uni. There are of course some people who didn't enjoy their time living there, but I would say it's about 80-20 in the campus's favour.

In any case, after their first year most people live in Leamington Spa (not Coventry) which is a pleasant, medium-large town with lots of pubs, bars, restaurants, shops, a cinema, a theatre, several clubs etc. It's not London obviously, but it's a nice place to live if you don't fancy city living like the OP, and many others. The assumption that all students must surely want to live in a huge city always strikes me as odd - I'm not saying you're saying that, but lots of people seem to assume it goes without saying.

Reply 4

I love the notion that Warwick has a 'green campus'. It is actually one of the least 'green campuses' there is. There is hardly any grass apart from on their sports fields - the rest is ugly 60's buildings. In fact, i think Warwick is the only campus i know that has roundabouts in the middle of it and cars everywhere. It resembles an industrial estate and i have spent alot of time there so i do know.

Reply 5

megaduck

AfghanistanBananistan

I love the notion that Warwick has a 'green campus'. It is actually one of the least 'green campuses' there is. There is hardly any grass apart from on their sports fields - the rest is ugly 60's buildings. In fact, i think Warwick is the only campus i know that has roundabouts in the middle of it and cars everywhere. It resembles an industrial estate and i have spent alot of time there so i do know.

Huh????

It is green - it's surrounded by fields, there is grass and landscaping everywhere among the buildings, and grass around the various lakes and ponds on campus, and the most beautiful walk between central campus and Gibbet Hill. About a third of the buildings are 60s, the rest are 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s, and jolly swish many of them are. Even the oldest buildings have been or are in the process of being renovated. There are fewer cars around the Warwick campus than many other campuses. Of the unis that came into being in the sixties I think it has the nicest campus by far, and certainly the best facilities. Campus unis aren't everyone's bag but neither are city unis or ancient collegiate unis.

Warwick's great, OP. I spent ten years there and I still go back regularly because my niece is studying there. It was pretty good 'in my day' and its amazing in hers. You wouldn't regret picking it :biggrin:

Here's a link to some fairly random photographs of campus - not official photos or anything so not trying to sell the place. There's no attempt to hide the less attractive buildings either. There's plenty of green though. And lots of ducks, which I like...

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/comcom/dtcsite/people/students2007/porter/photos/campus

Reply 6

swallows

Warwick is very green all around the various accommodation sites - not sure where the idea that it isn't green came from. When you were there did you spend most of your time in the central section containing all the lecture buildings? It's also surrounded by fields.

Also, there is one slightly busy road running through the middle of campus, although it's mainly used by the uni buses and other people accessing the campus which is unavoidable. I don't see how it, or any other campus, could be less busy than Warwick traffic-wise, people have to access it...

Reply 7

trm90

12

Leicester's biomedical science courses are great.

As for the university/town itself?

The town is better than Leamington Spa and definitely not as interesting as Manchester. The campus is small, but very warm, cuddly and easy to get around, as well as being right next to town.

Reply 8

.ACS.

19

Visit all of them and see?

If it were me, personally, I'd opt for Warwick. The reason being it's an amazing campus, amazing university, and amazing atmosphere.

Reply 9

EmmaK90

AfghanistanBananistan

I love the notion that Warwick has a 'green campus'. It is actually one of the least 'green campuses' there is. There is hardly any grass apart from on their sports fields - the rest is ugly 60's buildings. In fact, i think Warwick is the only campus i know that has roundabouts in the middle of it and cars everywhere. It resembles an industrial estate and i have spent alot of time there so i do know.

not sure how you can claim Warwick isn't green.. i'm sitting in my room right now, looking out the window over fields,rolling hills, river/lake a few hundred metres away, ducks just outside my window lol. There's not many roundabouts either i only can think of 3 right now and 2 are on the edge of the campus, not that there is anything wrong with roundabouts! Some of the building built in the 60's aren't particularily appealing, i admit though.

Reply 10

EmmaK90

not sure how you can claim Warwick isn't green.. i'm sitting in my room right now, looking out the window over fields,rolling hills, river/lake a few hundred metres away, ducks just outside my window lol. There's not many roundabouts either i only can think of 3 right now and 2 are on the edge of the campus, not that there is anything wrong with roundabouts! Some of the building built in the 60's aren't particularily appealing, i admit though.

You dont get what im saying. Most of the fields and 'rolling hills' are not the university's - they are just in the distance. Hence the often quoted phrase that warwick 'is in the middle of a field'. When you walk through the main part of the campus (the old SU, library, e.t.c) it is just roads and sixites buildings. They are not little raods either but big ones with quite a few cars. Warwick is also the only uni i know of with multi story car parking (it did when i went there). In short, last time i went there i had a hard time finding the place because it was not discernable from the town around it and it has nothing that makes it stand out like a university campus in the traditional sense.

Of course it has some greenery, but compared to other campus uni's (like Nottingham for examples) it is completely different. American universities are very sculptured and resemble a park and with trees overhanging the small roads (Notts to an extent as well). Warwick just seems cold to me.

It is just a personal view, and i can say that because i have visited quite a few uni campuses and stayed at Warwick and seriously considered going there. Also i am in no way the only one that thinks this way. If you go to Oxbridge, Harvard, Stanford and other traditional places then you feel inspired - warwick is supposed to be world class but it does not in my view have the 'world class' campus is says it has.

Reply 11

.ACS.

19

EmmaK90

not sure how you can claim Warwick isn't green.. i'm sitting in my room right now, looking out the window over fields,rolling hills, river/lake a few hundred metres away, ducks just outside my window lol. There's not many roundabouts either i only can think of 3 right now and 2 are on the edge of the campus, not that there is anything wrong with roundabouts! Some of the building built in the 60's aren't particularily appealing, i admit though.

I wouldn't worry, he's just bitter about Nottingham slipping down the league tables.

Reply 12

.ACS.

I wouldn't worry, he's just bitter about Nottingham slipping down the league tables.

Right, so you think Warwick has the 'world class' campus to match its reputation then? You dont think an exchange student from Berkeley, Brown, Stanford (expect ILIGAN) would not arrive and be quite dissapointed at what he saw?

Reply 13

.ACS.

19

AfghanistanBananistan

Right, so you think Warwick has the 'world class' campus to match its reputation then? You dont think an exchange student from Berkeley, Brown, Stanford (expect ILIGAN) would not arrive and be quite dissapointed at what he saw?

I actually think you're Nottingham's Iligan. In response to your question, however, I think any student from said universities would more than likely be shocked at first on arrival (since no UK university has a campus to match those in the US, and no, Nottingham isn't even close).

Reply 14

This is the hub of Warwick's campus and it makes my point for me, whereby all the buildings are bunched together and the fields are not owned by the university:

Compare that to Nottingham, which is an typical 'green' campus where the buildings are spread out and all greenery in the picture below is owned by the uni and is part of the campus - in essence it is one big park:

Also, I am not Iike ILIGAN in one clear way. I never potray Nottingham to be something that it is not. I accept that it has slipped in people's estimations but only ever say that this is simply due to rankings and that rankings are stupid. I only try to remind people who are unaware and who only look at the recent Times guide, that if they did their research on uni reputations then they will find that Nottingham had been widely considered a 'top 10' or there abouts for a long time. People simply say that it is 'not a top 10 uni' without ralising that it has ranked there in 1/3 of all rankings - i just try to inform people. If i said that Nottingham was better than Warwick or top 5 then clearly i would have no argument -but i dont.

I appreciate that places like Warwick, Bristol, e.t.c have made strides at Nottingham's expense. However, what i dislike is some people's perceptions that uni's like Exeter, Loughborough and Leicester deserve to be consiered on par with Nottingham simply because league tables say so - yet they have done nothing to merit it and have only ranked well in the last couple of years.

It is league tables that i therefore dislike, and i all want is for people to have a wider perception of univeristies.

Reply 15

Aphotic Cosmos

17

Obviously biased here, but Leicester destroyed my expectations when I visited it. The city, particularly the area around the university and the historic New Walk, is very green and multi-cultural [never short of a decent takeaway!], the shopping is great and there's more than enough to keep you entertained. There is a high average crime rate - dominated by burglaries [highest in the country!] but the first-year accommodation is beautiful and very secure, and the student-y areas around the Uni [Clarendon Park, Evington, etc.] are pretty safe - it's only if you find yourself right on the periphery that you'll have to worry more than you would in any large city. The campus is small, but there's some nice architectural oddities [Engineering Building is something of a marmite building - you love it or you hate it [like me], Library is awesome] and it's all very cosy. It also happens to be next door to one of the largest parks in the city. It's also where Sir David and Lord Richard Attenborough grew up way back when, and what is now College House is, as I understand it, their old home, hence why the enormous brutalist tower block in the middle of campus is named after them.

I came to Leicester through clearing, but if I had known about it sooner there's a decent chance I would have just applied here off of the bat, which means it would have bumped unis like UCL and KCL down my list of priorities. That's how much I like it :h:

Still, I also loved Warwick when I was last there, and it has a very solid reputation in all scientific areas [except Physical Geography, which it doesn't do :sigh:

]. My cousin studied biomedical sciences at Manchester, and she loved it!

Visit all three - that's the only way you'll find out which one you like more.

Reply 16

megaduck

AfghanistanBananistan

This is the hub of Warwick's campus and it makes my point for me...

What are those green things sticking up in the middle of it? I'd love to know...By the way that pic's at least ten years old.

Anyway, Warwick could look like a complete toilet, but it would still have an amazing reputation because the academic brilliance of a place doesn't rest on what it looks like (ask LSE!) The fact that Warwick actually has a great campus is just a great big bonus.

Reply 17

ILIGAN

9

AfghanistanBananistan

Of course it has some greenery, but compared to other campus uni's (like Nottingham for examples) it is completely different. American universities are very sculptured and resemble a park and with trees overhanging the small roads (Notts to an extent as well). Warwick just seems cold to me.

It is just a personal view, and i can say that because i have visited quite a few uni campuses and stayed at Warwick and seriously considered going there. Also i am in no way the only one that thinks this way. If you go to Oxbridge, Harvard, Stanford and other traditional places then you feel inspired - warwick is supposed to be world class but it does not in my view have the 'world class' campus is says it has.

You haven't been to Stanford, have you? and Stanford is "greener" than Harvard.

Reply 18

ILIGAN

You haven't been to Stanford, have you? and Stanford is "greener" than Harvard.

I have actually. I was travelling around California and visited a friend who was on an exchange there. I liked the different 'spanish' feeling it has compared to the 'David Brentness' of Warwick. Anyway, don't be so presumptious next time.

Reply 19

megaduck