Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

Durham University

Durham

Visit website

The "Ask a Durham Student" Thread :)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 3860

Welsh Lady

Original post by Antifazian

It's just so friendly, and we have most of our formals in fancy dress which is brilliant fun, and we have a big bar (most colleges have pathetically small ones!)...Collingwood is just great :smile:

Do you know if Collingwood has a good choir and an orchestra?
Thanks!

Durham University

Durham

Visit website

Reply 3861

Antifazian

Original post by Welsh Lady

Do you know if Collingwood has a good choir and an orchestra?
Thanks!

https://www.dur.ac.uk/collingwood/undergraduate/involved/arts/

According to this it has a choir, but no mention of an orchestra except for the drama performances. I don't think any of the colleges have their own orchestras, as there is a popular university-wide one. Can't comment on how good any of them are though, sorry.

Reply 3862

RubyJ

Original post by Antifazian

It's just so friendly, and we have most of our formals in fancy dress which is brilliant fun, and we have a big bar (most colleges have pathetically small ones!)...Collingwood is just great :smile:

Perfect!

Reply 3863

RubyJ

Original post by Welsh Lady

Do you know if Collingwood has a good choir and an orchestra?
Thanks!

Yeah, I was worried that it doesn't seem very musical/ arty, but the university-wide stuff is obviously good, so I'm not worried now. :smile:

We'll just have to join them instead!

Reply 3864

Antifazian

Original post by RubyJ

Yeah, I was worried that it doesn't seem very musical/ arty, but the university-wide stuff is obviously good, so I'm not worried now. :smile:

We'll just have to join them instead!

It's quite arty in terms of drama performances, musicals and plays, (http://www.dur.ac.uk/collingwood.woodplayers/) and we have open mic nights in the bar which are quite popular. There are music practise rooms here too, so you can go play instruments there without disturbing anyone, and there's a public piano in one of the common rooms.

But yeah, the university clubs seem to be the main focus for music stuff, rather than the individual colleges. :smile:

Reply 3865

cheska16

I've been reallocated to Van Mildert. I wanted to go to Hilde and Bede because of its amazing grounds and the beauty of trhe buildings. Also heard of the shower issues..please sure someone let me know what van mildert is really like, maybe someone will reassure me that its not actually that bad!

Reply 3866

Renacata

Original post by cheska16

Hild Bede grounds aren't that amazing, they're just ridiculously big. Mildert's got a lake and that's all you need to know! :biggrin:

yeah, Mildert's awesome.

What shower issues have you heard about? The shower ratio is about one shower to four or five people, and I've never had to queue; okay, so sometimes you don't get hot water, but it's rare (something like four days of cold showers in my block last year) and could happen anywhere. And things like filth in the showers are down to who you're living with, not the college.

Reply 3867

Emperiator

Hey TSR
I've got an offer for MSC Finance and Investment and I'm wondering if anyone here could tell me a little bit about the programme and probably about stuff that you do not like about it because I've got other offers and I would like to do the best choice.

Thanks everyone!

Reply 3868

RubyJ

Original post by Antifazian

Yeah, I had a look at the website. Drama looks quite good!

Thank you :smile:

Reply 3869

luceyinthesky8

As a history student, would it be possible to take an archaeology course as an elective?

Reply 3870

Quagers

yes if you meet the pre reqs

Reply 3871

harrisonJT

Offer holder for Politics - wondering if any current student could let me know their lecture/seminar timetable? :smile:

Reply 3872

undergradstudent

Original post by harrisonJT

Offer holder for Politics - wondering if any current student could let me know their lecture/seminar timetable? :smile:

You can see how many lectures and seminars each module has here - http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/faculty.handbook/degrees/frameworks/l200.pdf (click on the module codes and scroll down the page to see the number of lectures and seminars per year).

There are usually (but not always) a choice of seminar times, eg for one module there could be a choice of Monday 2pm, Monday 4pm, Wednesday 9am and Thursday 11am. So you'd choose one of the groups and then have one seminar in that time slot every other week, or however often you are. So there's a little bit of flexibility there in timetabling, but each lecture's only on once so you won't have a choice of times with them.

I have a couple of friends who do politics, and I think they tend to have 1 lecture a week per module, and 1 seminar every other week per module. So about 6 lectures a week and 2 or 3 seminars a week overall (you do 6 modules per year).

You can also see the current timetable here (http://www.maths.dur.ac.uk/~dma0ssb/tt/module_checker.html), if you use the module list (linked above) to find your module names (the department is "SGIA" in the first box), you can put them into the clash checker to see what this year's timetable would look like for you.

The "X"s are lectures which you have to attend, and anything marked "S" or "T" is a seminar/tutorial, so you pick one of them and only need to attend in that timeslot (as I said above). So it will look like you have loads of hours per week, but in fact you only attend Xs and one S/T per module.

The timetable changes every year though.

Hope that helps!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3873

undergradstudent

Original post by luceyinthesky8

As a history student, would it be possible to take an archaeology course as an elective?

Yep, you can take 2 elective modules in your first year (you do 6 modules overall), and another 2 in your second year (as long as you have the right prerequisites, eg some 2nd year Archaeology modules are only available to students who have taken specific archaeology 1st year modules).

You can see the requirements for a history degree here:http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/faculty.handbook/degrees/frameworks/v100.pdf

You can see the archaeology modules here:
http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/faculty.handbook/degrees/frameworks/f400.pdf
It's worth looking at the level 2 (2nd year) archaeology modules before choosing your level 1 archaelogy modules, because of the prerequisites issue.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3874

Aula

Original post by luceyinthesky8

As a history student, would it be possible to take an archaeology course as an elective?

What others have said, especially undergradstudent. Also, you'll have to check the timetable to make sure that the modules don't clash.

Reply 3875

Welsh Lady

Is IR very different from Politics?
When looking at the websites of both the courses, I saw a lot of similar modules... or am I mistaken?

Thanks :smile:

Reply 3876

River85

Original post by Welsh Lady

Is IR very different from Politics?
When looking at the websites of both the courses, I saw a lot of similar modules... or am I mistaken?

Thanks :smile:

Well they do have similar modules, as IR is a branch of politics and they're taught in the same department, of course. Although IR has been taught and researched at Durham for a number of years, their single honours IR course is new (started in 2009, I think) and they aren't able to offer enough modules to make an exclusive IR degree and/or feel that it's important for IR students to study other aspects of politics.

There are obvious differences in terms of core modules (modules you're required to take) In the IR programme you're required to study the three first year IR modules as core modules and are able to chose other modules from SGIA (or modules from another department) as "additional" modules to form the compulsory 120 credits. Conversely, in Politics, you are not required to take the IR modules as core modules but can chose the IR modules (or most of them) as your "additional" modules.

The final year appear similar. Neither programmes have "core" modules except for the dissertation. You can chose a list of modules totalling 80 credits from a list. However, the list in the respective programmes differ slightly but offer largely the same modules.

If you haven't seen them already you can view the faculty handbooks at

http://www.dur.ac.uk/faculty.handbook/programme_search/?year=2011&deptCode=SGIA

When you said you've read the modules on the website I don't know if you meant the handbook or SGIA's website (where I think there is, or was, a list of modules for each programme). Apologies if you've already read it.

But, in short, yes they are quite similar but do differ in terms of core modules and, even in IR modules, I imagine a significant number/majority of students will be on other SGIA programmes (or joint programmes/from outside the department).

Reply 3877

Welsh Lady

Original post by River85

Thank you so much for this quick, detailed answer :biggrin:

Reply 3878

cbyrnex

I know you guys must be so sick of being asked this, but what is realistically the very latest you can hear from Durham?

I applied for History which I know is notoriously slow, but someone else said that the Psychology department stated that most offers and rejections would be coming out now, as in last week and this week...