Official Durham Applicants Thread 2011

Ye I'm hoping there are more benefits to it. I have heard physics is an extreme course so not doing pure physics may be better?

Well I've heard there is still loads of maths in physics.

What they - still - have on the website of the 2+2+2 combination in year 1 or maybe even 2+2+1+1 for me, sounds really good.

What do you mean by an "extreme course"?




Most of the maths in the physics course is very functional - if you're more interested in the theoretical side, proofs, etc, you'd probably do better not doing straight Physics. Although the third year Physics maths module sounds really unpleasant - I'm avoiding it (I'm practical, not theoretical)

Castle, you're at Mary's, I've read, where a friend of mine also got a place.

Ah cool, congratulations of getting into castle. Is this friend a boy or a girl by any chance?

A boy ... but just today I heard back form him - he's in Australia at the moment - that he didn't take the offer but rather wants to go to Switzerland now, where I don't think he has even applied. I don't know .... I had even gone to St. Mary's when I was in Durham just so I could tell him what it's like and I didn't reach him till today, he was probably without internet and didn't even think of it or didn't care to. Whatever, it would've been nice

What do you mean by an "extreme course"?




Most of the maths in the physics course is very functional - if you're more interested in the theoretical side, proofs, etc, you'd probably do better not doing straight Physics. Although the third year Physics maths module sounds really unpleasant - I'm avoiding it (I'm practical, not theoretical)

Wow, phew, at least I'm not the only boy then! On TSR I have only met girls who are going there so far. You have been to St Marys? What is your opinion of it? I haven't actually visited the college. And ye he should've spoken to a friendly guy like you about it!

I think I could eventually work through the latter 3 reasons then work hard at the first reason, it does sound difficult to understand some of the concepts, espeically in quantum physocs.
...
Do you feel the academic jump between school and university was difficult, or was the jump between two of the university years an even bigger jump for you?

I was wondering if you would have any idea if Durham would be open in adjustment for Physics this year?

No, don't worry. Why should Mary's be more attractive to girls?

It only became a mixed college in 2005 - before than it was only girls.

I was wondering if you would have any idea if Durham would be open in adjustment for Physics this year?

I emailed the department and got no reply... I was just wondering as I was rejected back in March because of my shoddy AS grades but when I got my January modules back I'd manage to improve all of my results substantially.

Thanks

Thankfully you don't really need to be able to grasp the concepts to get through the work, although it definitely helps making my brain not explode.

It's hard to say which was the bigger jump. Most of first year maths was entirely A-level stuff, whereas now we've gone really beyond it. The increase in knowledge happens in a weird way, and all the modules mix together interestingly - coming to revise for my maths exam, I realised I'd forgotten that we did eigenvectors there, because I was so used to doing them in a quantum mechanical framework.

It's really interesting how some things only make sense after you've encountered them in a different module, and some just take a long time to sink in. I think this year's been harder mainly due to bad lecturers - especially in maths, it's made it very difficult to understand what we need to know. And this year's electromagnetism is a completely different approach to first year; much more theoretical with derived equations and quantities, whereas last year was all about integrating things.

Well he was reallocated. Also applied to Castle, you see. Although his actual goal was LSE. But since he won't be coming you might be the only boy after all
No, don't worry. Why should Mary's be more attractive to girls?
Anyway, the college .... I was not too enthused about the looks and "feel". The parking area is just in front of the upper building (where all the social stuff is and the administration) looking towards the lower building (more accomodation), not quite so nice. Buildings also didn't look special in any way. I guess it's quite practical though and compact, you have nice outsides in behind, the dining room looked good from the outside and you have an excellent location. Well, those were my first observations.

Ah thanks thats really helpful, I do further maths and looking at the exam papers for core maths A, it looks like I can do around half of that already which is reassuring. Did you do further maths?

Mary's is more attractive to girls as it used to be an all girls college, like Awoodrow2 said

I only did AS Further Maths (FP1, S1, S2) - that covered the vast majority of Stats we do (to Second Year as well), and it was really useful knowing in advance about matrices and complex numbers. The more maths you've done already, the better.



Although on second thoughts, wouldn't you get a lot of guys applying for that exact reason?

And I think there are enough girls in Durham to pick any college, and I have also heard St Marys has the stereotype of being full of lesbians, which I am sure isn't true, but might drive away the boys who ahve heard that.

Even better for you

How will I know (and when) if I've been allotted an ensuite room at Mildert? Any idea? I'm doing my masters in Psychology and got accepted into Mildert!