Where Do You Want to Live? London
Where Do You Want to Live?
The UK may be small as your pinkie on a map of the world, but it’s got plenty of variety. You don’t need Push to tell you that there are some pretty big differences between England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland (where, for a start, degree courses are usually four years instead of three).
Even between different parts of the Midlands you can move from the pastoral charms of sheep and fields to the ruins of the industrial heartlands (ie. loft-style yuppie maisonette conversions).
That’s another thing. Student life in Birmingham and Manchester is a lot more similar than student life in Strathclyde and St Andrews, which are geographically much closer to each other. Being in a big city is a whole lot different from being in Lampeter — or the middle of nowhere, as it’s sometimes known. If the peace of the countryside is your bag, go for it. If, however, peaceful equals dull, think different.
But not all big cities are the same. Sure, they’ve all got plenty of shops and things to do — none of which students can afford — but London and Glasgow could hardly be more different, even if the people spoke different languages (which, to some extent, they do).
Similarly, the wilds of Wales and the English south coast may both be away from the clamour and claptrap of big city life, but they’ve little else in common.
Then there’s the weather. The south-west gets the first, the last and the hottest part of the summer and the shortest and mildest winters.
Meanwhile, the north-west gets more than it’s share of rainfall. This may seem trivial, but apart from the financial implications, it may have an impact on your health (if you’re a flu junkie or an asthma martyr), your course (such as sports studies or agriculture) or your interests (from skiing to cricket, from watercolour painting to nude volleyball).
No two places are the same.
There’s only one Ibiza, for example. If that’s the holiday you want, you’re not going to settle for the Norwegian fjords. And vice versa and the other way round. There’s only one anywhere (except Newcastle — there’s Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Newcastle-under-Lyme, just for starters, but they’re still different as chalk and chimpanzees. By the way, they’ve got three universities between the two Newcastles).
But this is no holiday. This is somewhere you have to live. It’s hard to understand why some applicants — people who wouldn’t pick a pair of shoes without spending a month shopping around — are willing to choose a home for three years based on no more than a prospectus.
Deciding to live somewhere — which is part of what you choose when you pick a university — means choosing to take on certain things about a place. All its good points — its local facilities, environment, housing, people and heritage — and its bad points — pretty much the same list.
To go to one place also means losing out on what other places offer, but to lose out on climbing mountains in order to live in London may be no big loss to you. And vice versa and the other way round.
There are universities all over the shop — North, South, East, West, in towns, in fields, in cyberspace even. But no two are alike — even in the same city.