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30 - 40 hours???...I was spending 40 -50 hours on my degree each week and sometimes more. I'd also like to know which ex poly courses you've looked into that only do 1 or 2 essays each year for arts subjects cos all the ones I've seen certainly have more than that to do.
You also have to realise that not everyone is you. Not everyone wants the city job lifestyle, 6 figure salary etc. People like to enjoy themselves and your student days should be the best of your life. For the vast majority of people, being happy with your surroundings at university is by far the most important thing.
:yes: Depends on the course. I wouldnt even dismiss some polys for certain degree areas. Brightons good for nursing/phamecutical, Kingston has a good business/accounting reputation.
My brother did a BA at an expoly (Kingston in fact) and he had to work his arse off in the second and (especially) third year to get his 2:1. And he had to do a dissertation and a project as part of his final assessments.
Do LSE do a medical degree? If not then thats one.
You didnt specify that in the first place.
The irony being that based on his posts, I'd bet my grandmother that Jomery has no real reason to be snobbish. He (or she) merely has a chip on his shoulder about getting into Cambridge. Probably because he doesn't have the background of a lot of people at Cambridge, mainly public school-educated people I would imagine, on his course and in his college, who, he perceives, have had it a lot easier than him both in terms of background and formative education and thus he feels he needs to militantly justify his position with this completely overblown conceited claptrap. Hence why he feels the need to justify it by advertising it clearly on his av that he's somehow better than all of us; simply because he feels he needs to justify his presence at that university. Most of my public school friends at Oxbridge aren't snobby at all. It always tends to be the ones who resent public school, perhaps manifested in part in jealousy, who are like Jomery. I wouldn't give a shit about him to be honest.
Incidentally, Russian at Bristol is better than Russian at Cambridge so I think I know who's winning
IF you want a high flying job with a swish company (magic circle law firms and investment wanks)who go for very highly academically educated graduates, then the Oxbridge graduate will beat almost anyone else. Compare the entry requirements and the subsequent work load for like degrees and you will start to see one of the reasons why (snobbery and connections are others).
That said, we live in a real world full of 'normal' people, Oxbridge is only even a consideration for a teeney proportion of those looking at University entrance, and is for many reasons in a league of it's own, for the kind of person who can hack it, the of person who doesn't want the standard uni experience, and the kind who wants to academic research style teaching, rather than the real world version. It's not a league of it's own above others, it's just so very different in the way it teaches and what it teaches that you can't really make a fair comparison.
Discounting Oxbridge, there are plenty of damn good uni's out there, Bath, Bristol, LSE, UCL, Nottingham, Warwick, St Andys, S'oton, Imperial, Birmingham to name just a few of the better known ones. All of which have a fantastic reputation with graduate recruiters. There are still many more, and things are changing especially around some of the ex polys who are getting to be serious competition for some of the old red bricks in some subjects.
Where you go to uni depends on what you want. If you want magic circle law, or investment wanking then you will pretty much need Oxbridge or one of the other very top uni's, and they need to be top across the board, not just for your subject. If that's not you then don't worry about it!
If you want a decent education, both as a person and academically then you need to look at the course, what modules you want and where offers those choices, the quality (and quantity) of the teaching. You need to look at the facilities, both for academic work, and extra curricular stuff and the town/city/campus. It's also worth asking about the employment statistics for the graduates from the departments you look at. How many of them have jobs 6 months after they graduate, and how many of those are in the field you want to go in to? Another good guide as to how employers see universities and their various degrees is to ring up the recruiting people somewhere you fancy working when you graduate and find out which uni's they get their graduates from. That will give you a horses mouth answer as to how employers see the uni and the course you are thinking of doing.
I hope that helps some people. I like to think I know a bit about the subject. I've been very well trained (partly by a Cambridge college I confess) about talking to people about higher education, and how to chose a uni. I do outreach and access work, aimed at both getting more Cambridge applicants from state schools and under represented areas, and talking to the 6th form as a whole about universities.
Jomery - firstly, why does it have to be something that both of them offer? Surely it would be better to go to Sussex and get a degree in something that is relevant to the job you want to do rather than go to a "better" uni and get a degree in something entirely IRrelevant? My friend is going to Surrey to do Aeronautical Engineering because (shockingly) that's what she wants to do. It would be pointless for her to go to somewhere like Oxford to do Politics or something just because it's a "better" uni. Obviously it's NOT better for her because it doesn't offer the course she needs to get into that profession.
Not that I really cae what you think. I'm sure you would look down on me for going to the university that is my first choice, but I honestly don't give a fuck. It's where I want to go, and why should I change my mind just because it won't get me a lovely city job (which I neither want nor need, since my boyfriend with his 2:1 from Plymouth has a lovely city job which pays him quite nicely, actually)?
Calling quits and then making comments like these don't really go hand in hand I'm afraid...in fact it makes you sound quite Jomery"ish" in a way...
I've tried to edit it a bit to make things clearer.
Do you know what a public school is, in the English sense? It's a fee-paying secondary school. Think Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Radley, those kind of schools are all public schools. Granted, it's a bit of a misnomer.
I went to public (fee-paying) school too and bullying is rife there. It's not that disruptive, I'll grant you that but since bullying was rife there, it's lead me to believe more that such thing is commonplace wherever you go and it's less the instutution's fault, more just a regrettable side-effect of adolescence.
Personally, i went to the most oversubscribed state school in the country, dossed about a bit, went to a university that is consistently just outside the top 10 unis (although often overlooked because it's only 40 years old), got a 2.2 in my degree... and walked into one of the most competitive fields of work (graduate trainee schemes in accountancy). I'm now a part-qualified accountant.
It's as much about who you are as your qualifications. Learn to sell yourself enough and it doesn't matter which uni you went to or what qualifications you got. 5 years down the line and most employers won't even bother looking at your degree.
I am under the assumption Franki means her boyfriend didn't go to Oxbridge, recieved a 2.1 and then landed a good job, which means she doesnt need to go to a Oxbridge to get a goos job.
I shall be honest, I have only read a few posts in this thread (partly because there are more important things to be doing) but I am so sorry that you have these views. I was always of the opinion those from Oxbridge were snooty and looked down on others but I was fortunate to meet a proper nice lad who received a 1st from Cambridge, and believe me, he hasnt found it easy to get a job, thats with a good degree and personality, so perhaps (shock horror) it is down to experience within the work place rather than academic results.
Go where you want to go after visits etc, not coz some jumped up twat has fed you some crap about employment stats!
Seems to me the only difference between someone who gets into Cambridge, and someone who gets into another university not quite so good, is only a few points at A-Level. And seeing as it's those at public school who receive the best education and are most likely to get top grades, it is them who benefit most. And as you have to pay to get into public school, the pupils are usually from a fairly wealthy background. All in all, it seems your system is geared to help the rich, whilst screwing those not so well off at state schools.
In Northern Ireland we have Grammar schools and Secondary schools. You do a test age 11 and if you do well enough you have the option to go to Grammar school, and if not well you've got secondary school. There are fees for Grammar school but they are minimal (£400 per year) and if a family can't afford them then special arrangements can be made. Surely this system is a much fairer way to educate people? Northern irish grammar schools are amongst the most respected in the UK, and many people from my school waltzed into Oxbridge no problem. The schools pride themselves on making the pupils sit the hardest exam boards (which often is Northern Ireland board) and as a result you get a better educated student.
From my experience of English public school pupils coming to Edinburgh, some are very undesirable people, unfortunately rather a bit like Jomery. They seem to think because they went to these schools they are the cream of the crop at the university, and I remember in first year, alot of these people's first questions on meeting someone would be 'what school did you go to?'. It's a load of shite and for alot of them, they'll only associate with other ex-public school pupils, which is really rather sad. I mean what goes on at public school? Do you have a French lesson, and then a 'we're better than everyone else' lesson, then a maths lesson, then lunch. I went to a great school, probably better than most English public schools, but I couldn't give two fucks about it. And I certainly wouldn't quiz people about their school background, and then only associate with those who matched mine. Your daddy paid lots of money for you to go to a good school, big deal. Get over it, once you go to university, everyone is equal regardless of background.
This is bang on!
This cracked me up!
Regarding Grammar schools, we have them here, and I went to one myself for a couple of years, before embarking on a life of a comprehensive. I had a much better time at the latter. The test was called the J4 previously known as the 11+ but you dont need to pay for our grammar schools.
I have friends from public/grammar and comp, and you could not always tell the difference with their a level results - you can however, by the way they speak
I like the Grammar Schools concept where hard-working poor people don't have to put up with others slowing them down, but don't you have public schools? What about people who don't want their children having to associate with the lower classes?
We had this as well.
My analysis may have been erroneous, but it still doesn't stop you being a totally inexplicably snobbish wanker. Having been to a very good public school myself, it's good to see that people like you are keeping up our reputation alive and well.
No not really but there we go. Employers are not really as stupid as you make them out to be. For example, if you did Russian at Bristol, which I did, or AeroEng at Southampton, Economics at LSE etc., then that means that you got into the best University for your chosen subject and thus beat, assuming the best people chose the universities where their course is the best, the cream of the competition. In short, if the course at your university was the best rated, then the name of the university doesn't matter because employers are smarter than I think you make them out to be and realise that if you studied at the best institution for your given subject then that makes you a lot more valuable than a person who studied at a more prestiguous institution though the course there was actually worse rated. Plus I didn't want to do languages at Cambridge because the MML tripos is really badly organised and oblige you to choose one language after the first year to carry on to the end which to mean completely defeats the point of starting studying two languages which is what I wanted to do.
A university graduate going out with someone still at school..I got ripped to shreds for that on this site a few months ago.