Anyone waiting for a Durham offer?

[Annabelnextdoor]

DS has applied for a STEM at Durham. Heard nothing back yet. So thought I’d start a thread so we can share news of offers coming though?
Anyone have any experience as to when offers for STEM are normally made?. The thought of waiting until April seems too much!

Congratulations @Headingto18 ! 🎉🎉🎉

Excellent news @Headingto18 - I am so glad your long wait is over.

Congrats @Headingto18!!🎊🎊🎉 Is that the last place your DD was waiting to hear from?

We are just waiting on Durham and Exeter offer holder days in a few weeks before DD decides on firm and insurance. Fortunately they are both within a few days of each other so the experiences will be fresh in her mind. Although DD is now starting to express mild concern around the distance of Durham as we edge closer to her having to make a decision.

By train there isn’t a huge difference in journey time between us and Durham and Exeter - they are both a long way but the train journeys are pretty simple. We don’t own a car so will probably only drive it twice to take his stuff there and back and use storage during the summers.

As my son pointed out a week or so ago, Durham is much better connected to places where his friends want to study, so he will be able to visit them much easier. His friends want to go to Edinburgh, York and Leeds - would be a different story if it was Bristol and Bath.

Exeter is significantly easier for us out of the two. It’s a 2 1/2 hour train journey from a local station and changing at Reading. And the drive can be just under 3 hours on a good day. Whereas Durham is a 4 hour train journey including travelling across London to get to King’s Cross. Driving is 5+ hours so not something we would want to do regularly. I feel like I’d be happier to drive to Exeter to visit whereas Durham would require the train. I think DD just feels if she needed to pop home short notice for whatever reason then it’s easier from Exeter.

Thats a good point regards where friends are going (although obviously shouldn’t be sole reason for choosing somewhere). But again doesn’t really help her; she has 2 close friends that are probably going to firm Durham, another wanting Leeds and her cousin firming Newcastle. Similarly she has friends that want Bath, Bristol and Plymouth.

So do you think DS is likely to firm Durham @Jaxx?

I will be very surprised if he picks Exeter over Durham - but who knows. I think the collegiate system will work really well for him and add an extra level of support. The autism support also seems a bit better at Durham and includes the option of moving in a couple of days early so they are settled before the rest arrive.

He would probably be happy at either. He has always said he wants to live in a small city/town for university as a contrast to central London. Exeter seems to have increased their student accommodation costs a lot more than Durham this year and charge a lot more for en-suite which counts a bit against them in my book too.

Thanks all - Edin still awaited. Good news is she was able to book on an offer holder day (unlike at Bristol!) - it’s about 3 1/2-4 hrs by train and 4-5hrs by road for us. She is going to offer holder day alone as i have to work, but have managed to get her a room in St Chads

For us distance Bath is better - everyone says Durham is only 'three hours from London' but only if you live in Kings Cross! But my daughter may well through a spanner in the works and choose....Glasgow!

@Rollergirl11 DD is at Durham and we live near Reading - not sure if you're aware but there's a train that means no changes (but takes ages/stops lots and isn't that frequent). Does avoid having to navigate the London tube with a big bag.

DD also put Exeter as her insurance, I agree that the travel would have been easier!

Sadly my other daughter did not get an offer from Durham for Biosciences. She was very disappointed but at least the wait is over! Good luck to anyone else still waiting.

Does anyone know about parking on offer days? Dd said there was no information on her email and we do not know Durham at all.

@dredlocks so sorry your daughter wasn’t offered a place - I hope she gets over her disappointment soon. There are plenty of other excellent universities in which she could thrive ❤️

Re parking for offer holders days I don’t think there was any last year. It depends where you want to go. There’s a multi storey next to the premier inn in the city centre which from memory gives you a bit of a discount if you are staying at the PI - that’s 5 mins walk from market square. There’s also Prince Bishops multi storey which is mid way between market square and the Bailey.

I think there’s a park and ride up on the hill but I’m afraid I’ve not been there.

On a sort of related note they do provide parking on moving in day. If you’re on the Bailey it’s like a military operation where you go an d collect a pass from somewhere (some council offices) just outside of town and then are put into a queuing system and released to drive up (maybe 5 mins drive) at your allocated time. You then get 10 mins on the Bailey before you have to live your car to somewhere over near the sports centre. The Bailey / Market Square is shut to cars on the moving in days and it was quite an experience being waved through the closures by the traffic management people - even more so when you get onto North Bailey and have just the most amazing (and noisy) welcome from your colleges Freps when they see the colour of your pass.

@Crochetpenguin - strongly recommend using the park and ride system. There's a car park just off the A1 j62 exit at Belmont and also one at South Road - right next to Stevenson and South College, if you want to be closer in.

Take a look at Durham.gov.uk for more details.

@Crochetpenguin The park n ride adjacent to Butler/Stephenson is very easy to access from the AI. Drive in from A1 through Shincliffe and you go past the sports centre, keep going and the science campus/library appear on your left. Turn left at the traffic lights and you drive a past a number of the hill colleges, which you can then look into after parking. It's a reasonable walk down to the Bailey checking out the colleges but I recommend a bus back up. We fell foul of 'cardiac hill' heading to the subject session.

I wondered about that @KittyMcKitty. You mentioned in an earlier post that students might have to vacate their Bailey rooms over the holidays - do they do the same again then?

@mondaytosunday it varies from college to college as to if they have to vacate. I don’t think any do at Christmas. Chads some do at Easter but my dd and all their friends are just moving their things into the rooms of people who don’t have to vacate. Some colleges have under bed storage - Chads don’t. I was quite worried about this but it’s actually fine. There’s also the option to have a 39 week lease but I don’t know how many of these there are and I think it may be only international students? But no there’s no official moving in after the Easter holidays. There’s also loads of companies in Durham who will collect and store students things over the holidays, or storage units you can rent. It all seems to work out!

At normal times cars can drive up to the Bailey - there are a couple of dropping off spaces outside of chads. Most students seem to catch the train home (and then back to college) - there’s an awful lot of them going into Kings X and then across London to the other stations!

@EwwSprouts is cardiac hill the footpath from the main science site to the psychology dept?

If so, it used to be called heart attack hill in my day - our college had a particularly masochistic rowing coach who had us do running reps at the start of michelmas term which incorporated it.

Many breakfasts lost on those runs lol

Thanks @KittyMcKitty. Not trying to jump the gun! Offer day Tuesday week then Glasgow the following. Hope decent weather for both as that may make a difference!

@KittyMcKitty re driving up the Bailey, you do need to pay £2 through Monday to Saturday daytimes to do this, unless you have a pass.

Durham's own little version of a congestion zone.

Your car licence plate is read when you enter the market place and then you have to go online later and pay before end of day. Think its a 50 quid fine if you don't.

@lastdayatschool thank you I didn’t know that will be useful for if we pick all her stuff up for the summer (debating putting it in storage).

Enjoy! Irrespective of whether your dd likes the Uni Durham is a lovely city. Dd is at Chads so do say if there’s anything you want to know (do go to the principal - Margaret’s - talk on offer holders day she gives a really good impression of what Chads is all about).

For those of us who get offers and yp end up at Durham - 🤞🏻the need to secure accommodation in October/November and pay ridiculous rents may be coming to an end!

https://www.palatinate.org.uk/landlords-panicking-as-they-continue-to-reduce-rents/

Yes. What is it with coaches? We attended the talk for biological sciences. The hosting academic said that they use it for physiology tests, with a laugh.

I love it when a 19 or 20 year old answers on TSR or WIWIKAU that the hills (Durham/Exeter/Bristol) are 'not a problem I go up and down several times a day'. Yes, you are young and fit, not a post 60 year old carrying a few (or a lot) extra pounds. The Exeter hill (not cardiac hill, just the general walk up from the train) was hard, especially in 34 degree heat! My DD of course just bounded up. The professors must be fit!