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Bath or Durham for Biology? Ahhh!

If the choice was down to you would you go to Bath or Durham to study biology? (explain your choice aswell please)
I'm also stuck with my insurance choice, i've got edinburgh and st andrews as possibilities
I live in southampton but location isnt really an issue.

Durham (st cuths)- ABB
Bath- ABB
York- ABB
Cardiff- ABB
Edinburgh- BBB
St Andrews- ABC

:confused:

Reply 1

Jenski

9

Bath- great reputation.

Go and visit, it's the only way! I was sure I'd love Durham but I recently visited and didn't like it.

I guess that doesn't help if you've visited all of them and still can't decide!

Reply 2

think_pink

OP

yeah i have vistited both :smile:

I prefer the university of Durham ( as in the whole place not just biology) but i think i prefer the course at bath because of the placement year and that dosent seem as big an oppurtunity in Durham.

Reply 3

vickyrkenya

2

Im pretty sure you can do placement years at Durham for straight Biology??? Could be wrong though.

Reply 4

Jenski

9

There is a lot of emphasis put on the placement year at Bath, well, that's the impression I got from the open day anyway :smile:

Reply 5

cottontail

Isn't Bath one of the universities where almost everyone does a year out?

Durham is very hilly so you can expect to have well-toned legs if you go. I would pick Durham myself because the city is lovely, the colleges are nice and the university and department have a good reputation.

Reply 6

Nefarious

16

cottontail

Isn't Bath one of the universities where almost everyone does a year out?

Durham is very hilly so you can expect to have well-toned legs if you go. I would pick Durham myself because the city is lovely, the colleges are nice and the university and department have a good reputation.

This all applies to Bath also only more so. I'm not in a possition to comment objectively but I would have no hesitation in choosing Bath. (I'm there doing biochemistry.)

Reply 7

Jenski

9

cottontail

Durham is very hilly so you can expect to have well-toned legs if you go.

Have you seen the hill up to the uni in Bath :eek:

Reply 8

cottontail

I had heard there was a substantial hill in Bath.

I would argue that Durham has a better reputation than Bath, both for teaching and research.

Reply 9

HannahJ

Durham of course! It has a better reputation, it was university of the year overall and if you prefered it overall I think thats the most important thing. Courses are pretty much of a muchness wherever you go when it comes down to it. There's opportunities for placement years at Durham as well for biology and just generally the place is fantastic.

As for insurance choice I'd say Edinburgh over St. Andrews simply for the fact that from where I live (Oxford type area) it takes about 10 hours to drive to Edinburgh and an extra hour on top of that to get to St. Andrews and there is no rail link to St. Andrews so it really is in the middle of no where and the only way to get there is by car. But you could always fly to Edinburgh

Reply 10

tetedupet

11

I don't know much about Bath, but Durham was simply dreadful, I was most unimpressed with their open day... other places I had been to did much better. Take your Edinburgh offer! Amazing city, historic and world renound university, cheaper fees, excellent biology department. Do not be put off by their lower offer.

Reply 11

cottontail

Edinburgh does have an excellent Biology department- very very good research- better than Durham.

I notice St Andrews is on your list, thinkpink, St Andrews is tiny and you can never get away from the students- not so good if you want to get away from the campus as the town is pretty much the campus.

Reply 12

Nefarious

16

cottontail

I had heard there was a substantial hill in Bath.

I would argue that Durham has a better reputation than Bath, both for teaching and research.

Since bath has 23 out of 24 for teaching and 5 for research (the same as Oxford and Cambridge.) in the RAE scores this is unlikely.

http://www.bath.ac.uk/science/

Reply 13

think_pink

OP

Durham was scored 24/24 for teaching and 5 for research so it looks like it is better.
Thanks for everyone's opinions. Although i loved Edinburgh and the course looked good, I fell in love with St Andrews and I'm more enclined to go with that. I like small places andi can always go down to edinburgh for the day if i get totally sick of it.
I think I've discounted bath now. So really i'm still unsure about the top choice, eek.

Reply 14

Scienceboi

7

if it was physics or chemistry then there would be NO comparison(durham is excellent in both, second ONLY to oxbridge), whereas if it were for engineering i'd say definately go for bath. but durham isn't as well known for its biological sciences and neither is bath, so just visit both places and go where you prefere.

Bath or Durham for Biology? Ahhh!

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