University College London

Another very hot day...another university visit. Today we went with Thomas to the open day at University College London (UCL). It is the third largest university in the UK and claims to be the third oldest university in England, but that honour I thought went to Durham University. It was stiflingly hot again today, and of course London does not cope with heat (actually it does not cope with snow either!). None of the trains and tubes are air conditioned so although it was about 28C, without air conditioning it becomes insufferable. The lecture room at the university was also so hot I could hardly breathe in there. It's not a bad choice of university but it won't be Thomas' first choice of university although will be included in his choice of 5 for the UCAS application. On some league tables it is ranked 4th in the UK and on others it is ranked 10th, which still puts them at being one of the top institutions in the country. Last year for the Mechanical Engineering course they had 2000 applicants for 150 places...it's always so competitive in the UK.

We felt quite wilted when we got home. Adam was already home when we got there, having gone to Jenni's graduation this morning. He is off to a friend's 21st birthday party tonight and Jenni will come down from Cambridge and join us tomorrow for lunch.