Anyone regret Royal Holloway?

I was at Durham last year and hated it. Chose it because of the prospects. Since I've been here, I couldn't be happier.

ive applied for business management.
sorry for the late reply, i've been soo busy,
just got my results

You hated Durham?? lol

RHUL looks amazing. I am hoping to study Geog & PIR there. It is a well regarded university of academic excellence and is in leagues of the Russell Group unis for some subjects.

I thought it was better than Kings and Exeter.

It's sad that negative comments on forums like this could put potential students off such a beautiful University. I was a little concerned by them but once I visited the University, I found myself counter-arguing each negative comment. And as for the quality of teaching...the Student Statistics Website for my course (Psychology) argues otherwise. x x x

I know that the whole point of this thread was to discuss the negative points of Royal Holloway but why is everyone being so miserable! There must be some good things about it otherwise you would have dropped out.. (and if you didn't then you should drop out.)
There is no point spending 3 years or more somewhere that makes you unhappy, especially as a student spending huge amounts of money for your place there.
As for the comments about tutors, I think it should be made clear that that is something which is specific to certain departments and courses..
I saw that somebody said that most people come from the local area.. where did you get that from? There are a lot of international students and students from all over the country there, just like any other university. If a lot of locals are choosing to go to RHUL, then surely that says good things about the area and the uni? Maybe they're not desperate to escape their hometown haha!
Serious crime in Surrey and Egham is very rare and I think it's important that things don't get exaggerated, it's a quiet area, which is perhaps why when things do happen, everybody knows about it and it makes quite a big impact!
Promote your uni, I know it has bad points, all unis do.. but don't scare people away

YES YES YES YES YES.

Worst time of my life. And I was only there for a term!!

If you're still unsure... DO NOT GO!!

I was literally depressed from september till december when i dropped out (thank god)

- night life - SHOCKINGLY BAD when you have to choose between medicine or the Union. nothing in egham to do. charge you a fiver for every SU night. The best clubs in sheffield and newcastle dont even cost that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- union - crap music, crap atmosphere, almost depressingly bad

- accomodation - founders is not social like a flat cos any gatherings with more than 3 people get broken up by the security guards... no joke, hall parties? forget it... they close them down cos they think having music and alcohol is 'getting out of hand'...food isn't great, facilities in the room falling apart broken and old and you only get two plugs for gods sake

- egham - ghost town, not much chance of any life being injected into it as it is a commuter town so nothing going for it

- bulls**t about london being so close - cant get back from nights out and its not as close as they say they milk london for all its worth, londons great so if you wanna live there go live in the city NOT Rhul!!

- COST - so high compared to the north, the college shop is like daylight robbery

actual uni campus - no atmosphere

What annoys me the most is when people try and be all like 'oh well you've just got to make the best of what you've got' - how much fun does that sound, uni is supposed to be the best years of your life.. not something to just 'make the best of' or 'get it over and done with'...... if you're not happy - LEAVE. Thats what I did... best decsion i ever made.
its holloway that needs to change.. the students shouldnt have to feel they need to adapt to its crappy lifestyle.



Touched by fire you are completely right.

Royal holloway have robbed me of nearly a year of my life and over 3 grand... but at least i know now. Spread the word. you can ignore me or whatever everyones different you may like it.. but speaking from direct experience i would not reccommend hollers to anyone unless I particularly disliked them.

and yes you're right, there are a lot of international students, but it doesnt make it better when they refuse to make any effort to integrate with the rest of the uni.

Integrating is a two-way process. You can't simply expect international students to fit in. The problem I have also found is that the English students aren't very welcoming either. Often, they can be seen as cold and sometimes even impolite (although this is obviously not true). One must realise that it is a very different culture that they are coming from and often the language barrier often makes the culture clash that much harsher.

To be honest I made a real effort to welcome the international students aand talk to them but theres only so much you can do when you get nothing back.
Also... if you dont speak the language of a country... don't go to uni there

I'm mixed race myself, and I wouldn't go to my country of origin or any other foreign speaking country for university without learning the language first.

Well as a prospective student I realise that RHUL is not the most partying uni in the country, but because I'm not too concerned about nightlife I still firmed it for its good reputation and setting. Yet you went there and are badmouthing the place just because of its bad social life and location- if you'd taken a proper look around during the Open Day (or even read the 'Local Area' section in the Prospectus) you would have realised that it's not like London or Sheffield.

Plus, you haven't mentioned anything negative about the educational side of things, so I assume you enjoyed your studies there somewhat. Not everyone picks a uni for basis of social life- what about the course, quality of teaching and so on? Uni is first and foremost about getting a degree as well as enjoying your taste of freedom.

But I wanted to much more from Uni, and there is little or NO organised events at Rhul, even places like Durham (smallish Uni's in the countryside) manage to have tons more on offer.
Surely Uni is about having fun and getting involved in societys and events, yes getting a degree is obviously one of the most important things.. but you really need to have fun along the way.. its a nice place to visit, but when you're 18, free, young and full of life.. living in a small commuter town with no one and nothing to do is not how i imagined student life!

But the best way to learn a language is to actually go there. Now, don't get me wrong I do see your point; however, I'm tired of people always saying that international students should just automatically 'fit in' when I've seen tons of local students make no effort whatsoever to welcome them.

YES YES YES YES YES.

Worst time of my life. And I was only there for a term!!

If you're still unsure... DO NOT GO!!

I was literally depressed from september till december when i dropped out (thank god)

- night life - SHOCKINGLY BAD when you have to choose between medicine or the Union. nothing in egham to do. charge you a fiver for every SU night. The best clubs in sheffield and newcastle dont even cost that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- accomodation - founders is not social like a flat cos any gatherings with more than 3 people get broken up by the security guards... no joke, hall parties? forget it... they close them down cos they think having music and alcohol is 'getting out of hand'...food isn't great, facilities in the room falling apart broken and old and you only get two plugs for gods sake

- egham - ghost town, not much chance of any life being injected into it as it is a commuter town so nothing going for it

- bulls**t about london being so close - cant get back from nights out and its not as close as they say they milk london for all its worth, londons great so if you wanna live there go live in the city NOT Rhul!!

- COST - so high compared to the north, the college shop is like daylight robbery

actual uni campus - no atmosphere

What annoys me the most is when people try and be all like 'oh well you've just got to make the best of what you've got' - how much fun does that sound, uni is supposed to be the best years of your life.. not something to just 'make the best of' or 'get it over and done with'...... if you're not happy - LEAVE. Thats what I did... best decsion i ever made.
its holloway that needs to change.. the students shouldnt have to feel they need to adapt to its crappy lifestyle.

You did realise before you firmed RHUL that the nightlife there is pretty poor, right? I mean, if there's one thing that is repeated in this section of the forums a lot, it's 'the nightlife at RHUL is pretty poor'. That actually appeals to me, personally, but if you're a hard core clubber surely it would've been better for you to have applied to places such as Sheffield and Newcastle, which provide the sort of entertainment you're looking for?



Hmm, did you choose Founder's as your first choice? It does seem to be the poorest accommodation on campus, but then it's the cheapest and almost every university seems to have it's cheapie accommodation. Shame that the security guards are such party poopers, though.



Once again, did you not know anything about Egham or RHUL's location? I don't want this to sound nasty at all, and I understand that the majority of people do less research than I do when it comes to universities, but if it's the one you firmed and were determined to go to, shouldn't you have found out a bit more about it? I see that you said you were from the north- did you get a chance to actually visit the university for yourself, to calculate the actual distance it is from London, etc.?



As someone who has lived in the south all her life, I guess I'm just used to being ripped off. I do agree though, RHUL generally seems to be expensive.



That's a point that I have to disagree on. I thought the campus has an amazing atmosphere (though obviously that's just from visits). Even when I've been at the weekend, there's something just so calm and peaceful about it. I know a lot of people go home at the weekend, but I see this as a good thing rather than a bad thing. Atmosphere is very subjective, though.



You may consider the lack of places to go clubbing and not that many students on campus during the weekends as a 'crappy lifestyle', but it's for those reasons that I've chosen RHUL. Surely it would be more fair to say, 'if you don't like going to a quieter, smaller university, don't go to RHUL!' rather than assuming that all students want the same things as you out of their university experiences?

Plus, as has been pointed out before, you haven't mentioned the academic side of things at all, and so I can only presume that this was not something that was of the utmost importance to you whilst you were at RHUL. I, on the other hand, feel that if I wasn't happy with the 'atmosphere' or availability of drinking places of the university I go to, I'd deal with it, as long as the academic side of things were going well. So, once again, what you want out of university life seems to be very different from what I and those who attend RHUL and are happy seem to want.

No one university can offer anything. So you may be able to go to a university like Sheffield or Manchester or somewhere like that next year, and you'll be able to enjoy an active nightlife, but you won't get the peacefulness of the campus and the other things that RHUL offers. The key is to go where suits you and it seems that when you chose RHUL, you were unclear as to what exactly RHUL offers. I'm glad to hear that you're happier now you've dropped out, though- it does sound like it was the right decision for you. And I wish you luck for the future!