Exeter 2020

OP

Ok, so I'll start:
I'm thinking of studying Zoology at the Penryn Campus. I'm currently studying Biology, Geography and Chemistry. At the moment Exeter is my number 1 for where/what I'd like to do next year :smile:

In the future I'd like to go into conservation or something like that. I also enjoy playing tennis, clarinet, piano and singing. I like to give lots of things a try and am looking forward to a year's time although I can't believe it's only a year away... Anyways! Hi!
Oh! And if you couldn't tell by the course I'm obsessed with animals and the outdoors

Reply 2

Puddles the Monkey

21

Original post by Flyingleopard5

Welcome! This is a thread for those thinking of starting at Exeter Uni in 2020. Hopefully this will be a useful place to ask for information about courses, accommodation and other topics across all Exeter Campuses. As an icebreaker, introduce your current subjects, what you are thinking of applying for, which campus this is on and perhaps any other information you think would be useful :h:

I've added this thread to the list! :yay:

Reply 3

Hi everyone. Just to let you know that Exeter International and I will be looking in on this thread from time to time so if you have any course related, logistical, admissions questions etc. please feel free to ask us. Otherwise we will leave you alone!
Looking forward to perhaps meeting a few of you at some point (Open Days, Offer-Holder Days etc) - it's an exciting journey you are about to begin!
Karen

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 4

OP

Original post by Puddles the Monkey

I've added this thread to the list! :yay:

Thankyou!

Reply 5

OP

Original post by Uni of Exeter

Hi everyone. Just to let you know that Exeter International and I will be looking in on this thread from time to time so if you have any course related, logistical, admissions questions etc. please feel free to ask us. Otherwise we will leave you alone!
Looking forward to perhaps meeting a few of you at some point (Open Days, Offer-Holder Days etc) - it's an exciting journey you are about to begin!
Karen

Thank you very much!

Reply 6

Mr Squirrel

5

Original post by Uni of Exeter

Hi everyone. Just to let you know that Exeter International and I will be looking in on this thread from time to time so if you have any course related, logistical, admissions questions etc. please feel free to ask us. Otherwise we will leave you alone!
Looking forward to perhaps meeting a few of you at some point (Open Days, Offer-Holder Days etc) - it's an exciting journey you are about to begin!
Karen

Thankyou - this is really helpful.
I've been to an open day at the Exeter campus already, and when I was there I attended a talk about the Penryn Campus (realising that the course I wanted to study, history and politics, was exclusively taught at that campus). The talk definitely won me over - especially the students there, who all talked about what a brilliant academic and social experience they'd had in Penryn, as they all felt they fitted in best to the more intimate classes and surroundings. I was considering putting Exeter as my first or second choice, but when comparing it to other universities (on the website unistats.ac.uk - which I believe is affiliated with UCAS), my course at Penryn had really poor statistics. Perhaps the most worrying was the percentage of only 57% who agreed with the statement "Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course". I'm looking mostly at Russel Group universities, and most of these hovered around the 90%, with a few as low as 70% - so Exeter really stood out. I was wondering if you had any particular explanation for this, or what your defence would be in response to these statistics. Do you think they accurately represent student satisfaction?

I have booked to attend the Penryn open day in September, so I'm obviously prepared to reserve judgement till then, but it does seem worrying that there's such disparity between the official Exeter promotion of the Campus, and the anonymous student survey. Sorry for the somewhat confrontational tone - I really appreciate that you're open to discussion on forums such as this one!

Reply 7

random_matt

20

Original post by Mr Squirrel

Thankyou - this is really helpful.
I've been to an open day at the Exeter campus already, and when I was there I attended a talk about the Penryn Campus (realising that the course I wanted to study, history and politics, was exclusively taught at that campus). The talk definitely won me over - especially the students there, who all talked about what a brilliant academic and social experience they'd had in Penryn, as they all felt they fitted in best to the more intimate classes and surroundings. I was considering putting Exeter as my first or second choice, but when comparing it to other universities (on the website unistats.ac.uk - which I believe is affiliated with UCAS), my course at Penryn had really poor statistics. Perhaps the most worrying was the percentage of only 57% who agreed with the statement "Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course". I'm looking mostly at Russel Group universities, and most of these hovered around the 90%, with a few as low as 70% - so Exeter really stood out. I was wondering if you had any particular explanation for this, or what your defence would be in response to these statistics. Do you think they accurately represent student satisfaction?

I have booked to attend the Penryn open day in September, so I'm obviously prepared to reserve judgement till then, but it does seem worrying that there's such disparity between the official Exeter promotion of the Campus, and the anonymous student survey. Sorry for the somewhat confrontational tone - I really appreciate that you're open to discussion on forums such as this one!

So you know about sample sizes right? Additionally 15 people were surveyed with only 56% responding. Then we can go into peoples expectations before studying the course, a fairly important point.

Don't get worked up so much on these, you have already highlighted positive aspects that should be considered when choosing a university.

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Mr Squirrel

Thankyou - this is really helpful.
I've been to an open day at the Exeter campus already, and when I was there I attended a talk about the Penryn Campus (realising that the course I wanted to study, history and politics, was exclusively taught at that campus). The talk definitely won me over - especially the students there, who all talked about what a brilliant academic and social experience they'd had in Penryn, as they all felt they fitted in best to the more intimate classes and surroundings. I was considering putting Exeter as my first or second choice, but when comparing it to other universities (on the website unistats.ac.uk - which I believe is affiliated with UCAS), my course at Penryn had really poor statistics. Perhaps the most worrying was the percentage of only 57% who agreed with the statement "Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course". I'm looking mostly at Russel Group universities, and most of these hovered around the 90%, with a few as low as 70% - so Exeter really stood out. I was wondering if you had any particular explanation for this, or what your defence would be in response to these statistics. Do you think they accurately represent student satisfaction?

I have booked to attend the Penryn open day in September, so I'm obviously prepared to reserve judgement till then, but it does seem worrying that there's such disparity between the official Exeter promotion of the Campus, and the anonymous student survey. Sorry for the somewhat confrontational tone - I really appreciate that you're open to discussion on forums such as this one!

I went to the Penryn open day and it was honestly amazing, it's seemed like a great place to study (-:

Reply 9

Hi. Yes I am afraid that a small sample size ( a 56% response from 15 students is extremely small) will greatly affect the overall percentage in surveys. Please come to the campus as you plan in September and see it all for yourself, talk to our academics and students and get a real feel if it's the right fit for you.
Karen

Reply 10

Mr Squirrel

5

Original post by random_matt

So you know about sample sizes right? Additionally 15 people were surveyed with only 56% responding. Then we can go into peoples expectations before studying the course, a fairly important point.

Don't get worked up so much on these, you have already highlighted positive aspects that should be considered when choosing a university.

You're absolutely right, and I probably should have considered that with more emphasis as a factor - it's just that most of the other universities didn't have many more students participating, and proportionally I'd assume that Penryn would have less anyway. If I'd noticed other anomalous results amongst the other surveys I probably wouldn't have worried, it's just all the others seemed to have consistently good ratings even with low sample sizes. Then again, I'm no statistician - what would you say about the 56% response rate? Do you think that reflects well or poorly on the Campus, or is it unfair to assume motives for responding / not responding?

Regarding expectations, I did wonder if the results were swayed by people who perhaps hadn't realised the course was only in Penryn and were disappointed by finding they had applied to go to Cornwall - but this seemed unlikely amongst people who managed to get into Exeter in the first place. Why would the expectations be a factor that had a particularly adverse affect on these stats rather than the others on the website? Wouldn't it apply to all of the students taking the survey regardless of which university they were from?

I've spent the whole day staring at university comparison websites so you're probably right, I shouldn't be taking this too seriously. Thanks for the comment!

Reply 11

random_matt

20

Original post by Mr Squirrel

You're absolutely right, and I probably should have considered that with more emphasis as a factor - it's just that most of the other universities didn't have many more students participating, and proportionally I'd assume that Penryn would have less anyway. If I'd noticed other anomalous results amongst the other surveys I probably wouldn't have worried, it's just all the others seemed to have consistently good ratings even with low sample sizes. Then again, I'm no statistician - what would you say about the 56% response rate? Do you think that reflects well or poorly on the Campus, or is it unfair to assume motives for responding / not responding?

Regarding expectations, I did wonder if the results were swayed by people who perhaps hadn't realised the course was only in Penryn and were disappointed by finding they had applied to go to Cornwall - but this seemed unlikely amongst people who managed to get into Exeter in the first place. Why would the expectations be a factor that had a particularly adverse affect on these stats rather than the others on the website? Wouldn't it apply to all of the students taking the survey regardless of which university they were from?

I've spent the whole day staring at university comparison websites so you're probably right, I shouldn't be taking this too seriously. Thanks for the comment!

Universities (My experience anyway) always nag us about these things, most of us could not be bothered to the annoyance to the department. By expectations I mean peoples standards before starting the course were maybe way too high. You will always find high satisfaction with those who had low expectations and found that the course was way beyond their imagination. But you are right, expectations can be many, many things, but again I wouldn't worry about it.

Reply 12

KiwiFruitSalad

7

Hi, my name's Keely and I'm hoping to apply to Exeter in October for Modern Languages.
I currently take German, Geography and Maths and want to take German sole :smile:

. I visited Exeter Campus on the open day and loved it.

Reply 13

teilchen

15

Hey I'm Emily and I want to apply to Exeter in 2020 to study MFL (German and Chinese) and my alevels currently are German, English and Physics :smile:

Reply 14

robsarge

1

Hello, my name is Rob and I’m interested in studying International Relations and French. Currently Exeter is in the position of first or second choice. I’m attending the open day in September to see, but from what I’ve read online and from what friend’s relatives and people I know have said about it, it’s looking good :smile:

But I’m wondering, as a University, what do you look for on a personal statement? To you, what stands out the most?

Reply 15

Original post by robsarge

Hello, my name is Rob and I’m interested in studying International Relations and French. Currently Exeter is in the position of first or second choice. I’m attending the open day in September to see, but from what I’ve read online and from what friend’s relatives and people I know have said about it, it’s looking good :smile:

But I’m wondering, as a University, what do you look for on a personal statement? To you, what stands out the most?

Hi Rob. Our offer making process is largely tariff driven. This means that, at Exeter, the most important aspect of your application will be your achieved or predicted academic results, as this is the best predictor for success on one of our degree programmes. Personal statements will be considered, but mainly to identify any mitigating or extenuating circumstances that may have affected your achieved or predicted grades.

Where personal statements are considered more closely, we would want to see:

- Your reasons for the choice of subjects taken at A level or equivalent and, where appropriate, the relevance of those subjects to your chosen degree course;
- Why you have applied for a particular course and how this relates to your current and previous studies and experiences. If you have a career goal, it is helpful if you tell us how the course would enable you to fulfil that ambition;
- Evidence of a willingness and desire to learn at a higher level: we are looking for students who have the potential and the drive to succeed;
- Details of any work experience, paid or unpaid, and any other positions of responsibility that you’ve had. We’re particularly interested in the skills gained from these experiences and how they relate to your own personal development and how they may help you in your studies and life at university;
- Information regarding volunteering and other extracurricular activities and what you have gained in terms of experience and skills from these interests;
- Your plans for how you will spend a gap year (if relevant) and what you will gain from these experiences.

However, please remember that your UCAS application is for all your university choices and they may place more emphasis on the personal statement in their offer-making process. So it is important to make your statement as good as it can be.
Hope you have a great time at our Open Day in September!
Karen

Reply 16

robsarge

1

Original post by Uni of Exeter

Hi Rob. Our offer making process is largely tariff driven. This means that, at Exeter, the most important aspect of your application will be your achieved or predicted academic results, as this is the best predictor for success on one of our degree programmes. Personal statements will be considered, but mainly to identify any mitigating or extenuating circumstances that may have affected your achieved or predicted grades.

Where personal statements are considered more closely, we would want to see:

- Your reasons for the choice of subjects taken at A level or equivalent and, where appropriate, the relevance of those subjects to your chosen degree course;
- Why you have applied for a particular course and how this relates to your current and previous studies and experiences. If you have a career goal, it is helpful if you tell us how the course would enable you to fulfil that ambition;
- Evidence of a willingness and desire to learn at a higher level: we are looking for students who have the potential and the drive to succeed;
- Details of any work experience, paid or unpaid, and any other positions of responsibility that you’ve had. We’re particularly interested in the skills gained from these experiences and how they relate to your own personal development and how they may help you in your studies and life at university;
- Information regarding volunteering and other extracurricular activities and what you have gained in terms of experience and skills from these interests;
- Your plans for how you will spend a gap year (if relevant) and what you will gain from these experiences.

However, please remember that your UCAS application is for all your university choices and they may place more emphasis on the personal statement in their offer-making process. So it is important to make your statement as good as it can be.
Hope you have a great time at our Open Day in September!
Karen

Thank you very much! This was very helpful.

Reply 17

OP

Original post by Uni of Exeter

Hi everyone. Just to let you know that Exeter International and I will be looking in on this thread from time to time so if you have any course related, logistical, admissions questions etc. please feel free to ask us. Otherwise we will leave you alone!
Looking forward to perhaps meeting a few of you at some point (Open Days, Offer-Holder Days etc) - it's an exciting journey you are about to begin!
Karen

Hi! I was just wondering, if I apply to a four year version of a course (zoology) with a year in industry but only achieve the grades for the three year course will I get an offer on the three year version of the course? If not is it worth applying to both courses? Also, how does it work the other way round (going from three years to four years)? Thank you so much!

Reply 18