[Awoodrow2]

(Original post by willow162)
I wish the current trevs students knew how much better formals were before prof evans arrived on the scene, his enforced 'tradition' made me sick and attendence plummetted. I don't wish to put people off, trevs is bloody brilliant on the whole but the prof needs to go. His speech at graduation dinner this year yet another example of how out of touch he is.

How did formal used to be different? I've never known anything other than Prof Evans.

I quite like the guy, but I'm aware that I've never had to clash with him over anything, as a lot of people have done - for instance, one prerequisite of being president of Trevs Choir is that you've got to be able to firmly say 'no' to him a lot, since he apparently constantly meddles in musical matters.

[willow162]

(Original post by Awoodrow2)
How did formal used to be different? I've never known anything other than Prof Evans.

I quite like the guy, but I'm aware that I've never had to clash with him over anything, as a lot of people have done - for instance, one prerequisite of being president of Trevs Choir is that you've got to be able to firmly say 'no' to him a lot, since he apparently constantly meddles in musical matters.

At formals before prof there was none of the farce over toasting, grace and waiting for silence bs. The tradition of Trevs is that there is no 'tradition'. One could 2p as much as they liked without fear, you could laugh and it was generally a fun occasion. Behaviour didn't ever get out of hand, noone was being wound-up by the profs cronies or threatened/issued with fines. As a liver-in you had to sign up for formal within a couple of hours of go-live or else you didn't get in, the idea of livers-out in regular formal was laughable. In contrast I went to formals last year which were less than half full, mostly with an over-representation of finalists and pgs, we were literally being begged to sign-up. Admittedly, some of the blame lies with last years stingy fresh who voted to have the cheapo **** food, then didn't go to formal anyway, such a shame given that trevs has a chef capable of making much better food if given the budget to do so.

During the grad speech, prof just went off on one about music this and that, musical blah blah blah, completely ignoring all other trevs societies like they don't even exist, despite the fact that trevs had some great sporting successes defs worthy of a mention. Dunno why he's so obsessed with music cause they mostly hate him anyway that's why he's called the honorary TOSser. Then he totes upset and insulted anyone that didn't get a 2:1 like they're a failure.

I hope the prof is so up his own arse that he googles himself and reads this.

Obvs, now I've left this stuff ain't a bother to me anymore but it did sadden me towards the end of my time there to reflect on some of the negative changes over the years.

[Awoodrow2]

(Original post by willow162)
At formals before prof there was none of the farce over toasting, grace and waiting for silence bs. The tradition of Trevs is that there is no 'tradition'. One could 2p as much as they liked without fear, you could laugh and it was generally a fun occasion. Behaviour didn't ever get out of hand, noone was being wound-up by the profs cronies or threatened/issued with fines. As a liver-in you had to sign up for formal within a couple of hours of go-live or else you didn't get in, the idea of livers-out in regular formal was laughable. In contrast I went to formals last year which were less than half full, mostly with an over-representation of finalists and pgs, we were literally being begged to sign-up. Admittedly, some of the blame lies with last years stingy fresh who voted to have the cheapo **** food, then didn't go to formal anyway, such a shame given that trevs has a chef capable of making much better food if given the budget to do so.

During the grad speech, prof just went off on one about music this and that, musical blah blah blah, completely ignoring all other trevs societies like they don't even exist, despite the fact that trevs had some great sporting successes defs worthy of a mention. Dunno why he's so obsessed with music cause they mostly hate him anyway that's why he's called the honorary TOSser. Then he totes upset and insulted anyone that didn't get a 2:1 like they're a failure.

I hope the prof is so up his own arse that he googles himself and reads this.

Obvs, now I've left this stuff ain't a bother to me anymore but it did sadden me towards the end of my time there to reflect on some of the negative changes over the years.

For me, that's a just weird thought of formals being that way, and I think I now get why so many finalists/alumni dislike him. I've been quite disappointed with the number of my friends wanting to go to formal this year - Livers Out just don't seem to bother, so I've only been a couple of times this year.

Actually, do you have any idea what the current status of Livers Out formal is? I completely forgot there'd been issues over that.

Got to say that sounds just like my school speeches...

[willow162]

(Original post by Awoodrow2)
For me, that's a just weird thought of formals being that way, and I think I now get why so many finalists/alumni dislike him. I've been quite disappointed with the number of my friends wanting to go to formal this year - Livers Out just don't seem to bother, so I've only been a couple of times this year.

Actually, do you have any idea what the current status of Livers Out formal is? I completely forgot there'd been issues over that.

Got to say that sounds just like my school speeches...

I imagine they'll attempt to go ahead with them again but no idea tbh. Can't imagine many 2nd yrs signing up...

[Awoodrow2]

(Original post by willow162)
I imagine they'll attempt to go ahead with them again but no idea tbh. Can't imagine many 2nd yrs signing up...

Because they didn't go to Livers In formal when they were Freshers? This year's intake hasn't been great for the college, in terms of formals and the bar.

[purple-girl]

Hmmm, it'll be interesting to see if the most recent Freshers will go to livers-out formals as it may show whether they just don't like formals or if they objected to paying when they could have a free dinner earlier and thought formals would be free as they were previously, given they'd have to pay for livers-out anyway. This year's lot did get the short straw admittedly. What's happening with this next year anyway? Are formals being included in Battels or are the freshers being told they'll have to pay?

Admittedly I only went to 1 formal this year, the first livers-out one, and for some reason I didn't bother drinking. I would've liked to go to more but I guess I didn't keep in good enough contact with trevs people generally so I never knew who was going when. Next year I'll know more livers in from my year and I'll hopefully be in good contact with a house of mostly Trevs people so I'm planning to make them let me know when they're going to formals.

[annab1684]

I'M still going to go to formals. However, I do fear Livers Out may become my house + Exec. Our year annoy me sometimes...also, looks like no-one is coming to Trevs this year according to TSR! I only popped on to see if there were any...

[Awoodrow2]

(Original post by annab1684)
I'M still going to go to formals. However, I do fear Livers Out may become my house + Exec. Our year annoy me sometimes...also, looks like no-one is coming to Trevs this year according to TSR! I only popped on to see if there were any...

What annoys you about them?
Hrm, I've not really been paying attention to the main threads, so would only notice Trevelyanites if they posted in here.

[annab1684]

(Original post by Awoodrow2)
What annoys you about them?
Hrm, I've not really been paying attention to the main threads, so would only notice Trevelyanites if they posted in here.

That's what I meant. I only really checked here and then went on the most recent pages of the first couple of Durham threads. Well, I don't really get why they don't like participating in things, yeah there's the money, but for a lot of people that's not even an issue - i.e. informal ball meal = classic example. I don't know, we'll see how we go!

[Awoodrow2]

(Original post by annab1684)
That's what I meant. I only really checked here and then went on the most recent pages of the first couple of Durham threads. Well, I don't really get why they don't like participating in things, yeah there's the money, but for a lot of people that's not even an issue - i.e. informal ball meal = classic example. I don't know, we'll see how we go!

On the other hand, I'm so impressed by the physicists in your year - they're incredibly organised and enthusiastic compared to mine, with plans to try and revitalise Physsoc.

[Awoodrow2]

The Facebook group for 2011 has now appeared!

[KylieKuang]

Can anyone tell me something about the share room? Like that the double room looks like. I am very unlucky that I have not been allocated to share a room in the first year. Can you tell me some experience about sharing the room? thanks

[Awoodrow2]

(Original post by KylieKuang)
Can anyone tell me something about the share room? Like that the double room looks like. I am very unlucky that I have not been allocated to share a room in the first year. Can you tell me some experience about sharing the room? thanks

Right, I don't seem to have any pictures of my double room from third term that actually show what it looked like - they're such an awkward shape that you can only get half the room in view at once easily, so I just have photos that look like parts of single rooms.

The double rooms basically look like two single rooms fused together, usually with both wardrobes next to each other, and only one basin between the two people. In general, rooms in Trevs are quite hard to describe or photograph due to the shape. Here's the few photos I have that show the most of the room: https://picasaweb.google.com/1132247...eat=directlink


Usually sharing a room means that a lot of people will spend time in your room hanging out, as it's a brilliant social space. It can distract a bit from work, but is really nice to always have people around. I don't think I know any people who shared a room and actively disliked the experience - sometimes people get on so well with their roommate that they practically turn into the same person, sometimes they just get on amicably but doing completely different things.

[Awoodrow2]

Reposted from a message, thought it'd be a good idea to post reply in main thread where there is lots of similar information, and others can correct me.

(Original post by Nerdatious)
Hello, I am applying to Durham for Chemistry and was unable to attend the open day could you please tell me a bit about Trevs?

What are the rooms/buildings like? I definitely would like a single room and I would really like an en-suite ideally but I'm guessing that it is quite likely that I won't get one. What are the ratios of students:bathrooms/showers.

Could you please tell me what your overall opinion of Trevs is? The food/sports facilities/music/library?

Thank you !

Well, firstly, Trevs is a bit bizarre. Our layout is pretty different to most other halls of residence/colleges, in that we have no corridors, but landings of 6 people where the doors all face one another, usually with a toilet/shower, a pantry between every two landings, a main door onto the stairwell of the block, and sometimes a corridor down to a neighbouring landing (usually with the toilets/shower on it).
The layout makes for a much more social atmosphere, and also results in the college being a strange shape, where I keep being surprised at where peoples' windows look out onto, and you can usually see a lot of other rooms from any one window.

I've got to say that, while there are single, en-suite rooms, they're basically reserved for finalists (I'm a third year living in college, and missed out). Freshers will generally share for one term in first year (unless they have serious reasons why that wouldn't be possible), which is usually a really enjoyable experience - and as a result, people will change rooms every term, which is a bit of a hassle, but makes things a lot better, in terms of getting to live with the friends you make.
I believe the vast majority of baths in Trevs have now been converted to showers (thank god - no-one ever had a bath), so now the ratio is about 6-1, as you normally have one bathroom per landing. Busy-ness is very rarely a problem, as even if your local bathroom is taken, there'll be several more you can try just seconds away.

Overall, I'm really glad I came to Trevs.
- Food is now standardised across the university, and I've mostly been really enjoying it so far this year
- Sports facilities I don't really use (I think it's mainly just the tennis courts; anything more is usually University-owned), so can't really comment on - most colleges don't have a lot. The gym we've got is pretty well-equipped for it's size, though.
- We generally sell ourselves as one of the most musical colleges - with choir, acapella, strings, jazz, orchestra, the musical society, the theatre society, and a dedicated tech team who sort out dozens of events a term, we've got so much going on in terms of music. Live music shows in the bar, an annual Summer 'Trevstock', and also plenty of opportunities to DJ at bops if you're into that (Tim Fowler, the college librarian, is a particular favourite)
- Library is again awesome for its size - I'm only a scientist, so don't use it much, but I've never found it lacking, and plenty of people prefer to work in there than in the main library.

I hope that was of some help.

[mariellinos]

Hi!

I have a conditional offer from Trevs to study Chinese next year

I was just wondering if anyone could tell me about sport in Trevs? I'm a keen hockey player but also want to get involved in lots of other stuff, would be great to have a bit more info!

Thanks!

[Awoodrow2]

(Original post by mariellinos)
...

I feel really bad that this was never replied to now, given that I wanted to keep this thread alive.

Official Trevs Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/181569425311552/

[rmanuell]

Do you have to empty your room after each term or what?

[Awoodrow2]

(Original post by rmanuell)
Do you have to empty your room after each term or what?

Details seem to change year-to-year, I'm afraid, so it's hard to give a definite answer. But the general rule is:
- at the end of the first term (Michaelmas), you can leave stuff in your room, as long as most of the space is clear, and the cleaners can get at everything (so get it into cupboards, drawers, and underbed storage)
- at the end of the second term (Epiphany), you'll either need to take everything in your room that can't be securely locked in a box, or be able to leave everything, depending on which landing you're on.

[Bulbasaur]

Any other 2013 applicants applying for trevs?

[Awoodrow2]

(Original post by Bulbasaur)
Any other 2013 applicants applying for trevs?

Well, that didn't go so well.