Any current Bartlett students here?

I am planning to apply to Bartlett to study Engineering and Architectural Design. I really like the course and I don't mind working hard, but I am worried about the culture - I read several posts on the internet about the toxic culture, bullying by staff etc.
Does anyone know if things improved after the report came out? I am in introvert and brown skinned - I'd stay away from anything that involves racial discrimination - (I cannot do anything about my skin colour or my introvert personality - lol ) - but I am academically and creatively strong, plus I really like the course!

Reply 1

dx7

Went to Bartlett on the planning side not the architecture side but with brown skin as a grad student, and found the professors and classmates all great [we would intermittently socialize w the equivalent program at LSE, and honestly they seemed a lot more segregated and prone to things like bullying w heavy divisions btwn the coursemate cliques]. There might be a significant diff btwn the two sides and that I was a perhaps a more worldly graduate student vs a younger predominantly UK-school leaver undergrad, but I personally have yet to experience any signif discrimination studying at multiple competitive courses/unis in the UK [not to say it doesn't exist]. I too am "brown" and "introverted" but unusually for the UK with an American accent and willing to converse, having noticed that here students seem to kinda naturally gravitate towards students that look like them more than at US public unis—honestly you get what you give anywhere, and making an effort to get to know more ppl in your dorm/class/school will defo reap rewards in terms of comfortability doing anything anywhere in life. Again I'm introverted as well and not one to start conversations, but when ppl make an effort to be cool w you, return the favor, get some practice, make it a habit, then pay it forward. I haven’t been to high school or 6th form or whatever in the UK, but just generally feel like when there’s gonna be racial discrimination or intimidation anywhere, but at some point there’s a level of complacency. I do get it on occasion walking the streets of London [yall talk a lot of **** to strangers, try that in NYC and find out…], lil passerby comments here and there usu when wearing nicer clothes or walking my better-looking brit girl to the point I've realized its simply jealousy–second you clap back or stand up for yourself you’ll notice it’s them that has a self-confidence issue and walk on embarrassed. Also if you’re an international student coming into the UK to study, even if you had to have better grades or pay higher fees facing stiffer competition to study the same course, you’re realistically coming into 'their' country and culture, so try not to have a chip, defo don’t be elitist, and never self-isolate whilst putting yourself out there. Ultimately you’re just as qualified or justified to be on whatever course you get into, and if you’re prone to bullying in school you’re just as likely to then get it in uni and later at work throughout life—don’t take it, they can’t give it…