Uni time...

Taffy

Taffy

New Member
Yes, I've only just started 6th form, but I figured I'd get in there early and start researching into University now. Ideally, I'd like to join the RAF straight from 6th form, but there's a fair chance I'll *have* to go to Uni first.

Now, basically what I'm after is recommendations on particular Uni's. I'm looking to do something either Psychology-based, Criminology-based or War Studies based. Cardiff seems to be a good option for Criminology, but what about others? Any you'd recommend, either from personal experience or friends, I'm just looking for a broad picture of good Unis for now. Much thanks everyone :)
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
Universities vary from course to course and person to person.

ALWAYS visit a Uni you are interested in going to on at least one open day. ALWAYS!

I applied for and received 4 conditional offers at UMIST, Imperial College, Edinburgh and Southampton. I didn't go and see UMIST or Edinburgh, but I went to the Imperial College and Southampton... but although IC may have been "better" in terms of results, something on the open day just didn't "click" and I didn't like the place or any of the lecturers showing us around.

Southampton, however, was different. Eric Cooke was the professor who showed us around and he was absolutely excellent. The facilities were really good and although perhaps not as good in terms of the league table (though admittedly not by far at all), it's all about your impression of the Uni and how things go.

You lot wouldn't know elDiablo or waterproofbob or Birdy if it wasn't for me going to southampton Uni :)

you'd probably know a different set of nutcases instead...

but anyway, obviously you want to go to a uni that is good for your course, but if you go there and don't think that for whatever reason you will like it, don't go. You will waste 3 years of your life.

Also, places like the RAF probably offer sponsorship in some form to go to University and then come out and join as an officer - I was offered a place at a university of my choice to do an Engineering degree of my choice, sponsored by the Navy. They would have paid for my accomodation and tuition AND put me on a 13k/year salary while I was at Uni while doing this degree... only catch was that I would have to join the navy as an officer for at least 5 years afterwards (meaning I wouldn't be writing this now...).

Joining the navy wasn't something I wanted to do so I declined the offer. Neither was doing an engineering degree. Don't be pressured into doing something you don't want to do, either.
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
I'd love to say go to University of Southampton. But there are talks of closing down the Psychology department. Which includes all Criminology as well. So don't go there :(

Royal Holloway in Egham is awesome for Psychology (being where my girlfriend went). It's got a good reputation for it, but it is a lot of work. And it's in the middle of nowhere. You have to go to Staines (*shudder*) or London to go out to somewhere that isn't on campus. Which gets expensive. That said, it has a lot on campus. I believe university should be more than just degrees, but then that's just my opinion. Everyone has them, it seems!

I would suggest doing what I did before university. Look through the UCAS listings to see which university does what. Don't read too many reviews. See where in the world they are, and whether you can get to it and if it's far enough away from home so you feel independent. This is a very variable distance, and (again) depends on who you are.

Then, find out when the open days are, and go mad! My 6th form said I could take 4 days off to look at uni's. I took about 12. It's the only way to do it, imo. Once you've looked gone to the places and got a feel for the uni, the people, and the place (all equally important), then have a look at the reviews. If someone says it's a great uni but the place got boring, and you've looked around the town and think differently, you'll know. If someone says the people were idiots, but the town was nice, yet you thought the people were wel educated and charming, you'll know :)

Either way, the most important thing that I can not stress enough is to actually go and look at the places yourself. Get yourself a young person's travelcard and just go nuts! Some places you really won't like, others you will.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
I enjoyed my time at York Uni but as Psychology is on your list then consider this:

My first year at York Uni was on their Psychology BSc. I quit that course to try Computational Physics instead (which I also quit and dropped out to find work in IT instead). The first two years of the Psychology course were, then, mostly biology and very little on what I believed was psychology (stuff about people's minds and behaviours). For example, first term first year was child development, in a biological sense in the womb. Just when was that psychology?! The department was clearly well provisioned but I found the course disappointing and, at that time, being extremely shy the massive ratio of girls to boys (~8:1) proved not be a useful advantage.

That said, Computational Physics at York was extremely dull and badly taught. Our lecturer on special relativity had slides on a projector. We reckoned that if you accelerated his presentation to the speed of light then the time dilation that occurred would have made it possible to take notes from them before he whipped them away again. When asked to slow down, he told us to learn short hand. Uhm, short hand diagrams?!

That said, I loved York campus and met a lot of really cool people there so... go figure.
 
Iron_fist

Iron_fist

Super Moderator
Staff member
i know several people doing Psychology at Edinburgh (one of them is from Spain!) one is doing straight Psych a few others are doing Psych and AI and another is doing Psych and something else (possibly sociology?) but as to the content of the degrees i know that the 2nd year stuff is apparently very interesting but i only met most of these people last year so i don't really know about 1st year however there is a website that has the required courses for all the degrees at Edinburgh and then there is a course summery page for each course (you my have find them in the courses section!)

As for the city It's self i really enjoy living here, the main campus is about 5 mins walk from princess street and the center of town which makes for a nice distraction between lectures and a lot of the city is very student orientated which means there is always something interesting going on around the centrl campus area
 
Pubic_Warrior

Pubic_Warrior

In Cryo Sleep
waterproofbob said:
hmmm if I'm not mistaken its u who's the pongo. He maybe joining a force that's nickname is that of a sexually carried lice but they don't smell.
Click to expand...

crabs?????

none of the forces smell however there is rivalry between the ground forces and the fly boys.

everybody knows RAF get it well easy ;)
 
waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
yup the RAF be the crabs, the army are the pongos, the Royal Marines are the bootnecks and the navy are historically known as the Andrew.

If anyone cares I will explain each one of those but right now i cba.
 
Nanor

Nanor

Well-Known Member
waterproofbob said:
yup the RAF be the crabs, the army are the pongos, the Royal Marines are the bootnecks and the navy are historically known as the Andrew.

If anyone cares I will explain each one of those but right now i cba.
Click to expand...

...please do, I'm very confused. :p
 
waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
ok the army are the pongos as everywhere the army goes the Pong goes. Crabs is due to back in the day RAF uniforms that were a reddy colour similar to that of crabs ointment and the crab itself. The navy are called the Andrew as back in the day when to employ sailors they used to give them loads of rum wait till they passed out then put them on ships, when they came around they had no choice but to be Sailors and the Captain who had the idea to do this was Captain Andrew . Bootnecks are because of the high cut around the neck of the uniform, the marines are also known as Empty bottles for obvious reasons.
 
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