The Student Room Group

Do less prestigious Universities offer less of a social experience?

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Reply 20
Original post by little_wizard123
A bit odd to select Loughborough and Bath as they've both got very strong reputations academically...

In most cases it's to do with being in a city. Loughborough and Bath definitely benefit from being the best sports universities, but if you've ever been to either you'd see that they're not fantastic for social experience in terms of a town. They're quite different in that the only good thing in Loughborough is the university, so the town caters to students a lot.

But yeah, pick any university in London and the social experience won't be too different. Obviously some of the best and worst universities in the country are in and around London!


Yup I know, but im applying for Edinburgh, Bristol, York, Bath and Loughborough, so in terms of my options they are the less academic unis but obviously still prestigious relative to the whole cohort of universities.

I live in London and dont really have too big an interest in London Unis to be honest
No.
Reply 22
Also what about the people thats what im more interested in, would i be right in saying those that go to a less prestigious uni are more whilling to party then those that go to oxford or cambridge. Obviously its all about the course but i dont really want to be stuck with a load of 'boring' work only people for 4 years of my life.
Original post by joe1545
Yup I know, but im applying for Edinburgh, Bristol, York, Bath and Loughborough, so in terms of my options they are the less academic unis but obviously still prestigious relative to the whole cohort of universities.

I live in London and dont really have too big an interest in London Unis to be honest


Possibly.

An important thing to look at that I failed to mention was the whole campus university issue. So although some are in a big city, having everybody and everything on campus creates a really nice atmosphere.

There's not this trade-off between academic and non-academic qualities that some seem to think. Look at student satisfaction results; the better universities do very well in all aspects. Looking at the NSS tables, Bath, Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, Loughborough, York and St Andrews are all in the top 20.
Original post by joe1545
Also what about the people thats what im more interested in, would i be right in saying those that go to a less prestigious uni are more whilling to party then those that go to oxford or cambridge. Obviously its all about the course but i dont really want to be stuck with a load of 'boring' work only people for 4 years of my life.


The idea that Oxford and Cambridge are full of try-hard geeks with social anxiety is just a stereotype. There are more than enough people who enjoy going out and partying (although they work hard too).
Original post by PythianLegume
The idea that Oxford and Cambridge are full of try-hard geeks with social anxiety is just a stereotype. There are more than enough people who enjoy going out and partying (although they work hard too).


What's wrong with being a geek and having social anxiety? :confused:
Original post by Americanism
What's wrong with being a geek and having social anxiety? :confused:


Nothing. I never said there was. But some people worry about being surrounded by people different to them.
Reply 27
Original post by OedipusTheKing
Obviously depends where you are. I'm at Warwick and the night life is terrible to be honest. The campus has the artistic grace of Hitler's bunker after a nuclear strike has hit it, Coventry is a dive and Leamington is a farce to get to if you don't already live off campus there.


Glad i'm not the only one. Everyone seems to think it looks ok but it looks like sh!t.

No nice new or old buildings.
Original post by PythianLegume
Warwick's an exception because it's in the middle of nowhere. :colone:

But surely it's in the middle of Warwi- oh wait...
Original post by uxa595
Glad i'm not the only one. Everyone seems to think it looks ok but it looks like sh!t.

No nice new or old buildings.


Some of the buildings look like council housing from the 50's. It's sad when everyone worships a spinning cone since it is the only 'artistic' feature at the university. It's a shame I can't afford to live in Kenilworth.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 30
It does make sense, If you took a really smart academic whos previous friends at sixth form would of also been smart academic students and put them in a crowd of possibly smart, but out going
partying students they wont get along. Now is that person a bigot for not really wanting to socialise with people that are different to them.

Same thing applys with if you took an outgoing party person and stuck them in a crowd of smart academics they too would not get along.
Original post by danataher
Well I'm definitely not picking my universities based on their night life, but seeing as Warwick is my top choice (due to it's research/teaching quality etc being pretty high), if I do hopefully get an offer and firm it, I wouldn't want to know that I'll be spending 3+ years somewhere extremely dull, if that makes any sense haha.


I'm not all about going out and getting wasted, but it would be nice having a university which is the best of the both worlds. I was there for a tour during the summer and the social societies are endless, there's everything! Fell in love with the campus, but never occurred to me that the night life wouldn't live up to my already high expectations.


Hmm, it's a tough one.,


True. I'm not one for giving people a false impression - it's not fair. You're spending 3 years of your life at a university, so I'm not going to lie to you. Warwick is what it is; research and teaching are excellent. It is lacking with regards to night life though, although, as you say, the societies is more where it is at anyway.

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