UCL or Durham for Maths?

At UCL, we have 4 courses each term. Of these, we get 3 hours of lectures per course, one hour of 'problem classes' per course (although, I haven't had one of these yet) and one hour of 'help classes'.

We also get assigned two tutors - one applied, one pure - who we have an hour of contact time with per week in a small group (between 4 and 6), which are quite helpful, for checking over any arguments in your proofs you're unsure about and 'tightening the screws' on any proofs, if you will.

We also have a 'mentor class' with a second year student for one hour per week, which in, again, we go over any homeworks/do some maths for fun, this is in groups of 12 to 15.

UCL also offers a quite generous bursary to all students (half of your maintenance grant), and all of the accomodation is easily within walking range. It takes me 4 minutes to get to the maths dept. from where I'm staying (although, we don't actually have any lectures in there).

Personally, with offers from both last year, I chose UCL due to, well, it being in London. I couldn't find any other differences.

Well, do you still enjoy the city life of London? Also, Durham's collegiate if that changes anything in your opinion. Tiny city - perhaps less than 100,000 people living there, compared to London's millions. Both are old, but Durham is more quaint, for want of a better word, whereas London has a lot of modern architecture as you well know. London will be more expensive to live in, will have a larger night-life with a higher variety of things to do in the city, although Durham does have its own night-life on a smaller scale.
Apart from that, give me a year and I may be able to give you some explanation on teaching methods on one of the two
I guess this isn't really what you were getting at with the thread - but the city you live in is going to be very important if you're staying there for the duration of your course, so make sure you like whichever place you go to, and don't just prefer the number of contact hours in a week.

At UCL, we have 4 courses each term. Of these, we get 3 hours of lectures per course, one hour of 'problem classes' per course (although, I haven't had one of these yet) and one hour of 'help classes'.

We also get assigned two tutors - one applied, one pure - who we have an hour of contact time with per week in a small group (between 4 and 6), which are quite helpful, for checking over any arguments in your proofs you're unsure about and 'tightening the screws' on any proofs, if you will.

We also have a 'mentor class' with a second year student for one hour per week, which in, again, we go over any homeworks/do some maths for fun, this is in groups of 12 to 15.

UCL also offers a quite generous bursary to all students (half of your maintenance grant), and all of the accomodation is easily within walking range. It takes me 4 minutes to get to the maths dept. from where I'm staying (although, we don't actually have any lectures in there).

Personally, with offers from both last year, I chose UCL due to, well, it being in London. I couldn't find any other differences.

Doing maths problems in small groups like 4-5 and 12-15 seems nice so that at least the tutor knows you personally
Are you doing Mathematics or with another subject like with stats or physics ?
I am applying for UCL but I am not sure exactly which subject I will choose.Do you know if the intakes for specific courses are limited?On the UCL website it only states an intake of 170 and so I guess this figure is for all mathematics related subjects.
The accommodation that you get is specific for students only and then on the following years you have to search for you own accommodation right ?

Are the number of hours you gave me quite normal, or would there usually be more/less? Sorry, couldn't really find much info in this area as you can tell And if my maths serves me well, 12 hours of lectures a term doesn't seem a lot to me either?

Oh really, well done for that btw You obviously preferred London, but did the collegiate system/nicer looking area not draw you toward it? Or did the fact that UCL doesn't have a proper maths department draw you more toward Durham? (I think I remember it just being on top of the Student Union?)

12 hours per week, sorry. I think that's about standard.

I'm in Bloomsbury and it's a really nice area of London, tbh. I like it anyway. Yes, the UCL maths department is on the 5th-8th floor of the student union, which is a pain in the arse really. They over-recruited again this year, so we're having to have lectures outside the maths department this year, but fortunately the Bloomsbury campus is concentrated around 1 or 2 blocks, so it's only a 5 minute walk max from one lecture to the next.

I come from a town at the end of a massive cul-de-sac, 32 miles to the nearest motorway, so I really wanted to have a different experience at uni, which is why UCL swung it for me.

If you do decide to go for UCL, I recommend the Intercollegiate Halls. You share your halls with people from Kings, LSE, Birkbeck, SOAS etc. it's really interesting to meet loads of these different people (plus, it gives you one extra question to ask in the awkward small talk of Freshers week).

Sorry, if this doesnt make perfect sense. I'm quite drunk.

i was chosing 1 out of these 2 as both ask for ums...i chose UCL because its closer and overall in the recent top 20 universities in the world...suprisingly UCL was there along with cambridge, oxford and imperial =)

Why is it surprising? UCL is a world class university.

well not a lot of people know UCL! before y12....i didnt know about UCL....a lot of my friends thought I was referring to UEL..university of east london. compare that to cambridge, imperial, oxford....everyone in the education stream will know these uniz

I'm glad UCL is a world class uni....afterall I'm applying to it

Everyone who's important with regards to higher education (academics, graduate employers etc) knows about UCL - it has a very strong and growing international and domestic reputation. So in this respect it's got an excellent and prestigious brand name, so you shouldn't have any worries there.

On the other hand like you said, your average joe has never really heard of it. It's pretty funny (and frustrating) at times. I told a secretary when she asked that I was studying at UCL and she gave me a blank face and then politely asked if it had a medical school (her daughter wants to be a doctor). I had to fight the urge to tell her that UCL was ranked 4th in the world last year by QS, and just instead replied that it had one of the best medical schools in the country haha.

Durham is better regarded for Maths:
http://www.university-list.net/uk/rank/univ-9043.html

I reckon that some people might choose Durham above Warwick (despite Warwick's big reputation in Maths) because of Durham's location and upper middle / upper class collegiate reputation (not that that is necessarily ideal for all / most people in quietish, leafyish Durham and there is something fascinating about a 1960s era campus like Warwick - it's like a life unto itself.) But if they were going to pick a London university for its city attractions then they might pick Imperial if they want the best there.

I know that's only one source but your task, if you choose to accept it, is to find a source that shows UCL above Durham for Maths and feel free to post it- I hope that you find one and show that going off league tables is silly. I know that it is silly in terms of knowing which environment you prefer anyway.

i was chosing 1 out of these 2 as both ask for ums...i chose UCL because its closer and overall in the recent top 20 universities in the world...suprisingly UCL was there along with cambridge, oxford and imperial =)

I don't think I would rank any other mathematics department above Warwick's without hesitation apart from Cambridge. Oxford and ICL are up there too ofc, but it's arguable. But yeah, I do like the Durham area, and the buildings was the main thing that attracted me toward it in the first place.

Ps I didn't neg you btw

UCL only has a definite better wordwide ranking really. In the UK, they're both very reputable, which is why I'm stuck between the two tbh! Also, there's the issue with the maths department being on the top of the student union which isn't really appealing

I took ICL out of my choices once I read and heard various negative things about their maths course and lecturers