I just finished my first year at the University of Derby and this week began my second year. However, I've always wanted to go to Nottingham Trent and I'm considering making the move in 2012. That'd mean going from a 2nd year (£3k fees) to a 1st year again (£8.5k fees).
However, the year I've had at university has been extraordinarily ****. Not even in a teenage angsty way, in a full-on **** way. At the end of last year I had a DSLR camera and lenses (£2000 value) stolen from me by a student on my course. We had no proof until last week, so now we're taking it to the police and trying to come to an arrangement with his parents outside of it. After me and my friends confronting him, we gave him three opportunities to admit to the truth, but he adamantly swore that he did nothing. Only after I revealed that camera's have a funny thing called a unique serial number, which we'd verified, did he fess up. Throughout the year prior to that, the guy had been harassing me (in what he justified as 'nasty banter' but I don't think there's such a thing) and making my life a misery. It's a difficult experience to describe, but being in the same room as him during lectures is unbearable. I'm on edge whenever I see him come in and I'm always trying to remember to look away. I can't really explain it, but it just makes me uncomfortable and throws me off. I can't enjoy the lecture when he's around, and what's worse is that he's pretty integrated into the friendship group of the people I live with, so it means I have to ostracise myself from that group too.
I'm not a shy person, I'm actually pretty outgoing. I don't really miss home either. I love clubbing and socialising and meeting people. I've met a pretty cool group of people outside of my class, but the people on my course that I'm friends with are so dissimilar to me. I live with three students from my course who are full-on gamers, and while that's fine, it's completely disconnected from what I like. They don't really drink much or go clubbing, so when I go out with people from other houses it's always a sort of odd "see you later" thing.
Then there's the issue of the university. I don't want to sound elitist, but Derby is poor on the league tables, and the whole place reeks of cheapness to me. Someone I talked to the other day was surprised when I mentioned I'd received an A at A Level. I realised that the people I'm studying with are, to be fair, not the brightest. They are genuinely nice people, but I don't feel intellectually stimulated in conversation with them. This feeling extends to the class where I don't particularly feel challenged (though I know first year is always a kind of easing-in).
The course is Film and Video Production, so it's an art degree. I don't think the degree would be of much use to me even if I stuck out 3 years. A theoretical subject (Media with Communication) from a more reputable university (Nottingham Trent) sounds like a much better offer for me. The only problem of course, is that I'd have done 5 years in higher education and I'd have wasted 2 years (of time and money) towards this degree. The thing I'd need to stack up is whether it would be worth the MONUMENTAL extra money investment. Ideally, I'd have gone to Trent in 2010, but I can't turn back time now
I'd really like to get anyone's input on this. Sorry if I come across blunt, I'll gladly answer anything!