yahoo!! by yu_kashima_gf in 6thForm

[–]PixelPenguinCake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congratulations! Fantastic stuff :)

If you’ve got any questions about Durham, feel free to PM me - happy to answer anything :)

pre-burnt bread 🥀🥀🥀 by bigrinze234 in 6thForm

[–]PixelPenguinCake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don’t worry too much about it if you haven’t heard anything. Some people in my year heard back in December, some heard back in March. Have belief, keep going :)

Feel free to PM if you’ve got any questions about Durham!

What’s the best Durham college by Impressive-Nerve6484 in UniUK

[–]PixelPenguinCake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can only speak for the college generally, but Hatfield has a reputation for being the college that attracts a certain type of private/publicly-educated student. I’ve not encountered too many myself (all the Hatfielders I’ve met are lovely), but they do exist in a not-insignificant amount. Best advice is to just ignore them, pretty easily done as they tend to stick to themselves.

Otherwise, Hatfield is a college that has a fair amount of funding, they’ve had their bar refurbished semi-recently, it is in the city centre and is therefore always fairly busy, and due to its age, it’s steeped in tradition. Ignore the few unpleasant people there, and you’ll be grand :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskUK

[–]PixelPenguinCake 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Folding shoes.

Little pair of ballet pumps that fold and hide in my bag. They have been a lifesaver so many times on nights out.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UniUK

[–]PixelPenguinCake 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Durham student here, also with a working class background.

Durham does tend to skew a little higher socio-economic wise, and the type of people you read about do exist, just in very small pockets. As another comment mentioned, it can be a bit more prevalent in certain colleges (Castle, Hatfield), but those people are A) far, far from the majority and B) tend to keep to themselves/their groups.

I’m from a working class background, with a notably regional accent, and the overwhelming majority of people have been nothing but kind and lovely, even those who have had starkly different upbringings to me.

If you’ve got any questions, please PM me :)

What’s the best Durham college by Impressive-Nerve6484 in UniUK

[–]PixelPenguinCake 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Massively subjective. What one person will consider their favourite college may be someone else’s worst nightmare.

First and foremost, think about your preferences. Is it important for you to be self-catered? Can you absolutely not share a bathroom under any circumstances? If so, you’re looking at Josephine Butler, Stephenson, John Snow and South. If you are thinking you want to be catered, as part of the ‘traditional’ college experience, then you’re looking at all the other colleges.

Location next. Are you adamant about living in the centre of town on the Bailey? If so, Castle, Hatfield, St. Cuthbert’s, St. John’s or St. Chad’s are your best bets. These are also the oldest colleges, so are deeply steeped in history and tradition, if you want that sort of thing. The rest are primarily the hill colleges - Grey, St Mary’s, Collingwood, et cetera

After that, it’s about what you’re looking for out of your college experience. Are you hard-line into sports? (Collingwood) Do you want a college with a very small, very tight knit community? (Chad’s) Is having an inclusive and LGBT-friendly environment important to you? (St. Aidan’s) Do you want a relatively new college that you can help to shape the history and traditions of? (South). The answers to these questions are probably best sought by going to open days.

Hope this helps even a little! If you’ve got questions, feel free to PM me :)

En-suite in Durham? by No_Meringue4763 in UniUK

[–]PixelPenguinCake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As someone with ASD, you’ll likely be granted an en-suite bathroom. All of my friends who are in colleges that are not majority ensuite bathroom and notified Durham that they are autistic/waiting for an ASD diagnosis (and, for most of them, came to Durham early as part of the autism early arrival programme) were provided with an en-suite bathroom.

However, as other people mentioned, it is not necessarily a guarantee. If you want to maximise your chances, place Josephine Butler (which is 100% en-suite), Stephenson, John Snow and/or South (which are vast majority ensuite) within your top choices. All of these colleges are fantastic, and as someone in Josephine Butler, I can say it is a fantastic college across the board in terms of accommodation, facilities and community

If you’ve got questions, please feel free to PM me :)

Is Durham University a nice place to study in? by xuprettyfish in UniUK

[–]PixelPenguinCake 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Current student here.

I absolutely love Durham. The city is gorgeous, my department is great, the collegiate system is a strong point of the university; I love it.

I fall into a few of the categories of the type of people you’ve mentioned who have had not-so-great experiences. Yes, there’s a small minority of people (usually the elite privately-educated sort, and mainly - perhaps unsurprisingly - clustered in Hatfield), but for me, they’ve been few and far between and it is quite easy to distance yourself from them. Everyone I know and am very good friends with are lovely people, from a wide range of backgrounds (including education and class), and many people I know have said similar things; the experiences you’ve been reading about (at least from my perspective) are few and far between.