Bristol or Durham University?!

I picked Bristol

Thanks for all of your advice guys, was invaluable!

I have to decide on Tuesday, and I literally can't. I am sure that if I don't pick Durham I will regret the damage it will do to my career prospects, and if I don't pick Bristol I will regret missing out on living in such a great city. I am just not convinced that to an employer, Bristol is considered to be equal to Durham so picking Bristol over Durham just seems like a wasted opportunity. I visited Durham again today and I had a better impression of it than last time as I looked around more, the library facilities looked really good for example, but still it really is tiny and travelling to Newcastle isn't something I will be able to do that often in order to satisfy my need to spend time in a bigger, more interesting city. I guess I just don't know which place would be better for me. I find it so difficult to make even the simplest of decisions, and this one is huge. Am I exaggerating the difference in prestige between them? If Bristol was higher in prestige or equal I would pick it in a heartbeat. But all I hear is that Durham is better or that they're equal which means that having a Durham degree is likely to be more beneficial to me. I even wrote a list of pros and cons, the pros of Bristol are far more numerous than those of Durham for me personally, but I'm still confused as hell. PLEASE HELP :-( ANYONE!

OMG!! We are in exactly the same situation! The only difference is subject. I am doing economics and choosing from Durham and Bristol but I am still doing A-Level though. huh... I am really confused about this. And all of my friends told me to follow my heart. But the problem is I have NO IDEA ABOUT MY HEART!!! I want the facilities,course and reputation of Durham uni but in Bristol city...T_T

PLS PLS PLS ,HELP US!!

I don't know why some posters though Durham > Bristol. That is clearly not the case. Bristol is often ranked as one of the World's top universities.

Do you trust these tables, especially when considering that Durham boast about chasing the rankings? The fact that Durham averages a higher entry tariff for Chemistry ahead of Oxford is laughable. Students with grades that good should be aiming higher (i.e. Imperial College, UCL).

In the case of Physics, Oxford want A*AA + PAT and Durham want A*A*A. Bristols a fairly stagnant university whilst Durhams increasing in all tables year on year, gone up 41 places in world rankings last year alone.

Well if you are getting A*A*A, in my book neither Durham or Bristol are good enough. Students would be better off at one of the top London universities or perhaps study abroad at other World class universities. For what it is worth, Bristol is still the better research university over Durham, and has arguably the better architecture.

Durhams clearly a popular choice for top tier students as seen here http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Durham_applicants_stalking_page_2014_entry

I'm not denying that, Durham will always be seen as a top 10 UK university, regardless of rankings or on other data on TSR. But even Durham can't compete with Bristol's Oxbridge-like buildings. It is a little strange that students haven't realised this more widely.

We have a castle.

Do you trust these tables, especially when considering that Durham boast about chasing the rankings? The fact that Durham averages a higher entry tariff for Chemistry ahead of Oxford is laughable. Students with grades that good should be aiming higher (i.e. Imperial College, UCL).

Well if you are getting A*A*A, in my book neither Durham or Bristol are good enough. Students would be better off at one of the top London universities or perhaps study abroad at other World class universities. For what it is worth, Bristol is still the better research university over Durham, and has arguably the better architecture.

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Chemistry here. I didn't apply to oxbridge or imperial, but I did apply to UCL and turned their offer down, and I firmed Durham (I am starting in 2 weeks). If I could go back admittedly I would have applied to Imperial and I possibly would have chosen it over Durham (but perhaps I'm being biased as I know many friends going to imperial and none going to Durham..). I got A*A*A* yet my UCAS tariff is something like 540 so still below the Durham average.

Durham has been solid in the UK rankings - it was 3rd best for chem over the last 5 years and then moved up this year. I don't care about world rankings as I want to work in the UK, so international prestige means little to me.

I know Durham isn't oxbridge level but I don't get why you're so determined to ruin Durham's reputation on tsr? It is academically challenging (from what I've heard - I will see for myself soon). Good collegiate system (high student satisfaction). We have been 2nd in the BUCS league for like 5 years (Loughborough first), it's a very sporty university.

For these reasons alone it's definitely worthy of a high top 10 place. I can't think of any unis other than oxbridge imperial lse and ucl who could be better than Durham?

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Another thing you miss is the fact Durham is collegiate based, having been to both a non-collegiate and collegiate university you can definitely see the appeal.

But is there a danger that in a collegiate set up you could end up with too much power in the hands of a few students who have such influence over the college that they think they run the place?

Even Durham cares about the World rankings, as the UK's finest universities want to compete with the best elsewhere. No good being seen as quite prestigious in the UK but mediocre outside it. Students from good schools would soon pick up on this and decide to apply to universities abroad instead, and this is already happening at the very top independent schools.

I am not ''ruining'' Durham's reputation, I am examining it. And I would place it as the UK's 10th best university.

10th best? Which are the other 9, with reason, better universities than Durham? And yes, perhaps Durham cares about the world rankings, but I personally do not - I think it's flawed to try and compare such different universities from such vastly different countries and cultures and put them on a league table anyway.