Applying for Uni 2019 entry Part 2, UCAS & offers

[Decorhate]

Here we go!

Has anyone had an offer from Durham for History yet?

I'm new too . DD has an unconditional offer from UEA for English and American Studies if she puts it as her firm choice. Not heard from the other 4 yet including Birmingham which is her favourite at the moment. Good luck to everyone !

BigTilly she’s already applied and got places at both! They’re about 20 minutes apart on the train which is why every time she goes to visit one of her 5 friends in Durham she joins it with a visit to at least a few of her 9/10 friends at Newcastle or Northumbria...

bigTillyMint Not this year but a few years ago a friend's dd did not hear from Durham till March I believe. And she had done an early entry as was applying to Cambridge too

Going on accommodation prices, I'd be strongly encouraging Newcastle!

I think the life styles would be quite different too - much more going on outside the university in Newcastle. Isn't Durham fairly low cost too? Not much wealth outside the university.

Durham City is very affluent! County Durham not so much although bits of it are well posh (looking at you, Barnard Castle!)

Accommodation is definitely more expensive (and almost all catered - only one or two colleges offer self catered, not the one DD applied to!) but they offer generous accommodation grants and other grants/bursaries/scholarships because of the collegiate system, moreso than Newcastle from what I can see. Her pros/cons lists so far have been -

Newcastle pros - lovely city, lots going on, lots of friends/familiar faces, good module choice.
Newcastle cons - possible too many friends/familiar faces (everyone around here goes Newcastle or Northumbria), module choice not quite as flexible as Durham in later years, cheaper cost of living.

Durham pros - good module choice, enough friends/familiar faces but not too many (2 of her 5 close friends there will be graduating this year, though one is planning on staying to work at the university), a very student-oriented city, good module choice, good bursaries and student support.
Durham cons - less metropolitan, less going on, very white, southern & mc, potentially too much module flexibility(!), more expensive cost of living.

Well done to your DD keyboardplayer! An unconditional must be a nice first offer.

Realise I put cheaper cost of living in Newcastle cons - of course it’s in pros!

PancakeMum that is a very analytical list. She has a bright future ahead thinking as clearly as that!

PancakeMum6 we came up on the very packed train last summer to see Newcastle. We were in first class which was also packed. It was full of parents and 16/17 year olds. We were sitting next to some very loud families discussing ski holidays, Oxbridge contacts and doing Geo (Geography). We were the only ones left in the carriage after Durham. We hadn’t realised the open days were the same day. My Dd made up her mind there and then that she wasn’t going to look at the Durham course, in the future, that had sounded interesting. I was disappointed she didn’t even look at it, but she had said previously that on social media that all the people discussing Durham sounded stuck up. I, of course, had been arguing she was a reverse snob and know they are not but that train ride completely played against me.

The best bit was the pitying looks when I explained to some people on the train that we were going up to Newcastle. I have quite a posh accent and can talk the talk from my public school days but they all ignored us after that. Dd was trying not to look triumphant.

When we got to Newcastle the rest of the train (standard class) got off with us. Dd remarked how I was dressed like the rest of the normal mums. I took that as a compliment I think.

On the way back, we sat next to a lovely friendly PhD student from Durham. He didn’t help though as he said Durham students were always getting the train to Newcastle to see bands/nights out.

Nagaram what a fascinating experience! To be fair, DD’s friend at Newcastle is in a flat with one girl from Jersey whose family has a boat and sail to France just for an evening regularly and a girl with a very posh name who did two gap years - two ski seasons and a yacht season, so Newcastle’s not totally avoided the crowd. But I know her (not mc) Northumbria friends found it much easier to settle than her not mc Newcastle friends, who again found it easier than not mc Durham friends. One boy at Durham said everyone was very posh and intimidating at first but he has now established a more ‘ordinary’ group, who also confessed they felt the same to begin. I do worry about DD losing her identity somewhere like Durham - she’s so down to earth and individual, and her background and heritage are so fascinating.

In the end Durham (and Cambridge) don’t do the course she wants to do so that settled it. Also big cities, with their facilities appeal to her as we are in a quaint village atmosphere. As I said up-post she’s only put 2 on her form - she knows what she wants!

PancakeMum6 glad you took my story as being fascinating - it was one of those times you can’t believe it was so stereotypical. I would not have believed it. I know some lovely people and a lecturer from Durham too. I wouldn’t worry about seeing too many old friends as she’ll end up mostly with new ones. Ask her how she’d feel if she never could go back to each one of them.

I made a friend at my Oxford interview who , like me, was rejected. She went to Durham and dropped out after a term because she felt too socially isolated. I, on the other hand, settled in pretty well at York, which has the highest percentage of state school of all the 'Oxbridge reject' universities.

I would say, though nagram - you were in first class!! I have never sat there in my life and would fuly expect it to be rather well to do and fancy pants!

If you book well in advance you can sometimes get a good deal on first class tickets. And the free refreshments sets off the increased price!

Thank you Pancake. She's very relieved! Does anyone know if Manchester interviews for English before offering?

Durham History should be quicker than they used to be. Word is that they have doubled (or are aiming to double) their numbers so you'd expect them to move a little faster to snap up students bc of that.

The students I teach who have appplied to Manchester this year for arts subjects have been asked to send essays : I am guessing in lieu of an interview?

We got really cheap seats in advance with my railcard but there were no seats left to reserve (early train from London) which rang warning bells. My mum has said you could upgrade to 1st class for a smallish fee. So we went into first class - still busy- and paid £15 for a one-way upgrade and that included a big breakfast and lots of drinks. Never done first class til recently either but didn’t fancy standing up for hours, hungry (neither of us had fancied breakfast so early when we got up). We broke the journey on the way back (standard, as there were seats) and stopped at York to check that out for the Sunday open day. Another handy tip: breaking the journey was for no extra cost (although obviously had to pay for a room) so it was cost/time efficient.

Just to add to that: we only went to 4 open days in the end but I know some have been to loads more. The cost/time really adds up and we did discuss how it must be prohibitive to some people in the very first place.

Interesting about York Piggy Dd actually said it had a similar vibe to what you said after the open day. Strange how this perpetuates itself.

No offers yet for Dd - only went in Thursday - she’s so excited, I think she knows her track number off by heart already. I am presuming nothing will happen on a Sunday so we can have a breather.

Nagaram, schools will often help out with travel expenses for their 16-19 bursary students.

I think all universities will have lots of well off/privately educated students. And Dd (at Leeds) says that almost everyone she meets is from London or the SE.

She ended up (not by choice) in halls with a rep for being popular with boarding school types. I don't think she ever felt out of place, most of them played down their upbringing

We only did 2 open days! Plus DD had a free trip down to Oxford from school. She didn’t apply to either of the open day universities either (well, she applied to Nottingham for about five hours... totally disregarded Warwick as she hated it!).

Decorhate I do some teaching at Leeds and it’s definitely got that vibe! Hearing a northern accent is a rarity. I think DD’s friends have found Manchester, Durham and Newcastle all to be a bit like that, but Sheffield and Liverpool seem a little less. She’s not close to anyone at York so can’t comment there.

I do worry that she’d struggle at a university with lots of white/middle class types, but it’s probably going to be unavoidable. Tough for her.

I think Open Days can backfire on the unis. We have been to , I think, 5 and DS has only applied to one of the ones we visited. The others seemed in some way to have actively put him off! I think on the whole the universities may need to rethink their overly long subject talks - at least what they think students want to hear and know. It was also offputting to DS that some talks were so poorly attended.