Durham University

[KingscoteStaff]

A continuation thread for those with DC at Durham, or applying for Durham or alumni or staff! Share your thoughts and questions on colleges, courses, etc.

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Who have I missed??

Colleges at Durham have always been allocated at offer level, in fact when I was there you were interviewed by both college and Dept. I have a vivid memory of being interviewed in college by Debs Lavin; she stood over me whilst I sat in a tiny mustard coloured chair, in a corner of her weirdly shaped office. I think she did sit down eventually but she was a fairly imposing character.

I do think for this year though, given the problems they had last year and the anticipated over subscription again it might have been better to hold off , but then some people would have objected to that I expect. You can't please everyone , and I am certainly not saying they haven't made mistakes, at least one catastrophic one judging by this thread, but I do think they are not the only institution struggling and its mostly a problem not of their making.

@MidLifeCrisis007 must be very worrying for you and your son not knowing if he has somehow fallen through the net. I hope he gets sorted soon.

Ds had to fill in a questionnaire from his college, literally his name, UCAS number, whether he wanted to live in the college, high floor/low floor and shared bathroom or en-suite. That was it, a box at the bottom talking about supporting evidence for your room allocation but it reads like wheelchair accessible or en-suite due to X medical condition not what kind of person are you.

No other questions, no are you vegan or vegetarian, no party or quiet, but I know another college has done this, and is not a shared room one either. I am not sure if he gets a follow up questionnaire once all the replies are back by Sunday or if that is it. It was part of the reason he chose Durham was because they at least try to match people rather than randomly assigning rooms, or so I thought.

I thought all the stress would be over after results day. How wrong I was.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom

Exactly the same for DS at Stephenson. Only without the question about high/low level. It was was type of bathroom & any allergies. Nothing personal. I’m hoping there will be another form!

Jeepers ds's questionnaire was almost all about personality; describe yourself in three words what are you hoping to be involved with, who would be your ideal neighbour etc etc . Goodness knows how much notice they take of it. I am a bit cynical tbh, ds1 had all of this at another university and he got the complete opposite of everything he had asked for. It might be best not to be asked loads of questions and then you can't feel let down.

The most useful questions I thought were the ones about what time of day do you work best and do you like working in your room, although if you have to isolate in your room you haven't got much choice really. The how tall are you was good, although as he has been used to a 3/4 bed at home he will probably struggle anyway.

@Braveheart35 ah your son is down the bottom end like mine, he is in South. The more detailed questionnaire came from John Snow!

@Peaseblossum22 yes Ds would have liked the when do you work best as he is a morning person and would ideally not be surrounded by people who party until 5am. Some of his mates currently go to bed at 7am which is when he wakes up.

Good news!

DS1's Durham place has been reinstated. The university has admitted it was their fault... and DS1 had done every thing right in terms of form filling etc. Apparently it was just a "system's glitch".

His college will be confirmed by 2nd Sept, but it seems it's the Bailey colleges where most of the overcapacity problems lie not at the mighty Van Mildert.

I am so touched that some of you took the time to PM me over this. Means a lot. Thank you ladies.

Thank goodness @MidlifeCrisis007 what a relief, although definitely something you could have done without 1

@MidLifeCrisis007 oh what a relief! What a worry for you both. Hopefully your son can start looking forward to his university experience.

Last year my dd had to fill in a detailed questionnaire about her accommodation likes and dislikes, but I don’t think anything was taken into consideration at all as they seemed overwhelmed and were just trying to slot people in anywhere, and it seemed to be an ever changing situation as people were getting their accommodation and then deferring. Perhaps it’s looked at more when allocating shared rooms.

Oh I am really pleased for you and your ds @MidLifeCrisis007! Onwards!

Yay @MidLifeCrisis007 !

Wonder why they were not able to confirm college choice now if it wasn't over subscribed? Anyway he has a place! hurrah!

@chopc..possibly because it wasn't his first choice (it was his fifth choice). If a space now comes up at Collingwood (unlikely) I hope he'd be prioritised for that.

Let's see. Luckily it is stressing me out more than DS

@MidLifeCrisis007, what a relief! Was telling dd about this today, must have been so unnecessarily stressful for you both.

Dd had the same form as @Peaseblossum22. She answered it very thoughtfully so I hope it gets some genuine consideration but we will see. There was an option to put how you felt about room sharing which ranged from 'I would love to to 'I would hate it'. She plumped for in the middle and hopes that if she does have to share they will use this form to try and match her with some compatability.

@LeiatheSchnauzer ds also struggled with that question and in the end went with his gut feeling which was fairly decisive! But if you watch the offer holders zoom for 2021 they do say that they can usually fill the shared rooms from people who are actively happy to share . I must say we had a bit of a shared laugh over the form , he did fill it in seriously but it was fun sharing his top three words to describe himself etc . He’s pretty chatty , and easy to get along with so I hope he will be ok wherever he ends up.

@Peaseblossum22, he sounds like dd, I am sure that she will get along with most people. She is just worried about getting a big time partier but she emphasised her preference of early morning starts

Any current student's parents about?

Ds is booking his elective modules but how on earth do you know which core tutorial they will be putting you in? Lectures are clear because of the size but then there are 3 smaller class sizes on the same day at different times. How do you know which one you will be assigned when making decisions about electives and your commitment to them?

Not knowing building layouts etc how do you book an elective that starts at the same time another core class finishes if you don't even know how long it will take you to travel between the two rooms?

Dh and Ds are doing this at the minute and they both seem to think it is on a first come first served basis so need to get it done right now as Ds is due to go to a friend's surprise birthday party in 15 minutes.

Not a parent of a current student but surely that's covered in freshers week? We haven't even sorted out our accommodation form yet let alone any electives.

I don’t think ds has a clue about this , I thought the depts checked for clashes , the timetable planner is hopeless

@libbytrois it is part of the enrolment process, Ds got his username yesterday and then the password this morning. I was sadly busy so Dh and Ds did it all together and the choosing 2 electives was part of it.

Ds has been allocated his college, some students were told by 24th August.

@Peaseblossum22 the system did check for clashes but it also said you must check manually too to make sure. Ds chose a maths elective and the whole page was just filled with timetable slots. I just popped my head in at the time and Dh said he didn't have time to explain it all to me it was clearly stressful for him anyway, this is why I do life admin

Apparently there is still more to do with the enrolment but Ds is now at the last 18th birthday party of his friends so it will now be tomorrow.

It’s impossible for ds subject , but it does say in his dept handbook they the dept checks for clashes.maybe it’s different for Arts subjects . Even if you just put the compulsory modules in they already clash . @libbytrois module choices need to be in by 3 Sept , at least they do for ds dept .

Which subjects are these? Dd hasn't had anything about electives or modules but we think that is because she is on an accredited course (physics)?

DS just had a welcome email from Van Mildert....

So he has a college and a Durham place. Huge progress on 48 hours ago when both were in doubt!

@MidLifeCrisis007 finally! Congratulations. Phew.

@LeiatheSchnauzer Ds is doing computer science

@Peaseblossum22 yes Ds can just see that the group tutorials/practicals/seminars all clash with each other. Lectures don't appear to. I feel like he has missed some vital welcome to Durham this is what you do guidance. He is really on top of it all though, checked the website etc.

@MidLifeCrisis007 yay🎉🥳

@OnTheBenchOfDoom I wish ds was, I am not sure he has grasped the complexity at all !