The "Ask a Durham Student" Thread :)

Hey guys,

I've just been allocated to St Hild and St Bede (from Josephine Butler). Anyone willing to inform me about the basics not mentioned on the website?

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I've just been allocated Hild Bede too, can't seem to find much about it.(Does it even exists haha) Can anyone tell me anything about it? Thanks

Hey thanks for replying! I've heard that its full of 'rahs' and Tatler called it the 'Surrey College', do you think this is a true reflection of what its actually like? It looks really fun from their website but i just can't find much more info on it!!

It's not a part of the university, but it's pretty central to town - just off Walkergate - and it's a reasonable place to swim (I don't do so competitively, but I did go a few times just to relax/get some exercise last year)

I have nearly the same interest and found this:
http://durhamswimming.co.uk/
Hope it helps

I believe the swim team/a couple of others also travel to use another local pool too? For most students the one in Durham which is close to the town centre is more than enough and has some fairly good student memberships. The university does not have its own pool though and I haven't heard any plans for them to change this in the near future (although this is obviously a possibility at some point)!

Hey guys

I have a couple of friends at Hild Bede (yes it exists! ). It's one of the largest college, in a mixture of lovely old buildings and slightly less lovely new buildings. They're the only college to have a cinema.

Hild Bede is up on Gilesgate, which is the opposite side of Durham from the hill colleges (Bede to JoBo is about a 40 minute walk). It's 10-15 minutes to Elvet Riverside and 15-25 minutes to the science site. It's fully catered, it has a nice bar and it seems like a really nice college (I nearly applied there).

Are there any specifics you want to know?

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer!

May I ask how far away from the Law school the college is?

Also, what have you heard with regards to it being catered? Is the food acceptable?

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How far away is that roughly? Does the swim team/people who go walk or get a bus etc?

It depends where you're coming from, but pretty much everything in the centre of Durham you'd want is walking distance. I lived in Butler last year and could easily walk there in about 30 minutes from college (albeit the fact I do walk rather fast!) I imagine it's probably about 10 minutes walk from the top of the Bailey. Either way, it's not a far distance at all (and if you are on a hill college, there are buses from particular points, either cheap or for free, if you're feeling especially lazy!)

wait.. So.. Are there 2 pools?

I hope they do

Hi, sorry, bit of a silly question here. I was looking on the website of the college that I've been allocated, and I've noticed that induction week starts on Monday 5th October. Are UK undergraduates expected to arrive at the university before induction week? I'm just asking because there was an event that I'd planned to go to with all my friends on the 4th October in my hometown, and it would be quite disappointing if I couldn't make it.

Hi, sorry, bit of a silly question here. I was looking on the website of the college that I've been allocated, and I've noticed that induction week starts on Monday 5th October. Are UK undergraduates expected to arrive at the university before induction week? I'm just asking because there was an event that I'd planned to go to with all my friends on the 4th October in my hometown, and it would be quite disappointing if I couldn't make it.

Hi, sorry, bit of a silly question here. I was looking on the website of the college that I've been allocated, and I've noticed that induction week starts on Monday 5th October. Are UK undergraduates expected to arrive at the university before induction week? I'm just asking because there was an event that I'd planned to go to with all my friends on the 4th October in my hometown, and it would be quite disappointing if I couldn't make it.

You'll arrive the weekend before, so depending on your college either Saturday 3rd or Sunday 4th October. Is it possible to change your plans? It is disappointing but I would strongly discourage arriving late to Induction Week- an awful lot happens in the first few days.

How far away from Durham are you? If you talk to your college you might be able to come up on the evening of the 4th?

It depends on which college you're at - some colleges have prescribed moving in dates/times (usually Bailey colleges, I believe, due to the lack of any specific parking space round them) and therefore you'd be expected to move in either on the 3rd/4th. At other colleges, you'd usually arrive on the 4th, but equally, I don't think you'd miss out on a huge amount if you wanted to arrive on the 5th instead, as long as you made the college aware of this.

Yeah you will be supposed to arrive at college on the weekend before induction week starts, either the Saturday or Sunday depending on which college you're in (ie. different colleges arrive on different days to avoid too much congestion in the small city!)

I believe you can ask to arrive at a different time and your college may let you (however obviously it makes registration etc. more difficult for them) but I wouldn't really recommend it. College activities start when everyone arrives, so you'll miss out on the first activities at college which would be a shame, plus people start making friends right away so you might feel more awkward joining later (obviously you'll still make friends you might just feel less comfortable if people are already forming groups). Also departmental things start on the Monday too, and you can't miss them so you'd have to arrive really early to be able to make everything you're supposed to!

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, it's impossible to reschedule and it's on Sunday evening. The latest I would want to arrive is Monday anyway. If I move in on Saturday, I could theoretically spend Saturday moving in and then go back home Sunday afternoon (it's a few hours on the train but I'm used to travelling), attend the event, and then either get a late evening train or an early morning train back. However, that would mean missing some of the Sunday activities, and the earliest I'd realistically be able to arrive on Monday would be 10am. If I move in on Sunday, it's pretty much impossible for me to go to the event. This is a really big event that I don't want to miss, but I also don't want to miss too many of the university events. I'm really not sure what to do now...

I did have a flatmate who missed a day of Fresher's Week through travelling home to a hospital appointment and back again from London, so it's definitely feasible. Depending on where you're travelling to/from, late Sunday evening may be the best bet, especially as it's unlikely you'll know your department timetable for the week until you arrive.

Hi, thanks again. I'm assuming that you mean moving in on Sunday evening would be best. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to do that as I wouldn't be able to get to the train station until about 10:30pm at the earliest if I go to this event, and it's a 5-hour train journey. I don't think I'll really be able to plan anything properly until I find out which day my college asks me to move in, but thank you for the reassurance. I feel much better about it now, and worst-case scenario, I might be able to catch a sleeper train that would get me in for 7-8 AM on Monday. I think the best I can do from here is wait and see how things go.

Ah no, I was thinking you come back on Sunday evening having travelled down earlier in the day. Still, until you know what's going on, it's difficult to make plans. Hopefully something works out for you!