GOGSoc Episode V: The GOG Strikes Back

At least Ricicles are nice.

As in those sugar coated rice crispies?

As in those sugar coated rice crispies?

Aye. I never got on with cocopops but ricicles are grrrreat!

Yo! Goldsmiths question for you - what's the local area like? Not an area of London I know and have been asked by a friend whether I'd recommend it as a uni choice for her daughter.

Any info greatly appreciated

I have no idea of the context in which he wrote that, but can't you guess why I'd disagree? I take 'people with no conviction' to be people pleasing types who go with the flow and are superficial, with passionate types to be people who stick to their guns, think about things and care about them, etc. The former category are probably the sorts I get on with least in life. I wouldn't say that all my close friends are obviously 'passionate', but they are people who think about things deeply and care about stuff, and aren't just social chameleons even if their personality is reasonably laid back, or if they're reserved in how that comes across. I definitely wouldn't place you in the former category either, so I'm surprised you agree with him.

It's a pretty accurate description of far too many political situations (the Tea Party springs to mind). I love Yeats, and that is probably my favourite poem ever. (btw I'm not sure if I ever mentioned - I looked up the Beckett poem your username comes from - it's wonderful.)

New Cross itself isn't the nicest of areas, but it has character and life. It's also near enough to live in Greenwich (which is both nice and has character/life) or Rotherhithe (which is nice and/but mostly just houses, making it devoid of life but very quiet).

As a student one of the big bonuses is the area's very cheap, vastly so when compared to Imperial, LSE or UCL being in the centre, and even quite a bit cheaper than being near Bow for QMUL.

Thank you, shall pass info on

hey, I wanted to ask you, I am currently applying to RHUL because they have a professor with whom I would really like to work. However, The Lyceum says that it's a bad choice and that the university is not very good because of lack of funding etc etc...What is your opinion? I know you did your masters there. Do you think it's a bad place to do a PhD?

Urgh, I'm so torn about RHUL I really am. Said friend's daughter who I was asking about Goldsmiths for is interested in RHUL and I really don't know. I did indeed spend a year there after spending 3 fantastic years at a post 92 so take my opinion as you wish really.

Academically wise, it really isn't as good as it could/should be. The libraries are crap both in terms of working areas and what they carry, or not carry as the case may be. I felt like I'd gone back a year on my MA but that could just be the course I did/department. And the English MA students I was living with said the same about academic level and lack of books in their department. (The scientists and business/management lot had no complaints at all). I also found a lot of egos were influencing what was happening, instead of looking at the bigger picture, ie the students and their opinion.

It's a lovely campus with decent halls and has a good feel to it. Egham's alright I guess, small commuter town really but you've got Windsor 15mins up the road and 40mins to Waterloo by train. Also a relatively easy commute to Oxford. Frustrating though as they forgot the postgrads were on campus over the summer so everything was shut I loved the social and living side, hated the academic side.

I guess if you were living elsewhere (so access to books was 10 x better) and the supervisor was prolific enough in your field to make a difference, it could potentially be a good choice.

What I will say is that the little money the uni has is being ploughed into the international side of things (that could be a benefit, maybe not), and they're merging departments left, right and centre, including Classics. There was a sense of worry when I was there with regard to its future, especially as the London collegiate is getting smaller. And as a side point and I don't know if it even matters/don't particularly want to get into any form of debate but it is now the only big London uni not to be part of the Russell group (I'm not counting the small other institutes here, ie my own!)...

Mary Beard wrote a couple of interesting blogs over the Classics department at RHUL which are worth a read:

http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2011/06/classics-at-royal-holloway-under-threat.html

http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2011/06/royal-holloway-update.html

yes, I know the whole issue of the department etc...I guess my question would be: funded place at RHUL or no PhD at all? Obviously, if I had a funded opportunity from say Oxford or Cambridge, I'd rather stay there (even though I honestly would love to work with this supervisor...but of course Oxbridge would offer better opportunities academically in general)
I know I should wait to see what will happen with funding first before I start asking people for opinions, but I can't help but think that maybe if I dont get funding from Oxbridge I should take a gap year and re apply, and also apply to the US.

Well I had the same thoughts when I was applying first time round, and quickly realised there were better unis out there for all round better PhD experiences. Obviously a funded PhD is better than none at all, but think very carefully about RHUL, especially coming from Oxford and having decent access to books et al.