I'm a student at Royal Holloway -- Ask Me Anything!

Hello, I´ve been told that this particular uni has a reputation of being for "rich kids" and that people can be quite snobish and judgemental. I know its silly but I´d like to know what´s your take on this.Thank you so much for doing this I´m enroling this 2020 and reading all your responses is quite conforting.

Hello!! I'm really glad this has been helping you. That's legitimately the reason I do it -- I remember applying and being absolutely desperate for anything. I think I asked the main rep account what colours the carpets were in Wedderburn, or something equally pointless. (They're blue, for reference!)

Honestly, that hasn't been my experience at all, but I guess that depends on the people you encounter and the friendship groups you make. I absolutely have met rich kids or private school kids who are often... a bit oblivious to their own privileges, or the kinds of rich kids who say they're toooootally not rich except they went to a private boarding school and daddy can pay for a last minute taxi from Waterloo to Egham, but the truth is you're going to find these both at any uni in the top 25 (private school kids care a lot about rankings) or in London, and RHUL is kind of both.

I wouldn't say RHUL has more of them than anywhere else or has an absolute infestation of them--I'd say maybe people assume RHUL is going to be super posh because of the fancy Victorian buildings, and then some people either play into that or just help with confirmation bias when they're already posh as balls -- and I've definitely never felt like I've found people to be snobby, and I've never been judged for not coming from a posh background or anything like that. Most of my friends have been people getting max loan or very close to it. The only ridiculously rich person I've met wasn't snobbish, just completely oblivious about the outside world -- and hopefully being at uni will help those kinds of people learn how Life Works, you know?

I'm genuinely here to answer any question, no matter how small or silly or seemingly pointless. If I know the answer, I am here to try and answer it!!!

Do you know ppl with clearing experience and how low they go for clearing, their line said they go as low as CCC but how frequent is this

Hey what do you know about the leniency in clearing, it would be helpful if u know anything about crim and sociology in clearing

Ooops, missed your more recent ask -- again, no experience with Clearing, but in my experience they're quite lenient with CrimSoc. A few people I know doing CrimSoc missed their offers by 1 or 2 grades and still got in with their offers. With that in mind, I'd expect Clearing is probably quite lenient too? Again, I'm so sorry this is useless advice!

Hey!! Sorry for the late reply, I've been swamped with deadlines. This is all in reference to English and Creative Writing -- other courses might be different, but the workload is about equal for Humanities stuff (I think!!)

1. In first year, I had 8 contact hours -- which doesn't sound like much, but it adds up with all the independent study and reading you have to do! I had two one-hour lectures a week and two accompanying one-hour seminars on the English side of things, then for the Creative Writing half I had two two-hour seminars that usually included workshopping each other's work to some degree.

2. Most students only have 4 days a week in classes! I think most departments try to have Wednesdays off for the most part, but that's just from what I've seen -- it seems to change yearly. The most I had was 4 days a week in first year; in second year I had 2 days a week, because the classes I'd chosen stacked onto the same day (so less days in, but more classes to go to in those days); and in third year I had 2 days again, but mostly because my dissertation and my extended Creative Writing project were 1000% independent study--so no lectures or seminars for those.

3. From what I've seen, your earliest is normally 9am (there's room on the timetables for an 8am, but I don't know anyone who's ever had one!) and your latest will probably be 4pm or 5pm. My latest in first year ended at 3pm. Sciencey students are more likely to have packed days and later hours than us -- us lazy creative/humanities students flit about wherever we want!

4. Okay, so first year for Eng + CW is split 50/50 between English modules and Creative Writing modules. During your time at uni you'll have full units (30 credits, normally lasting 2 terms) and half units (15 credits, normally lasting 1 term). When I was in first year, my class list looked like this:

English: Reorienting the Novel (full unit, 2 terms)
English: Thinking as a Critic (half unit, first term)
English: Introduction to Poetry (half unit, second term)
CW: Introduction to Creative Writing (full unit, 2 terms)
CW: Why Write? Theory of Creative Writing (full unit, 2 terms)

So as you can see, that adds up to 4 full units, but is actually 5 classes throughout the year! The half unit split means that you do 4 classes a semester, which is nice and neat and a good workload (also keep in mind this was a thousand years ago/2017, so classes and structure might have changed a little bit since then).

Thanks for your reply! This is very helpful! I have three more questions if you don't mind.

1) How many days before the first term starts will I get to know my timetable?
2) Are there any societies you would recommend?
3) When can I apply for a parking permit? And will there be enough parking spaces for everyone with a parking permit? (I will be commuting 2h one way, and It may sound irrational, but I'm worried others who live much closer will get permits over me).

Thanks for all your help!

Any idea what student life is like for postgrads? Thank you!

Hey!! So taught postgrad courses are split between campuses -- some are on the main site in Egham, and some are based in central London, so it's important to check which one your course is. A lot of people live in Egham and commute into the London site since it's only one building, from what I can tell, but that's going to be financially a bit iffy for some people, especially on a postgrad loan.

I'm going to Warwick for my MA (well, if the MA actually happens, gg coronavirus haha) so I can't say from my own experience what RHUL postgrad life is like, but there are a few things I know:

Thank you so much! Really appreciate it. I’m from London so I’d be commuting into Egham but if some modules are in central London all the better for me. Do you think the food is cheap on campus too?

Tell me the leniency extent to clearing

Food isn't *badly* priced, but I've definitely been envious at other unis when they've been serving £1.70 hot chocolate and I'm stuck on the Starbucks £2.90 or whatever!!! If you pay with your college ID card you get 20% off in most places because you won't be paying VAT.
In my experience, buying a meal deal from the SU shop is the best value for money for lunch (2.70 I think for a sandwich/wrap, a drink, and a sweet or savoury snack), and a burger and chips from Tommy's is the best value for dinner. They do a deal which I thiiiink is £6.50 for a very robust burger, chips, and a beer, which seems pretty solid for the area. Kimiko is pricy but the portion sizes are huge - same with the Tuesday street food, and there are some decently priced (£1.80 ish?) cakes and brownies and the like in places like Crosslands. ❤️

AH sorry for the delay on this, I completely missed it!!

1. I'm noooooot 100% sure exactly, as I can't remember when I got mine in first year, but I'm sure I had at least a few weeks to get to grips with it. I want to say early September, around the same time as I got my room/halls info, but I can't say for sure -- it may have been a lot earlier than that.
2. Honestly, I didn't participate all that much in societies -- just because I was busy with my other friendship groups, not because there was anything wrong with them -- but I really liked what I saw of Games Society (I played D&D with them!), the LGBTQ society, and the Anime and Manga society! They all seemed super friendly, and I enjoyed tagging along to the occasional event, even though I was useless at regularly attending.
3. I'm not sure when you can apply, but as long as you live more than 1.5 miles away from campus you're eligible for a permit, and with 2 hours away you should absolutely be able to!! From what I can tell, there are enough parking spaces for everyone -- but the best spots fill up quite early, so you want to make sure you're there in good time to find a parking space. I know there were plans to make more parking spaces, but with COVID the uni may be a little reluctant to pay for it -- but there's still a big parking area by the Piggery Gate/International Building, and a lot of other smaller car parks too. <3

Hi, In regards to the whole Covid-19 situ were you able to get money back for the accommodation or did you have to pay for the year even though you couldn't stay there