Parents of Durham freshers 2025

[MillicentFaucet]

We've chatted on a different threads over the past few months so do any anxious/excited/slightly overwhelmed parents want to congregate here for Durham chat?
My DS will be starting an MEng next month and has been allocated to Cuths 🐯(but no confirmation of what type of accommodation he has yet).
He's slowly working his way through registration etc and fretting about the important things like what to wear for matriculation <sigh>
How's everyone else getting on?

@Ventress DD is at John Snow (11th choice 😀 as she wanted catered) and very happy there. She was very pleased to have a double bed. She is not sporty and arrived on the first weekend. She was able to book her slot which was mid-Saturday afternoon as we had a 5-hour drive. As i think happens at every college, teams of existing students took each arriving student up to their room with all their stuff. It was a lovely welcome. We booked a hotel in Newcastle for that night as Durham hotel prices were so high (i had booked before results day but probably still not soon enough) so we were nearby in case needed that evening or on Sunday morning.

There are lots of places an easy distance of Durham to book overnight accommodation. We had a flat in Bishop Auckland for 2 nights.

I love what the Auckland Project has done to the town. The Spanish Gallery and Zurbaran paintings in the palace are wonderful.

Thanks @Dery I’m life limited so feeling fairly gung-ho about spending money at the moment and have got us a city centre hotel (two rooms for three nights!) mainly because I’m using a wheelchair and I know the city is on a hill and I want to see it all!

I think if DS decides to firm Durham (I hope he does) I will get a holiday cottage somewhere for the week/fortnight around moving in and let DS and DH worry about moving into halls. There have to be some benefits to my situation 😂

I’m looking forward to seeing the Auckland Project.

@Ventress - so sorry to hear you’re life-limited. I hope that limit is still distant. And certainly wishing you happy spending! The hotel arrangements sound spot-on and a holiday cottage for a week or two sounds idyllic. It is such a beautiful part of the country. Fingers crossed your son firms Durham!

Thank you @Dery. Hopefully not going anywhere for a while yet! 🤞 To be honest I think it’s one of the main reasons (that and lethargy!) why DS has targeted universities closer to home. I want him to understand that a nurturing environment further away would be good for him. A place like UCL may be closer to home but it isn’t going to have the pastoral support should he need it that Durham has.

I am really looking forward to seeing Durham. I have spent much of the weekend looking at videos and Durham’s you tube channels 😊

If DS1 is not a frep, will his 'return date' for second year be 3rd/4th October? Or will it still be 26/27 September ie the start of 'induction week'?

@HelenDenver - I think it will be 3/4 October. That’s what DD has said. I had hopes she would be a frep but i don’t think she will next year though maybe in a subsequent year (she said the JS freps seemed to be from later years).

If involved in any DU sport, the preseason can run from August (!), but many sports are the fortnight before freshers week.

Thanks @Dery and @NeedingCoffee - we will move DS straight from college to second year accommodation, hopefully - but just in case we need to drive him up for the start of
year rather than him getting the train

My son has an offer for Durham and I’m wondering how much to budget for his living expenses. I haven’t got to grips with student finances yet but our income means he will only be allowed to borrow the minimum towards covering costs. Would really appreciate a rough figure from current Durham parents please.

@Abundanceofcats I believe all the colleges are quite standardised in costs eg a catered college with a single room shared bathroom will be about the same everywhere. Are you looking at catered or non catered?

ETA I think these costs are on each college’s website, but DS1 pays just over £10k for the year of room and catering at Grey, paid on a termly basis.

I’ve been looking at college costs and agree with @HelenDenver(although DS is just an offer holder not an existing student) it seem that with the exception of st hild/st bede that they use a fairly standardised pricing with add ons and subtractions for things like shared rooms or larger beds. I guess we will find out more when we get there.

@Abundanceofcats as @HelenDenver says the accommodation prices are pretty much the same across all of the colleges 26/27 costs here
My DS is at St Cuths which ranges from £6600 for a shared room, self-catered to £10400 in a single room with all meals.
Even if your DS decides on a particular college & catering choice this isn't guaranteed until after results day.
My DS is catered so his main outgoings seem to be beer & club/formals/ball tickets!
Is your DS coming up to an offer holder day? They can have a look around some of the colleges and get a better idea of what they prefer and what that will cost.
Sorry I haven't really answered your question 😁

My dd is a 3rd year at Chads - she lived out in yr 2 and is living back in college this year. I believe there is a standardised pricing for college accommodation with the exception of Chads and Johns who are independent. Chads has all the accommodation costs on their website and I seem to remember Durham had the accommodation costs do the non independent colleges on its.

if you live in at Chads the accommodation costs includes formals.

My DD is second year. She gets close to full maintenance and therefore also the Durham Grant of around £2700. So I have not needed to give her anything (I do pay for her phone). Living out is in line with catered college, she pays £169/week plus bills of about £40/month, plus food etc. Her job last summer has also added a few thousand to her pot, but she is frugal.
She is at St John’s and last year she paid a few extra days at the end of summer term so I could come up and move her winter things into her second year house, which usually starts July 1. This was cheaper than staying in a hotel or coming home and going back up. All her friends that applied to return to St J for third year were offered a place.

Thanks so much for replies to my question on how much life at Durham costs. Also, my son hadn’t even mentioned there was an offer holders day - he’s been completely independent with all his applications and decisions but that’s a problem when he writes things off as unimportant so doesn’t mention them. I think it would be great for him to go and will now get him to see why. Thank you all.

@Abundanceofcats there should be about 3 offer holder days at most unis Jan-April for kids to have a second look before they pick insurance and firm.

He will have received an email asking him to choose a date and which colleges he would like to visit.
I think we managed to whizz around 4 colleges in the morning then DS spent the afternoon in the engineering department. It was really useful.

Hi 👋

DS got an offer today and Durham will
def be his first choice. He loves his cricket and will be hoping to play for the uni if at all
possible. Cricket will certainly be more of a priority than his course! Am so pleased and excited for him.

All the information that has been posted on the thread has been brilliant so thanks everyone.

Aw that's great, well done to him! Has he thought about offer holder days & colleges yet?
My DS wasn't really bothered with team sports before but has taken to college rowing like a duck to water (pun intended)

He hasn’t had emails about offer holder days just yet but we’ll def go up. He went to an open day last summer and predictably liked Collingwood (he tells me it’s the ‘sporty’ one?) but it will be good for him to a selection of different colleges before making decisions.

How brilliant that your DS has discovered rowing! If it’s not too intrusive a question what college is he in?

DS is on the Bailey at St Cuths, it's only a 10min walk up to the engineering dept. His daily commute across Prebends bridge is lovely

Lovely photo ❤️

DS has had his UCL offer this weekend so it’s now a direct play off between Durham (I’m team Durham!) and UCL. Looking forward to the offer holder day in March for Durham.

We have booked 4 colleges to view 😀 plus we are there for three days so will get lots of time to look around those beautiful views and walk around.

Morning Durham parents! This weekend’s update from DD is that she has been elaborately proposed to in Jimmy’s and will soon marry her “college wife.”

Given how miserable she was during Fresher’s Week, we’re obviously very pleased by these signs she’s continuing to settle into Grey. 😂

Is anyone’s YP clear on how they’re doing academically? DD is working hard, but fairly vague on how she’s doing. She’s usually fairly open about that (warts & all) so I’m wondering if feedback & results are loaded more towards the end of this term/next term?