Friendly student body?

The friendliness/community vibe varies alarmingly between halls. Maple Bank and Tennis Courts tend to be the friendlier ones. Based on personal experience I'd avoid Shackleton like the plague, and probably Mason too. I had an awful time there so I may be biased, but I'm not the first person to openly dislike it.

Other than that it tends to be dominated by sporty types, socially. They even have a f---ing nightclub event every week at the guild specially for them. It's generally not a problem but they tend to be the ones who get the most joy out of coming here. There are societies for pretty much everything where you can meet like-minded people, but the social events can be pretty sporadic. If you're an arty-farty, hipster sort of person you may find other places more appealling. But reputation-wise it's one of the best universities in the country so if it's your first choice and you get the grades you should come here regardless.

Also if you like to drink regularly in the week (as in go to the pub and have a few pints), you're at a disadvantage. There are no pubs near the Vale so the norm for students in 1st year (and in 2nd and 3rd year sadly) is to go to a nightclub once a week, drink themselves into oblivion and spend the rest of the week recovering from the hangover and studying, which is particuarly annoying if you're doing an arts course where you tend to have loads of free time.

The friendliness/community vibe varies alarmingly between halls. Maple Bank and Tennis Courts tend to be the friendlier ones. Based on personal experience I'd avoid Shackleton like the plague, and probably Mason too. I had an awful time there so I may be biased, but I'm not the first person to openly dislike it.

Other than that it tends to be dominated by sporty types, socially. They even have a f---ing nightclub event every week at the guild specially for them. It's generally not a problem but they tend to be the ones who get the most joy out of coming here. There are societies for pretty much everything where you can meet like-minded people, but the social events can be pretty sporadic. If you're an arty-farty, hipster sort of person you may find other places more appealling. But reputation-wise it's one of the best universities in the country so if it's your first choice and you get the grades you should come here regardless.

Also if you like to drink regularly in the week (as in go to the pub and have a few pints), you're at a disadvantage. There are no pubs near the Vale so the norm for students in 1st year (and in 2nd and 3rd year sadly) is to go to a nightclub once a week, drink themselves into oblivion and spend the rest of the week recovering from the hangover and studying, which is particuarly annoying if you're doing an arts course where you tend to have loads of free time.

Thanks for the reply. Really informative and helpful.

Quite surprising though, that sport-types dominated. I wouldn't identify as a hipster but I guess you could say I am more the type to be into progressive politics (I'm studying politics) and I heard Birmingham had a really active political society (more so than most). I can't imagine most campaigning societies at university to be conservative so I'm surprised you describe it as more sporty.

Invaluable info tho