The Student Room Group

Hatfield College

I have applied to Durham and Hatfield -hence now alea iacta est- but I was wondering, since we are all in a potential nervous breakdown :eek: (nuh) waiting for the decisions, what is Hatfield like? I have to admit that as I was going through the threads here I didn't see many people applying there, is it not so popular? I thought, before I applied, that it was of the most popular ones due to its central location etc. Anyway, any opinions on the matter will be greatly appreciated :smile:

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Reply 1
's alright. It gets the piss taken out of it a bit every year because of its 'rah' image, which is certainly more prevalent than in other colleges but is hardly overbearing.I wouldn't really want to go there but many would.
rah?
rah = a bit public school, posh etc etc
Reply 4
It's not really just that, it encompasses a whole series of things. Whilst most rahs are people from private school who are posh, not all people from private school who are posh are rahs.
Reply 5
Princess_Peach
rah?


HOW can you be at durham and not know what a rah is??
It's absolutely fine, you've made a good choice (in my opinion) and you'll have a great time there (assuming you get an offer and chose to accept it). People will point out things about Hatfield that their college is better at, and you'll suddenly start thinking "Oh no! This place is awful!", but what they won't point out is that Hatfield is better at other things that their college is rubbish at. They've all got ups and downs, and it's up to you which set of ups and downs you choose. One of the downpoints (which has to be mentioned really) of Hatfield is that everybody seems to dislike it (mainly because you're "supposed" to do so), so you might get a few negative comments on here.
Oh, and by the way, I'm a Castleman, so I'm supposed to hate your college the most of them all, and I wrote this, so there we go. It's not really hate, it's teasing.
Reply 7
Thank you all for the answers and Mattmoy thank you for trying to be objective here :wink: I figured there would be some sort of rivalry between all colleges which is absolutely fine and makes perfect sense. To tell you the truth, i chose Hatfield after the suggestion of a graduate law student from ustinov since i was going to go for castle but she told me that there is too much noise etc going on there plus the rooms are not what you expect from what she had seen, hence Harfield. I do hope it is a bit quite there, cause i wanted to be somewhat in the centre but not in the middle of all the crazyness, if you know what I mean :smile: Anyway, we shall wait and see if i get an offer and then decide
There are 40 single rooms in the castle itself, and only about 5 of them are particularly good. There are single rooms in college but not in the castle which are of better quality, but you're right, the rooms aren't amazing. I've never really found noise to be a problem though.
I've applied to Hatfield! But be warned, lol, I don't think it's one of the quieter colleges- far from it from what I've heard. But of course if you want to be quiet that's fine; no one will force you to be overly noisy! Glad you're applying to Hatfield too; fingers crossed!
You've made a fabulous choice Nadia.:biggrin:

Why I like Hatfield:

It's got a fantastic college spirit, it's full so many different people from different backgrounds yes you've got rugby players and rahs but you've also got ex University Challenge contestants and many people contributing to durham21, Palatinate, Purple Radio etc. It really does feel like a community even though there are so many different types of peope. Also you feel part of this community from the word 'go' because it's such a friendly college.

It's in a beautiful situation, right in the middle of the city and even if you live in Palmers Garth you can literally roll out of bed and be at the DSU in three minutes.

The rooms are quite good and the cleaners are very friendly(I'm sure this is the same at other colleges too but I really struck up a friendship with my cleaner in my first year).

I'm of course, biased, but I thought I'd pipe up and say what's good about my college.

Good luck with your exams this year too.:smile:

Matt, is correct that we have a very old rivalry with Castle but like him I don't tend to follow this, and just end up laughing at it. They go about us living in the servants quarters of the Castle(which is historically true) but we were set up to allow those who could not afford to live in the Castle and therefore to study in Durham so I feel this is something to be particularly proud of, and a bit ironic given our supposed 'rah central' image.:smile:
I like Hatfield. Tis nice here.

Sorry, my brain has stopped working. I can't think of anything more intelligent to say than that right now.
Reply 12
I feel really sorry for people at Hatfield, they have to deal with sooo much ****! This year seems to be especially bad, we keep getting emails about targeting them!
Reply 13
I keep asking ppl at my college: "Then what's exactly wrong with Hatfield?" and so far, no one has been able to answer, though they've been able to create such amazing song about Hatfield (guess which college Im from ^^)
Reply 14
As a Castleman, I'm supposed to hate Hatfield, and indeed it's fun to get involved in intercollegiate rivalry, but at the end of the day most people realise it's just a bit of fun and I know some great people from Hatfield. And it pains me to say this, but:

If I had to choose another college to go to, it would be Hatfield.

So there you go.
Reply 15
Firstly dont believe the hype that Hatfielders are all horrible people; all the ones ive met are just lovely.

Secondly there are more rahs at Hatfield than other bailey colleges just as there are more rahs in the Bailey than on the Hill. And rahs are not a bad thing.

Thirdly Hatfield bar is just horrible and i didnt find the accomodation blocks that intersting, just like an old boarding school to me.
Reply 16
tom_smith
rahs are not a bad thing.


lies
Reply 17
Not all rahs are a bad thing. However, a large concentration of rahs is a bad thing as they all feed off eachother, like rich rugby playing cannibals.
Reply 18
and why are rahs bad? i personally just think rugger buggers are bad not rahs per se.
Reply 19
i agree not ALL rahs are bad, as in not every single one of them is bound to be evil, but generally, as a species, they are a Bad Thing.

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