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Convince Me

I am going to have to choose between York, Durham, and UCL for my firm choice. I want to do Archaeology BA and have the same offer from all of them (BBB).

This is a thread essentially for you to convince me why York is better than Durham or UCL. Talk about the social side, or the academic side, I don't care. I just want some help in deciding.

Reply 1

gideon2000uk

9

York is very poor for Archaelogy according to the Times league table. I'd go to Durham or UCL if it were me... You'll end up loving whichever university you go to.

Reply 2

Melana

14

The social side is gonna be COMPLETELY different with each of those three, so have a think about which suits you more - Durham I hear doesn't have much of a nightlife, York has hundreds of bars but not many clubs and UCL, well, London, baby.

Reply 3

newDana

1

York's a beautiful city with lots of history (as you're probably aware), it's also one of the top tourist spots in England.

Personally i love it. Whilst we do only have 3 proper clubs, which are kinda small there are so many pubs and bars in the city that you can drink at a different one each day for an entire year - so you're unlikely to get tired of going to the same places all the time. The advantage of the clubs being small is that if you do go out by yourself you'll definately find people that you know.

The Arch department isn't based on the campus, instead it's at King's Manor which is a gorgeous building in the city centre, surrounded by gardens and the art museum i think. I don't do arch myself, but i know a few ppl who do and they love it, it's a really friendly atmosphere here.

Reply 4

Gissing

2

Melana

and UCL, well, London, baby.

One of my friends is stuck in Camden with no money to spend after picking UCL. Not for the hard up.

Reply 5

peachmelba

8

don't know anything about your course. but i am really enjoying the uni & the city. the social life is fantastic (i was really worried about the university of dork jibes before i came).

i come from near durham & although it it very pretty, it is much smaller than york & I think could get very claustrophic for 3 years.

london i think would be a complete contrast to the other two. you need to decide what you want from your uni experience. so far, I'm managing without a term time job - i think this would be difficult in london.

i really think you should visit all 3 if you possibly can. you'll get a good feel for the department's style & organisation & whether you can imagine spending 3 years there.

good luck

Reply 6

x_muso_x

3

If you go to UCL, all I'll say that is you're gonna have to save up a lot of money for public transport as the tube prices are ridiculous, even with an oyster card! lol

x

Reply 7

KerriT

9

Yup, my friend is at King's and she is only in zone 2 and yet spends £60-80 a month on travelling whereas I spend maybe £5 a week.

Reply 8

cullmac

I study archaeology in York and its an amazing course with great lecturers. It's a very small department, in this years intake i think theres around 40 of us so everyone basically knows everyone, your not in a giant lecture theatre with 100 students, we're all one big happy family. Oh and yes the department isnt based on campus we are smack bang in the centre of York, although i only need to travel into the kings manor for one senimar, the rest are on campus this term so it really varies, yes you can spend a lot of money on transport, but thats really only if your lazy and take the bus instead of walking.
Despite what some people have said York is actually one of the best places to do archaeology in the country, the university as a whole has slide down the league table this year so facts can be deciving. The social side of things is amazing, every week the archaeology society has an event planned such as pub golf, an Indiana Jones film night, ghost walks and scavanger hunts. In my opinion though the social life in York is just generally great, full stop, but im sure its the same everywhere.
At the end of the day though you will love where ever you go, i came to York not because of the teaching quality but because i love the city itself, if you have any questions just ask me.

Reply 9

Aula

OP

18

cheers for the advice people, keep it coming

cullmac what year are you in? I know a few people there (though none first year).
The other question, which you will probably be able to help me with, it how much Roman Archaeology is there?

Reply 10

cullmac

im a first year, and as far as Roman archaeology is concerned i possibly wouldnt expect too much of a Roman emphasis, most of the lecturers specialise in the Vikings and the dark age (york is very good for that), but i have done quite a bit on Roman sites.

Reply 11

gideon2000uk

9

Did you go to the Constanine exhibition... That was wonderful! They had parts of the marble streets that used to be on the streets of York and loads of statues and stuff... It was great!

Kings manor is a beautiful building! It's like being in an Oxford College for a little while :smile:

Reply 12

Leigh

15

The social side of York is very different to what you'd find in London, or any other big city, so it does depend on what you want, I personally really enjoy the style of it.
Instead of massive bar crawls to huge nightclubs every night (although they do happen), you tend to entertain yourselves in more alternative ways, which I enjoy way more; fancy dress parties in your college bar, pub quizzes, ghost walks, ice skating.
I have friends who'd hate the cheesiness of those kind of things, and want to hardcore party, but I really like the laidback atmosphere of the social side of things. Almost verges on childishness at times, but everyone's doing it so it's ok! I know my friend at Leeds wouldn't have super-hero versions of themselves on all their doors!

Visiting is definitely a good idea if you can, and I do believe you'll end up loving wherever you go, but York is just awesome.

Reply 13

xlucyx

King Leigh

I know my friend at Leeds wouldn't have super-hero versions of themselves on all their doors!

Haha have B block done that too?? We don't have superheros but we cut out pics from a 'cutest child' contest in a paper and customised them and they're stuck on our doors!

And to the OP, I agree with Leigh about the social life - if you prefer big bar crawls and huge clubs every night then York's not really for you, but I personally really like the nightlife!

Reply 14

dsch

13

re: the clubs I actually like bumping into everybody I know on a Tuesday night in toffs!

xlucyx

Haha have B block done that too?? We don't have superheros but we cut out pics from a 'cutest child' contest in a paper and customised them and they're stuck on our doors!

When I was there we did similar things. We made a collage on the notice board in our kitchen of pictures from magazines and everything of people we were supposed to look like. We even included the cleaners :d

There were some really good ones (like a Sarah Jessica Parker picture which looked exactly like one girl), but others were not so good (like my mate who ended up with Spock from Star Trek. Can't remember what picture I got witht he first attempt, but with the second I got Frodo Bagins /Elijah Wood for some reason.

Reply 16

Leigh

15

xlucyx

Haha have B block done that too?? We don't have superheros but we cut out pics from a 'cutest child' contest in a paper and customised them and they're stuck on our doors!

And to the OP, I agree with Leigh about the social life - if you prefer big bar crawls and huge clubs every night then York's not really for you, but I personally really like the nightlife!

We certainly have. It was a big event, all gathering together every night for about 10 days to do a person a night, great fun! The cleaners told us we weren't allowed them up though because the tours were coming round. Heaven forbid we make it look likewe have some fun on the corridors!

Lucy speaks the truth, she can't get enough fancy dress and general sillyness!

Reply 17

Melana

14

King Leigh

Lucy speaks the truth, she can't get enough fancy dress and general sillyness!

And WE can't get enough of HER fancy dress and general sillyness. *Sigh*

But yeah. We love York. And I just do some TSR lovin' by saying I MET LUCY ON HERE AND NOW I LOVE HER!!!

Reply 18

rock_eleven

1

London and York will be very very different. I just transferred from Imperial (London) to York. Most people like London because there are lots of different places to get drunk, but I don't go for that kind of ****, so it wasn't so great. Its ok, but I much prefer being here at York.

Reply 19

Juncture

16

I'm not at York (yet :P) but they have DUCKS! I like ducks and apparently they have a picture of a duck on their university card.

Also I liked York because it was small and quite well signposted which makes navigation easier when you have little sense of direction.

Convince Me

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