Hi all,
I’m writing as I am very stuck between my decision to firm durham or exeter. I’ve been putting it off for a while and I now only have just over a week to decide before the deadline.
I’ve wanted to go to durham since I was very young - my mum, auntie and one of my uncle’s went there and they have all spoken about it very highly so I decided it was were I wanted to go from a pretty young age. I didn’t expect to actually get an offer though…
I went to the exeter and durham offer-holder days and I loved exeter. I was very impressed with the sports and it was honestly just somewhere I could really imagine myself. I went to the durham offer day a couple of days after and was actually very underwhelmed. But it was end of term time so most of the students had gone home, but it meant that I couldn’t get a proper feel of what it would be like to go to uni there. I got my provisional college allocation a few weeks back - they allocated me to collingwood, which although I’ve heard good things about, was not my first choice (Hatfield) so was quite disappointed as everyone I have spoken to got their first choice.
My offers are very similar: Durham - AAB, Exeter -AAB but ABB if I firm and get an A on my EPQ. The courses (anthropology) seem very good at both uni’s. I know durham probably has a slightly better reputation (at least academically), but I don’t want to make my decision based on just this.
At one point I was again leaning towards durham as there weren’t as many people I know going. However, upon being on collingwood group chats, I already knew about 20 people on there, and I was kind of hoping to be somewhere fresh. But it is also very similar for exeter - I know a lot of people going.
A bit more background info: I have not applied deferred but recently I have decided I’d love to do a gap year. I’m not sure how keen durham and exeter are if you were to call them up and ask if this is possible, so if anyone has any information on this it would be much appreciated. I do have a friend who emailed durham asking if she could take one but they never responded to her. And yes, I would rather defer than reapply next year as this year I have had the advantage of a very good set of predicted grades.
If anyone has struggled with the same or a similar dilemma and could give some advice that would be much appreciated! Or even if you are/were at either of the uni’s and have any opinions (particularly applies to durham as I feel a bit in the dark about uni life there at the moment).
Thank you!