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Chemistry Research, Durham University
Durham University
Durham

The "Ask a Durham Student" Thread :)

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Original post by Kastelo
Hello! I'm an American high school student interested in applying to Durham.

For now I just have two questions:

1. How many (if any) Americans do you know of at Durham?

2. I read somewhere about someone who turned down an offer from Castle because it was a 30 minute walk from the Government and International Affairs building. Google Maps says it's only a 7 minute bike ride. Would it be really hard to study International Relations and reside in Castle?

Thanks!


1. A fair few. Both people who've been doing years abroad and doing full degrees here. I'd say I met 9 or 10 during my undergrad here.

2. No. And I'd guess you're walking pretty slowly if it's going to take half an hour. 15/20 minutes at most if you take the river path, and faster going back, since it's uphill most of the way there.
Chemistry Research, Durham University
Durham University
Durham
Original post by Kastelo
Hello! I'm an American high school student interested in applying to Durham.

For now I just have two questions:

1. How many (if any) Americans do you know of at Durham?

2. I read somewhere about someone who turned down an offer from Castle because it was a 30 minute walk from the Government and International Affairs building. Google Maps says it's only a 7 minute bike ride. Would it be really hard to study International Relations and reside in Castle?

Thanks!


There are a lot of American postgraduate as Durham offers a lot of scholarships to NCAA D1 athletes. I know a few American undergrads but there are a lot more postgraduates.

Everything is very easily walkable, especially from Castle as it's central to everything.
(edited 6 years ago)
Does everyone actually hate Hatfield :s-smilie: don't want to be hated for my college 😂😭
Original post by ineedA
Does everyone actually hate Hatfield :s-smilie: don't want to be hated for my college 😂😭


It's the butt of pretty much every Durham joke, but no, it's not actually hated!
Reply 6944
Avatar for chra_
chra_
1
Okay, so, the big question everyone has.

I just joined the ranks of the Oxford rejects that hold an offer from Durham. I think I will make it my firm.

Here comes the question: will I enjoy it? Why? Are you sure? Will it ever soothe the burning ache of not being enough for Oxford?

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by chra_
Okay, so, the big question everyone has.

I just joined the ranks of the Oxford rejects that hold an offer from Durham. I think I will make it my firm.

Here comes the question: will I enjoy it? Why? Are you sure? Will it ever soothe the burning ache of not being enough for Oxford?

Posted from TSR Mobile


Will you enjoy it? Maybe. Maybe not. Personally, I had a pretty terrible time at university. This has very little to do with the university itself and more to do with an handful of unfortunate personal circumstances. I can't promise you'll have a good time, but there are things that you can do to make it more likely that you well - getting involved with everything you can being the main one. I'm sure my time would have been far worse if I hadn't done that. Durham suits some people very well and others not very well at all, so if you feel like it's the kind of place you'd enjoy living and working in, then you should be fine.

Will it ever soothe the burning ache of not being enough for Oxford? Almost certainly. The more you throw yourself into life at Durham, the easier it'll be to forget Oxford entirely. And not to mention the numbers of people you can bond with in Freshers' Week over which college you got rejected from.
Original post by chra_
Okay, so, the big question everyone has.

I just joined the ranks of the Oxford rejects that hold an offer from Durham. I think I will make it my firm.

Here comes the question: will I enjoy it? Why? Are you sure? Will it ever soothe the burning ache of not being enough for Oxford?

Posted from TSR Mobile


My friend studies chemistry at Oxford, I study chemistry at Durham. I didn't actually apply to Oxford in the first place, because I decided that I wanted to have a good time being a human at university rather than slaving over work for every hour of the day.

After a term at Durham and talking to my friend at Oxford, I can safely say that I've had an awesome term being able to get stuck into pretty much anything I want to and still have time to get all my work done. My friend on the other hand, has had to pull lots of all nighters just to stay afloat with her work, and consequently hasn't managed to get involved with much else.

Not saying you wouldn't enjoy Oxford, some people can manage their time well enough to do everything, but I'd much rather have a degree not quite as good as one from Oxford and have a much better time at uni!
Hi, I have a question about applying for a college

when you apply for a place at a college (I've applied to Josephine Butler), do you get to send in your interests on some sort of application form? So for example, if you put down "partying" etc. as an interest (if that's even allowed?) would you get paired up with people who also like partying?

Probably sounds cringey and stuff but I'm a very social person and would just prefer to be paired with other very social people.
Thank you
Original post by JezDayy
Hi, I have a question about applying for a college

when you apply for a place at a college (I've applied to Josephine Butler), do you get to send in your interests on some sort of application form? So for example, if you put down "partying" etc. as an interest (if that's even allowed?) would you get paired up with people who also like partying?

Probably sounds cringey and stuff but I'm a very social person and would just prefer to be paired with other very social people.
Thank you


When I did it (which was four years ago now - that make me feel very old!), we were sent a form when flats were being arranged. It asked about our interests, our study habits, our personalities, our schedules (such as whether we woke up/went to bed late or early), whether we wanted to be in a quieter flat or not. that sort of thing. However, I'm not sure quite how that translated on the other end into who we ended up sharing flats with, since I ended up with a very pleasant but odd mixture of people in my first year flat, and I don't quite know what the reasoning was behind putting us together!
Original post by clonedmemories
When I did it (which was four years ago now - that make me feel very old!), we were sent a form when flats were being arranged. It asked about our interests, our study habits, our personalities, our schedules (such as whether we woke up/went to bed late or early), whether we wanted to be in a quieter flat or not. that sort of thing. However, I'm not sure quite how that translated on the other end into who we ended up sharing flats with, since I ended up with a very pleasant but odd mixture of people in my first year flat, and I don't quite know what the reasoning was behind putting us together!


Thank you for our response! That's a lot more boxes to fill than I thought haha
Original post by phillies21
Im predicted 3A*s, with A's at AS and A* in epq, but with very poor (atleast for durham standard) GCSE's at only 2A* 3A's. These look particularly bad as they are probably below average when contextualised with my school.

Do durham care enough about GCSE's for this to matter or willl they look past it for my a-level acheivements? applying for politics and philosophy


I got 2A*s and 7As at GCSE, and I got into a fairly competitive department (Chemistry). I was also predicted 3A*s. I'm not sure how the new a-levels will affect their decision making in regards to GCSEs, but I'd say you still have a good chance of getting an offer. Good luck!
Reply 6951
Avatar for a_a99
a_a99
is there a general swimming pool/swim team? or do specific colleges have their own? and same with gym?
My exam results profile are:
GCSE: 4A* 3A 3B
AS: AB (resitting B)
A2 (prediction): A*AA

This is applying for the law course - are those type of grades competitive or is it unlikely I will get a place?
Also does the university have a good hockey and lacrosse team?
Original post by ob-hockey
My exam results profile are:
GCSE: 4A* 3A 3B
AS: AB (resitting B)
A2 (prediction): A*AA

This is applying for the law course - are those type of grades competitive or is it unlikely I will get a place?
Also does the university have a good hockey and lacrosse team?


Mens and womens hockey teams are both very good, I know for lacrosse there are 3 mens teams (1st team unbeaten in 7 years) and more womens teams than that. There are also college teams for both sports.
What's the workload like at Durham? I'd be studying archaeology and anthropology, if that makes a difference.
I left my first secondary school before sixth form because the workload was too intense (it was a posh private school, very up itself :wink:). Would going to Durham be making the same mistake?

Also, bit of a stupid question, but is it a big deal if you're not sporty? Durham seems to be very into sports, and I'm insanely terrible at them :colondollar:
Original post by torilee
What's the workload like at Durham? I'd be studying archaeology and anthropology, if that makes a difference.
I left my first secondary school before sixth form because the workload was too intense (it was a posh private school, very up itself :wink:). Would going to Durham be making the same mistake?

Also, bit of a stupid question, but is it a big deal if you're not sporty? Durham seems to be very into sports, and I'm insanely terrible at them :colondollar:


I currently study anthro and sociology so I only do 3 of the anth modules, however I would say the workload is no too bad. We aren't set a lot but we are expected to do our own research and reading in our own time so the about of the work you do is completely up to you.
As for the sports- don't worry. I'm not sporty in the slightest and there are plenty of other societies you can join that aren't sporty. the students union has a list of all dsu societies if you want to have a look and each college also has their own. Noone will judge you for not doing sport so honestly don't worry
Reply 6956
Avatar for mutlu
mutlu
5
As an International student who should have done more research before applying, I didn't choose a preferred collage on my UCAS application thinking Durham was a long shot for me. Now that I have got an offer for history I will definitely be making Durham my firm choice. Will I be put in a generally undesirable collage or will it be random?

Follow up question , is there any chance of me being allocated to the Queen's campus?
Original post by mutlu
As an International student who should have done more research before applying, I didn't choose a preferred collage on my UCAS application thinking Durham was a long shot for me. Now that I have got an offer for history I will definitely be making Durham my firm choice. Will I be put in a generally undesirable collage or will it be random?

Follow up question , is there any chance of me being allocated to the Queen's campus?


You'll most likely get one of the less subscribed colleges such as St.Aidan's, Van Mildert, Trevs etc.

No chance of being on Queen's, its a 45min bus ride away and is only for education/business/etc
Original post by fourbias
I currently study anthro and sociology so I only do 3 of the anth modules, however I would say the workload is no too bad. We aren't set a lot but we are expected to do our own research and reading in our own time so the about of the work you do is completely up to you.
As for the sports- don't worry. I'm not sporty in the slightest and there are plenty of other societies you can join that aren't sporty. the students union has a list of all dsu societies if you want to have a look and each college also has their own. Noone will judge you for not doing sport so honestly don't worry


Thank you so much for replying! I can stop worrying now, haha
Hi all! Have an unconditional for History. Was just wondering if every college has the college family system? Just I would really like to go to one that does. Thanks :smile:

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