The "Ask a Durham Student" Thread :)

Are they any nice places to go for a long walk around the Durham area?

Just going along Houghall Woods above the Science site gives you a reasonable medium walk right from the city, as does along by the Wear downstream of the city (I speak as a mum who was there last week visiting my (ex-student) daughter). Outside the city there is lots of open countryside, not to mention the coast not far away (although the sea was a bit cold in September). The North Pennines are within reach.

You could join the Scout and Guide Club (DUSAGG) or the Hillwalking Club to find other people to walk with.

Reply 6181

pianofluteftw

14

Original post by chem@uni

what would you say is the worst part of student life/general life at Durham University?

It really depends on the person. I haven't really had many negatives at all as a student, as I found friends quickly and got involved in societies I enjoyed. However I would say I know I know many people can find the Durham culture of almost perfectionism hard to deal with at times. Everyone at Durham has achieved highly at school, so to go from being one of the highest achievers in your school/ local area to being basically average can be a new and sometimes difficult experience at first! Everyone also seems to have many special talents, pretty much everyone is healthy and happy and so if you end up struggling for any reason (for me it was a sudden, serious period of illness) it can leave you feeling inadequate. However the university welfare system is incredibly good, as both staff at a collegiate and university level and the student welfare officers are all incredibly nice.

The only other thing I've found perhaps challenging to deal with is some of the lack of student consultation from the university. The previous vice chancellor made some unpopular decisions, and with the recent large increases in accommodation fees students have been dissatisfied with the lack of transparency and consultation. However recent student protests have been some of the largest in recent years so the university I think is being forced in to listening, so hopefully change will follow!

Overall though Durham is great - I've loved my time here! :smile:

Reply 6182

korrin

2

Hey, I was wondering if anyone could tell me about History, what the course has been like for them and the work load :smile:

I was also wondering if Durham considers problems at school which may have affected grades? In my case my Philosophy teacher was off for 2 months with no guidance, my psychology teacher only returned in January after being away for an unknown reason, albeit we had a random graduate come it to try teach us, and my Biology teacher was fired for not literally not teaching leaving us to relearn/learn half the course again.
I know its my responsibility to teach myself at this stage but it can be quite difficult when the internet isn't always the most helpful and there's not always the opportunity to ask for aid. Would there be any leeway in my grades? I'm quite confident I will do well, but not as well as I would have wished.

Thank youuu :smile:

Reply 6183

cucaracha

14

Original post by jademell

Hi, I have an offer to study English Literature at University College (2015)
I was wondering if any current English students would be able to answer a couple of questions? :smile:

-What was the transition from A Level essays to undergrad like? Was it horrendous?
-How did you know which modules to choose?!

It would be great if a current English student could answer this? And also what an average week is like :smile:

Reply 6184

username904959

13

Original post by korrin

Hey, I was wondering if anyone could tell me about History, what the course has been like for them and the work load :smile:

I was also wondering if Durham considers problems at school which may have affected grades? In my case my Philosophy teacher was off for 2 months with no guidance, my psychology teacher only returned in January after being away for an unknown reason, albeit we had a random graduate come it to try teach us, and my Biology teacher was fired for not literally not teaching leaving us to relearn/learn half the course again.
I know its my responsibility to teach myself at this stage but it can be quite difficult when the internet isn't always the most helpful and there's not always the opportunity to ask for aid. Would there be any leeway in my grades? I'm quite confident I will do well, but not as well as I would have wished.

Thank youuu :smile:

My degree is partly history :smile:

I like the course, although I'm only doing two history modules. It's interesting, it pushes you and most modules are flexible enough that you can study the things you're really interested in in detail. It is quite a lot of work (I have friends doing straight history and they have six essays each term) with a lot of reading, but contact hours are low so as long as you're organised there's plenty of time to get everything done.

Regarding your grades, I believe you need to apply for special consideration for your exams and inform Durham that you've applied for it. They're unable to take anything into consideration that you haven't told the exam boards about, because that the exam boards' job. History is incredibly competitive and there aren't many spaces for near-misses. I'd speak to the exam boards and just work as hard as you can between now and then.

Good luck. :smile:

Reply 6185

tsandhu2

1

St andrews(4 yrs) or Durham(3 yes) for BSC PSYCHOLOGY
(already on a gap year)

Reply 6186

Fe27

3

Im looking for a student currently studying Computer Science at Durham. Are there any here?

Reply 6187

korrin

2

Original post by Oli-Ol

My degree is partly history :smile:

I like the course, although I'm only doing two history modules. It's interesting, it pushes you and most modules are flexible enough that you can study the things you're really interested in in detail. It is quite a lot of work (I have friends doing straight history and they have six essays each term) with a lot of reading, but contact hours are low so as long as you're organised there's plenty of time to get everything done.

Regarding your grades, I believe you need to apply for special consideration for your exams and inform Durham that you've applied for it. They're unable to take anything into consideration that you haven't told the exam boards about, because that the exam boards' job. History is incredibly competitive and there aren't many spaces for near-misses. I'd speak to the exam boards and just work as hard as you can between now and then.

Good luck. :smile:

Thank you for your reply! I'll try to tell my exam office at school however I doubt they'll do anything.
I'm very committed to History and love reading so the course looks perfect :tongue:

I just have an additional query about standard essay length if you could help again? Is it a few pages or does it depend on the area? Thank you so much again for your reply and incite :biggrin:

Reply 6188

Berninger1864

6

I've always wanted to go Durham.
I currently study AS level English Lit, Sociology and History.

I mucked up my GCSEs (due to school rep, teacher absence, and personal problems) with only an A* in English Lit and Lang and an A in history. My other subjects were B's and D for double science. If I get 3 A's at AS, with a perfect PS (wider reading, lectures, voluntary work, etc) do you reckon Durham would consider taking me for History and/or English?

I understand how much of a competitive course they both are - but this university is my dream. I've heard they are GCSE nazis and what not - but is it worth a shot? I just don't wanna apply knowing it'll be rejecting within a matter of time due to my poor GCSE grades.

Please give me advice. Many thanks.

Reply 6189

Dylann

21

Original post by Berninger1864

I've always wanted to go Durham.
I currently study AS level English Lit, Sociology and History.

I mucked up my GCSEs (due to school rep, teacher absence, and personal problems) with only an A* in English Lit and Lang and an A in history. My other subjects were B's and D for double science. If I get 3 A's at AS, with a perfect PS (wider reading, lectures, voluntary work, etc) do you reckon Durham would consider taking me for History and/or English?

I understand how much of a competitive course they both are - but this university is my dream. I've heard they are GCSE nazis and what not - but is it worth a shot? I just don't wanna apply knowing it'll be rejecting within a matter of time due to my poor GCSE grades.

Please give me advice. Many thanks.

I've heard history ask for A*s at gcse so that may be a problem. However you should definitely try and go for all As especially high UMS and then include in a reference.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 6190

username904959

13

Original post by korrin

Thank you for your reply! I'll try to tell my exam office at school however I doubt they'll do anything.
I'm very committed to History and love reading so the course looks perfect :tongue:

I just have an additional query about standard essay length if you could help again? Is it a few pages or does it depend on the area? Thank you so much again for your reply and incite :biggrin:

No problem! :smile:

It really is a fantastic course, as long as your time management is good! Standard essay length in first year is 2000 words, not including footnotes or bibliography (Making History might be different because it's a coursework module). Second and third year is depends on the module and on how much the essay is worth. They always make it very clear what the word limit is though so don't worry too much :smile:

Reply 6191

knope

3

Original post by tsandhu2

St andrews(4 yrs) or Durham(3 yes) for BSC PSYCHOLOGY
(already on a gap year)

Personally, I chose Durham over St Andrews (for chemistry) because I preferred the course at Durham & I was won over by the collegiate system on the open day, as well as by visiting a friend at Cambridge. They're both lovely, small cities with well-regarded unis so it really comes down to the course, in my opinion. Do you appreciate the breadth of a Scottish degree, or not? Do either have any placement/year abroad opportunities?

Reply 6192

game well and truly over

2

Are Level 1 tutorials at your college, or in the Department? (I'm Physics at Chads)

Reply 6193

clonedmemories

16

Original post by game well and truly over

Are Level 1 tutorials at your college, or in the Department? (I'm Physics at Chads)

They tend to be all over the place (or so most people in most subjects I know have found!) Depending on the tutorial content, I imagine it's more likely to be done in the department if any specialist equipment is needed, and potentially elsewhere in the university if not. Equally, different groups will have the same tutorial in different places, so people can end up having completely different settings just depending on the timing and leader of their group. It's possible that some might be held in rooms owned by colleges, but they're not based on what college you're in.

Reply 6194

pianofluteftw

14

Original post by game well and truly over

Are Level 1 tutorials at your college, or in the Department? (I'm Physics at Chads)

Nope, as a Physics student all teaching is done on the main science site. No teaching is done in college (ie. you're always with people from other colleges) - sometimes some departments use rooms in college just for space, but this doesn't happen in Physics. Everything you do will be on the science site, usually in either the Physics dept. Maths dept. or chemistry dept. depending on the timetable (ie. they allocate rooms for sciences based on the number of people, so you wont always be in the physics dept. - except for labs which are always in the actual department)

Reply 6195

game well and truly over

Thanks both.

Original post by knope

Personally, I chose Durham over St Andrews (for chemistry) because I preferred the course at Durham & I was won over by the collegiate system on the open day, as well as by visiting a friend at Cambridge. They're both lovely, small cities with well-regarded unis so it really comes down to the course, in my opinion. Do you appreciate the breadth of a Scottish degree, or not? Do either have any placement/year abroad opportunities?

Same I prefer Durham and will firm it tommorow. Thank you so much. 😊

Reply 6197

tsandhu2

1

Guys does anyone know what "varsity clubs" are? And How do they work?
Sorry km so confused i don't even know what it means.
all I know is that I want to join the athletics, football , cricket and drama club when I go to Durham.

Reply 6198

Silverland

3

Original post by knope

Personally, I chose Durham over St Andrews (for chemistry)

All the best with Core chemistry 1B compadré! It's such a relief when you finally finish that module :smile:

Reply 6199

RumpeIstiltskin

10

Original post by tsandhu2

Guys does anyone know what "varsity clubs" are? And How do they work?
Sorry km so confused i don't even know what it means.
all I know is that I want to join the athletics, football , cricket and drama club when I go to Durham.

I've not really heard to them referred to as varsity clubs but I assume it refers to clubs which are university wide where people from all colleges can join as opposed to a college society made up of members of a particular college.

With sports like football and cricket you can take part either at a university level or a college level; college level tends to be a be a little less serious and more relaxed with regards to training ect than at a university wide level. Although, I know with athletics there are opportunities for all levels of ability since there aren't typically college athletics clubs. With drama there's also plenty of opportunities to take part within your college or at a university wide level depending on how much you want to commit to it.

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