Offers for 2025

[ontheturn]

I noticed that in 2024 there was an offers thread where people shared when their children. had submitted to ucas and what offers they had received. Anyone interested? We have offers for Manchester, Bristol and Leeds all within ten days of submitting ucas but still waiting on Edinburgh. We do know others who submitted at the same time who have had Edinburgh offers already.

Still in the waiting room @Dery! We’re waiting for Warwick. Welcome @Soundofshuna: ) Surely our DCs will hear soon 🤞We feel v much in limbo. One minute convinced it’ll be a rejection and talking up the second choice, the next a glimmer of hope having not actually had a rejection yet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9e894z23jo

@LighthouseCat - yes, the waiting’s hard.

Like you I go from assuming it’s a rejection to feeling hopeful because we haven’t heard yet. Looks like the unis in question may be waiting to see what other students do before deciding re our DCs. I think the deadline for offers is some time in May so we’ll presumably hear in the next few weeks.

Thanks, @QuirkInTheMatrix. That might also explain things.

Durham was gorgeous for the offer holder day, obviously it's not usually like this 😁 DS was convinced he wanted to self cater but Cuth's turned his head, very good presentation by the vice principal

@MillicentFaucet - yes, Cuths is high up DD’s list also.

I think the (high) possibility of having to share a room is putting him off a bit though. We saw a sample timetable for his course and it looks pretty full on 9-5 every day except Wednesday so not even much time to nip back to college for lunch!
He's going to have a think & submit his form later in the week, today is his first exam & he has a job interview tomorrow so a lot going on.

@MillicentFaucet - yes, the sharing does give pause for thought and I’m not sure where DD has landed on it but it applies to some of her other preferred colleges and I think she quite likes the idea of having someone to go exploring with for Freshers Week etc, assuming she makes it to Durham. Sounds like your DC is on the science side. DD has applied for Liberal Arts so would have a quieter lecture timetable.

Fingers crossed to your DS for his exam and job interview and to everyone’s DCs for exams and results day!!!

@LighthouseCat and @Soundofshuna - we’re still waiting for St A and E here. DD is getting really fed up with me asking (I enquired again this morning) so am trying to back off for now!!! Fortunately, it’s only relevant for insurance purposes (they’re both fab unis of course but DD’s subject combination is surprisingly niche and Durham offers the best version of it).

Hello @MillicentFaucet and @Dery - we were at Durham this weekend as well. Wasn’t the weather gorgeous? We’ve been lucky with weather on both open & offer holder days. I’ve warned DD she’ll need a massive duvet-style coat for large chunks of the year if she firms Durham, but she’s not at all keen on giving up living in her thrifted leather jacket.

Interesting reading how other DCs are feeling about the room sharing situation. DD is also concerned about that, which is clashing with her love of the Bailey colleges and their traditions. She loved Chad‘s but is put off by the certain room share, and then further surprised herself by also loving Hatfield despite being an emo/alt music grammar school girl (ie not really fitting the college stereotype).

It’s funny to me because I went to uni in a country where room sharing in first year was standard, and was far from being viewed as a boarding school hangover. I completely identified with all the reassuring speeches about how the roommate system works out for the vast majority, but she still seems concerned. I’m not at all sure where she’ll land on the matter, and she will not start deciding until she’s finished her MFL speaking exam on Weds.

@RayonSunrise - good luck to your DD also for her speaking exam - my DD has hers on Monday.

We have lovely mid-30s neighbours and the husband was at Hatfield and loved it. My elder DD (who’s at Edinburgh) has 2 close friends at Hatfield (one in 1st year and one in 2nd) and they love it, too.

You cannot 100% avoid room sharing, but if you want to have single room as top priority, the best ordering of accom is to put the colleges with no shared rooms top and only put the shared room colleges bottom.
Less applied for (so more likely to get it allocated) include Van Mildert which is catered and Grey also catered. Jo Bo and Stephenson get less top rankings than the other self catered.

The college stereotypes are pretty meaningless as many allocations are pretty random (although about 75% get top choice - and more would if less put the same few colleges top) and it really is true that everyone seems to love whichever college they get. In other unis, you don’t get an allocation of hall until post results and bearing in mind Durham only confirms (and some are reallocated) after results, it’s essentially the same. Thinking about it in detail at this stage doesn’t achieve much apart from potential unwarrranted disappointment.
The big choices to be made are self catered or catered, Hill or Bailey and how prepared you are to share rooms. Clearly, putting Bailey means both more chance of shared and also more chance of not getting too choice.
One option is to put a Bailey top (if prepared to share) and then a less popular non-shared Hill college second and third. Few Bailey colleges will be able to allocate to 2nd,3rd,4th choices etc, so if you don’t get 1st, you’re looking at a lower ranked choice - and want to be sure of getting the kind of room you want. People who get 14/15/16 in ranking often put lots of v popular choices in their upper rankings and find all but their bottom choices are full, if they are pulled out of the hat later.
There is n knowing in the random ‘pulling out of hat’ if you will be early group and lucky to get top picks, or later on when popular have already filled. If in that later group, the strategic ordering can make a difference between at least getting catered/no -catered (seems most important criteria to me - esp if choosing self catered to save money) and getting an allocation you really didn’t want and maybe will struggle to afford.

Curious @WombatChocolate- are Bailey colleges really that much more popular/oversubscribed nowadays compared to Hill colleges ?

Do Durham produce any metrics on this ?

@WombatChocolate thank you for the info, it's pretty much how I understood the allocations to work but good to have it confirmed.

@RayonSunrise
We should have worn the Mumsnet scarf on Saturday! We looked around John Snow, South, Mary's, Chads, Cuth's & Hatfield so I think DS was a bit overwhelmed by it all. He said if he ended up sharing with someone who was annoying he'd just come home more often (we live very close by) I pointed out that if I'm paying the thick end of £10k for accommodation and catering then he's eating and sleeping there every day, not using it as a crash pad after a late night in Babylon or Jimmy's 😁

DS has decided Durham probably not for him, but we visited three colleges at the weekend and if he had gone, he may well have gone for Stephenson. It was very pleasant indeed - very green, lots of outdoor space and seating areas and tennis courts. The shared facilities were lovely including a very nice bar and pool/darts room. Apparently if you put Stephenson down, you get it, you don't have to share and it's self-catered (which DS would want). I imagine it's less popular because it's one of the furthest away and it's next to the park and ride, but I thought it was really nice – and easily walkable to where he would have been studying (physics).

Palatinate is the Durham uni mag. Here is a link to info they gave about 2024 applications

https://www.palatinate.org.uk/revealed-for-2024-college-popularity-rankings/

There are also FOI requests from 2023 where people asked about no.s of applicants, initial allocations and re-allocations after results.

What emerges is that the very popular colleges do more re-allocations after results. Remembering any offer holder can rank colleges and receive a provisional offer (including Insurance and those who don’t even insure) - after results day, there is a lot of re-jigging.

I’ve always wondered why Durham bother with this initial allocation and why they don’t just do it once post results. I concluded that it gets ‘buy-in’ from applicants - they research colleges and feel more excited about Durham than other places. I might be wrong though. But one consequence is lots are a bit disappointed (needlessly) in May when initial allocations come out. Some are thrilled. And then in Aug/Sept after results, there is stress whilst people wait for confirmation or reallocation as Durham re-jug in light of who is actually coming. It seems needless but causes stress every year and some applicants who met their grades seem to wait ages to be confirmed in a college. Top tip - remember that after initial college confirmation, another form will come asking if students want accom. They MUST fill this in by the deadline to guarantee accom. Otherwise, even if they meet their offer they will find themselves at the bottom of the queue and possibly without college accom in the first year, if Durham find they have too many people for too little accom. And like everywhere, it happens as it’s hard to get exactly right. This is one way they ration it.

There was a FOI doing the rounds last year which showed likelihood of reallocation.

my dd is a 2nd year at Chads - she shared and it was really absolutely fine - she had never shared a room before / state educated etc etc. she had an absolutely massive room with an ensuite. She’s living out this year but is going back into college next year. As the majority share in the 1st year it is very much the norm and plays a big part in building community and making Chads what it is. Chads also has quite a high number of 3rd years who live in.

the other thing I think which is worth considering is the size of the college - Castle, Hatfield, Collingwood and prob some of the others are huge - with 3 times the number of students as Chads (and Johns which is just a bit bigger then Chads) and nearly twice the size of Mary’s.

my dd decided her love for Chads outweighed wanting her own room. It has been perfect for her - and sharing taught her some great skills.

I would say don’t discount a college because you don’t want to share - realistically they spend a very small % of time in their room. The JCR VP does the room allocations at Chads - students fill out a long form and they try very hard to match people who they think will get on.

Happy to talk about dd’s experience if anyone has any questions.

Wow have exams started today?

Thanks @WombatChocolatefor such a detailed reply.

I went to Durham in the early 90s when you applied to, and were interviewed at, a specific college. I know of a few people who were offered a different college post interview but before having to make the final firm/insurance choice. This was also in the days where you spent a night in college before your interview so really got a feeling for whether your choice was right for you.

Fully appreciate that applicant volumes nowadays wouldn't support this process. However, I do feel Durham unnecessarily over-complicate the process, especially in allowing selection/ranking of colleges before even firming UCAS choices.

It's also interesting to see how college popularity has changed. In my days Aidans and Mildert were the most popular hill colleges - Trevs not that popular at all, and Mary's - still being female - being a bit of a "niche" choice.

Hatfield and Castle were very popular Bailey colleges, with Chads/Johns/Cuths not so much, the first two still having a strong reputation as being for theologians.

Finally, Hild/Bede was incredibly popular - up there with Hatfield as vying for the title of "most sporty college"

@cyclingmum67 I was offered St Mary’s in the early 90s so turned Durham down for Leeds on the strength of - I’d been at an all girls school for 7 years!

Hild/Bede is temporarily in a Unite Student complex under the railway arches, will be going on the very bottom of DS's list. Has neither the charm of the bailey nor the convenience of the hill colleges.

@MillicentFaucetI believe you mean the Viaduct. Railway arches are something they have in Eastenders, not the Cathedral city of Durham. 🙂

A lot of students end up living out in that area in 2nd/3rd year btw, so they soon get used to the inconvenience. The benefit of it when I was there was that it was a much shorter walk home from Rixys on a Wednesday night.

Hild Bedes in a great location - it’s just the other side of the viaduct to where my dd lives - maybe 5 mins walk away - and waaaaay closer to Elvet Riverside then the Hill Colleges - it’s worth remembering that many subjects have no lectures / seminars at the Science site.

As @cyclingmum67 says the viaduct is one of the most popular places to live - although much pricier then Gilesgate it’s very close to town.

My DS is second year at Durham and enjoying it for the most part, He lived in at Collingwood first year and enjoyed it, especially for the sports and the socials. It’s a big college so I think he got a bit lost in there. He’s living out in the Viaduct in a shared house this year and it’s fine. Durham is a lovely city and the university is a great choice,

I’m curious if it’s the same subject as my DD, who also has a rare choice at Durham although most of her other options were the very popular half of the combination.
She’s gone for St Mary’s top, but may also have to use her disability to get a single room (it causes insomnia and I don’t think anyone would want to share with her…).

@MollyButton - DD’s choice doesn’t sound like it should be niche - it’s philosophy + a language but the particular language seems to take up more of the curriculum than other languages and perhaps philosophy does too. Although you can do this language with a range of other humanities courses at numerous unis, and philosophy + other languages at a range of unis, there are only 4 unis where DD can achieve her desired combo, one is which is in our home city, so excluded! Does it sound like there’s any overlap?

Not the same, although my DD is hoping to continue her Chinese (so far self taught) at Durham. Her two subjects are more normal in Scotland. But rare in England (at least together).