Second go at university for my eldest daughter

I cannot begin to imagine the feelings one has to deal with when facing starting again at a university one year on from having started elsewhere only to have subsequently dropped out.

When the first university was Keele, and the second is Imperial College, the feelings must be even more strange. There cannot be many students who have chosen to have gone to Keele in the first instance, dropped out and then manage to gain a seat in one of the top universities in the country.

Zoë took the decision originally to go to Keele to study Geology on the grounds that it is:

not in a city
benefits from a large, green campus (largest in Europe)
close to home

She really is not into the things most readily associated with teenage girlhood such as partying, shopping, drinking, dancing, clothes, make-up, etc.

By sheer coincidence, her mother (and my wife, I am pleased to say), Lucy, started at the same university at the same time, but studying physiotherapy and commuting daily rather than living on campus. As my wife looks rather too young (and it is not just me saying that) to have a daughter at university (let alone two), introductions to friends and student colleagues from time to time of the daughter/parent were entertaining.

Unfortunately, Keele turned out to be a big mistake. This was clearly something though that she had to find out for herself. She was studying Geology and, frankly, the entrance requirements at Keele were not especially high, so not many of the fellow students were not particularly studiuos and given that Keele is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, then parties were the order of the day for many of the young resident students. On top of this, the work was easy, lectures often disrupted, the university inefficient in marking and feeding back on work and she was frustrated and bored. She dropped out after the first term. An entertaining Christmas.

Several universities were contacted, some responded and were open to allowing her to transfer there and then. Imperial invited her to an interview, which she smashed, brilliantly. The tour of the facilities and briefings on the their approach were stunning. For example, the School of Mines had just replaced all the PCs used by the students in that department with the latest specification machines and had sufficient for one for each student - no competing with other departments. Unlike Keele, they commit to turning around marks quickly, typically within two weeks and often quicker, much better for learning.

Clearly, Imperial meets non of the original criteria. However, given it is a complete nerdfest, the vast majority of students are not that into partying, it has has the select and largely beautiful South Kensignton as its home, and is surrounded by interesting public venues such as the Natural History Musuem (a place she loves). She even managed to get accomodation in the halls pretty much next door (overlooking a nice green) which are cheaper than Keele’s thanks to room sharing arrangements.

I have driven in and through London a good number of times over the years, never been a fan though. Was not too worried about moving her in last October. The university had a slick system in place. You could pull up outside the halls for around 15 minutes for unpacking, bu they had an army of well organised students to unpack your car and place stuff outside of the appropriate rooms and they gave you a parking pass covering a couple of hours for their main campus car park for after the drop off.,

Leaving South Kensington on a warm Saturday October evening was pretty much a nightmare. Whereas I had driven in in the morning with ease, a smooth journey with few holds up; in the evening, getting out to the M4 took hours with most of it sat in traffic jams moving a car length every now and then, with odd emergency vehicle light ablaze negotiating a course through from time to time. Rather than head back to Shropshire though, my wife and I headed to Swansea, and even longer trip. I did not want to drive back home on the Saturday evening though to have to then do another long drive to get to Swansea for work on Monday morning.

We have a nice evening and morning in Swansea. In the afternoon, I did a hostage style exchange of my wife at a large supermarket on the outskirts of Cardiff to her fellow student who lives in Cardiff and lodges at our home during the week.

Zoë did not come home at all during her first term at Imperial. She knows of some other 1st year students, also from our region, who returned regularly. She wanted to prove to herself she could settle into life in halls in London and not need to visit home. By contrast, when at Keele, she visited regularly (but then her mother was travelling back and forth daily).

I did wonder if on her return for the Christmas break, one year after dropping out of Keele, she would have problems. Well, she did. Absolutely standard student anxieties about displacement (where is home, etc). No worries about whether or not she had made the right decision. She was certainly no longer bored, and being surrounded by many very intelligent types no longer felt over qualified. After a few days rest on first getting home, she spent most of Christmas with her head deep in her books, creating mind-maps, and burning up the midnight oil rewriting notes. This in preparation for an exam immediately on her return.

My wife also has spent most of Christmas revising.

Alexandra, by contrast, also back home for Christmas, on a course where such fact-based revision is not really valid, has been able to get out and about an enjoy herself a lot more.

15 January 2012
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Second go at university for my eldest daughter

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