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erm its a bit difficult to weigh it up for you it depends what your preferences and priorities are. I mean its got a great libraries and resources for every subject. But you cant measure it without measuring the subject you want to study.

To be honest I looked at many Universities and Leeds was in a league of its own. So I think you gotta come yourself and get a feel for it and then write down these weighting points. But I dont know what to say thats bad about it from me studying Politics.

Seriously I cant think of a bad point that should give you an impression how good it is, its so highly balanced it has a bit of everything and has so many strengths not just one and in my eyes next to 0 weaknesses. I suppose you could say the Liberary and resources are good, but then when you want to compare the resources to Cambridge maybe they dont look so great.

But I hated Cambridge and Oxford what horrible place to study, too many lifeless zombies there who are single skilled to one academic field and have no lifestyle. Here you got the balance between people enjoying themselves with actual lives outside their academic studies developing as people experiencing life along the way.

The best way to think of Leeds is it gives you all the tools you will need in the real world not just Academic Knowledge, it allows you to mix with a much more wider variety of students from differing backgrounds than you would find at the classical traditional dull elite Universities.

It certainly has the undisputed best Student Union its a huge building and huge organisation and has 1000s of societies and has so many functions and things going on enough to keep you entertained. Accomodation well theres more beds for students than students in Leeds the accomodation for city prices is very good value and lots of the accomodation is new particularly if you go private halls, but the halls are all sociable and nice.

No matter where you come from who you are, Leeds will have something for you and you will fit in due to its diversity and mix with new strands of people you would of never met if you had gone elsewhere. I guess a bad point could be there is so many fun things to do here you might forget you were here to study lol?

I really dont know im trying to be critical but its very hard the Uni holds its own against everything, Id pick it over anywhere. Lots of students share this view and I dont know anyone who comes here who speaks badly of it, so I mean that must tell you something. I meet people who moan how Cambridge was lonely and how Oxford didnt prepare them for the real world. The Uni here @ Leeds is just god damn down to earth and awesome, but its awesome to different people for different reasons, I think your going the wrong way about considering Leeds it just wipes the floor with everywhere else when you actually put it into context as a wholesome experience.

Teachers are like using advanced technology to present information to you in a variety of ways but you are not spoon fed so you have to do some proper work. Campus layout has to be the best in the UK its in the city centre and 10mins walk from huge shopping districts and nightlife etc. Its all confined nicely well kept and there are lots of routes you can take to alternate, which way you walk so it does not get boring.

Its a big student population as you would gather from the diversity lots of cool Internationals to exchange culture with. Its a cheap city to live in... What more do you wanna go if you dont want to come here after checking it out and reading this then I dunno where your ever gonna be happy at Uni.
Reply 2
Thanks Moonbeam. You're obviously smitten by the place. I've checked out the uni web site and I am much impressed. The physics course I'm interested in looks good. At the end of the day its a personal choice. So which other universities were your choices?
Thats my point its a personal choice that Leeds will cater for, whoever whatever you are. I know a guy doing Physics here he loves it he is a door down from me.

Student support is really good here too, most Uni's just chuck Freshers in the deep end and let them struggle along, here there is so much help for Freshers.

I thinks its easier to be critical about the Uni from when you visit, because once you come here to study I highly doubt you will be able to be critical about the place you feel so involved in. The teaching level here is good though because lots of them have wrote their own books, not sure how that works with physics though.

I had on my UCAS: Leeds, UEA, Warwick, Leicester, Kent. But before UCAS I had a look around Cambridge on a trip and live close so have been a few times, nice city but sucky academic obsessed people with no personalities and seemed pretty boring lecturers too me, its important you have a dynamic energetic lecturer or else you will fall asleep and have no motivation to learn. I visited Oxford once it was Cambridge again and was a little gentlemans club. Warwick is almost like a wannabe Oxford and Cambridge I can see them becoming elitist in the next 10 years and I did not want to be apart of such a negative atmosphere. Leicester was a complete joke, accomodation was miles from the Uni Campus, I mean least I can walk here. The lecture and teaching quality was laughable, they looked desperate. I just decided to use the day in Leicester for the rest of the day to enjoy the city once I had ruled it out. Kent was over the top religious and like overly moralistic, pretty place but the people were like Mormons: "Really nice rather too nice it became creepy". UEA was the only real contender it was local to where I lived though and I wanted a fresh place. Teaching quality was good they were at cutting edge of research it was a cheap all campus community, sadly it was too far away from the City of Norwich to walk. The accomodation was pretty old also, but they had the same positive spark and were interested in personality as much as academic skill. I had it as a backup but its no better than Leeds in anything.

Well good luck with it all.
Reply 4
Moonbeam1991
Thats my point its a personal choice that Leeds will cater for, whoever whatever you are. I know a guy doing Physics here he loves it he is a door down from me.

Student support is really good here too, most Uni's just chuck Freshers in the deep end and let them struggle along, here there is so much help for Freshers.

I thinks its easier to be critical about the Uni from when you visit, because once you come here to study I highly doubt you will be able to be critical about the place you feel so involved in. The teaching level here is good though because lots of them have wrote their own books, not sure how that works with physics though.

I had on my UCAS: Leeds, UEA, Warwick, Leicester, Kent. But before UCAS I had a look around Cambridge on a trip and live close so have been a few times, nice city but sucky academic obsessed people with no personalities and seemed pretty boring lecturers too me, its important you have a dynamic energetic lecturer or else you will fall asleep and have no motivation to learn. I visited Oxford once it was Cambridge again and was a little gentlemans club. Warwick is almost like a wannabe Oxford and Cambridge I can see them becoming elitist in the next 10 years and I did not want to be apart of such a negative atmosphere. Leicester was a complete joke, accomodation was miles from the Uni Campus, I mean least I can walk here. The lecture and teaching quality was laughable, they looked desperate. I just decided to use the day in Leicester for the rest of the day to enjoy the city once I had ruled it out. Kent was over the top religious and like overly moralistic, pretty place but the people were like Mormons: "Really nice rather too nice it became creepy". UEA was the only real contender it was local to where I lived though and I wanted a fresh place. Teaching quality was good they were at cutting edge of research it was a cheap all campus community, sadly it was too far away from the City of Norwich to walk. The accomodation was pretty old also, but they had the same positive spark and were interested in personality as much as academic skill. I had it as a backup but its no better than Leeds in anything.

Well good luck with it all.


Completely agree with this! Really wanted to go to Warwick until I actually visited! The english lecturers basially said it was harder to get in there than Oxbridge and we were all wasting our time! Plus I actually heard several people talk about their horses :rolleyes: I haven't seen Leeds yet but the people seem normal and up for a laugh which is the most important thing for me.
Yea its a good balance here, people are up for a laugh but they also no when the laugh has to stop to get the job done. So its great you have a laugh then you knuckle down a bit and get a nice degree outta it all :biggrin:
Moonbeam has successfully got me really excited at the prospect of going to Leeds!

Its fantastic that you love it so much..
Jamjar
Thanks Moonbeam. You're obviously smitten by the place. I've checked out the uni web site and I am much impressed. The physics course I'm interested in looks good. At the end of the day its a personal choice. So which other universities were your choices?

I've applied to do physics there, tis my top choice XD so come join me lol. I loved the place, everyone seems so friendly and enthusiastic!!
Im glad, I too was excited and it is everything I was excited about and then more. Its the package thats so exciting I guess and yes students here are very friendly and enthusiastic but on a more normal level. When I visited other Unis they was OTT and I was like there totally overselling and trying to force the Uni down me, but you got to come to Leeds and take a look around crash over if you must. The longer I live here the more I discover and its all positive :smile:

REP if its helpful people forget :frown:
Just wondering what Leeds is like for PGCE? Is qualification well recognised after?
Reply 10
Good points

# having a taxi service company running in conjunction with the uni...if you dont have enough money for the fare home you can hand in your student ID card as a form of payment which you can then get back from the union a few days later in return for payment of the fare.

# campus being 10 minutes walk from the city centre

# the leeds uni night bus, only costs 50p and drops you off outside your student accomm.

# the union - games room, comfy comfy couches, pasty shop, book shop, curry shop, noodle shop, university clothing, the old bar, the terrace...

# easy enough campus layout..I think all of the subjects have their own little area of the campus, or at least mine does anyway..I'm in the same 3 buildings all week. :smile:

# being able to renew your library books online..meaning you can renew it 5 minutes before midnight the day its due back!


Bad points

# sometimes, having your friends off the course and other friends you make outside of your accomm living so far away. e.g. you living in the city centre and them living at Bodington.

# 9am starts..
Not many first years have 9am starts to be fair :biggrin: I dont! :biggrin:

My mates in Boddington know that if they want to have other friends they gotta travel for them, all the more to get them to sleep over your city centre place, or do an allnighter :biggrin:

But I guess if we need to be picky and present some bad points there the worst points I could ever think of.
Reply 12
Moonbeam1991
Not many first years have 9am starts to be fair :biggrin: I dont! :biggrin:

My mates in Boddington know that if they want to have other friends they gotta travel for them, all the more to get them to sleep over your city centre place, or do an allnighter :biggrin:

But I guess if we need to be picky and present some bad points there the worst points I could ever think of.


not many?! I have three 9am starts :frown:
although, my course is five day a week.
My course is five day a week lol! Maybe I deserve to live in Bodington, yet I live a nice 10 min stroll haha and I dont go in until 10, 1 or 2 most days :biggrin:
Reply 14
I know haha, I briefly met you during fresher's week! I'm at Concept too.
Katrina/Catrina? You like on my floor?
The only negative thing I've come across in my 3 years here that's stuck in my mind is that the Roger Stevens building looks like some kind of nuclear bunker that someone accidently built above the ground.

Apart from that, come along to Leeds :biggrin:!
Omg after my 3rd year I will still not be able to find room numbers. Any idea how they work, you go to the floor you assume would be the higher number lecture theatre and its actually 2 floors below you but the lower number is on the floor your on and you end up going higher up the stairs thinking logically it must be higher since 20 is higher than 18 lol. You then spend 25mins picking your brains walk down the stairs to the bottom and go oh **** there it is right at the bottom :O
Reply 18
TheWizard
The only negative thing I've come across in my 3 years here that's stuck in my mind is that the Roger Stevens building looks like some kind of nuclear bunker that someone accidently built above the ground.

Apart from that, come along to Leeds :biggrin:!


Nah, Roger Stevens is fine. From the outside. If you dare enter, though, you'd better take basic rations, a parachute and a fire extinguisher because you're not getting back out in a hurry.
What everyone's already said really. Great social life, excellent academic reputation, nightlife....blah de blah. Let's just say there's a reason it recieves the second largest number of applications in the UK. I'm going to outline some more interesting positives/negatives that set it apart from other unis.

Good points:

- Hyde Park (Woodhouse Moor)...a massive green park that separates uni from the main student housing areas. It's lovely to walk through, there are two major pathways with trees either side creating a little canopy over you (I walk every day through it to uni and it's so lovely, even in the snow it's pretty and in the summer it's packed with students having barbeques and picnics). Don't walk through it late at night though.
- Uni is about a 10 minute walk away from the city centre, which is really lovely...great for shopping with a Harvey Nicks and a billion little boutiques and vintage stores along with the generic high street stores.
- The house parties are unlike anything I've ever experienced...a typical party will have 200-300 people in a single house, with DJs in every room (including usually a basement), people selling nitrous oxide, copious amounts of drink (and usually drugs, but no comment), and usually go on until either the police shut it down (in which case it's usually started up again 5 mins later) or until well into the morning (8-9am). And the best part is that they're free, happen every weekend or so and you always see loads of people you know.
- The societies and clubs are very active with everyone wanting to get involved...Leeds Snowriders has over a thousand members and is the largest student club in the country, with infamous socials and trips to Val Thorens and Val D'Isere.
- Nightlife is great, the great thing is that all the students will go to pretty much the same clubs (there's about two or three good'uns to choose from per night) and you'll see people you know all the time, none of the annoying chavvy locals.
- Everything's pretty cheap. Drinks, club entry generally won't exceed £5 (most of the time it's £3-4 unless you're going to a night like Metropolis which is £17, but they are few and far between...and worth it). Taxis are cheap, especially if you share. And if you don't have enough money you can give them your student card (Amber Cars, this is) and get it back the next day from the Union, paying your fare at the reception desk.
- Weather. Even though it's up north, Leeds seems to be very good at avoiding the rain, somehow. It is cold, but often it's been colder in London. Some geographer told me it was something about the land elevation or hills nearby that makes this so, but I can't remember exactly why.
- If you're into the media, Leeds has an award winning newspaper (Leeds Student), award winning radio station (LSRfm.com) and TV station (LS:TV), it's really easy to get involved with and is excellent for the CV since they are so critically acclaimed.
- The famous Otley Run. Brilliant fun on a night out, usually with a ridiculous theme and there are only a few other well known pub crawls in the country. Fancy dress pub crawls are so commonplace that you'll see fifty rugby players in pink tutus cavorting down the street without batting an eyelid.
- It has 33,000 students. I.e. it is HUGE. You're bound to find SOMEONE you like, even if you're a sourfaced old coot.
- It has two main student 'ghettos', Hyde Park and Headingley. Yes, some families and such live there too (god knows why) but come second year you have a million neighbours who are also students, and most of your friends live within a one mile radius. And, house parties galore...which I've mentioned earlier. Plus if you live here there's a Sainsbury's Local, One Stop, Co-op open 24 hours for any random 3am cravings for Pop Tarts and a plethora of takeaways of various cuisines, very cheap.

Bad points:

- Hyde Park (big student residential area) can be dangerous if you're not careful, I don't really feel safe walking around there alone at 2am. But to be fair, that hardly ever happens since you've always got people with you.
- Roger Stevens. 'Nuff said. I feel sorry for the poor bloke after whom it is named, since it's the ugliest building I've ever seen, not to mention the confusing interior...it seems to have been modelled on an M.C. Escher painting. For your first lecture in there I recommend you give yourself at least 10 minutes to find your lecture theatre. Luckily once you know where it is it isn't too much trouble.
- Walking to uni can sometimes be a succession of near death experiences, as when you're late you take chances crossing roads and it is a city area after all. Especially since the road after the Library pub has no pedestrian crossing but they are changing that soon, I think.