I'm sure I've seen a thread like this before, but I cannot find it for love nor money. I've decided that at the ripe old age of 21, I feel like giving university a whirl. I've been looking around at a few, online, and I was wondering if anyone had been to, or had opinions of, Buckinghamshire uni, Gloucester, or Portsmouth? If this has all been asked before, and someone more skilled with the search tool than I can link it, then feel free to call me a noob :B
Before going to uni make sure you do somthing you love rather than somthing you feel may get you a job. Best 3 years of my life but 4 years down the line I carnt ever see me going back to Biology
To be quite honest, I'm in a situation I'd call weird. I want to study Networks/Network security, which is all well and good, but the primary driving force behind this 'wanting to go to uni' thing is the social aspect. I understand that there are cheaper ways of doing this, but I actually would like to study networks :B Yeah, way back when, I decided I wanted to go and study law. So glad I never followed through with that, now.
I understand Portsmouth isn't too shabby at all for Computer related degrees - and Portsmouths nightlife is quite good too. There are some pretty grotty areas of town though, somerstown and milton being 2 dangerous places to roam at night! It's nice down there in the summer when things start to heat up too. Easy links to London as well, takes about an hour and a half on a fast train. Whatever you do, do not goto the University of Surrey - worst decision of my life.
Heh, I'd imagine there are places like that everywhere I didn't actually realise it was that close to London (I say close, that's about the same distance I am from euston, but hey, it's not exactly a million miles away). Did you stick the course out at Surrey, or did you give up and go somewhere else?
I think distance wise it's about 85 miles to london by car. There's a direct train line that goes straight into Waterloo - no changes - and you also go through clapham and stuff, should you want to goto Gatwick or something. Still at Surrey, 4 years on. Taken a year out and switched course due to the appalling support of the engineering department; they took ages giving feedback for coursework and exam results would take forever. When I found I wasn't good enough/interested enough to continue an electronic engineering degree it was too late to switch course - had to take a year out and start my different course (computer science) after that. They didn't even care what I wanted to do - my tutor suggested business management because that'd be the easiest solution as they take anyone!!! I would seriously consider Portsmouth though - I grew up there and went to school there, it isn't so bad, and the amount of pubs is UNREAL. They have a Liquid nightclub there now too if you are into that, amongst plenty of other clubs dotted around. Plus, as a City University as opposed to campus, portsmouth is contained in a pretty small area. You can walk to anything from anywhere really which often isn't the case for City Uni's.
I'll be honest - I can't stand people who go to University "for the experience" or "for the social aspect". All those people do is get in the way of people who are there because they want to learn. If you're primarily interested in the social aspect then you don't need to go to University - you could get the exact same experience out of going down the pub and making some new friends, enrolling at a local college or simply being more social. Not only is that cheaper, but you're letting the people who want to learn, do so.
..Wow, that sounds like the kind of uni I want to go to I'll certainly consider Portsmouth :B I know what you mean (Many people like that at college), but I do want to learn the content of the course - The social aspect is the driving force because, to be honest, of the four friends I keep in touch with from school, three went to uni, two dropped out and said it sucked - Two out of three is good enough for me to ignore the idea. The friend who stayed on I'm currently living with, and have got to know a few of his friends from uni - Frankly, I'm seeing now that it's not that uni's ****, just the two friends who dropped out are socially inept. I'm well aware that people go there to learn - That's what I'd be doing too.
As somebody in their final year of uni I can say that it's a rare thing to get 'uni friends' that will last. You'll meet people, befriend them and then in a few years you'll all do doing something else with the odd facebook poke every now and then. And I agree with Joe, I hate people who think they can just turn up to have conversations with their friends, or when it is important to turn up (i.e. group work) to be conveniently 'ill'.
Depends who you meet imo. I was at Leeds for 4 years and made about 4 / 5 friends i can see myself being mates with for a long time. Plenty others that i'll probably never speak to again but weren't particularly good friends with anyway. Currently doing an MRes at birmingham and i've made a few friends, doubt i'll keep in much contact after i finish my course though. What ever you're motivation i'd say go for it, as long as your heart's in the course content as well as the drinking. Defiantly agree with the comments on choosing something you'll enjoy to learn about rather than a career furthering degree, you're 100% more likely to loose all motivation and drop out, with a wallet load of student debt to boot. edit: This thread has reminded me, i need to poke highlander. Not spoke to him in a while!
What?! No you can't. Everything else aside surely you need to actually leave Uni before you can say whether uni friends will last. Not only that, but the experiences of one person are nowhere near enough to constitute the ability to say something is rare. I've made a wonderful variety of friends who are now in a bunch of different places whilst at University, and having gone away for a year and now come back to do my masters, I can tell you that, in my personal experience, you can make some pretty damn good friends at Uni. I can't say whether it's my experience or identikit's that is the rarer. Disagree on two counts: Firstly, while the people who come to Uni for the social experience do get in the way of people who are more academically focused, they don't get in the way nearly as much as you are making out. A bit of talking in lectures, a bit of inactivity in seminars and group work - it's not the end of the world. Not only that, but students who don't put the effort in are graded as such - at least at my Uni, there are procedures in place for groups communally reporting on the individual input of each group member, and marks are scaled accordingly (it is normally the last task of the group to agree a percentage of the mark that should be assigned to each member). Secondly, I can't possibly believe that you are able to get the exact same experience without going to uni, as when you start University you are plonked into an environment where every single person bar none is looking to make new friends. Just turn up at a pub in freshers week on your own and see how many new friends you've made at the end of the night - it will probably be an order of magnitude more than you would just walking into a random pub on your own. Not only this, but the HUGE variety of available interest groups and sports teams means that even if you're not the going-out type you can still make a huge number of friends very easily. When I say the number of available clubs is enormous, I really do mean enormous - in my time at Uni, off the top of my head I can think of people who are members of: The stand-up comedy society The roller-hockey team The American football team, The juggling society The ski and snowboard society, The heavy metal society The tchoukball team (I still don't understand what this is, but I'm told it involves tramps) The gospel choir (I tried this one myself) Showstoppers (the musical theatre society who put on shows twice a year) The live music society The video game society The anime & manga society (weekly screenings of japanimation) The Pimms O'clock Society, who put on pseudo-posh events where everyone just drinks a lot of pimms - I'm not sure how they managed to get this one through the PAU, who are there to stop societies being created just for the purpose of getting drunk The hackey-sack society (me and my buddy started this one, and sure, it only lasted a year, but it was a damn good year ) Also, the nice thing about the sports teams at Uni is that even if you aren't good enough for the University team, there are almost always teams for both academic disciplines and the different halls for the more common sports, so you're pretty much guaranteed a place on one of the teams. In short, I don't think there's anywhere else at all that has the same opportunities for meeting new people with similar interests. There's no way, whatsoever, in a million years, that you could get anything like the same experience without going to Uni. Of course, if you so choose, you're quite welcome to dissociate from all of this, and make no effort to make new people whatsoever. Like everything, what you get from the experience is determined by what you put into it. Therefore, my only advice to the OP is: for gawd's sake, make an effort and get involved in everything. Join way too many clubs and see which ones you actually end up involved with. Go out far too much in the first week/month/year and meet far more people than you can possibly maintain friendships with. The ones that are worth it will hopefully stick, and you could have a whole bunch of new friends for life. I certainly can't say whether the friends I made in first year that I still class as some of my closest friends will be people I still see the same way in 10 years, but I sure hope they are. Sorry for the essay. Mike
As somebody who has recently left uni, I can say that I consider your view completely untrue. The majority of my good friends I have made at uni, and I can't see those friendships ending any time soon. As previously mentioned, it really depends on YOU as a person, what you do to meet people, and how you keep your friendships alive. In my opinion if your friendships from uni don't last, there's not much hope for any of your other friendships. Having said all that - do not go to university just for the social side. You have to want to do the course, and I mean really want to do it. Remember when you leave uni you'll be coming out of it ~£20k out of pocket. Yeah you can get a better starting salary, but if you'd have started when you went to uni you'd be 3 years up the pay ladder by now. So make sure the course is decent, there are good industry ties (if applicable), and after all of that is done, then you can check out the night life.
I can highly relate to this thread as I was 22 when I first started uni. Now being 23 and in my second year I love it. However probably for the learning and academic factor than the experience. I was like you in that I wanted to study computers and computer networks and am studying Computer and Network Technology at Northumbria University in Newcastle. At the moment it is going very well, the degree is a rather practical one with the opportunity of taking a year out as well. I have also been doing a Cisco CCNA (as one of my modules relies on working with cisco kit) as well as this is also offered as a bonus by the uni. I would defiantly recommend uni, it is something that you well totally get a kick out of and is really worthwhile wherever you study.
I'm going to start uni somewhere where I have no friends, and about three years after all my friends started I think I gave the wrong impression - I'm not going JUST to have a laugh, I'm going to learn, but the social aspect does appeal to me, now that I've seen that it's not all a bag of **** (Which was pretty much the only impression I got).
party pooper Frankly the keenos who ask loads of questions out side the areas people have to learn about to pass their exams are just as annoying! I have to say that most of my best friends are from my uni days (graduated 5 years ago now...) PS. i wouldnt go to Gloucester, the uni doesnt have the best rep and the city has a crap night life.
Go for it. We're in a recession - its the perfect time to forget about the world outside and to start studying. By the time you finish you will have a made a load of friends and the economy will have recovered too - result.
