3rd Year Durham student - AMA

I'm in my third year at Durham studying history. If anyone is considering Durham at all, whether it's this year, next etc. or a History course feel free to ask me anything! I'm gonna try to answer honestly from my own personal experiences of Durham.

So go ahead, ask me anything!

Hi!

Not sure why you haven't had any questions yet!

I've applied for History at Durham so I was wondering what your general thoughts are on the department? (i.e. are the courses well-organised, is the teaching engaging, is there a sense of community within the department, what kind of student support is available)

Thanks!
Harry

Hi there!

In general the department is pretty good and it is a pretty close knit community (as in, the history society recently hosted a Christmas party in the department itself). They also involve the students a lot - so when they're hiring new people they have a sort of seminar with the prospective candidates and some volunteers - who they give lunch to! - and take lots of feedback regarding new staff etc. First and third year are, from my experience, relatively well organised, but second year was pretty rough because they introduced a whole new type of module that only lasted a term, instead of the normal year long ones that everyone prefers. There's usually a lot of choice regarding modules, and they'll tell you that you need to take one medieval, one early-modern and one modern module. Some of the modules can count towards two of these, allowing some wiggle room. They sometimes have a bit of an issue setting deadlines, but Jasmine the undergrad person is so sweet and if you ever have any problems with deadlines she'll help you out. Teaching can be hit or miss as it is everywhere, there are generally a few lecturers who are a bit like marmite, but for the most part I haven't had any problems. There's only been one person I just categorically did not get on with at all. Everyone else has been so welcoming and friendly. Some of them even make you tea in your seminars!

Regarding student support, I think that Durham is amazing for that in general. Each college has their own welfare team who can liaise with your department, as well as the university's own welfare. Like I've said before, the people in the department are generally quite nice. To give a few examples, I had a few issues in first year and had to take a whole term out - the department were fine with it, they were really helpful when I came back and some angel (who I had never met before) sent me all her lecture notes from lectures I'd missed! I have also raised that I can get really anxious sometimes, so they sorted out that I did my big presentation last year privately with just my seminar leader and the head of undergrad studies. If you have an issue, just raise it with them and they'll generally be able to do something about it (like the one time I got a bunch of apology emails from a professor who had ignored my disabled student notification and promptly done everything that the notification had told him was not ok, everything was fine after that).

Just a little note - the department is spread over two really nice Georgian (??) buildings in the centre of Durham, there is a uni library on Palace Green but it can be a bit of a walk to get to the main library.

Anything else you'd like to know?

That all sounds amazing! Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I am especially happy to hear that they were able to sort out the issues with your disabled student notification (I have anxiety too and a learning difficulty so that is really reassuring)

The only other thing is that I have applied for both Liberal Arts (History and Japanese) and single honours History. Do you know anyone who has studied History as part of Liberal Arts (formerly known as Combined Honours in Arts) and how they found it?

That all sounds amazing! Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I am especially happy to hear that they were able to sort out the issues with your disabled student notification (I have anxiety too and a learning difficulty so that is really reassuring)

The only other thing is that I have applied for both Liberal Arts (History and Japanese) and single honours History. Do you know anyone who has studied History as part of Liberal Arts (formerly known as Combined Honours in Arts) and how they found it?

I'm in my third year at Durham studying history. If anyone is considering Durham at all, whether it's this year, next etc. or a History course feel free to ask me anything! I'm gonna try to answer honestly from my own personal experiences of Durham.

So go ahead, ask me anything!

What job prospects can a History graduate from Durham hope for? Finance is opened up to all degrees now, so are there many people with offers/hopes to get into top banks or consultancy firms etc. and such?

Ok, so I've asked around and the general consensus seems to he that Liberal Arts is a really good way to go if you don't want to dedicate yourself to one specific subject. The department were really helpful regarding modules and work, and liberal arts students don't have to stick to the one medieval, one early modern etc. modules that us single honours students have to, which means they get to focus more on one specific area of history. Obviously there's a bit of timetabling stuff to sort out and maybe more work (depending on what you combine it with), but they said the department were really good at helping them with this stuff.

Generally seems to be a positive response.

Hope this helps!

Hi. I've been accepted for History but am thinking of asking to switch to Liberal Arts (History as the major). Do you think this would be possible? I'm going to go to the offer holders open day in March first and ask a few questions first.

That's great - thanks for the information. Any advice on colleges? Castle looks good, but is hard to get into. Cuths might be a better bet to get into, I was thinking.

I'm in my third year at Durham studying history. If anyone is considering Durham at all, whether it's this year, next etc. or a History course feel free to ask me anything! I'm gonna try to answer honestly from my own personal experiences of Durham.

So go ahead, ask me anything!

Hey. When did you get your offer, what were your predicted grades and when did you apply?

thanks

Hello,

My offer came through in mid-January. The offer was for A*AA and my predicted grades were A*A*A (I got A*AA). I applied in October, because I also applied to Cambridge so I had to have an early application.

Brilliant thanks, do you know when the bulk of offers came through for most people on your course/in your college or whatever. I try to look at previous applicants thread but it just says 1 or 2 years ago etc and you can't find the actual date of the post. thanks.

Most of them were around the same time as mine. The people who did gap years and already had their results were the same, their offers were just unconditional.
Durham was actually the last uni to reply to me!