Review: University of Southampton

Hi everyone, on the 4th July I visited the University of Southampton. I quite liked this uni and it is in my top 5, however it is not as high up on my list as I was expecting (it's 4th).

Positive

• EPQ: If you have done or are going to do an extended project Southampton is currently one of the only universities to lower their grades for it. For example my course (education and psychology) is AAB. However, if I get do an EPQ Southampton will lower it to ABBa which means I get ABB on my A-Levels if I get an A in my EPQ. Pretty cool right?
• Student Union: The SU is good at all the unis I'm looking at, however Southampton really stood out for me with over 300 groups to get involved in! Here is a list of all of them (sorry about the markings I did):

• Study abroad: Southampton offer students the chance to study abroad for a term or even a whole academic year and it still counts towards your course which is cool.
• Course - outline: Personally, I love the education and psychology course as it is so flexible but still covers everything you would want to learn. Also, I don't know if this is for other courses as well but in the education faculty they have a buddy system where you are mentored by an older student as well as having your personal tutor who is a teacher.
• Sports facilities: The sports facilities are amazing with loads of sports clubs to join or you get spend £165 and you get a gym membership for a while year which allows you to use the gym at the main site, at all the residential sites and one in town. This membership also allows you access to the pool and the license to book out the sports hall.

Negative

• Grade boundaries: The grade boundaries are very high but that is to be expected from a Russel group university and can be changed if you do an EPQ.
• Course - spaces: As with many courses at the uni they only take the best and have few spaces. Education and Psychology only have about 20 spaces per year for everyone who applies. Scary.
• Accommodation: The accommodation is not the greatest although I was debating where to put this as a positive or a negative. The accommodation was okay, I've seen better but it's something I could live with if I went there. However it is very confusing as at each site there are so many different types of accommodation and you get no say in which one you get apart from stating preferences.

Wessex Lane non en-suite category 2:

Wessex Lane non en-suite category 1 (catered):

This is shared between about 20 people with that tiny kitchen and those few toilets, sinks and showers. It may be catered but seriously?

Glen Eyre non en-suite category 3:

10 people - 2 showers/2 toilets

Glen Eyre non en-suite category 2:

Glen Eyre non en-suite category 3:

All this accommodation is nice but as you can see, even within the same category they are very different.

Also I did not look at any en-suite because it was not in my price range.

I do like this uni so if you are looking for a Russel group one where the grade boundaries are not as high as the others then I suggest you take a look at this one.

♥

*Disclaimer - these opinions are all my own*