HELP! Which is better, Bristol or Edinburgh?

I think @Quick-use studied languages in Edinburgh and can offer some insight
(sorry @Quick-use if I am wrong)

Thanks for the tag and I did study languages at Edinburgh, so no worries on that front!

@Daisy02 I have no idea about Bristol so I can only advise you on Edinburgh. My post is rather long but on the whole I would wholeheartedly recommend Edinburgh but I also believe that you may have an equally good time at Bristol too! In any case, here is what I have to say:

I grew up and did my undergrad in Edinburgh. It really is an amazing city. Everyone that I've spoken to has absolutely loved their time here. These students include people from various cities in England like London, Wales, either of the Irelands, Spain, France, Japan, China, Hong Kong, India etc. The city is extremely safe and very open to non-locals and internationals alike. It's also quite compact, so you can walk to wherever you want to go instead of having to spend money on public transport.

The only thing I'd say is that Edinburgh can be rather expensive. It's definitely not as pricey as London, but it's still up there. Make sure your finances are up to scratch!

If you choose to go to Edinburgh, you'll have a wonderful time here. I sometimes wish I wasn't born here so I could appreciate just how lovely it is.

As for languages, the standard is pretty high but even then every languages department is rather different, so your experience will vary depending on what you study. The French department tends to focus mostly on literature as well as some film and 20th century politics. All of my language tutors from French were, without a doubt, exceptional and I feel that I developed a rather sophisticated understanding of the language as a result.

That said, the department admittedly had some lecturers who weren't the best even if most were amazing. The thing with many older subject areas like French etc is that many of the academics are focused on their own research and will expect you to do everything by yourself - this is a common problem you'll encounter in many big and traditional universities like Edinburgh, Bristol and others. As a result, you may find that lectures on literature and the like can be a mixed bag - some lecturers are extremely engaging while many others are just very dull academics. However, your French language tutors will all be of a very high standard, so you'll have to bring your A game to every single tutorial.

I don't know anything about the English Lit dept specifically, but what I can say is that it's one of the most competitive courses to get in for at Edinburgh. Due to its history, the undergraduate English Lit course seems to be renowned internationally, so consider yourself lucky for getting in!

Oh, another thing is that at Edinburgh you can study an outside course during your 1st and 2nd years. You'll be able to choose a third subject in practically anything assuming there are no timetable clashes and you meet the pre-requisites (should there be any) like having A level Maths for a Maths course. Ergo, you could pick up another language or pick another course from French or English Lit. If you end up enjoying your outside course, you're also free to change your degree! If you took Chinese Mandarin as your outside course and you ended up loving it, you could change your degree to French and Chinese Mandarin at the end of 1st year (if you wanted) .

Another thing to note is that if you're currently doing A levels or IB, you might not find 1st year French language classes too difficult. At Edinburgh (and other Scottish universities), 1st year helps to get all UK students at a similar level, so that's why the level of the language learned is just a tiny bit above A2. This will also mean that you can focus on your outside course without struggling too much with French. That said, 2nd year French at Edinburgh was extremely, extremely challenging and a huge step up from 1st year. I can't even describe how high the standard for 2nd year was . Needless to say, I improved exponentially during this time!

As for cons, I'll start with university satisfaction. I would say that on ranking websites Edinburgh's satisfaction suffers because the university is so big and it's rather difficult to regulate good standard across the board. Especially big departments (like business) with many international students tend to have generally low satisfaction which you shouldn't experience in either English Lit or French. The problem is that Edinburgh uses its global brand to bring in a lot of international students and then just expects them to learn the content themselves without offering too much support. Again, other big universities like Manchester suffer the same way. Some smaller universities with rather high student satisfaction like Lancaster seem to do a much better job though. It just really does depend on the university/faculty/department.

Another thing which I'd criticise Edinburgh for would be its sub-par pastoral support. If you're having a tough time mentally, the university doesn't have the best support in place and some departments won't be able to offer too much help. I found this rather disappointing as I know from my time at Lancaster for my postgrad how they go above and beyond to support their students. That said, my friend who studied History at Edinburgh had a complete opposite experience when it comes to pastoral support - she was given all the help that she needed while I wasn't (but perhaps this was because my personal tutor and my main subject area was Japanese Studies related). You may end up receiving exceptional support from the English Lit and French departments.

Hello,

Thank you so much for giving me such in-depth insight!
I do love the course at Edinburgh and the beautiful surroundings, but the things holding me back were the low student satisfaction and the pastoral support issue (since I suffer from depression) - plus the weather haha! Thank you for clearing things up.
I think Edinburgh's the one for me!

Hello,

Thank you so much for giving me such in-depth insight!
I do love the course at Edinburgh and the beautiful surroundings, but the things holding me back were the low student satisfaction and the pastoral support issue (since I suffer from depression) - plus the weather haha! Thank you for clearing things up.
I think Edinburgh's the one for me!