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Exeter- Posh?

I keep reading about how there are lots of posh students at Exeter. Is that really true? I don't want to go somewhere where people care what I'm wearing, or what type of car I'm driving.
So I'm asking..if anybody knows about that.

(And also- If I go to exeter will I see many black people?- Im scared of being the only black person in the room most of the time.)

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Reply 1

Mensan1

kuroptd

yes exeter is meant to be very middle class. The university has a reputation for accepting rich oxbridge rejects too. And i think 98% of people in exeter are white so yes you probably will stand out. im chinese and am quite put off by that too. The flip side is that it is a very reputable uni.

Reply 2

Vincente

I keep reading about how there are lots of posh students at Exeter.

When I visited Exeter (for 4 days) to see a friend of mine there was quite a large number of independent school students (I think he told me a third are). It wasn't too bad, you will get some snobs in all good universities and they do rant on about pointless things and act in an elitist manner. Its certainly not as bad as say in Oxford, Durham or Imperial college. But don't worry when I visited Exeter the people were much nicer and doesn't have much of that "rah" and Oxbridge wannabe attitude. (Like Durham)

About blacks I don't think I saw a black student in the university. But black students are very under represented in the UKs top universities, and this could explain why. But again its something you shouldn't worry about it as I'm sure the people there are very tolerant and I didn't experience any racism there. (I'm not white either)

Reply 3

Vincente

im chinese and am quite put off by that too

What decent university in this country isin't majority white then? With the exception of say LSE. (I'm half chinese BTW)

EDIT: majotrity white area as well.

Reply 4

Swinely

I don't think there are many posh people there at all... my friend is in his 1st year there and says he only knows 2 posh people in his entire campus + course put together. Even when i stayed down there i didn't actually see any and he was showing me around the uni most of the time.
So don't let it put you off :smile:

Reply 5

kellywood_5

There are loads of posh people in the sense of went to private schools and come from very middle class families with parents paying for their fees and/or accommodation, so my comprehensive school, working class, first in my family to go to uni background sticks out a bit sometimes, but I haven't met any posh people in the sense of being snobs. I've made some really good friends here who'd I'd class as 'posh'. Everyone is down to earth and friendly and no one looks down on anyone else for the way the dress or what car they drive, so it's really not an issue unless you choose to make it one. As for black people, there are very few of them in Exeter generally and even fewer in the uni itself, but again it's not an issue unless you make it one because I haven't seen/heard about any incidents of racism here.

Reply 6

kuroptd

To everybody that has replied to far I THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH you have been so helpful. Im still not sure wat I'm going to do as I have offers from reading and royal holloway(Business degrees with German). The only things that can make my mind up are social aspects of the university. Please if anybody has any more comments to add they would be very welcome.

THANK YOU EVERYBODY!!!!!! :smile:

thanks- kellywood_5, Swinely, Vincente, Mensan1 :cool:

Reply 7

Vincente

The only things that can make my mind up are social aspects of the university.

Well RHUL's social life ain't that amazing. Its a very small university and its isolated. Although the student union organises transport to London, IMO its not good at all for someone whom wants to go out clubbing etc (in effect you lose many of the benefits of living in a city)

Reading is alright, I live quite near there and go there sometimes. I don't know much about the student union there but the social life is good there (hence I go there). However I feel that Reading is quite a rough place to live.

Exeter is probably the best of the 3 when it comes to social life. The city is realy good and the university campus is very close to the city. However visit all the places before you decide!

EDIT: I like it so much I'm going there agin on the 1st of February!

Reply 8

Mensan1

Vincente

What decent university in this country isin't majority white then? With the exception of say LSE. (I'm half chinese BTW)

EDIT: majotrity white area as well.

wei. i didnt ever say that there are any decent uni's that isnt made up of mostly white people. Dont know where u got that idea from.

what i was saying is that they happen to be particularly more white than the other top uni's.

Reply 9

Angelil

There are more wannabe posh people here than actual posh people - lots of people dressing like rahs but I don't think the proportion of actual posh/well-off people here is as high as the media likes to make out. Plenty of people dress in Jack Wills/Abercrombie and say yar a lot though :s-smilie:

Despite this, there are plenty of normal people here at Exeter :p:

As for ethnic minorities...Exeter kind of falls down on that score. Plenty of international students here though (Chinese people everywhere) and I live with 2 Nigerian girls. They're not non-existent...although I don't suppose it helps that Exeter as a city is quite inconvenient to get to from the rest of the UK (in terms of being rather stuck out on a limb) and is majority-white anyway.

Reply 10

Button

Out of interest, from those already at Exeter, would you say it is lacking socially (I know somebody's already said a little about this but I'm just concerned as I've heard from a few people that there's not much to do there)? See, I really like the look of the place and it's a good uni but I think I might go a little crazy if there are hardly any clubs/pubs lol. (Sorry, that sounds shallow, hopefully someone knows what I mean :smile:

)

Thanks in advance

Reply 11

Angelil

Nope, you're not shallow - social life is important :smile:

I'm more of a pubber than a clubber, and there are looooooads of pubs here. I never get bored :smile:

Even those of my friends that are clubbers, while agreeing that Exeter is no metropolis, don't seem to have a problem having a good time.

Have a look a bit further down this forum - I'm pretty sure there are other threads about the quality of the Exonian social life :p:

Reply 12

Button

haha yer just found them thanks :smile:

Tbh, I'm sure I'll be fine in Exeter, it certainly seems to have more clubs than where I am now (good ol' Milton keynes with a grand total of... 5! haha and I still find things to do here so, it's all good :smile:

) My friends just scared me a little bit lol.

Plusss... I'm not a big fan of huge cities I must say and I want a pretty uni which Exeter seems to be :smile:

Thanks for your help

Reply 13

qwerty18

Button

Out of interest, from those already at Exeter, would you say it is lacking socially.....

An art scene, that’s my only complaint with exeter right now. The galleries that exist hate local artist and refuse to give them the time of day, even though most of them are funded by local tax money ( I could moan some more but I wont :p:

). Everything else is pretty popular and busy pubs/clubs/music/cinema wise. :smile:

Reply 14

Button

Haha aww, well, artistically wise, I'm dire and that is no exaggeration so I can't see that being a problem for me unless I miraculously become an artist over night hehe.

Reply 15

theonlyway

Socially, I would say Exeter is pretty good - quite a lot of clubs with loads of student and themed nights and drinks promotions, and the Cavern for live alternative/rock/metal music. And I would say that although Exeter is mostly white, there doesn't seem to be a problem with racism at all. You should probably be more concerned about the rahs, who are everywhere, but I promise you that they're completely harmless, and you can quite happily spend half an hour sloane-spotting on campus. I would say that the way you dress is no more important here than it is anywhere else, really.

hope that helped!

Reply 16

kuroptd

yea it helped....jst 1 thing.....wat are the 'rahs'?

Reply 17

supercat

Heh, rah, as far as I'm aware, stands for rich arse-holes. So they're the preppy girls/boys wearing Jack Wills (she says in her Jack Wills tracksuit bottoms :wink:

) that went to public school etc etc. It's just a stereotype.

Reply 18

rozzy

theres a lot of chinese/other oriental internationals there!

Reply 19

happychappy22

Getting back to the OP's second question I would expect Reading to be more multicultural than Exeter. This may or may not help him to make a decision. No idea about RM!