please help me I'm a newbie

I'm applying to a few uni's at the mo but the prospectuses all say the same thing and I'm wandering if you guys can help.What's the teaching like? do you feel well enough prepared for the assignments? Have you met any 21- 25 year old freshers and do you know how hard it was/wasn't for them to get in? I don't know anyone in Leeds is it hard to make friends and how are southerners treated there? How many more questions do you think I can ask in one post and get away with it? (LOL) :confused:

Reply 1

tigger1430

7

This is a forum for Manchester Met university, if you want to know about Leeds you should post in their forum. If you want info on Man Met then post away! =)

Reply 2

turbochargedk

OP

13

point taken What's the teaching like? do you feel well enough prepared for the assignments? Have you met any 21- 25 year old freshers and do you know how hard it was/wasn't for them to get in? I don't know anyone in MANCHESTER is it hard to make friends and how are southerners treated there?

Reply 3

tigger1430

7

In my first year at uni there was a 40 year old fresher and there are a couple of 20 odd year olds this year, age is never a problem and you are generally taken on under the same wing and you will make good friends no matter what ae you are.

I feel in MMU the teaching and student support is outstanding, it is not considered a great university but out of all the people I know at different uni's MMU seems to be the best for lecturers actually having YOUR best needs at heart - it is very rare that lectures are cancelled, even if the lecturer is ill, he will still provide a lecture precis and a stand in. Our personal tutors are always there for us rain or shine, and even at weekends and holidays. The timetables are very structured in the way that you will always get a seminar directly after your lecture but most people I know never have more than 2 hours lectures without a break (there are exceptions to this - depends what course you do)

I have 8-12 hours a week depending on the term, but this is mainly because there is an immense amount of reading to do on my course. If you choose MMU all-saints campus everything is close by - student union, library, pubs, restaurants, computer clusters - most things you could need and the arndale shopping centre is only a 5 minute bus ride away.

All of the halls are generally nice, clean and new and the security is very high - unforunately there isn't really many traditional halls available for MMU students.

Southerners are treated fine in Manchester, it is very multi-cultural and that goes for entertainment as well.

In our course we are not neccessarily told when we have assignments, we should just know because it states all of our due dates in the course handout at the beginning of term. This is just another way of them preparing you for the real world when you are not always told what to do - it tests you to see if you are independent enough for university. Make sure you read all course materials so you do not miss any deadlines - that is a must! BUT we are always given the material and discussions we need for every coursework well before the due-date, we are also given reccommended reading lists for each of the questions that we have to answer. Also in preparation for exams and essays you will most probably have to partake in personal development as one of your modules which will involve you to monitor your progress throughout the year with your tutor analysising your strengths and weakness and working on them. This also involves a series of lectures on writing essays, referencing, plagiarism, bibliographies etc etc so you should be well enough prepared!

Sorry for the long post,

Reply 4

MrsCheese

1

Hi
I'm 23 and currently in my first year and have found it fine being older and i'm from oxford and it doesnt even come into it!

As for the teaching I can not comment on behalf of the uni, only on my course, and at the end of the day its down to individual tutors rather then the overall uni... I say this because i haven't had the best experience of teaching so far. I am doing combined honours so therefore have a few more hours and average 14-16 a week. For one of my units worth 20 credits we have not had a tutor for 5 weeks as she has been ill and no cover has been supplied so we have been told to do the work and assignments in our own time (not to happy im spending this much money to self teach - might as well done open university!) A couple of my other tutors are a bit 'different' and not particularly reliable, but too be honest, you're always gonna get a few like that where ever you go, so you need to find out about your specific course tutors rather then the uni teaching in general, which as has been said is of good quality.

Sorry if this isn't much help, just felt i should 'air' my experience

Good luck with your application!

Reply 5

Jassmine

What is your combination within combined honours? I did the combined honours scheme (I am one of the case study people on the website) and the standard of teaching on my combination (Biology/Materials Science) was outstanding I really think it depends what your combination is

Hello_my_Honky

Hi
I'm 23 and currently in my first year and have found it fine being older and i'm from oxford and it doesnt even come into it!

As for the teaching I can not comment on behalf of the uni, only on my course, and at the end of the day its down to individual tutors rather then the overall uni... I say this because i haven't had the best experience of teaching so far. I am doing combined honours so therefore have a few more hours and average 14-16 a week. For one of my units worth 20 credits we have not had a tutor for 5 weeks as she has been ill and no cover has been supplied so we have been told to do the work and assignments in our own time (not to happy im spending this much money to self teach - might as well done open university!) A couple of my other tutors are a bit 'different' and not particularly reliable, but too be honest, you're always gonna get a few like that where ever you go, so you need to find out about your specific course tutors rather then the uni teaching in general, which as has been said is of good quality.

Sorry if this isn't much help, just felt i should 'air' my experience

Good luck with your application!