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Durham University is not what it seems, do not go here! Please read!

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Reply 80

Original post
by Physician
Durham indeed has a good MBA Business school, although to those people who dream of becoming CEO of a major organisation with a salary of in the millions, Durham isn't going to cut it. For those roles you generally need to go to a top 10-20 in the World ranked MBA Business school, although l have seen some CEOs from top 50 ranked MBA Business schools. Remember that you do an MBA after 5-10 years of relevant work experience, preferably with some management responsibility. The average age of a student doing an MBA is about 28-30.
Investment Banking graduate entry does not specify a subject, but it is clearly going to be very useful to have studied economics, banking, mathematics etc. given the nature of the field of work.

ahh, right my guy; well thank you indeed icl that is, very very interesting still; thank you fr

Reply 81

Original post
by Anonymous
This is certainly not my experience of Durham. Since my first day two years ago I met a wide range of people from all sorts of backgrounds and my own friendship group reflects this. No one goes to Durham for the nightlife and you can take or leave formals and balls. There are loads of other societies and events to get involved in plus my college worked at keeping costs of events down for students. It is unfortunate that you did not experience this. As for international students, they are there to work hard and succeed. True, college accommodation is expensive but last year 4 of us shared a house which was way cheaper than friends' accommodation in London and Bristol.

As a sixth former in Durham, this is the closest to the truth.

Many of the students come from well-off families down south: the costs of colleges/catering/formals isn't an issue for them. However there are scholarships available and Durham itself is such a cheap city to live in - think £1 buses, £1 Iceland frozen meals etc.

There is a stereotype that Durham is a humanities uni but I think especially after covid that has definitely changed. Either way the teaching is genuinely good for all subjects so the threat of too many students 'diluting' the teaching quality is unfounded.
Durham has lots of societies to join so you're not stuck with pretentious people all the time. Its likely there will be many like-minded people in your lectures so maybe just try socialising more? Newcastle is 10-15 mins by train and so there's always the chance to replicate a less collegiate uni there. I may be wrong (bc of Covid) bbut I think several societies in DHM/NCL have regular meetups so you may find the more pleasant students are there :wink:
In terms of international students, many of them are indeed rich - you physically have to be to afford the fees. However they still possess the academic merit to keep up and they help reduce the Tory vibes from the Bailey colleges.

My take on Durham:

The rich kids donate all their stuff to the charity shops on North Road so if you're ever waiting for a bus have a quick nosey.

The Billy B does get busy during exam week but during my EPQ research it was at a manageable level.

2nd yrs are the worst in terms of being noisy at 11pm

I am applying for med and Durham doesn't offer it, but if it did I would apply although I am quite biased as a Northerner

very hilly city/county (one is literally called Cardiac Hil) - makes for a great view but horrible when you're late for sixth form/uni

Neville's cross is full of big houses full of rich locals so don't feel like its just a town V gown thing; more of a DH1 vs the rest of the county

there's a campus for international students in Stockton (20mi or a very bumpy bus ride) so the city centre isn't exactly filled with 'Chinese Elite'


(I realise how badly formatted this post is but I have Y13 stuff to worry abt)

Reply 82

Original post
by JVorJrose
Who the f*** rejects oxford for durham? what kind of delusional lie is this? Idc if that this is 3 years ago get backs have no expiry date; this is the worst lie I have ever read. whoever tf this is could've just accepted it; instead bro chose to cope by lying even worse than the devil himself🤦
edit: the emoji lol

my chem teacher did as well; she's a northerner and didn't feel like she fitted in to Oxf well

Reply 83

Original post
by Anonymous
I've been debating whether to post this for a while, and I'm doing so using my friends account who has kindly allowed me to post my experience regarding Durham University. I just want to say that this is just my experience and others may have a different experience as I was 1 of 20 thousand students so make of it as you wish.
Where to begin? I believe there are so many things wrong with this University that made it quite a terrible experience from my perspective. There's two main topics that I'll delve into, the student population and the actual University itself.
Diversity & Inclusion:
I thought I would start here as it's the thing that sticks out the most in my opinion. Before I go into the actual University itself it is important to understand the historical context of the city and surrounding area to fully understand the unnatural and uncomfortable environment that is present as a result of this. Durham county itself is a very working class area that was a traditional mining area and suffered greatly from Thatcher's policy to shut down mining operations and as a result, many people lost their jobs and the economic situation deteriorated heavily, leaving many destitute and unemployed. To this day, Durham is still very working class and still recovering from the closure of the mines.
The student population drastically juxtaposes the socio-economic class of the people who live in the city and surrounding area. Middle-Upper class kids from affluent areas in the UK and Chinese students that are the children of the elite in China, walking around in £1000s worth of clothing on a daily basis. They have no regard for the people that are struggling to make ends meet in the city that they have come to, to get their education. There is a Town v Gown mentality. A few years ago - Trevelyan College rugby club planned a “Thatcher v the miners”-themed social, asking members to dress in “flat caps” and “filth”. For inspiration, the team were to: “Think pickaxes. Think headlamps. Think 12% unemployment in 1984”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/26/student-rugby-team-forced-to-cancel-event-mocking-miners-strike
This should give you an idea of the type of students that go here. Of course it's not everyone, but it's arguably the majority. By the way, if you include grammar schools (which in my opinion is a lot closer to a private school than your average comprehensive), most of the students come from this type of environment. If you're a BAME student or a working class white kid you will find it hard to fit in with most of these students. All the activities and 'formals' are pretentious. There are summer and winter balls and it's all just pretentious to be honest. The nightlife is very poor, cringey and corny music. Newcastle is 15mins away on train so that's a plus. I haven't even mention the ridiculous amount of money all of these events cost, it's not very inclusive for those who are poor or less fortunate.
I haven't even touched on the micro-aggression and casual racism from the students. I was literally asked on my first day "if I was from the hood?" Like wtf. Honestly if you're from London, or even Brum or Manny I'd strongly advise you to go to an equally as good university such as Manchester or Leeds, Nottingham or the London unis. You'll have a much better time. You won't be scorned for listening to any decent tunes (hip-hop/rnb) or surrounded by Oxbridge rejects.
There's so much else to say but this post is getting long, the point is, Durham can be very isolating if you're not from a certain background and honestly you'll have a better time elsewhere.
£££ - Money
Okay, this is about the University itself. I honestly believe Durham only cares about making as much money as possible. Not only do they charge the most absurd amount of money for every activity, society and college fees, but the accommodation fees are a damn right rip-off.
Most students will live in a Durham college in their first year, where most colleges are catered. For this you are charged a whopping £7,894. If you're fortunate enough to get a self-catered college, it will cost you 5.5-6k for the academic year so that is for around 36-40 weeks. It's honestly a huge rip-off. Many times you won't even be up to get breakfast served in the catered colleges and a lot of the time you would rather go eat out with a friend or two.
A gown, which I found to be very pretentious is £53, which you need to get at the beginning of freshers. Then you have to pay a JCR fee of around £150-200 which varies between the colleges in order to go to events at a supposedly cheaper rate. The summer and winter balls are like £80. College library fees is another £20. Like seriously, this University is a money making scheme. The accommodation is more expensive than some halls in LONDON.
Against the wishes of the local community, the University is continuing to build more Colleges to cater for more and more students, despite the increasing strain on resources. The main library already gets very packed especially during term time so I fail to see how they are going to cater for the extra students. The University loves international students and is trying to get as many as possible, because they are a cash cow for the Uni. The quality of teaching is being diluted, super big classes with very minimal spending to improve facilities to match the rate of rapidly increasing student numbers. Every year without fail, they will increase the cost of accommodation prices and even outside of college accommodation there is a monopoly on student houses in the area so it is all just very expensive.
I'm losing my patience to continue writing but all in all, Durham feels like a factory, trying to get as many students as possible in order to extract as much money as they can from them. It's a public boarding school environment full of rich kids and the like.
Don't make my mistake. Go to Leeds/Manchester/Nottingham if you want an equally as good degree but have a WAAAY better time.

Which Durham college did you go to? Was it one largely populated by the middle classes? Because I’ve heard of colleges that are more 50\50

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