Student review [#37875] for English Literature
at The University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh University is a good university to attend if you spent your teen years at a private school or in an affluent area, most likely in South England. This being that the social sphere, teaching culture, and general environment mirrors what you will have been used to. If, like myself, you are not a part of this comparatively small section of the UK, you may find your time at Edinburgh University difficult, feeling overlooked, floundering and isolated.
While 93% of the British population attend public schools, we only make up 63% of the student body at Edinburgh Uni. This overrepresentation of privately-educated students is palpable in lectures, across societies, and even in wider uni life like nightlife and accommodation. At Edinburgh, it seems as if cliques from such-and-such school for girls and the-somebody-dead boys college have spread til they have a chokehold on Edinburgh University’s entire geography. Not only have these students had a higher quality of education meanings that you feel two-steps behind despite working twice as hard, they are also more likely to have accommodation paid for them and less likely to have to work jobs to sustain them while they are at the university, compounding that sense of being behind. This is also coupled with typically conservative attitudes, which often means those who are in any way marginalised stay silent in lectures, on the sidelines in societies, and regularly discriminated against in nightlife settings or the search for accommodation.
People often compare the ancient buildings in George Square to something out of Harry Potter. If Edinburgh University is Hogwarts, then its uneven social landscape echoes what came to light of the beloved children’s authors discriminatory views.