The Student Room Group

Pros and Cons of Reading

I guess we may as well go down this route.

Pros
A few nice pubs
An alright looking campus
Cybernetics is good
Nice pie shop/pub
Close to Oracle/Microsoft ( Good for comp people )

Cons
Its exactly the same as any other town out there, repetitive chain shops and bars
it drains your soul, there is nothing original here
Lots of townie bars, drunken louts
the campus may look nice, but its all fake, engineered landscaping, horrible
it has about as much life as somewhere like Slough, or Milton Keynes, that is to say, none
If I had to pick a colour to describe Reading, it would be 'grey', thats not good
its commuter town, no one actually lives here, and if they do, they tend to be boring sods, its not their fault, its just Reading has sapped them of any life at all



This isn't flamebait, lets get some more pros cons up first before discussing them.
Reply 1
Pros

Plenty of good and very good departments (good if you happen to be doing a course in one of those departments), very diverse range of subjects offered (good if you like to talk to people doing different things).
Campus is very nice and one of the main deciding factors for me for coming here in the end.
Close to London.
I've almost always found any staff I deal with to be friendly, approachable and helpful. Admissions staff were very helpful when I was considering the University.
Campus accommodation guaranteed for people who make it their firm choice.
Some more specific pros for me were that the sports facilities suited my needs quite well and that the course I'm doing suited me.
The job shop is useful.

Cons

Reading seems expensive for a lot of things, especially rent.
Reply 2
Another Con which comes to mind is that you can't really seem to get into many single honours subjects straight away. Each programme here seems to require that a first year try another subject to keep some options open in case they decide that a certain subject isn't for them. If you're dead set on a certain subject then that's a pain in the arse. However, it works out very well for certain people as they do change their degree stream after figuring out that the original one wasn't quite what they wanted so perhaps that's a Pro for some people.
Reply 3
Pro
25 minutes from London by train...
Reply 5
Sounds exactly like UEA (the very first post), all fake flat land in the middle of no-where. no tall buildings, job opportunity's or fast cars around. Infact - there is not motor way near it or any other city's or interesting towns near it. Its smack in the middle of no-where. :frown:
Reply 6
I've lived here for years and years, and I'm not boring! What do you think it's lacking? I absolutely love it, and I'll miss the town and all my mates like you wouldn't believe when I go to uni. I think calling it grey is kinda unfair, it's got lots going for it, and I couldn't have asked for a nicer town to grow up in!
Reply 7
Anubis
Sounds exactly like UEA (the very first post), all fake flat land in the middle of no-where. no tall buildings, job opportunity's or fast cars around. Infact - there is not motor way near it or any other city's or interesting towns near it. Its smack in the middle of no-where. :frown:

Practically everything you mention in your post is wrong!
Reply 8
Except the fake flat land bit, thats bang on the nail.
Reply 9
i agree with chardonnay. i love reading and i miss it when im at uni! its so close to london and loads of places with loads of stuff to do. its also got some of the best shopping in the uk.
Reply 10
If you don't like Reading for shopping, then you're right next to Oxford and London. Oxford I've particularly enjoyed visiting. Never liked London myself.

It's got a definite right and wrong side of the tracks, but as a student you'll never need to touch upon the wrong.

Transport is good, campus is well located, most of the halls are fun to complain about but actually pretty fine over all.

Luton is annoyingly distant if, like me, you're from the wild barbarian lands north of the border, but the station is a MAJOR hub, and you can get anywhere with no issue.

I've never had problems with the taxi drivers but they don't tend to enamour trust. This could be a deep seated conditioned in racism thing causing instinctive decision making, or it could be that they don't smile, don't have any semblence of a friendly attitude, and are occasionally a pain to explain directions to. (not totally true, one of the more expensive private-hire groups my supervisor used to get us to Gatwick recently proved to have a very friendly, well dressed, very respectable driver. Go figure.)

The only flaw with Reading is it's lack of character and culture (a result of it being a commuter town for London, and a new-money tech haven) - this is what causes the soul sapping. The trick is to find little ways of escaping every now and then for a touch of culture - which is why I emphasise the transport issue. It helps to have a car, or a mate with a car. public transport takes you between places, but never get's you OUT of places), and there's lot's of nice spots around Reading to escape to, including a big Park whose name I keep forgetting. If you're reasonably adventurous and join enough clubs you'll never face the soul-sucking issue. You can get the feeling that all there is to do of an evening is drink, drink, drink, drink, dance, drink, drink, drink, but this is avoidable :smile:
Reply 11
I've lived in Reading all my life, I now live in Nottingham while at Uni. Reading has gone down hill in a lot of ways. The chav population seems to be spilling out of Oxford road and spreading like a cancer to the better areas. It has got a good town centre, the Oracle is great too.

It does have a lack of clubs though (but a sh*t load of bars), I went to the matrix a few times (now shut down) I was practically the only white guy in there and they checked for knives on the door...

As a student town Nottingham clearly beats Reading but Reading clearly beats a hell of a lot of other places (what the f*ck is there to do in Oxford? Visited a mate there no wonder the poor sods do so well at Uni there are literally no places to go out). I still don't feel like I'll get shot if I walk out of my house alone at 2am in Reading. I do in Nottingham.

Andrew
Reply 12
Oxford's a great student town if you define it in terms of anything other than nightlife... which is admittedly abysmal.
Fantastic pubs, independent cinema, bookshops, loads of cool little cocktail bar places...
I live in Reading normally and I have to say Oxford is infinitely nicer to live in. Never been to Nottingham though, so can't comment.
Reply 13
is it just me or is this thread not showing up on the main notts thread-list..
Reply 14
I'm deeply gonna miss monday nights at Pavs/turtle/Fez

Highly recommend that Trio to anyone going to Reading Uni!