University of Exeter

Very civilised area with friendly Ferrari dealer - probably drier then Portland - generally thought of as one of the better places to go and to be seen to have gone

This Wikipedia page seems to sum up perceptions etc well University of Exeter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

My wife went there. Good school. Boring town. That might be a good thing for collage kids

 

I have not been to the University of Exeter personally, but it does have a good reputation and I have consistently heard good things about it.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Exeter has a good reputation. One of the girls in the office went there and really enjoyed her time.
I think the bigger question is whether it is recognised in the states/world ?

 

Not sure about the states but it's recognized in most other places.

 

Hi Allan.
Are you sure he wants to do English ?
One of my son's went to the best Private school in Cambridge from 8 years old to 18 which was very regimented, he was lucky enough to be excepted in all 5 universities he applied for. He choose Leeds!! [ mainly for the night life ]. He is now in his last year and for most of the time has been bored stiff. They have so few lectures on the English course and most of the time they are left to themselves and just told to read this and that. Had we known, how little input there was from the university on this course, we would have tried to talk him into doing something else. He has found it very hard to get motivated but has finally got around to realizing that his course finishes in 4-5 months so he has to knuckle down.

Cambridge and Oxford are the premier university's, Durham and Warwick are very good. Re Exeter, you have to make sure you are on the main campus, as I believe they have campus outside of the main one and lectures are delivered via a camera link for the English course, that was the case 3 years ago, when we looked at it with him.

 

Hi Allan.
This was our experience, I an sure other universities are different, but it something to bear in mind.
Oxford and Cambridge have shorter term times and have more crammed into a shorter time, I am sure they operate differently. It would be good to find out the amount of lectures and seminars that the course you are interested have. Other type of courses have alot more work involved, and my other son seems to have worked none stop all of the time. I don't want to seem negative, but this is an honest appraisal of how we have found the English course to be for our son.

If you think that you son might get into Cambridge or Oxford, I would hold out for one of these, just a mention of their name, seems to open doors, and as my wife says "sets you up for life".
Grant

 

Bristol have always had a good all round reputation, not least because I graduated from Bristol. I did not study English literature or history so cannot help. Students I knew always used to justify that they chose Bristol over Oxford and Cambridge because we had the reputation of being Oxbridge rejects! Nice city and not far from Bath or London.

 

Agree with the comment, if your son can get to Oxbridge, GO as not many get the opportunity to do so.

 

My experiences doing my biomedical sciences degree at Durham University were excellent. Academically, it was very tough - 94 started the degree, only 63 achieved at least a "pass" (i.e. a third class or better), only 15 got an upper second or higher and so graduated with honours. The lectures were very interactive, the laboratory sessions well-run, extra-curricular study was supported and encouraged (I won a place on a Wellcome Trust Summer Research Scholarship programme), and the lecturers (who were active researchers or biomedical business owners) made a lot of time for those students who demonstrated commitment to doing well - however, they didn't chase the lazy. Most of my time was spent in Queens Campus in Stockton-on-Tees, and while the town there is not much to see, the campus is very new with excellent facilities. While I have an obvious bias, I think my Durham degree (with honours) is highly valued. I was able to go from my B.Sc. degree studies directly to Ph.D. study without needing to do a masters in between. I highly recommend Durham University.

My best man from my wedding (and I was his best man at his) did his medical degree at Leeds and he found it a positive experience. Medical courses are typically packed though, and is more similar to your description of a US set-up than it is my time in Durham. Whenever I visited him, the night life in Leeds was, as described, very vibrant and I could see that being a distraction for some personality types.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Sussex University has a well-thought of English liteature faculty. Your son might just want to look into this.