Buggered.. somewhat?

Yea but the problem is I've always been on the fringes of any form of social activity since I was you g and I have been trying to change myself somewhat over summer(working out for confidence et al) so university is vital in how the nature of my life may well be determined over the next 4 years. Essex carries a reputation for non-stop partying and a good, boisterous nightlife so I may just be far out of my depth and uncomfortable.

The fact that they haven't yet rejected you is a good sign. They will be expecting you to call and it's your opportunity to sell yourself. Write yourself a charming sales pitch and call them.

Chance are I'll be spaghetti-ing all over the place so to speak

faggots don't fit in at essex - bunch of homophobes there

That's unfortunate, since you're an international it will add $15,000 to your costs.

In your case I would then suggest: Work really hard at university, aim for a 2.i or 1st class degree and then go for a Masters at Durham later on (maybe after getting a job for a few years?).

I will also add that: Durham is not the end of the world, so don't be disheartened. In truth there is little difference between any top 200 university and the job prospects are swayed more by your output and efforts rather than the branding on your degree. Just make sure you get into higher education and hopefully you'll land a good job after. Your focus should be to get your degree. It might have been that you got into Durham and then didn't like it, and I truly believe everything happens for the best.

Chance are I'll be spaghetti-ing all over the place so to speak

yeah, I have to say, you sound like a bit of a ****; folks like you won't fit in here down in essex. plus with a C in history, you might want to consider an apprenticeship somewhere instead? This is by no means the best university, but wow, you're going to struggle...

Although the quality of an academic department is not the only reason for choosing a university, you do realise that the department of government at Essex is head and shoulders above that at Durham and is in the international big league.

Although the quality of an academic department is not the only reason for choosing a university, you do realise that the department of government at Essex is head and shoulders above that at Durham and is in the international big league.

Which is probably why I picked it as a backup option. It's just assimilating in general that I'm most worried about

I didn't know that... But if you're going by UK Ranking Tables they are pretty bogus - They put a strong emphasis on student satisfaction while It's well known that students are blackmailed into writing good reviews for their university to make their degrees more respectable (doesn't work anyway).

I prefer the international rankings a little better, because they use academic reputations, employer reputations and university funding in their indices.

Have a look (click here)

Durham is regarded in the top 100 internationally (overall) and it is the overall reputation that sways employers opinions more, or even the opinion of the person filtering CVs for job applications.

I accept the point about university reputation, but ask anyone knowledgeable about politics departments and Essex really is in a different league.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/table/2008/dec/18/rae-2008-politics-international-studies

The only real surprise on that list is the strong showing of Sheffield. Oxford may improve next time because (a) there is the new Blavatnik School and (b) they have taken back Ivor Crewe from Essex.

The problem with the link you posted is that you can clearly see from the table the volume of submissions for Essex were extremely low compared to that of Oxford, so as a percentage they managed to maintain a higher proportion of World-class research but nominally the figure was much lower than Oxford.

The other thing is that, common sense tells you any employer given two identical CVs and with Person A having an Oxford degree, Person B having one from Essex, the employer would be stupid not to snap up the Oxford graduate (assuming all other factors were equal). It might not be right, but we all know that is the way it goes, and I believe there is some good reasoning behind it - with Oxford supposedly having staff of a much higher caliber to lecture you as well as giving you an incredible work load compared to other universities.

The points you make about employability of Oxford graduates and the relative size of the departments are again valid (though actually the Oxford figures are flattered because there were other less strong academics who were deliberately not submitted), but having said all of that any academic in the field would still say Essex was the stronger department.