UCL or Durham?

I'm confused!

Those are now my top two choices and I really can't pick between them. I would love some advice from the wise and weird and wonderful fellow members of TSR! :biggrin:

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Reply 1

Reblet

What matters most? City? Course? Community? Both are amazing unis. Both had great courses. UCL has more tutor time and one-on-one than Durham. I prefer the Durham course but having individual tutoring is pretty nice I'd guess (apart from you can't get away with not doing the work!).
City-wise they're completely different! Durham is small with a pretty nice nightlife (3ish decent clubs) and wherever you go you'll bump into uni folk. Whereas London has a raving nightlife but can seem quite spread-out and you might not feel as 100% involved in Uni life as at Durham. Plus Durham has a shiny collegiate system to make you feel included. Which college have you got? Did you go to the Open Day?
They're very different but both very lovely. Alcohol and living is cheaper in Durham if that makes a difference. Also does distance from home matter? Lots of considerations!

It's all down to your priorities. I personally would go for UCL if (unlike me!) you can cope with the bustle of London for three years on a limited budget. Well done on the offers by the way. Good luck deciding! :biggrin:

Reply 2

Greatleysteg

Congratulations on gettin offers from such good universities!!!! :biggrin:

I got into both for English too, but didn't choose either in the end.

If I had, though, I'd have gone for UCL. I felt absolutely gutted rejecting their offer! Their course just seemed to be much freer - there are so many options available, it seemed to offer a lot more than Durham, and you could go down any routes you wanted. There Middle English options looked great, as did the morphological courses, which I found really interesting.

The uni seemed really warm and everyone was friendly at UCL, and what with one of (if not the) highest proportions of overseas/EU students (they don't call it London's Global University for nothing), it felt really cosmopolitan and diverse.

The tutors were really friendly in my interview and you could feel their enthusiasm for their subject (but then I didn't have an interview for Durham).

The only downside could be accommodation at UCL, because you have to sort out your own after first year. But you do get a higher loan allowance from the government if you go to study in London to help with higher living costs. And it's really easy to get jobs down there.

Reply 3

Rogues

Great advice guys - I didn't know that about accommodation after the first year at UCL but Hatfield, my college at Durham, warn that you may not get accommodation in the 2 year there anyway :s-smilie:

Durham is far away from home, which has its appeal to be honest - but I reckon I could live near home with UCL and still feel detached enough that it's not like I've never left the proximity of home!

Durham was my slight preference until recently when I started considering it thoroughly and now I think I'm more inclined towards UCL ... I think the course there is very free and exciting and, I think?, on world terms UCL is the better regarded university (maybe top 10 in the world these days?)... I'm not letting ranking decide anything though, as I know how subjective and fallacious they can be!

Reply 4

UPsilamba

I think these people have said it all really. The locations are totally different, so for me that is probably the deciding factor. Durham is small and Northern, London is massive and Southern. I personally felt quite claustrophobic in Durham's college system, but lots of people love having a whole community of ready-made friends. Staying in London will mean you get access to much better facilities than elsewhere e.g. The British library, great work experience placements etc.
Both are great unis and courses. I thought UCL's seemed a little traditional, but I might have got that wrong.
I wish I could go to UCL but it really is too close to home, only 10 mins away from where I work now...

Reply 5

Rogues

You got into UCL didn't you?

Where are you going?

Reply 6

P_Ben21

UCL UCL UCL UCL UCL, i got a few friends there and they love it.....graduates are pretty much guarenteed good jobs.

Reply 7

Franc Vouloir

I would pick UCL.

Reply 8

Reblet

I feel like I should push Durham to make it a balanced opinion poll... UCL is great if you love London. Buuuut if you want something a bit different (i.e. you will probs have to work/live in London at some point in your life anyway) then Durham is perfect. It doesn't lack a nightlife at all. In fact it's got some pretty decent clubs PLUS everyone who goes is a student so you'll constantly meet new folk but they'll be students so you'll feel very included. London can feel isolated (one of my friends went a whole week without seeing any other students apart from at lectures!) whilst Durham's collegiate system means you'll have a whole base of people there. Expense-wise Durham wins hands-down as clearly London accomodation/ food and drink prices aren't as cheap as Durham. London accomodation can also be a HUGE stress and tends to be ever so slightly shabby-chic in places. Durham has pretty good accomodation overall and offers it for 1st and 3rd year with looooaaads of places to rent nearby for 2nd year (most people love living-out at Durham as it's pretty inexpensive and you get such pretty little terraced houses!). The course at Durham is actually pretty genius when you look at it. AND you can do modules outside your subject which is very pleasant. Between UCL and Durham rep-wise there is only a significant difference internationally (UoL has the edge there obviously) but unless you are genuinely planning on going abroad straight after your degree this shouldn't worry you too much. Durham is one of the top unis for clubs and societies (some might argue that;s because there is nothing else to do... But they are wrong! haha) also 85% of Durham students play a sport. Rowing at Durham is massively popular and a wicked sport to take up.
Formals in gowns and cool bops. Face-painting in clubs and hot tubs for college days... cheerleading randomly... Being matriculated at Durham Cathedral... Bill Bryson!

Durham seem quiet but it does have a huge student social scene... Remember that it doesn;t matter how busy a city is - you can still feel very very alone without a good sense of community.

Wooooop North!!!

Reply 9

Jelkin

I faced EXACTLY the same decision as you, and went for Durham. London is awesome, and I'd love to live there someday, but I figured that I can get the "London experience" later in life whereas the student experience is really limited to to uni, so I wanted to go somewhere more studenty. The collegiate system at Durham makes you feel really involved. I visited UCL and liked it but the friend I visited said she felt really segregated from other students, not because she was trying to put me off but she was sort of complaining about a club she'd joined. My dad went to Imperial and told me I wouldn't have enough money to properly "enjoy" London (if that makes sense). I'd also been to a Durham open day and had a great time. I did really consider UCL but I think I did the right thing in choosing Durham.

Please also see "Durham vs Edinburgh" in this forum, I defended Durham's nightlife there (college bars are awesome and there's one in the castle!). What Reblet says about the social scene is correct - there are so many clubs and socs to choose from, because there are university level ones and collegiate ones. If you like a sport or are interested in one, you can probably play for a team even if you're not amazing; I was NEVER sporty at school but I play for Hild Bede squash team in Durham and this year have been their captain!

By the way, you probably could live in in your second year without hassle but it's REALLY easy to find housing in Durham - that is, prices don't vary too much and there are loads of student housing areas, plus which there are more houses than there are students looking for them so we're desirable consumers!

Reply 10

Reblet

What Jelkin said, but with more gushing optimism and smileys :biggrin:

haha

Reply 11

Zoecb

UCL, better course than Durham.

Reply 12

Reblet

In your opinion.

Reply 13

Taemon

I'll be facing exactly the same problem, for R000 Modern Languages, if Durham give me an offer. At the moment, I must say, I seem to by slightly favouring Durham. I'm just never going to get the opportunity to live within sight of two stunning world heritage site, ever again. I think that if I chose UCL, I'd be constantly thinking that I could have escaped the hustle and bustle of city life, and had a great time in a beautiful environment, in what is, let's face it, still a pretty great uni!

Reply 14

Reblet

Go to Durham, we've got a castle and a cathedral and you can live in London anytime. :biggrin:

haha.

Reply 15

Zoecb

Can live in London anytime? LOL. Student halls in London is often the only time in someone's life they can afford to live that centrally.

Reply 16

Reblet

Well London living is not something every student can afford so I think it is practical to wait until you're older and can afford to rent somewhere in London (admittedly not centrally) when earning a fair wage.

Reply 17

Dann

Well I would say UCL, but then I would say that :p:

. As people have said, you can't really get more extreme in terms of the different locations of UCL and Durham. Some people simply cannot stand London, for other people the thought of being outside of the capital is horrifying. Have you been to check them both out? If not that would probably be a big help.

In terms of courses, I would say I love the UCL course, but whoever it was who said they thought it was fairly traditional was right, options are generally based on particular periods, Romantics, Moderns, Renaissance, etc. whereas from what I can see of the Durham course modules seem more thematic or genre based (feel free to correct me Durhamites). Maybe one of these systems appeals to you more? The only modules you can do outside of the Department at UCL are Medieval French, Italian, German, and Archeology. (You can do old Icelandic too, but that is run within the Department). If you want to do more things outside of English, perhaps Durham is better for you? I don't want to sound like I am slagging UCL off, I think it's great, and I always feel like I'm in a very scholastic environment, focused in on my work without too many distractions, but equally, I can see how it's not for everyone potentially.

As for distance, that's obviously a personal choice, but I also live fairly close to London (Reading) and find that the distance is great enough that I feel a little bit removed (London itself will emphasise your movement away from home - it's very different) but close enough that if I ever really had a ****ty week I could cut off from uni life and come home quite easily for the weekend. You may well like the distance though - lots of people do. I have found being 30 minutes from home is useful for last minute fancy-dress gathering expeditions though :biggrin:

So, those are the things I would think about, though with emphasis on the course. If there is one thing I think everyone only really grasps retrospectively at uni is just how important it is to find a course that suits you. Hope you manage to figure it out without too much trauma!

Reply 18

Rogues

Well - I'm a big fan of a time-progressive look at English Literature (to the extent that my reading this year [and the stuff mentioned on my personal statement] was in chronological order - I quite like seeing how things started, why they were like that and how they developed and why etc etc) so I suppose I'm a bit of a Literary Historian - from first inspection it seems that the UCL course would be more suited to my way of thinking about literature - can anyone confirm this? xx

Reply 19

Lychee

From what I can see of the modules offered on the UCl website they look pretty similar to the modules offered at Durham. I actually dont think there is that much to choose between the courses so again I would go back to location.