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Pros and Cons of Being a Student in London

I'm trying to decide between UCL and Southampton for physics starting this year.

Having London right on my doorstep i think would be amazing... but then again that might be a real distraction from studies.

Pros and cons of both? What do you think?

Reply 1

Frater

London is the Pro itself, it ll be jsut as much as a distraction as going to southampton. UCL is a great uni, as in southampton, but UCL you get London, and thats something you can't put a price, especcially as UCL is bang in the middle of london.

Reply 2

GingerMarshmallow

London is very expensive though, for travel and accommodation. There'll be distractions in both places. Go visit them both and see which one you like best, or see which one is better for your subject. For Physics, I'm guessing London will have loads of advantages in being really up-to-date and having great research centres and stuff. sorry that's all really contradictory.

Reply 3

linkdapink

London isnt that expensive to live in - as in the food etc doesnt seem that much more expensive. The main drawback is that everyone seems to want to stay in the city they're at when they graduate. But thats almost impossible to do in London!

Reply 4

Frater

London is expensive yes, but not so if you go to tesco instead of waitrose as a matter of speaking. Take the bus upto north or east london, you can get a 12" pizza for a quid, its matter of knowing where to go, which doesn't take long to find out. Although this is biased from me as I have lived in london all my life, although I live in the london sub-urbs now, still miss the real city life. Its an experience over the degree. On an academic side, there are always lecturers on physics/maths and you name it you can get talks on it from respected people in that field.

Reply 5

Cerulean

Frater

aren't there markets in the street?

Reply 6

mollymustard

Cons:- Very Expensive, very impersonal, people come and go all the time, most nights out arn't really that student orientated. Doubt you'd end up staying there after graduation.

Pros:- Its a nice city, lots to see and do both during the day and at night. Lots of things for tourists.

Reply 7

Frater

Yeh... Walthamstow market is the longest in Europe.... not sure what your asking tho.

Reply 8

QuantumParity

Come to Oxford instead.

Reply 9

francescarella

i'm off to london this year for uni and as a manc movin down south, the rea reason for it was to experience an amazing drama school in an amzing city. and its not that expensive - i've found flatshares for £53 whereas student accom in manc uni is anythin from £70-100. plus like others have said its simply a place of where to go.
and the opinion that its impersonal/harsh/unfriendly/whatever are actually sum of teh things that draw me strangely enuf! i mean, like, i am interested in people and the way they do things and i love people watchin in london! haha i sound sad. plus i dnt mind it being big and scary as i'm quite confident and like to have lots goin on cos i get bored easily. i jsut really cant wait to be poor but happy!

Reply 10

Cerulean

Frater

Yeh... Walthamstow market is the longest in Europe.... not sure what your asking tho.

lol, realised how oddly my post would read. :smile:

I was referring to street markets like Walthamstow etc.

Reply 11

Erno

Cost hasn't really been an issue in my mind. I'll be in the same boat as everyone around me wherever i go so i'm sure i'll find a way.

I'm starting to think though i might leave London till after uni. I very much think I want to live there, but maybe it can wait a while... Southampton will be a step up from Bournemouth anyway.

Oh and I do want it to be quite campus like and personal. A lot of you said it was impersonal and I've read that in a lot of places... so that puts me off.

Yeaaaaa. thanks for the replies.

Think I'll go Southampton thoughhh

Reply 12

Hel

I'm also wondering about London vs Soton (even though I'm probably going for London) - anyone got anything to say about Southampton in comparison to good old Nodnol?

Reply 13

woody1989

mollymustard

Cons:- Very Expensive, very impersonal, people come and go all the time, most nights out arn't really that student orientated. QUOTE]

WTF; no student nights??????? I take it you've never been to Central London on a week day...

...Sports Cafe, Moonlighting, On Anon, Zoo Bar, Metra...

Reply 14

Vincente

Con: Lack of a tight-knit student community, though some people won't see this as a con.

Reply 15

EA-man

in my honest opinion, i rejected southampton because it was a campus. you're just going to wake up everyday, walk to lecture, walk back on the same campus etc.

I'm going to King's and it's like, as soon as i walk out of my accommodation, i'm in a world class city, not some campus uni where everything's in one spot. it's good that i will have to come out of my shell a little and get myself to places on my own. assuming i get into my top choice residence, my walk to lecture goes over waterloo bridge, overlooking embankment, london eye, parliament, royal national theatre, etc etc. how can you beat that?

granted, i would rate King's much higher than southampton but i really wasn't impressed by southampton as a city or by the students. surely, for a night out, london is unbeatable. in terms of work contacts, the city of london is unbeatable. i'll be making friends from other university of london students, as well as plenty of non-student friends. it might be expensive, if you go to the wrong places. there are plenty of opportunities to make money- it's actually the most cost-effective place for a student.

having lived in other capital cities of the world and the british countryside, i finally must say that the mentality of people in london makes me feel most at-home out of any place in the UK. i have a need to be around well travelled people and foreigners.