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

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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??

Unfortunately most people say Durham college allocation seems very random and that you rarely end up with your preference. I think the possibility of a shared bedroom will be difficult to avoid although you can put your name on the waiting list and move if something else becomes available.

@Denim4ever Why? RG isn’t an identical offering? Who needs non RG if you are likely to the entry requirements? RG is a better employment proposition if studying history. Many dc don’t need non RG.

I can't imagine why you'd say this. DS attended top UK state sixth form and was an Oxford applicant among a cohort where a predicted B was a rarity. The school had 2 parents and students seminars on how to apply through UCAS. Advice was 3 Russell group on list max. DS applied Oxford, Durham, KCL, UEA, Lancaster. He didn't get Oxford although he went on to get top grades. A very small proportion disregarded this advice, school knew what they were doing re this advice

@Denim4ever- that’s really weird advice!

No it definitely isn't. Aside from on MN, I've never heard of anyone applying to all Russell Group or all places that will make an offer with high grades.

But, if you look at the OP , all grades are achievable and one is considerably lower.

It is perfectly sensible to do this for humanities where offers trend lower than, eg economics.

It wasn't because they were RG but all my DS's 5 slots were RG unis . Both of his choices were the same grades as each other - also not uncommon in hums and soc sci. he got these grades by quite some margin. It would have been daft to deliberately put something lower when the two he chose were already lower by a distance form his predicted grades.

Even within the RG there can be a spread of entry requirements and some may be lower than non RG (see Bath and St Andrew's as classic examples!)

Dividing unis simply by whether they are RG or not is very binary, reductive and quite odd.

The key issue is the grade spread between the highest likely offer and the lowest likely offer and how that range sits in relation to the candidate's realistic predicted grades. A two grade drop between these is probably sensible.

You could be predicted, realistically, AstarAA and your highest offer might be that and your lowest offer AAB and so a sensible range. In this case, for many subjects, you could still look to RG universities if you chose to do so, in STEM as well as humanities.

In addition, the RG (proxy for high offers) / non-RG (proxy for low offers) distinction is not necessarily helpful as St Andrew's, U of Bath, Lancaster, L'boro are not RG but, for some subjects, may impose higher offers than some RG unis.

And my DC applied to all RG with offers ranging from AstarAA to ABB. Bath ( non-RG) would have been higher but they didn’t like the Uni. Nothing to do with RG/ Non RG.
Advice should be to choose a range but the 3 RG/ 2 Non RG just doesn’t make sense.

Dividing between “RG” and “non RG” is ridiculous advice.

DS has applied for a very specific subject combination and not that many unis offer it. He applied to two which happen to be RG and three which happen to not be RG - but his choices were based on course, location, and achievable grades. Nothing whatsoever to do with being RG or not.

But it’s all irrelevant to the OPs original question anyway!
I have a very happy DC at York. They weren’t keen on Durham or Bristol but have happy friends at both. Other DC prefers Bristol and Durham over York! Both went to London private schools and York is definitely more down to earth I’d say- although it’s expensive so that is a barrier in itself.

It's called an 'insurance' offer. I am not failing to understand the OP.

It is conceivable that you may be able to get a lower offer without applying outside Russell Group unis, but it's certainly not the way most people achieve that.

My DS is humanities and all his offers were lower than A star, A star, A. Popular subject.

I've no idea why parents on here think they should contradict and question advice from a top UK state sixth form.

Thank you @NewspaperTaxis

i think I just thought that if I didn’t state which university DS has firmed my post wouldn’t make sense.

The others, apart from York (where I went back in the late 20th century) DS visited. For those given I’d go firm - Durham and insurance- York.

As to why he loathed Bristol this is clearly rather personal. He initially didn’t like the number of drunk people on the street at 8.30am, secondly he didn’t like the city- thought it too similar to the city his school is in, which he doesn’t like. Third he didn’t like the students he spoke to. To be fair, they were odd. Lastly, he didn’t like that the bus back from the halls was 45 minutes late but the shop had no cold drinks. This may be my fault as it was a hot day and I had been diagnosed with terminal cancer a week before, which DS was very jittery about and rather upset. The lack of drinks really upset him. Quite honestly I’m not surprised he didn’t like Bristol.

For a job DS wants to be in politics or part of a pressure group or possibly civil service. Although the later is more me than him!

Perhaps because some of us on here work in education ? And have DCs who recently completed history degrees! Students should be looking at more than simply whether a uni is RG. I presume the school was actaully just using that as a proxy for ' really high grades' vs ' not so high/ medium'. In history there is very little spread for the high demand universities. And- shock - some might put a non RG as top choice! (and would often be being very ambitious to do so : I give you economics at Bath , or English at St Andrew's)

The OP's DS's offers , institution aside range from very high down to Bristol's ABB. The fact they are all RG means nothing in that context. ABB sounds like a decent insurance to me. With his predicted grades, so does AAA.

My DS was predicted , and got, all A star. Most non RGs for history have offers around BBB. To put that would have been daft.

I am guessing yours is at Durham now. Are you really saying, though, that if your DS had got his Oxbridge offer , he might have put UEA as a back up ?

My DS’s lowest offer - which he has firmed - is from an RG uni.

DD is at Bristol now and her experience couldn't be further from yours. Loves the city and has had really excellent MH support to get her through a tough couple of months. She's really blossomed.

Really sorry to hear you were badly served by your time there and hope that life picked up again afterwards. 💐

My DC has offers from Bristol, Durham, York, Warwick and Exeter. His headteacher put a comment on his last report saying they are great choices and that he thinks DC should put York/Warwick as insurance (Durham is now firm although Bristol was very nearly the first choice). This seemed like quite biased/random advice as they are no better than Bristol/Exeter. So doing your own research is important and that should include listening to advice from sixth form but for me and DC, the OHDs as well as advice on mumsnet has been invaluable.

Not necessarily random or biased. Maybe they thought the course would suit them better or the course was more highly rated at one? Or because eg York guarantees accommodation to Insurance students whilst Exeter’s accommodation is a bit of a nightmare currently etc.
Certainly DCs schools offered advice as to which particular Uni course they thought might suit their interests when trying to decide between say English at Durham or English at Warwick, ignoring all the other factors such as campus, city etc.

I take the general point whilst also assuming that headteacher knew of York and Warwick's reputations in history.

@channellingalexis the headteacher doesn't really know know DC so I do think it's a bit random. His personal tutor knows him well, and has supported his choices (Durham/Exeter) and knew that Warwick wouldn't be a good option as they specialise more in modern history which my DC is less interested in (and he didn't really like Warwick at the OHD in any case compared to the other universities). Anyway, my point was really to say that we/DC should do our own research and not just rely on school to help DC to make these decisions. Their advice is really valuable but so is attending OHDs etc.

And, actaully, very few 'ordinary' schools give anything like the personalised advice MN seems to think is standard!

Completely agree that mine are lucky to get a lot of good advice and that you need to come to your own conclusions. As I said one of my DCs is at York which a fair few people I know are a bit sniffy about and would consider Durham, Bristol, Exeter etc ‘better’. They don’t look at individual courses which for their course is much better at York for example.

@Denim4everYes it is - for History! Lancaster is RG in all but name anyway - like St Andrews and Bath and Loughborough. As History grads head towards too many careers affected by AI, the grads should consider very carefully where the degree is from. It matters more than ever.

@Denim4ever Of course there is a variety of offers within RG. My DD applied to all RG and there was a range. She didn’t want non RG so why bother applying? Not because those unis aren’t worthy but because they simply don’t offer suitable MFL courses. It’s ridiculous to sell yourself short when you don’t need to.

Just to be clear in case you are referring to my post that I didn't say that York is the lesser of those options. DC decided against as he preferred the other options but regardless of that I think York seems to be a very good university and have heard great things about the History course.

@Piggywaspushed we certainly did not expect the headteacher to comment on DC's uni options or know everything about DC and give personalised advice. It was nice that she made a suggestion, but we didn't fully agree with the advice for various reasons.

@Fabfabfab- not at all- was talking about people in real life!