Uni of Bath accommodation

Hi, not a student but I’ve looked into Bath quite a lot, this video might help: https://youtu.be/jD3g7b51Uro
I’ve heard that you shouldn’t go to Norwood because it’s over the SU and is quite noisy. Hope that helps a bit x

Thank you! I’ve already watched that video It’s really good!! What do you want to study there? X

Hi! I was just wondering what the nicest accommodation is at the University of Bath? I would ideally like en suite but I’m not a fan of the green walls... they’re a bit of an eye sore 🥴 How many of the rooms in Woodland Court have this? Are any of the current undergrad accommodations being refurbished any time soon? And which is the most social accommodation? 😆x

Oh soz there aren’t a lot of Bath vids out there. I’m torn between Bath and Bristol at the moment, I think I’ll end up putting Bristol as firm and Bath as insurance. I’m studying Politics and French, you?

Hi there,

I am a current Uni of Bath student, and I lived in ensuite accommodation, so hopefully I can help If you go on over to this thread, I've given a detailed breakdown of all the ensuite accommodation options. Overall though, I'd say Marlborough/Solsbury court are the best options. The rooms are really spacious, dark blue and white walls (so no green eyesores), colour changing lights, and very central on campus, and the bathrooms are a good size. Quads has social space, but the bedrooms and bathrooms are TINY (and it's part-catered). Woodland isn't in the best location, and more expensive than other options - Woodland is basically the same as Marlborough/Solsbury except with double beds and green walls. Polden is good if you want to be fully-catered, but again quite expensive and not the best location.

I would say though, as a student who lived in ensuite accommodation, that it isn't actually worth it. Non-ensuite accommodations, like Eastwood and Norwood, have more students in a house. All my friends who lived in Eastwood, Norwood etc all absolutely loved it, never had any issues with sharing bathrooms, and all became really good friends with their housemates. They also saved £50-£100 a month (you can find full table comparing the accommodation prices here)! Ensuite accommodation is a lot more expensive, and the flats have fewer people in them so they aren't as good socially. Norwood is a bit noisy on the lower floors (they get free entry to uni club nights as compensation), so in retrospect I wish I'd chosen Eastwood as I would've saved a LOT of money and would've had a better time socially. You should also keep in mind that in 2nd and 3rd year, when you live in a rented flat/house, you'll most likely be sharing a bathroom anyway.

I'm not too sure if any of the accommodations are being refurbished, but I wouldn't take this into account too much anyway. Once all your stuff is in your room and you've put some photos and pictures up on the walls, the rooms actually look quite nice. Norwood, Eastwood and Quads tend to be the most social accommodation blocks, but personally I'd suggest Eastwood or Norwood over Quads - the locations are good, the rooms are bigger and you save a lot of money, so sharing a bathroom really isn't that much of an issue. If you are set on ensuite accommodation though, I'd say go for Marlborough/Solsbury.

I hope this has helped, and please let me know if you have any more questions or need more clarification
Jessica, a third year NatSci student

Thank you so much that’s so helpful ☺️ How often did you go out during the week? X

Np thank you for recommending it anyway! Something to do with Chemistry... maybe Chemical Engineering 😊 I’m in Year 12 at the moment so still have a bit of time to decide x

Hi, I am a 3rd year chemical engineering student at Bath so if you have any questions (I also very nearly did chemistry!) do let me know

Leah
3rd Year Chemical Engineering

Hi Leah! Thank you so much for your response 😊 I’ll definitely consider all the accommodation before I make a decision. I have lots of questions if that’s ok! What made you choose chemical engineering over chemistry? Is the Chemical Engineering course vigorous - how many contact hours did you have a week in first year and is that the same now? And how many hours of work would you say you have outside of that? If you don’t mind me asking what A levels did you do/grades did you get? Obviously no obligation if you’d rather not say ☺️ What other unis did you apply to and would you say Bath is the best option for Chemical Engineering? Sorry for all the questions it’s just a great opportunity to ask 😂 Thank you x

Thank you so much that’s so helpful ☺️ How often did you go out during the week? X

Np thank you for recommending it anyway! Something to do with Chemistry... maybe Chemical Engineering 😊 I’m in Year 12 at the moment so still have a bit of time to decide x

Hi again,

No problem, I'm glad I could help!

In terms of going out, it really varies by person. One of my current housemates never really goes out, and only ever went out to the pub occasionally and never to clubs. In first year, I used to go out on average about once a week, but sometimes I wouldn't go out for 2 weeks, others I'd go out 3 times in a week. it really all depended on what was going on! I'd say that as you progress through uni, you get less interested in going out as much. Now I only go out to a club maybe once a month to a proper rave, as I prefer just chilling at home with my friends, going for food or some calmer drinks. I'd say on average, most people I know went out once a week in Bath.The main thing to remember is there's no "normal" amount to go out - just do what suits you best!

I would also note that Bath is a smaller city with fewer and smaller clubs, so the nightlife gets quite repetitive and boring after a while, and there isn't much else to do. Most people end up going to Bristol for bigger nights out, and now living in Bristol for my placement I can see how much more there is to do here, other than just clubs (i.e. live music, museums, galleries, random different events). Essentially, Bath is an ideal place if you like to go out a bit, but not loads, but it you may find it boring after a while and end up going to places like Bristol or Cardiff to do other stuff.

I hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any more questions
Jessica, a third year NatSci student

Hi there - no problem at all! I have tried my best to answer all of your questions

What made you choose chemical engineering over chemistry?
During school I did so much research regarding what I was going to study at University. I knew I wanted a career which used what I had learnt at uni day-to-day, which is definitely something that drew me to engineering as there was definitely a much more practical application compared to a science degree. I am a very indecisive person and went through so many different options and came to many different decisions - I understand that is such a tough decision to decide what you want to do at uni and rightely so, it's a very important one!

I am sure you know this but chemistry and chemical engineering are very different. Despite the title and the requirement for chemistry A-level, you will find very little chemistry in chemical engineering. I studied a small amount of pure chemistry in my first year (organic and physical) but I have not done any pure chemistry since. A basic knowledge of chemistry is important for being able to understand the process you are dealing with (i.e. you have a reaction you want to scale up to industrial scale production, you need to be able to understand what chemicals you are using, their properties etc.). We mostly take principles of physical chemistry (rate kinetics, stoichiometry, ideal gas law etc.) and physics and apply it to chemical engineering concepts, such as balancing the mass and energy throughout a process, developing rate equations and designing reactors, understanding how to separate streams of chemicals etc.

A lot of my decision making came down to the careers available to me afterwards. I knew that skilled engineers are highly sought after so doing an engineering degree would put me in a good position when I graduated. I had been involved in a variety of engineering activities in school (outreach, clubs, summer schools etc.) so I had a fairly good idea of what engineering involved and that I enjoyed problem solving. The career options in sustainable energy, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology were really appealing to me as these are interests I have had for a long time - my interests and the degree seemed to overlap really well. I really enjoyed maths and I knew I would get an exposure to more advanced mathematics and coding in an engineering degree over a chemistry degree. I found, and still find, chemistry fascinating but learning the really advanced details of the wide areas of chemistry did not appeal to me as much as finding a useful, large scale application for them. So that's the long answer as to why I picked chemical engineering over chemistry!

The IChemE have useful resources on what chemical engineering is and the career options available. I would recommend at having a detailed look through the modules of different University courses in both chemistry and chemical engineering to get a feel for what exactly is taught in each as I think it's really important to know what you are signing up for.

Is the Chemical Engineering course vigorous - how many contact hours did you have a week in first year and is that the same now? And how many hours of work would you say you have outside of that?
Tricky question! The workload varies to be honest. I probably had about 10-15 hours of lectures a week and then a 3 hour lab every few week, which has been pretty consistent throughout my degree. So the number of contact hours is not huge - you have to be motivated to work outside of lectures. The recommendation is to try and work a 9-5 week and have weekends off but that does not tend to be the case for most students! Each lecture probably needs 2-3 hours work to understand the content and complete any problem sheet questions. However, don't let this put you off. Sure, the course can be challenging and you need to put the work in, but there is plenty of time to take full advantage of student life, such as joining sports and societies. So long as you have a good work ethic you will be fine

What A levels did you do/grades did you get?
I did Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry and did an AS in physics, plus an EPQ. I am not going to share what I got at A-level as I don't think it's useful to compare yourself! If you are on track for around the predicted grades you should be fine

What other unis did you apply to and would you say Bath is the best option for Chemical Engineering?
I applied for Bath, Birmingham, Sheffield, Loughbrough and Nottingham. For a while I was going to apply for Cambridge and Imperial but in the end I decided they weren't for me.

Whether Bath is the best option is a personal preference! You should make your decision not only on the course/department but the uni as a whole I picked Bath because it was fairly small (in comparison to a lot of Universities) so the campus had a great community feel which I really love. It is well equipped and I do enjoy that is kind of like being in a bubble! The SU here is excellent with so many sports and societies on offer. Bath as a city is also really nice to live in - enough going on without being too big and busy. Some people may find it a bit quiet so again, decide what you want from a uni experience before making that decision.

In terms of chemical engineering at Bath, the department and course have an excellent reputation. Bath grads are highly sought after and always do well in the grad job market. The placement scheme at Bath is a big bonus - we have an excellent placement team who help you find placements by providing a database of job openings, CV and application help, interview preparation as well as support whilst your on placement. Taking a year out to get real engineering experience is invaluable for getting a job later on and working out what you want (or don't want!) to do! Another reason I chose Bath was because of some of the research areas and modules in environmental and bioengineering - as these are 2 big interests of mine.


Apologies for such a lengthy response but hopefully this answered your questions! If you have anymore, don't hesitate to get in touch

Leah
3rd Year Chemical Engineering

Hi again,

I can see Leah has given you a breakdown of the ChemEng course, but I thought I'd add that I am a NatSci student taking chemistry modules, and I have a few friends on different chemistry courses, so hopefully I can help with your other options Bath offers several chemistry-related courses, so there's bound to be something to suit your specific interests and goals.

There's the regular chemistry course, which is ideal if you like all parts of chemistry (inorganic, organic, physical and computational) and want a broader foundation to start off with. This is also good if you know you love chemistry, but aren't sure what exactly you want to specialise in as this gives you the grounding you need in all fields, which thus leaves LOADS of careers open to you later on. There's also the chemistry for drug discovery course, which is a good option if you're interested in the pharmaceutical and medical sector. You can find info on all our course variations here.

You may also want to consider the Natural Sciences course, which I do, if you have interests in multiple sciences. NatSci at Bath works kind of like a joint honours, so you choose a major subject and a minor subject from Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Physics and Environmental Science (you do the same number of modules in both, the only difference is that your final year project will be on your major subject), plus an auxiliary module (like management, psychology, maths for life sciences, or another science module). This allows you to get a more interdisciplinary understanding of whatever 2 sciences you are interested in. For example, I started on biology with chemistry, with pharmacology as an optional module. Instead of studying inorganic, organic and physical chemistry, I just did inorganic and organic, and then 2 biology modules and my extra pharmacology module. This meant I only studied the modules I wanted to study, to tailor my degree to my interests and career goals (instead of studying modules that wouldn't be relevant to what I want to specialise in). It's also a really flexible degree - I switched from biology major, chemistry minor with pharm optional module, to bio major, pharm minor and organic chemistry optional module. If you're into more biological chemistry, you could do biochemistry and chemistry, or if you're interested in the pharmaceutical industry, you could do pharmacology and chemistry (as my pharmacology modules are quite chemistry-based themselves). Essentially, this is a great degree if you have a broader, more interdisciplinary interests, OR if you aren't dead-set on a single science yet and don't want to pigeon-hole yourself. You can find more info on the NatSci course here, but feel free to ask any questions you have about it

Overall, I'd say (based on my experience and what friends on the courses have said) that the regular chemistry course is good if you really love chemistry, as it's a lot of work and knowledge involved (i.e. a LOT to remember). If you're interested in the pharmaceutical industry more specifically, chemistry for drug discovery would be an option. If you want a more interdisciplinary, personalised degree, then NatSci is great.

I hope this has helped, and please let me know if you have any more questions
Jessica, a third year NatSci student

Hi there - no problem at all! I have tried my best to answer all of your questions

What made you choose chemical engineering over chemistry?
During school I did so much research regarding what I was going to study at University. I knew I wanted a career which used what I had learnt at uni day-to-day, which is definitely something that drew me to engineering as there was definitely a much more practical application compared to a science degree. I am a very indecisive person and went through so many different options and came to many different decisions - I understand that is such a tough decision to decide what you want to do at uni and rightely so, it's a very important one!

I am sure you know this but chemistry and chemical engineering are very different. Despite the title and the requirement for chemistry A-level, you will find very little chemistry in chemical engineering. I studied a small amount of pure chemistry in my first year (organic and physical) but I have not done any pure chemistry since. A basic knowledge of chemistry is important for being able to understand the process you are dealing with (i.e. you have a reaction you want to scale up to industrial scale production, you need to be able to understand what chemicals you are using, their properties etc.). We mostly take principles of physical chemistry (rate kinetics, stoichiometry, ideal gas law etc.) and physics and apply it to chemical engineering concepts, such as balancing the mass and energy throughout a process, developing rate equations and designing reactors, understanding how to separate streams of chemicals etc.

A lot of my decision making came down to the careers available to me afterwards. I knew that skilled engineers are highly sought after so doing an engineering degree would put me in a good position when I graduated. I had been involved in a variety of engineering activities in school (outreach, clubs, summer schools etc.) so I had a fairly good idea of what engineering involved and that I enjoyed problem solving. The career options in sustainable energy, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology were really appealing to me as these are interests I have had for a long time - my interests and the degree seemed to overlap really well. I really enjoyed maths and I knew I would get an exposure to more advanced mathematics and coding in an engineering degree over a chemistry degree. I found, and still find, chemistry fascinating but learning the really advanced details of the wide areas of chemistry did not appeal to me as much as finding a useful, large scale application for them. So that's the long answer as to why I picked chemical engineering over chemistry!

The IChemE have useful resources on what chemical engineering is and the career options available. I would recommend at having a detailed look through the modules of different University courses in both chemistry and chemical engineering to get a feel for what exactly is taught in each as I think it's really important to know what you are signing up for.

Is the Chemical Engineering course vigorous - how many contact hours did you have a week in first year and is that the same now? And how many hours of work would you say you have outside of that?
Tricky question! The workload varies to be honest. I probably had about 10-15 hours of lectures a week and then a 3 hour lab every few week, which has been pretty consistent throughout my degree. So the number of contact hours is not huge - you have to be motivated to work outside of lectures. The recommendation is to try and work a 9-5 week and have weekends off but that does not tend to be the case for most students! Each lecture probably needs 2-3 hours work to understand the content and complete any problem sheet questions. However, don't let this put you off. Sure, the course can be challenging and you need to put the work in, but there is plenty of time to take full advantage of student life, such as joining sports and societies. So long as you have a good work ethic you will be fine

What A levels did you do/grades did you get?
I did Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry and did an AS in physics, plus an EPQ. I am not going to share what I got at A-level as I don't think it's useful to compare yourself! If you are on track for around the predicted grades you should be fine

What other unis did you apply to and would you say Bath is the best option for Chemical Engineering?
I applied for Bath, Birmingham, Sheffield, Loughbrough and Nottingham. For a while I was going to apply for Cambridge and Imperial but in the end I decided they weren't for me.

Whether Bath is the best option is a personal preference! You should make your decision not only on the course/department but the uni as a whole I picked Bath because it was fairly small (in comparison to a lot of Universities) so the campus had a great community feel which I really love. It is well equipped and I do enjoy that is kind of like being in a bubble! The SU here is excellent with so many sports and societies on offer. Bath as a city is also really nice to live in - enough going on without being too big and busy. Some people may find it a bit quiet so again, decide what you want from a uni experience before making that decision.

In terms of chemical engineering at Bath, the department and course have an excellent reputation. Bath grads are highly sought after and always do well in the grad job market. The placement scheme at Bath is a big bonus - we have an excellent placement team who help you find placements by providing a database of job openings, CV and application help, interview preparation as well as support whilst your on placement. Taking a year out to get real engineering experience is invaluable for getting a job later on and working out what you want (or don't want!) to do! Another reason I chose Bath was because of some of the research areas and modules in environmental and bioengineering - as these are 2 big interests of mine.


Apologies for such a lengthy response but hopefully this answered your questions! If you have anymore, don't hesitate to get in touch

Leah
3rd Year Chemical Engineering

Thanks so much Jessica that’s great How does accommodation work when you are on your placement year? Are there many people you know in the area?

Hi! Thank you so much that’s really helpful - I must admit I wasn’t really aware of the natural sciences option until now so I will definitely look into it before applying! Whilst I enjoy Chemistry A level I would prefer to study a degree with more real world applications but I am not going to rule it out just yet I like the sound of the more personalised degree to fit my interests so thank you for telling me about it! I’ll let you know if I have any more questions! Holly

Hey Leah! Me again I’ve thought of a couple more questions 😆 From your message above I’m assuming you chose to do a placement year? If so how does accommodation work whilst you are away from Bath and do you know anyone in the area? I was also wondering what a typical day would look like for you in terms of lectures and seminars - how long are they, what time do they start and finish for the day etc. Also what kind of assessments do you get for your modules throughout the year? Are they all in an exam hall or are some open book? Thanks again! X