h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My pleasure for letting you know how much I liked the article!


I noticed on your page that you have just graduated from Durham University (Congratulations! ) and as it is one of the universities that I am thinking of applying to in October (to study Eng. Lit.) I was wondering if I could bug you with questions about what it is like, what college to choose (sooooo confusing )?

If you would rather never think back on your uni time or it all passed in a blur then I completly understand but it would be great to get an insiders perspective

Either way thanks for any help you can give me and for your article!

Emmi

Hi Emmi,

I thought Durham was a great place to study. I loved it there. I wasn't terribly keen on my course, but that's because I didn't like physics that much when I got into it, and wouldn't have liked it anywhere.

Durham is a beautiful place. It's dominated by the Cathedral, and is really beatiful and quite small. It takes about 25 minutes to walk from one extreme of the city to another, and it's very hilly - good excercise!

Don't come to Durham if you like a happening nightlife. There are all of two clubs here. And neither of them are anything special... but it's possible to go up to newcastle for a night out.

That said, some of the college bars are really nice, and the union puts on some good events And if you like dressing up to go to a ball, Durham is definitely worth considering

I can give you a bit of advice re colleges, and there are a few other researchers who have been or are at Durham around...

There are a few things to think about when choosing a college. Do like being in small places, where you know everyone? Or do you like being somewhere big, where there's lots of people? If you like big places, I'd suggest Collingwood or Hild Bede (where I went). If you like smaller places, I'd suggest St Chads or Cuths or something. Are you expecting to get way high A level grades? Castle and Hatfield only tend to want really high achievers, so that's worth bearing in mind. Also, Castle and Hatfield tend to be full of rich people. Which is fine for some tastes, and not for others.

I hope this helps you to begin with. Where else are you thinking of applying to? And a word of warning - Durham takes ages to get around to offering places so don't give up on them when you've heard from everywhere else!

J'au-æmne xxx

Wow! Thank you so much for all the advice! it is so much better to hear from people who were there than to try and decipher the prospectus and the totaly unhelpful university guides! Thank you!!

I am going up to Durham next week (hopefully. ) to have a look around and it is really great to have a place to start from. I like the idea of being in a large college so I guess I will start at Collingwood and Hild Bede, Castle sounds a little scary!

I am also thinking of applying to Oxford (lincon or Merton college), York (although I know v. little about it but it is meant to be v. good for Eng. Lit. ) and Leeds. Have to find another uni I want to apply to as well.... Grrr this is all so complicated . Plus I have left it a tad late....

Thanks again for the wonderful advice... I may be asking for more soon! Sorry you didn't like your course by the way...Physics....hmmmm! Are you going to do post-grad?

Thanks again
Emmi

Hi Emmi,

Just thought I'd add a bit to what J'au-æmne had to say, firstly though, if you're stuck for somewhere to apply to for English Lit., then I can recommend Liverpool as a good department (according to my sister, at least)

Durham is indeed a lovely place to come to and is quite different from most other universities with its collegiate system (which will hopefully still be in place for a good few years yet). As has been said, if you want a larger college then Hild-Bede and Collingwood are good starting points. Both are quite different - Hild-Bede has been around for a long long time and Collingwood was only built in the 1970s, so as a result the decor and accommodation at Collingwood is probably better. For me this wasn't much of a problem, though. Hild-Bede's older buildings have a lot more character in them

Another thing you might want to consider is how far each college is from the department you're going to be in - Hild-Bede is only 10-15 minutes from English, whereas Collingwood is further, about 15-20 I would say. Hild-Bede is also closer to the centre of the town and consequently most of the shops.

Having said all that, it's the people you meet who'll generally make your time at Durham worthwhile, and you're likely to find nice people whichever college you end up at.

Hope that helps!

me[Andy]g

Thank you me[Andy]g!

Hild-Bede's sounds great... the closer to the English Department and the town center the better! The collegiate system is what is really attracting me to Durham (and Oxford), it seems to make the uni atmosphere much more friendy and comfortable than at other universities but actually choosing a college... Terrible!

Thanks for the information about Liverpool - I hadn't thought of it

Can you think of any of the down sides to Hild-Bede's? This is my second round of UCAS and last time I only discovered the down sides of the places that I had applied to after I had applied

I am not very good at all this decision making stuff!
Thanks again for your wondeful help!
Emmi

I have a friend at Merton Sounds like a nice place...

A downside of probably any Durham college is that you might have to share a room for all or part of your first year. This isn't necessarily as bad as it may seem - some people wind up being best friends with their room mates, some people can't stand the sight of them and find a way to move out to somewhere else. Most people are somewhere in between, but get on okay. And you should never underestimate the stupidity of the person placing first years in rooms. The only real way of preventing sharing a room is claiming your gay/lesbian on the accomodation form. They can't then pair you with someone else of the same gender, and they can't exactly put you with someone of the opposite gender

Also, although Hild Bede is big, a lot of the accomodation is in outhouses, so you don't get that feeling of being on a big corridor in a big building which some people hope they're going to get. I was in an outhouse in first year, and I quite enjoyed it - not to quiet or too noisy, with nice people - but some people don't.

A lot of the accomodation in Hild Bede could do with more care taken of it - this isn't the university's fault, as they don't have adequate funding from government, but it's a shame. Also accomodation can be seem expensive for what you're getting.

I found the up sides outweighed the downsides, though

Not convinced about the whole sharing a room thing... it's what put me off the first time! I've had enough of sharing with siblings to last me a life time ! Did you share a room? How does the whole sharing thing work? I am not so worried about the fact that some of the accomodation is in outhouses, actually that seems quite good!

Accomodation seems to be the biggest downside about Durham that I have found so far - oh, that and the total lack of nightlife!

I still really like the colegaite system at Durham though and it seems a really great place to study. Plus it looks beautiful!

yeah - I really like Merton... my chances of getting in are quite slim though! It's such a beautiful college and the library is fantastic, what are the libraries like at Durham?

Thanks again for all your help
Emmi

Hmm, many questions.

The main library in Durham's just had a new entrance built apparently (I'm going on word of mouth here - I haven't seen it despite working in a room only a few minutes' walk away!)... it's a pretty good library for science subjects as far as I could tell, but as regards anything else I can't really help you there. The staff are generally friendly though. Ooh, and the computers (as long as you can get on one, there are sometimes large queues) are some of the fastest on the network. Each college has its own (smaller) library too, don't really know about how good the book selection is but they are good places to work if you want peace and quiet.

I shared a room in my first year... it was okay. The room was quite small for a double (in fact, the single room I am currently in is approximately the same size, maybe bigger) but we got on okay... well, I've been invited to his wedding next year at least...

J'au-æmne shared in her first year for a while too... I don't think she minded too much - especially when her room mate moved out to be closer to her friends in a different part of college, which left Jo with one of the biggest double rooms in college to herself!!

If you say on your application that you really don't want a double room then in most cases you'll be okay.

One more downside about Durham I've just thought of - I guess it comes under the nightlife, but there will soon be no cinema in Durham either, since the current one is about to become... yes, you guessed it, a trendy wine bar (or something like that). Plans are afoot (apparently) for improving the nightclubs, but I'd wait for that to happen before believing it to be true

me[Andy]g

Hey me[Andy]g,

Thanks!

No cinema??? ahh well, at least it will improve my chances of actually doing some work.... maybe.

I am going up to Durham on Wednesday (leaving at the crack of dawn. Rrrrrrr) so with a bit of luck I will have more of an idea of what to do after that. Thanks so much to you and J'au-æmne for all your help, its really great to go be able to go with some idea of where to start... it's all a bit daunting this university application stuff.

Still not sure about sharing a room but hey! nothing can be worse than sharing with your three year old sister and baby brother. Or at least I hope so

Anyway, thanks again - I'm really looking forward to seeing Durham on Wednesday, I hope I have more of an idea what to do after that!

Emmi

cool let us know how it went, and if the visit throws up any more questions, be sure to ask us

Durham was fantastic... I had a really great time and I am definitely putting it as my second choice! I really liked Hild Bede so I guess I will probably apply there.

Thank you both for all the information that you gave me, it was really great to have a starting point when I got there…

So yes – I am really glad that all went well on Wednesday and thankful that at least some of the UCAS demons have diminished!

Thanks again for all your help!

Emmi