van mildert college durham

Reply 40

Henry12321

maya1

I have an offer for Nat Sci yay!

Gratz

Are you coming to an open day? If so, I'll probably see you there :p:

Reply 41

Stratocaster

2

arkbar

Human geog at Durham is pretty much the opposite of town planning, very philosophical, very theoretical.
Well, you can mix a fair bit, for example the 3rd year module on Hazards was about 50/50 human and physical and healthcare had some physical geographers in, aside from that, you're tied into producing a more 'human' or 'physical' dissertation at the end of your third year.
You can also take 1 module a year from outside the dept., physical-ers I know have tended to take geology/earth science, whereas humanz have taken more of the anthropology/sociology side.
Any other questions, let me know!

Thanks a lot for the help.

It's good to know the human side is like that. I love both human and physical really, although more seperate physical topics appeal to me. I really dislike town planning and aspects of social geography, but anthropology and cultural and historical geography really appeal.

Have you read Guns, germs and steel by Jared Diamond?

Reply 42

arkbar

12

Stratocaster

Thanks a lot for the help.

It's good to know the human side is like that. I love both human and physical really, although more seperate physical topics appeal to me. I really dislike town planning and aspects of social geography, but anthropology and cultural and historical geography really appeal.

Have you read Guns, germs and steel by Jared Diamond?

Town planning does 100% not come up in Durham geography. I'm more of an urban/transport/cultural geog type really.
Yeah, I have, he draws some questionable conclusions in bits, but it's quite interesting.I think it's on the additional reading list for a lecture in 1st year Environment and Society as a less academic book. On a similar topic is 'Collapse' by the same author, which is really good. Environmental degradation as a whole is quite an interesting topic, and probably as far into physical geography as I get.
Ps: Cultural geography at university is very, very little like what you think it is I suspect.

Reply 43

maya1

Henry12321

Gratz

Are you coming to an open day? If so, I'll probably see you there :p:

yup on the 24th march, when are you going?

Reply 44

Henry12321

maya1

yup on the 24th march, when are you going?

Cool, same :smile:

I'm staying at the college on the 23rd, living about 6 hours away doesn't help when you need to get to an open day :p:

Reply 45

Stratocaster

2

arkbar

Town planning does 100% not come up in Durham geography. I'm more of an urban/transport/cultural geog type really.
Yeah, I have, he draws some questionable conclusions in bits, but it's quite interesting.I think it's on the additional reading list for a lecture in 1st year Environment and Society as a less academic book. On a similar topic is 'Collapse' by the same author, which is really good. Environmental degradation as a whole is quite an interesting topic, and probably as far into physical geography as I get.
Ps: Cultural geography at university is very, very little like what you think it is I suspect.

Yeah, I've been meaning to get a copy of Collapse for a while now.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was totally different. It seems there's a lot of disparity between A Level geography and degree geography, but I wasn't expecting anything but really!

Reply 46

Kangablue

I have an offer for Biology ( :biggrin:

) but won't be able to make any of the open days as I'm off travelling for my gap year! I went over and stayed at the college a couple of weeks ago though and really liked it so definitely putting it as my top choice!
Maybe see you all in september!!

Reply 47

Coca-Colita

deleted

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 48

lharrod

i've got my van mildert offer for English & Classics, open day tmorrow!! :smile:

x

Reply 49

hardy_4_paws

2

Does anyone know anything about VM's Choir, drama soc or hockey team??? Also what are the formals like?

Reply 50

gleekchic

Original post by InnocentEyes

I'm a fresher at Mildert, it's great :smile:

but yeah, I applied to Butler and got moved here so was a late convert. what exactly did you want to know?
ps we have a swamp, which is my personal highlight...

Hi, ahhh dying to speak to someone about the reall shizz that goes down at Mildert. (didnt want to be awkward at the open day!)

1. What is it like sharing toilets/showers? (I need my own space.)
2. Is Mildert a multi-cultrural place?- (I like the mix)
3. How far is it from Mildert to the Durham city centre (where all the shops are) - is there a bus that takes you or something? (I need transport tips preferably)

Thank youuuuuuuu
inbox me or reply with quote :smile:

Reply 51

Henry12321

Original post by gleekchic

Hi, ahhh dying to speak to someone about the reall shizz that goes down at Mildert. (didnt want to be awkward at the open day!)

1. What is it like sharing toilets/showers? (I need my own space.)
2. Is Mildert a multi-cultrural place?- (I like the mix)
3. How far is it from Mildert to the Durham city centre (where all the shops are) - is there a bus that takes you or something? (I need transport tips preferably)

Thank youuuuuuuu
inbox me or reply with quote :smile:

1. I didn't find it a problem at all, I never had to queue for a shower in the mornings. (I do sciences so I was up for 9ams every day and the showers were always free, not sure what you're doing but it shouldn't make a difference). No one had problems with availability or cleanliness, they're cleaned regularly :smile:

2. Honestly, not really, among the student it's very much white middle-class sort of territory, although obviously there are students from other ethnic backgrounds. That might be something you'd have to judge for yourself on the open day?

3. It's about a 10-15 minute walk, into town is downhill, but coming back with an armful of Tesco bags isn't always fun :tongue:

. You can get the park and ride from Butler (which is about 2 minutes away maximum) but that's like £1.70 a ticket so it's up to you whether it's worth it or not. I got the bus sometimes last year but most of the time I walked.

Don't worry about the open day, everyone's in the same boat so you won't be awkward! Or if you are a bit, you won't be the only one haha. Just relax and have fun, my open day experience was awesome. And feel free to ask any more questions about Mildert/Durham if you've got any :smile:

Reply 52

hardy_4_paws

2

Original post by Henry12321

1. I didn't find it a problem at all, I never had to queue for a shower in the mornings. (I do sciences so I was up for 9ams every day and the showers were always free, not sure what you're doing but it shouldn't make a difference). No one had problems with availability or cleanliness, they're cleaned regularly :smile:

2. Honestly, not really, among the student it's very much white middle-class sort of territory, although obviously there are students from other ethnic backgrounds. That might be something you'd have to judge for yourself on the open day?

3. It's about a 10-15 minute walk, into town is downhill, but coming back with an armful of Tesco bags isn't always fun :tongue:

. You can get the park and ride from Butler (which is about 2 minutes away maximum) but that's like £1.70 a ticket so it's up to you whether it's worth it or not. I got the bus sometimes last year but most of the time I walked.

Don't worry about the open day, everyone's in the same boat so you won't be awkward! Or if you are a bit, you won't be the only one haha. Just relax and have fun, my open day experience was awesome. And feel free to ask any more questions about Mildert/Durham if you've got any :smile:

Whats VM like socially? Both with regards to going out and not going out? I don't mind going out a bit (once/twice a week) but I'm really not big into heavy drinking/really late nights all the time. How did you find freshers when you arrived? Were there many events to help you meet other VM people? Would you say you know most people in college now? Thanks :smile:

x

Reply 53

gleekchic

Original post by hardy_4_paws

Whats VM like socially? Both with regards to going out and not going out? I don't mind going out a bit (once/twice a week) but I'm really not big into heavy drinking/really late nights all the time. How did you find freshers when you arrived? Were there many events to help you meet other VM people? Would you say you know most people in college now? Thanks :smile:

x

Hi, i dont drink AT ALL and i dont want to sound big headed but im pretty fun :smile:

we didnt go anywhere they had entertainment in the college- a silent disco, a stand up comedy and the bar was open where i sipped on coke but still chatted and had fun.
Silent disco was really funny and i met a nice group of people.
Dont know whether durham is for me because i want to go into clinical psychology and you need a hell of a lot of work experience and not sure if durham has that many links with clinics and hospitals ( i need to email admissions people.)
I am so torn between durham and manchester!

drawing back to what you asked, socially it wasnt 'night on the tiles in durham' but it was really cute and community-like, everyone not caring and all just dancing
I danced with so many of the mildert student reps- they were really nice.

toilet situation, yeah it was one toilet room, and i think 2 shower rooms between 1/11 people. It was ok but i was paranoid ahhaaa!
any more questions about the open day, hit me up :smile:

Reply 54

gleekchic

Original post by hardy_4_paws

Whats VM like socially? Both with regards to going out and not going out? I don't mind going out a bit (once/twice a week) but I'm really not big into heavy drinking/really late nights all the time. How did you find freshers when you arrived? Were there many events to help you meet other VM people? Would you say you know most people in college now? Thanks :smile:

x

just realised that i answered the post you posted to someone else- im answering on behalf of the girl who went to van mildert last week as an undergrad :smile:

Reply 55

Heranje

4

Original post by gleekchic

Hi, ahhh dying to speak to someone about the reall shizz that goes down at Mildert. (didnt want to be awkward at the open day!)

1. What is it like sharing toilets/showers? (I need my own space.)
2. Is Mildert a multi-cultrural place?- (I like the mix)
3. How far is it from Mildert to the Durham city centre (where all the shops are) - is there a bus that takes you or something? (I need transport tips preferably)

Thank youuuuuuuu
inbox me or reply with quote :smile:

Hiya! I'm a Mildert fresher so I'll butt in with some answers too. :smile:

1. Not a problem. Well, the only thing is that the toilets on my corridor sometimes get clogged... But there's always one working, and I've never queued for the loo or shower in the two terms I've been here - you'll find that people have really different schedules.

2. If you want multicultural, hang out with the international students - we're fantastic. :P Haha, but really, Mildert's pretty homogenous (white, southern, predominantly middle class) overall, but there will be some diversity, especially among the int.s. My international friendship group has people from pretty much every continent and a whole bunch of ethnicities and religions. If you were at the open day, did you see the open mic? The last act, the Indian girl and guy playing guitar and singing, are my friends. :smile:

The girl is Indian but lives in Malaysia and went to school in Singapore, the guy was born in Germany, has a British citizenship and lives in Delhi. :P Those kinds of people are pretty common among the internationals and probably will be next year too, so there definitely is diversity if you look for it. :smile:

3. Generally takes me about 15-20 minutes to get into town. Like the previous poster said there is a bus, but no one really takes it - living in Durham, you get really used to walking, and it just becomes not a problem. As for coming back when you have lots of stuff or are tired after a night out, a taxi from town is only 4-5 pounds so if you're with 4 friends it's pretty reasonable. Or there's the bus, but I find that to be a bit of a hassle.

As for the last question, it's pretty mixed. There's the hardcore people who go out every night, there's the people who'll go out once or twice (often for Saturday free Klute, which is a beautiful thing), there's people who'll go even less or not at all. I found freshers week fantastic in terms of getting to know people. The events were all fun and social. :smile:

You will find, however, that unless you make an effort to get to know other people it's easy to just end up socializing with your corridor mates and no one else - a lot of people end up that way. Which is fine, but that does only give you a selection of 15 possible friends out of 300.. It's not impossible to get friends outside though, it just takes being conscious about it and making that effort in the start - while making sure you don't ignore your corridor either, because you are living with them and it's nice to be able to wander into someone's room for a chat when you're bored, sit in the hall and talk, etc etc. The best thing I think is to get to know your corridor well but be open to people outside too - that way you won't go mental from being limited to a small group. You don't end up knowing everyone in college cause there's quite a lot of them (it is one of the bigger colleges), but if you're social you can be acquainted with a good chunk. :smile:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 56

gleekchic

ahhh thanks for that,
yeah i was there at the open mic night! i remember them :smile:

that really helped. Im going to but Durham as my first choice so fingers crossed!

just one more thing that i didnt ask at the open day, are you able to choose your own rooms or is that allocated for you?

thaaaaaaanks

Reply 57

Heranje

4

The rooms are allocated. :smile:

If you choose extended let, you get put in either Deerness or Middleton (usually Middleton, there's only one first year corridor in Deerness), if you choose short let you get put in Wear, Tees (North or South), Derwent or Middleton. The blocks are all pretty much the same except that the rooms in Deerness are vastly superior (they're massive and have ensuite bathrooms and mini fridges) and Tees and Deerness have a proper kitchen with a stove and hob and things while the other blocks have microwaves and toasters. If you want to switch rooms you have to find someone to swap with you - I know of a couple of people who have moved.

Reply 58

shruperstar

I put down Van Mildert as my first preference and Collingwood as my second. I got in for a masters program in Psychology! Anybody know about the kind of crowd at both places?