Which is a better degree to have

Geology at Imperial or Natural Sciences at Durham?

To do what? Imperial certainly does seem to have an outstanding Earth Sciences department, I don't know about Durham.

It's just after the oil price thing I'm worried there are loads of geologists out there without jobs, whilst doing natural sciences would give me more flexibility to do other things like maths/physics etc

The oil industry is most definitely not the only career path available to geologists. I also do not think there is a bright future ahead for people wanting to go into oil but career prospects for geoscientists graduating from good universities are still pretty good. Indeed, Imperial's Geology course had the highest average graduate salary out of any course in this country last year (if I had to guess, it's because of Imperial's strong links with the financial sector and industry).

If you're concerned about a lack of maths and physics in Geology then have you perhaps looked at Geophysics?

This is not to say that Durham's NatSci course isn't good, but if it's career prospects you're after, I don't think you can really beat Imperial.

Why dont you contact the geological sociey to see if you can get a mentor pr the mebers have any insight onto the graduate job market?

I'll definitely do that if I apply for geology, but right now I'm just trying to decide whether to apply for geology or natural sciences you see

Thanks so much for your help! I know that Durham is a very prestigious uni but I have no idea how their natural science course is viewed unfortunately, I just know it's really good for humanities/arts. But their natsci entry requirements is A*AA whilst the geology imperial entry requirement is only AAA, so I thought that might say something about how the courses are viewed, but I guess not?

Really though, the factor that you should be using to decide which courses to apply for is which courses you think you'd enjoy the most

First of all, never use entry requirements as an indicator of course quality! A lot of universities increase their entry requirements to make themselves look more competitive and prestigious so entry requirements tell you very little. Secondly, Imperial pretty much never gives out AAA offers for their Earth Sciences courses, the grades given on their website are minimums (for instance my offer was A*AAA). Thirdly, geoscience offers are always going to be on the 'low' side because it simply isn't such an oversubscribed subject. That doesn't mean the courses are bad, it just means that there's less pressure for universities to push up entry requirements as a selection mechanism because there are fewer people applying.

Really though, the factor that you should be using to decide which courses to apply for is which courses you think you'd enjoy the most - you're going to have good career prospects regardless of whether you're doing Geology at Imperial or NatSci at Durham. There are pretty major differences between the two courses - in Geology you'd be 'specialising' from the onset whereas you'd have the opportunity to do a larger range of subjects at Durham - which you may or may not like. They're also very different environments. Imperial is in the middle of a massive metropolis, Durham is a fairly quiet town from what I'm aware. These are all important factors!

I know, tbh there's not much in it for me for the other factors, Durham may just have the edge location and vibe wise, but then again I wanted to know how much more prestigious the course is at Imperial because then Imperial might just have the edge. Ugh it's all so difficult.

This.

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How on earth is someone in my position meant to know which course we prefer. I've never studied earth sciences before, or geology. I know I like maths physics and chemistry and that's about it. I've looked up each course very thoroughly but all I know is which modules each does, and when some modules are titled things like 'An introduction to Earth Science' then how tf am I meant to know which one I prefer. So that's why I'm going to assume I'll like them both equally cus tbh there won't be much in it either way, which is why I'm basing which one to go for off other things like their reputation etc.

Which is why I'm basing which one to go for off other things like their reputation etc.

I completely understand where you're coming from and to some extent you've got a point, however you can get a lot more certainty by reading around your subject. You might come across a book that suddenly absolutely inspires you and makes you realise, "Yep, this is flipping cool, I want to go into Geology". Of course this isn't a substitute for actually doing the course and there's no way of knowing for certain that you'll like a course before you actually study it, but there are still ways of getting more certainty.

If it comes round to applying and you still genuinely haven't got a clue then to be honest, I'd say going with NatSci is a better bet. You'll have an opportunity to try different things and you've got less of a chance of ending up locked in a degree that you don't enjoy.

How on earth is someone in my position meant to know which course we prefer. I've never studied earth sciences before, or geology. I know I like maths physics and chemistry and that's about it. I've looked up each course very thoroughly but all I know is which modules each does, and when some modules are titled things like 'An introduction to Earth Science' then how tf am I meant to know which one I prefer. So that's why I'm going to assume I'll like them both equally cus tbh there won't be much in it either way, which is why I'm basing which one to go for off other things like their reputation etc.

*shrugs* you'd be better off tossing a coin and picking a course that way than basing it off something as artificial as reputation.

I think reputation has a massive impact on job prospects tbh

Have you been to the open days yet? Visiting a place and meeting the people might give you the gut instinct of which feels a better fit.