Durham, York, Bristol for History - which ones to firm and insure?

[easterb]

The countdown to finalising choices on UCAS has started and DS casually mentioned over dinner that he’s still not sure! He likes them all (but not bowled over by any one of them).

Anyone with DCs studying History at any of these Unis with feedback?

Which combo would you choose??

That sounds fantastic. My DS is also young for his year and think it would be good for him to get off the treadmill and have a little bit of life experience first.

We looked at some of the same universities and DC also found it hard to choose. I secretly hoped he would firm Bristol as it's a bit closer to home, and think he would have loved the music scene and buzz of the city. In the end, looking closely at the course content made him to decide to pick Exeter as his insurance as he really likes the course (even though it's ever so slightly below Bristol in the rankings). He's now feeling excited about both his options and is looking forward to going in September. Hope your DC starts getting a bit more excited too (maybe it's the stress of all the revision?) but if not, a gap year sounds like a great option and would give him more time to decide and explore all the options. Is History definitely the subject he wants to study still? Again, if he's not feeling that enthusiastic about university it might just be worth him asking himself that question and having a good look at other similar options (maybe a joint honours degree) and if he isn't sure, taking a gap year to decide and get some work experience.

I think he needs to look at the wider offering. Durham is very different to Bristol - my DD didn’t like Bristol as she felt the uni had no heart and accommodation was quite far out and her department building was kind of on its own in a residential area. Plus she lives in London and wanted something different. She’s at Durham. Not loving it (I don’t think she’d love any uni) but loves the city, and volunteers at the Cathedral. But she is also ringing every bit of value out of the uni. She is very concerned about jobs and her degree, Sociology, like history doesn’t lead to a definite career path. So she attends guest lectures, goes to lots of socials to network, societies and clubs etc. She gas a paid internship this term at the uni within her department. Her LinkedIn is up and running. There’s so much at uni that goes on outside the classroom; your son needs to marry the uni to his ambitions.

Maybe once he firms he will start getting excited about it as the focus will be on the uni he is likely to attend.

My son is at York right now finishing up his first year in History. It has been mostly great. He had an offer from Bristol but the scope of the modules didn't compare. He didn't apply to Durham. His other offers were Warwick, Kings London and Edinburgh.

I'm pretty certain that in 2025 - which is not indicative of anything in the future, of course - History was in clearing at a lot of unis, including Durham and Bristol. I may be wrong...it's not always they drop grades but at Bristol for Econ & Finance, they did so I'd think History even more so as Econ is more competitive. York and Exeter too so I'm sure that your YP can go with their absolute 2 favourites and still have options on results day.

Pretty sure that Bristol offered voluntary redundancy to all its academic staff in the humanities and MFL depts earlier this year. So although the depts aren’t closing (as far as I know) I think I’d steer clear of Bristol for history, as they are clearly looking to make cost cuts in those areas. As a result, staff morale may be low and course options in later years may be restricted.

If you’re happy to share, what is it that your DD doesn’t love about Durham?

One slant is whether the uni city has a neighbouring city of interest. Bristol has Bath, which imo wasn't that interesting as I recall, nice for a day trip. Eg go to Manchester, and Liverpool is half an hour on the train, so over the course of three years you could get to know two major UK cities.

Is Durham that far away from Newcastle?

It's very hard sussing all this stuff out because as the OP suggests, you spend your time revising and don't have the money or time to visit these cities, and do you really get the correct vibe of it visiting as a sort of tourist, say when the students aren't even there? Plus there is the sense of tempting fate to do all this before your results, like counting chickens before the eggs are hatched.

But then again, even if you wait for the results and then apply, you don't have much time if I recall, applications have to go off in October, if you visit over the summer, the students won't be there. Plus if you have your gap year it might change your perspective on what you want - which tbf is almost the point of a gap year, to help you develop as a person.

I agree with the person who suggested Bristol had a lot of posh people ('West London') there, that was my experience. There wasn't any diversity, of course all that may well have changed now, but it wasn't something that would have concerned me at all at the time - until I went there. I was blinded by academic snobbery.

@NewspaperTaxis I’m not sure many students really care about nearby cities or some rural universities would be empty. My DD saw friends at Exeter and Bath and flew to Edinburgh from Bris. She never went anywhere unless it was to see friends. These cities have enough for students by and large.

Yeah, it's not a priority. But I look back and think, hey, I could have got two cities for the price of one over my three years! It wouldn't have been to meet students in those neighbouring cities or to visit the unis there.

For history York and Durham are exceptionally highly regarded. Bristol has more of a general reputation which isn't always backed up by looking at league tables. It did last year take quite a lot of students on dropped grades. But all three are more than solid choices and I would say where it is relative to you might matter most.

If he is a bit shy, uni may well be the making of him (it was for my DS who did history) and a campus and/or college uni is sometimes the best environment for those students. York has a good reputation for pastoral support.

If prestige matters he should definitely pick Durham and I would say either York or Bristol as insurance but York might suit him better. As a caveat, Two of my older DS's mates dropped out of uni and one was doing history at Durham.

@easterb

we looked at Durham - I personally hated it as the social space for halls was basically a bar.

Loved York and the social spaces there for the halls we saw (David Kato / Anne Lister)

I have a ds at Bristol and have visited the York and Durham campuses. If you are worried about him making friends then go for York and then Durham, my ds is having a blast at Bristol but the spread out accommodation means it’s a uni for the resilient.

Just picking up on your comment - Durham has over 40% private school undergrad intake. Highest in the country. Bristol has just over 30% and York only 13%.

Thanks @PriscillaQueenoftheKitchen that will be useful. In turn I should maybe point out that I myself was from a fee-paying private school - and that's not really the same as public school, I thought it would be, so guiltily thought I would fit in at Bristol okay, but many posh folk - Eton, Winchester etc really are a breed a part in my experience. Not saying I didn't get on with some of them but... As someone said, there are a lot of people at uni who find they're not as middle-class as they formerly thought.

Not sure what the fourth offer is but if it’s Warwick, I would give it some serious thought for the course. My eldest studied history at Durham and whilst he had a great time I felt the course was very low contact with little support. My second child is studying history at Warwick and it is course work and long open exam based rather than shorter pressured exams which suits him better. The feedback after each piece of work is also detailed and tangible whereas in Durham, DC was lucky to get a “good”.
These experiences may be unique to my DC but that’s all anyone has really

My son is currently at Durham as said above. History exams are online and you have 24 hours to complete. There is also a coursework element to units - between 30-100% for those he has taken this year. His feedback has also been reasonable - sometimes a couple of paragraphs, others with comments made on the exam rubric. Definitely no one word comments in his experience.

Contact hours are low though. A “standard” history option will have 21-22 hours of lectures and 6-7 hours of seminars. There are 3 terms but lectures and seminars only take place in the first 2 weeks of term 3. They send have a 4 week exam period and pretty much nothing academic for last 4 weeks although there are plenty of fun activities.

My DS is at Durham and absolutely loves it. The collegiate system means that he is very involved in sports, societies etc.

The low contact hours are pretty standard. My DS at Birmingham seemed to have slightly more than standard and a lot of reading and writing filled his non contact hours (he is extraordinarily diligent!). He got lots of very detailed feedback and a mixture of 'coursework' and take home exams. Can't fault Birmingham history department, must say.

Our expectations of HE are so much higher these days (the costs are visible I guess). I didn't get anything like the level of input and feedback DS did!

I will agree that I have only heard good things about Warwick's academic history offer. Had DS originally applied to history (he swapped) , I am pretty sure Warwick and York would have been his choices.

No recent experience of any of these but just to say that a collegiate system is really good for kids who are a bit shy - it’s just a smaller, more close knit environment and the socials/activities are all more accessible, but still opportunities to do things on a uni-wide basis as well.

My sister went to Durham (humanities subject) - we are from a working class background and there were a lot of posh people (much more so than my experience at Cambridge) but she had great friends and loved it.

Based on what you’ve said about his personality plus the fact that Durham is most prestigious (though all are great) I’d say Durham with York insurance.

Not hugely informative but I know a lad currently in second year of history at York and loving it and BiL did it many years ago and loved it so much he still works at the Uni (non-academic) 20 years later.
He still rates it generally but moans a lot about the dire state of funding for uni these days. But he doesn’t think York is particularly worse than anywhere else in that regard.

I know I should know this but….is the 6-7 hours contact time per week or per term?

If per week that actually seems quite high to me - much more than I had in my humanities degree at RG uni 30 odd years ago!

My son did history at York, graduating in 2018, so a few years ago now. He then did the one-year law conversion course and follow-on year, so two extra years of study, and eventually found his way into a large regional law firm's city office. He really seemed to enjoy his years at York and made some very good friends. He originally wanted to go to either Bristol (first choice) or Exeter (second), but slipped a grade (extreme tonsillitis during exams). It all worked out for the best, though.

The 6-7 hours of seminars was across the year! I was quite shocked by this as I when I was at university it was 1 hour of lectures and 1 hour of seminars per week per unit.

It would be average around 6 hours contact - lectures and seminars - time for Y1 History. It gets more complicated in Y2 as you have units that only run for 1 term.