UCA Applicants 2018!

Hey
What are the main differences between the places the different colleges of UCA are located?

Hey Im at UCA rochester campus for foundation diploma and I am looking at canterbury and farnham campus for degree level.
Rochester does only and mainly fashion courses , photography course and jewellery. I commute but the area is reasonably nice- chatham isnt the most lovely of places but it has all the essential shops you need and its actually closer to the uni than rochester town centre bit is. Chatham station is one road away (I get down in five mins)from the uni versus Rochester station being a good twenty min walk away. The shops in rochester are a bit more vintagey, theres some genuinely good charity shops and a wetherspoons and other cool restaurants. The accomodation is downhil about 5-7mins away and is decent size and as far as I am aware they all have en suite bathrooms. There are really cool societies that I know of at Rochester including film, roller derby, dance, pole fitness that are all in the uni on different days in a big room called studio space which is like a white big hall. My friends find it frustrating though that all the nightlife is in Maidstone which is a fair drive or train journey away which is a bit of pain (its worth saying that to some events the uni provides transport ONLY FOR FRESHERS) The canteen serves the same stuff everyday but on the plus side you always have chips as backup everyday for lunch? So many oat bar things and they have a sandwich bar which is pretty neat like subway. Fridge with branded drinks etc.

Canterbury is a bit smaller and is mostly one level it does fine art, architecture, graphic design (I think) and illustration and animation. It's got accomodation on site almost joint to the uni building which all have en suite bathrooms and accomodation slightly further away thats a mix of en suite an not. In my opinion the accomodation there is bigger than rochester but not as nice? Students stay they prefer the off campus accomodation. Like all campuses priority goes to first years and those furthest away (But just to say most people get in that apply early esp if you a first year) Its right next to the town which has LOADS of stuff, from what Ive heard students fave for location is canterbury. It isnt that close to the station but theres a lot of buses called eco buses. The town is pretty much made for students coz theres three unis. So, compared to the other campuses ul find more integration with people from other unis including uni of kent and christ church uni. Theres a club quite nearby too called club chemistry. Also loaaadds of pubs and qiuck shopping places. Not to mention a loads of art stuff happening almost constantly. The canteen has a bit less than rochesters but more or less the same.

For Farnham I dont know a lot but its the biggest campus, It does degrees in : ANimation, Illustration, Graphics, Film production, Screen arts, acting performance, music (I think), advertising, computer arts stuff and video games stuff, glass and ceramics, theatre production, tv production, media production, fine art (slightly different to canterbury) Photography(once again slightly different in terms of what the teaching revolves around like what they base your research or topic on eg politics and social issues) textiles.
From what I have heard from people going to that campus they really dont like it haha, mainly coz of area. Farnham is pretty empty so for nightlife and main shops youd have to travel across to guildford. Apparently the accomodation is reeallllly bad as well for some reason. Its also worth noting that Farnham is very expensive to live in. A few students think the courses arent well organised, but i wouldnt take it as gospel because uca as a general likes to encourage you to work independently and a lot of students get mad coz they like being told what to do, but realistically its very open and you can ask for guidance easily. I think a lot of students dont ask. They still set briefs and give you inductions for equipment. But I am not there so I cant say for definite... Just the reviews from students are mixed.
On the other hand there are loads of really famous alumni from that campus so that must count for something- particularly gareth edwards director of rogue one star wars. I think that the main downside for that campus is teh location coz lack of things to do.

Finally Epsom- Which I stereotype as the business related degrees.It does a lot of promotion stuff. I think one of the few hands on drawing kind of courses they have is graphic design. The campus is hella fancy and pristine white. Their canteen has the nicest food which sucks for me. I don't know about the area too well or the accomodation but students generally find it enjoyable and cool. I suppose the area would be a bit more expensve than rochester and canterbury.
Oh yeah there is also a couple off campus courses like embroidery course thats in the sewing place in london and the tv production course in Maidstone tv studios. I dont know about the embroidery course but the maidstone people are set up in maidstone I think a lot of them live there near site, but they come for lectures at uca rochester once a week usually. These sites are a bit more to do with working during degree.
So yeah thats all I have to say? If I can help anymore let me know.

Thank you so much! this was really useful
Im considering doing a graphic design course. Farnham seems to be the best option for my course it seems

Canterbury, epsom and farnham do graphics courses- you should check the open days to see differences

Im an international student so that isnt an option for me

the uni has a youtube channel that shows a lot about the courses- just search the uni name and look around from there. I think that the courses differ with epsom being 'graphic design', farnham being 'graphic communication' and canterbury is 'graphic design visual communications'
farnhams is quite broad kind of like composing a magazine, epsoms seems a bit more business and traditional oriented and I know that compared to others canterburys is concerned with a narrative or story to your designs.
Its worth noting that farnham has also got an advertising course which gives you access to the same mediums and equipment but would obviously be to do with advertisement.

Thank you so much for your help!
I will check the videos out

Name: Guostė
Location: Lithuania
Course: Illustration
Campus: will be trying to get in Canterbury
Predicted grades: have no idea
Also applying at: Anglia Ruskin, in the Netherlands too and few others

Hey, would be nice to know if anyone else is applying to the illustration course and when are they planning on sending out their applications. I finished up my motivational letter, got the recommendation, got IELTS and I am finishing up my portfolio so I will hopefully send everything out before the end of November

Name: Guostė
Location: Lithuania
Course: Illustration
Campus: will be trying to get in Canterbury
Predicted grades: have no idea
Also applying at: Anglia Ruskin, in the Netherlands too and few others

Hey, would be nice to know if anyone else is applying to the illustration course and when are they planning on sending out their applications. I finished up my motivational letter, got the recommendation, got IELTS and I am finishing up my portfolio so I will hopefully send everything out before the end of November