Anyone from Durham

Hi, I’m in first year doing Biosciences at Durham so happy to chat! What would you like to know?

I'm honestly just wondering what life is like as a student and about the whole college system thing

Alright! Well in terms of what life is like, it’s kind of whatever you want it to be. In general, every morning there’s a walk or cycle to a lecture hall, and then you spend the time you are not in lectures catching up on reading or doing assignments or going out or taking a nap or whatever. The rest of the contact hours are taken up by tutorials and seminars. I’ve heard that history doesn’t have a lot of lectures but a lot of reading. There’s plenty of societies that you can join to do in your free time - these are usually on weekends and Wednesday afternoons. You can go out as much or as little as you like, and there are some good bars and clubs if you decide to go. Most societies also do socials, which in my experience is normally a college bar crawl. Ofc you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.
The college system thing is pretty simple - you get assigned a college based on your preferences and that’s where you live (in your first year and if you want later as well) and where you do your college activities. There are lots of different societies in different colleges but most of them are the same. Every college has different accommodation and has formals which is basically when you dress up and eat a meal with other people in your college. If you’re into sports there are intercollegiate competitions, but other than that there’s not a whole lot of overlap between college societies.
That’s basically a jumble of what came into my head about life in Durham and the college system. If you have any specific questions lmk and I’ll be happy to answer them!
Also, this website might be useful to you bc you’ll be able to see what a load of other students have said about life at Durham: https://durham-student.org

Hey, so I have all my offers in and I have to make a decision with what I am going to put down as my two choose. I was thinking Durham but never been to the uni and was wondering if anyone is on her from Durham studying history or anything else to be honest, willing to have a chat about what life is like there.

Hi there!
I'm glad to see you're considering Durham. I'm a student from Durham and I commute to university, so please feel free to ask me any questions about the uni or the area. 😊 It's a lovely place and an incredible institution.
I study Psychology, so can only speak for that experience, however you can view more about the course here: https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/courses/history-v100/ (including information about modules, study abroad opportunities, placement years, and more).
Additionally, you can read student blogs from those doing history here:
https://durham-student.org/whats-it-like-studying-history/
https://durham-student.org/whats-it-like-studying-history-2/
https://durham-student.org/connections-connections-connections-my-experience-of-studying-history-at-durham-university/
I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions! 😊
-Rosie (DU Representative)

Hi I was actually looking at all the different collages and trying to decide which ones I would want to be in.
I'll be going to visit in April but I would be interested to know if you have any advice for deciding which collage.
I'm currently looking at St Mary's but not too sure.