The "Ask a Durham Student" Thread :)

Already applied and awaiting outcome. I applied for economics which only has 10 places. This can either make it incredibly competitive, or means the majority of people may have applied for Cambridge and Durham with both have more than double the places. My GCSEs are mediocre with 1A*, 8A and 2B from a comprehensive state school. I also have extenuating circumstancesas my sister was ill during exam season. Neither parents went to university and the HE participation for my post code is 3 (middle ground). And parents are in non professional work, teacher assistant and call center worker. What do you think my chances are. (I’ve got deflined by UNIQ and Cambridge shadowing but this is the one I’ve realky wanted to go to as the course is literally my epq)

Econ is a popular subject so will be more competitive. Your extenuating circumstances and parental education will be taken into account as well as the POLAR and other measures of socioeconomic disadvantage. It's not necessarily the case that everyone without a terrible HE participation and contextual information will not be offered a place; just that performance is taken into account depending on the area and spaces are more limited than university entry applications.

As for finding out when you'll hear back, email and/or phone the following contacts:

0191 334 9126

[email protected]

They did say don’t email before hand so best not. I’m going on the basis then that I don’t stand a great chance of getting in

summer schools generally go on the basis of your gcse grades, but you have extenuating circumstances. i was quite similar to you in terms of grades and i also had extenuating circumstances, and i got into uniq and sutton trust imperial, but i went for relatively undersubscribed courses
i don't know too much about the summer school specifically at durham so i may be completely wrong!!

How do people feel about Durham as a city / town. Do you feel limited by its small size and how often do you end up going to Newcastle to do things?

i really love durham as a city (though it feels like a town.) i live in a catered hill college so rarely venture down the hill and go into town, but if you're on a bailey/catered college i guess you'd go there more. although it's quite small, there are still a ton of student-y shops and restaurants.
i haven't yet been to newcastle, mainly for lack of time, but my friends have been and only went to go shopping in primark!
durham has quite a lot to do, but my friends and i spend about 90% of our free time in college as there's always things you can do there. we are planning on going to newcastle after exams to have a look around though, and i know others have been on a night out there before.

i really love durham as a city (though it feels like a town.) i live in a catered hill college so rarely venture down the hill and go into town, but if you're on a bailey/catered college i guess you'd go there more. although it's quite small, there are still a ton of student-y shops and restaurants.
i haven't yet been to newcastle, mainly for lack of time, but my friends have been and only went to go shopping in primark!
durham has quite a lot to do, but my friends and i spend about 90% of our free time in college as there's always things you can do there. we are planning on going to newcastle after exams to have a look around though, and i know others have been on a night out there before.

Thanks for the help! Have you found it difficult to get a job? because i have heard that the job opportunities are limited because of the city being small.

What's the student life and clubbing like? Someone told me that Durham uni has quite a few rejects from Oxbridge but not sure if that's true? I must admit that Durham is beautiful though

^^ i agree, despite the small size it is more homey than limiting (although the closure of shops on silver street is an annoying trend for self-catered people who eat out)

Wait, really? Silver st shop closures?

I don't go to Durham uni but when not at uni I live about 40 minutes away so I frequent it

i'm the worst person to be asking this question to as i don't go out but i'll still answer xD. there are quite a few clubs in durham, and id say the clubbing scene is pretty good. most people go out on wednesdays, and the weekend is pretty popular too.
i dont drink so stay in college a lot, and there are loads of events within colleges usually, and societies so student life is very full!
yep, that's true. literally all of the friends in my friend group at college (there are 12 of us) all got rejected from oxbridge, and my lab partner and others in my tutorials etc got rejected. there are some people that didn't apply, and some that did and got an offer but chose not to go though, but the majority of people i know are oxbridge rejects!!
durham is absolutely beautiful. especially the view from observatory hill! it's right near the hill colleges and often people go there to see the sunrise. you have the best view in durham from there i reckon!!

How do people feel about Durham as a city / town. Do you feel limited by its small size and how often do you end up going to Newcastle to do things?

you can usually hop on train without paying as ticket barriers tend to be down

naughty

to be fair, I've only been to Newcastle during the day so not quite the same as clubbing xD

the clubbing scene is really good?

a) a girl died because of the shite security at missoula
b) there was that video on FB of those klute guard beating up that aisan kid

c) the clubs are absolutely shite, you do not go to durham for its nightlife lol.

the thing with trains though, is that even if you get caught with no ticket, you can just buy one right there from the guy. it might be a bit more expensive than buying it before hand but the amount of times you get away with it outweighs the rare times you get caught so much