Birmingham A100 / A101 2020 Offer Holders

This is the Offer Holder’s Day. Open Day is announced later

Oops, my bad. Where do y'all book the offer holder's day?

I’ve just heard it’s a bit unsafe and generally a bit rough. I live in London so of course I know how to live in a city, but still, being a student and living with your parents is very different.

I had spent some time in the city before and after my interview and I felt a bit out of place and felt like people were constantly staring at me in the city. Just a general feeling of discomfort. Everyone at the university was fantastic and that area felt welcoming but the city itself wasn’t so fantastic. Just my initial reservations. Any thoughts?

If you’re used to London, then Birmingham should be a walk in the park. In terms of people staring, I’ve never noticed this, maybe you were just more observant of this since you were exploring a new area. Also people tend to be more engaging in areas outside of London where people are more used to minding their own business and keeping their head down, less so in Birmingham but probably still noticeable to a Londoner. The city centre itself is nice and fairly compact. I wouldn’t venture around the city since it’s not like London with things to do all over the place. It’s basically the central area and then residential everywhere else.

I’m from Wolverhampton so not far from Birmingham so I’m still undecided whether I want to move into accommodation, however I’m considering it and the areas around the university are quite town like with Selly Oak (where a lot of the student accommodation is) having its own retail park and high street. You also have the self contained accommodation at The Vale student village if you want more of a bubble.

tldr: City centre nice, other areas meh. People staring odd. Accommodation location good.

I’ve just heard it’s a bit unsafe and generally a bit rough. I live in London so of course I know how to live in a city, but still, being a student and living with your parents is very different.

I had spent some time in the city before and after my interview and I felt a bit out of place and felt like people were constantly staring at me in the city. Just a general feeling of discomfort. Everyone at the university was fantastic and that area felt welcoming but the city itself wasn’t so fantastic. Just my initial reservations. Any thoughts?

I'm international and went to Birmingham for a week during January to attend my interview and explore the city. It was definitely a lot less populated than where I'm from but everyone was much nicer and I never noticed the staring thing (at least not in an uncomfortable way). People would smile and sometimes go out of their way to help you.

I also found that both the city center and the campus were really beautiful. However there didn't seem much to do. That was the only thing I didn't like as much

“Didn’t seem much to do” Are you serious here? It’s the second biggest city in the UK and the 3rd largest university in the country when you look at enrolment numbers. With all this comes hundreds of societies, special interest clubs, sports clubs, concerts and events etc. The city attracts the biggest artists in the world to perform and their theatres host west end quality shows and plays.

What exactly are you looking to do that it doesn’t cater for?

I was talking about the city itself from the perspective of a visitor. I was visiting for a week, so obviously I'm not going to be able to join a society or a sports club??? I'm aware that Birmingham is the second largest city in the UK, but the city I live in has 7x the population and I was just used to seeing busier streets and a lot more stuff going on. I'm not complaining at all - I loved Birmingham but I did not feel that it was a very touristy area. Of course, if I'm going there to study, this would be minor, but I was just sharing my personal experiences as a visitor because someone asked for thoughts.

are you from hong kong?

yes, wbu

Idk why but I'm starting to worry, no update on ucas even tho I got the email, but others had theirs updates a few days after🤕🤕
What if he sent it by accident

same! Ahaha I only asked that as you mentioned you live in a city 7 times the population of Birmingham lol. Where else did you apply to?

Have any international students received a mail inviting them to the offer holder's day?
@A_J_B @ASOC01

Edinburgh, King's, St. Andrews and Imperial for my 5th option (Biochem)
Rejected pre-interview from King's unfortunately but I got interviews from the other 3 and now offers from Bham and StA, still waiting on Edinburgh to get back to me. Imperial has really been taking their time too hahaha
Also applied to medicine in HK, got an offer from HKU but the offer is quite high (IB 43) and I don't know if i can make it ):
And lastly i applied to 8 schools in the US but for Biology-related undergraduate programs bc they don't have direct entry to med school.

What about you?

Have any international students received a mail inviting them to the offer holder's day?
@A_J_B @ASOC01

yes but I'm not going as I'm busy on both days.

Wait when did you get your informal offer email if you dont mind? and has track updated for you yet?

track hasn't updated either. I got the informal offer email on 14/2 and the offer holder's day email on 17/2.