Hello to all,

My lad’s looking at going to Aberdeen Uni next year to study History, never been North of Glasgow so your advice on the City, area, Uni would be greatly appreciated. Anybody else been there ?

Cheers,
Andy

How do!

I work in Aberdeen though stay a few miles south.
Uni has an alright reputation as far as i know. There is quite a good student nitelife aswell.
Downsides are becuase it’s the oil capital of europe, it’s expensive. Also (i await flaming) the locals can be a bit strange when it comes to incomers and Union Street can be a bit “interesting” at the weekend.

On a plus note for your sons student life, drugs are easily accessible and there are plenty strip joints and hookers!

don’t know about the uni, but lived in aberdeen for a couple of years – worrashithole. hope i never, ever have to back to that small minded parochial fish stinking shithole of a place.
nice places round about though, really, really liked stonehaven

Also (i await flaming) the locals can be a bit strange when it comes to incomers and Union Street can be a bit “interesting” at the weekend.

i agree on all counts …… (as someone who moved up there last year …. and back out again this year to near futureboy77)

still work in dyce though

Also (i await flaming) the locals can be a bit strange when it comes to incomers and Union Street can be a bit “interesting” at the weekend.

understatment of the millenium, that is

oh dear, surely there’s some positive points ? 😯

I was there as an undergrad from ’92-’96, and if I could do those 4 years on an endlessly repeating loop I would be a happy happy man. 🙂

After uni I lived up thre for 7 more years, moving out to inverurie, met my wife, loved it. In 20 minutes you can be the only person on the beach or on a hill, and the northern lights are a truly amazing sight to behold.

Now live in Basel, CH, and the parallels with Aberdeen are strong. Very wealthy, the large international community has made the locals a little more…. Protective? Doric is a f**king impenetrable dialect, even for a Scot, and it took us 2 years of living in inverurie (port elphinstone actually), before neighbours embraced us. But my goodness, once they do, it is like an extended family.

Your kid will have a brilliant time wherever they go to uni, just make sure they are far enough away that they live at uni, as that is where you make the fiends and have the life experiences that set things apart from just a higher education.

Go for it!

Kev

I live in Aberdeen and went to University there. The Uni was fairly good and as mentioned, has a good reputation.

The above posts make Aberdeen sound horrendous, but it’s not all that bad. It does have a large proportion of miserable locals but there are obviously a lot of decent people as well.

The best thing about Aberdeen is its proximity to nice outdoor areas (Deeside, Angus glens, Cairngorms etc.) and I’d rather stay closer to those areas than in the town itself. If your son is into outdoor pursuits, Aberdeen could be a good choice.

If I did things over, I’d probably go to Glasgow or Edinburgh for University as there’s just that bit more going on, but don’t write Aberdeen off. If you can, go to an open day and have a look for yourself around the Uni and the town and see what you think.

is a reet, I’ve never had any problems on the strazza.

I’m sure any major city has its issues with the pi$$heads at night.

When I was a student there, in the early nineties, the history department was strong. I did Cultural History, which was inter-departmental, and the history department input was excellent. They had a focus on modern european, enlightenment to WW1 stuff but were also strong on Celtic (obviously), Scandinavian and Russian studies.
I’ve just looked at the website and I think the History department has expanded since my day. I recognize a couple of the names; it looks good. I’m delighted to see that cultural history is still going strong, as well.
I’ve always found having a Scottish degree just weird enough to be a source of interest at interview while still seeming respectable. I have never understood how it’s fair that I got an extra year of study and got an M.A. Hons without having to do a B.A. I kind of feel that students of English universities lose out a bit.
Kings, the college that does the arts and humanities stuff, is lovely, with a real ‘dreaming spires’ type quad and a sensible mix of old and new built lecture halls. The halls of residence were plentiful in those days but that’s probably changed with the HE expansion.
All in all, I’d recommend it. The winters are hard, but the summers are beautiful, with three hour nights in mid-summer. It wasn’t a completely civilized city; it had its problem areas and residents, but it was no worse than any city of that size, and better than many. If he’s a mountain biker, it’s got to be good; the Grampians are a half hour drive away and there’s bound to be a club.

aberdeen and RGU both have active cycling clubs

my missus was at aberdeen for her PGDE.

its not all bad – there is plenty riding in the area – its not far to great spots and you dont have to live in the city.

I did my undergrad at Aberdeen Uni from 2000 to 2004 and loved it. I think some of those above are exaggerating the downsides of the city.

I’m pretty obviously English from my accent and never had any issues from the locals apart from some gentle ribbing around 6 nations/world cup time. I think unless you go looking for trouble it’s fine. Also I never noticed rent or anything else being particularly expensive.

The campus based uni experience is great with a really nice community feel to it. I seem to remember hearing they also recently opened a fancy sports village/complex between the campus and beach so if your son’s sporty he should be catered to well.

I’ve also had experience of uni at Nottingham, Birmingham and Loughborough, and Aberdeen holds by far my fondest memories.