Universities

We drove all day yesterday and got home last night in time for dinner in front of the television and Jessica rushing off to spend the night with her friends and, probably more importantly, away from her parents.

After this trip we are now capable of doing a bit of comparison as regards the 3 universities and what to do next.

My opinion is basically meaningless... as it is entirely up to Jessica what she does and where she goes... but I can't resist a bit of generalisations on my own blog.

York A beautiful, small and traditional university with an excellent reputation and seemingly excellent academic offers. The town itself is also quite small and traditional and touristy. It reminded Desney quite a lot of Stratford and me a bit of the areas of Disneyland which try to look like olde England. This would be my first choice if I was going to do what Jessica is doing now... but at my age and current lifestyle.

Sheffield An enormous and very modern university with an excellent repuation and seemingly excellent academic offers. All of what I saw was much better, respectable, organised and enjoyable than I had expected. This had originally been Jessica's last choice and "insurance option" and I had considered it at the bottom of the list of universities she had applied to. After my visit I feel quite the opposite and could even understand if, for whatever reasons, she made this her first and only choice. There is a combination of aspects here that I feel would fit Jessica quite well. The main thing, for me personally and egocentrically, is that I feel reassured and quite pleased with Sheffield as a possible choice.

Warwick Very much the "in between" option in comparison to York and Sheffield. It has an amazing reputation which will no doubt continue to improve as it has over the recent years. It is relatively exclusive. It is neither very modern nor overly traditional and it is neither enormous nor quaint. There are some very strong family ties between this university and Desney's family and, of course, the family itself is near by and omnipresent. I had thought that I was going to be overwhelmed by Warwick. I was not. I can certainly understand if this was Jessica's first choice if she receives an offer and I would be overjoyed if she got in and went here.

No matter which university she gets in to and/or chooses I will always be a bit curious, in the back of my mind, as to what her life would have been life if she had gone to either of the either two.

Above and beyond the question of choosing the specific university and the various attributes I have come home with a general feeling of excitement about my eldest going away to university. In many ways I'm jealous. But in all ways I am proud. It looks to me like she is going to have a pretty amazing experience over the next 3 to 5 years. I eagerly await the next steps and I am actually looking forward to the future...