The "Ask a Durham Student" Thread :)

Hello

I might have posted in this thread before but just got a few questions. I'm thinking about applying to uni for 2010, which sounds ages away but this years gone so fast already. Anyway, at the moment I'm almost definitely applying for History and Philosophy, but I love the look of Durham, I know a few people who go and say that they love it there. I know Durham doesn't do History and Philosophy joint honours however I was wondering about the combined honours in arts degree? My A-levels are English Lit, German, History, RS and Critical Thinking. I'm definitely carrying on English, History and RS next year and hoping to do German as well if my school lets me. I think these subjects should give me a good grounding in artsy things, and the combined honours degree does appeal as I'd like to continue with a broad range of subjects (one of the main reason I'm going to apply to a few Scottish unis) .
Academic wise, I notice the requirements are AAA, I've got good GCSEs (all A*s and As) and I'm aiming for high grades at AS so I don't think this should be a problem unless something goes wrong.

Anyway my questions are
- is it incredibly competitive?
- do any of you current students study it, if so, is it good?
- how flexible is it?
- would it be ok to write a personal statement that is history and philosophy based and apply for the combined degree at Durham only? would I need to include a bit about other artsy subjects?
- any other comments you have

- is it incredibly competitive?

do any of you current students study it, if so, is it good?

how flexible is it?

would it be ok to write a personal statement that is history and philosophy based and apply for the combined degree at Durham only? would I need to include a bit about other artsy subjects?

any other comments you have

-It's quite competitive, but there are more competitive courses, don't let that in itself put you off
-I didn't study it, and there may be one or two people on here that do, but I know someone people that did
-No not necessarily, you wouldn't be expected to do a billion subjects at Durham anyway, I know plenty of Combined Soc Sci/Arts/Nat Scis who only do 2 subjects
-I like cake

All Durham degrees are competitive to a greater or lesser extent. The AAA typical offer suggests it's very competitive. I'm not sure of the exact applicantffer ratios or anything like that. As far as I understand it it's one of their most competitive courses (alongside history, english, law). It's a popular degree and isn't offered at many other universities (Newcastle, Exeter and I think Lancaster are the only ones I can think of).

With your grades, subject combination and a very good personal statement you'll stand a good chance. That's all that can be said, really.



I don't think any students here take it. There are philosophy students (like me) and history students. We can tell you a bit about the departments but I don't think there are any combined arts students.



Very flexible. As far as I understand it you have a free choice across the relevant departments (providing you can meet the pre-requisites but this comes in during the second and third years). You can, within reason, create your own degree programme.



Well, providing you apply to history and philosophy degrees elsewhere then it should be fine. If you just want to study philosophy and history or focus on those two then that's fine. The university wouldn't really expect a more general, artsy PS as this may not go down to well with the other unis you're applying to (who will want subject specific content). Adding bits about other art subjects may weaken your personal statement when it comes to the other unis. But just mentioning history and philosopy is fine. You could, if you wanted to, tie in your passion for the arts generally or the history of the arts. But be careful, don't go into too much detail.



I'm not so keen on cake (except chocolate cake). I also want to do combined arts (or more combined social sciences, really). It's not fair

Any current Economics students here?

I am

Any current Economics students here?

Just wanting to know more about the course in general and how mathematical it is.

Hope you don't mind?

heya =]

The course is really great - the Lecturers and (most) of the seminar tutors are really, really solid and very helpful. Like any university, there are a couple of lecturers and tutors that are relatively lacklustre, but even they're usually very good in terms of providing material to study.

The course - in the first year - isn't really mathematical at all, I'll be honest with you. There's only one mathematical module - Economic Methods - although there's also Business Accounting and Finance as an optional module, which is good, but also quite qualitative. If you've done A-level maths before, you'll have seen most of the calculus before, but there are some new bits, such as partial differentiation and the Lagrangian equation, and the course focuses not on the calculus, but on the application. You may feel, as I do, that it's a bit of a joke - but it's a necessity in order for everyone to be at the same level hitting second year, where (I gather) it gets much more mathematical.

Anything else you want to know?

Cool, that's really helpful.

So, are is there anything you can do to beef up the maths in first year? Like taking modules from first year maths or something? The maths part must have been pretty damn easy for you!

Oh yeah, and how many hours of lectures/tutorials/seminar things are there in first year? Is there a lot of time left for socialising and whatnot?

Also, (generally) are you able to learn a language as an aside from your degree? I'd quite like to get to a decent standard in french or spanish.

Haha, glad I'm being of use.
Well, the way the degree is structured is that you take 6 modules. 3 of those are 'core' modules, that EVERYONE takes. Then, for your fourth module, you're given a list of certain modules that you MUST choose from. Then, for your final two modules, you can take any module you want from whatever department, as long as you register in time and they let you in. More info here - http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/faculty.handbook/degrees/frameworks/l100.pdf

Anyway, if you want to beef up the maths (nice phrase! XD ) then you can take a maths module, or an engineering module, or a physics module or whatever in either of your last two slots - or fill both of the slots with maths-y things if you want.

As for time - each economics module has 2 lectures a week and one seminar a fortnight (in general). Hence, if you take all economics/business modules, then you'll end up with 30 hours of contact time per fortnight, which is a lot for an 'Arts' degree. That's not including time spent out of lectures and seminars on seminar prep. and reading, which can chalk up a lot of hours depending on your ability and the complexity of the work. I'll warn you that The World Economy (one of the core modules) is /very/ work intensive - even at A level, you don't encounter a lot of the content, and certainly not to the depth it's studied here.

That said, there is still plenty of time to socialise if you work smart. Only once or twice in the entire first term I didn't go to a social commitment due to work. Also, in terms of exams and essays, it's relatively light on workload, so that's not a problem. Don't worry at all about it, in other words =]

As for Languages, there's a course available called 'Languages For All', which are basically evening classes that aren't included in your degree. For more info, check here - http://www.dur.ac.uk/mlac/cfls/lfa/main/

Hiya, I have a question that's for anyone a Durham Uni who does the Primary Teaching Course.
Can you choose to you option module to be a Modern Foreign Language, specifically French?
And is it a really competitive course to apply to?
Thanks if anybody replies

Also, is anybody here currently at the John Snow college? If apply to Durham then this would be my preferred college
Btw, i'm for the 2010 cycle, and not an incredibly late 2009 applicant :P

Heey!


I was wondering how easy/difficult is it to change course once at Durham?


Thanks in advance!

Depends on what from and what to.

Theology & Education Studies to Archeology & Anthropology?


Thanks for the quick reply!!

Is this within Combined Social Sciences? If so you need to ask the guy who runs the programme/ the admissions tutor for it.

In general you need to get the consent of both departments. Wait until you have an offer before phoning up and asking.