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?

DS was provisionally allocated to Castle College back in June (or sometime around then) but this hasn’t yet been confirmed since he accepted his place on results day. He’s had various other emails about log in details etc but nothing about accommodation. I’m lucky that we’re in driving distance but it must be a bit of a nightmare for those of you who need to book a hotel.

Gah that's really frustrating for him, fingers crossed he gets sorted soon.
And yes the hotels are filling up quickly for that weekend, might be worth booking something now that lets you change or cancel for free. Probably going to be spendy though

I echo @WombatChocolate. My DD started at St John’s last year. The freps can be a bit full on - she hated all that pot banging stuff (she’s not ND). Freshers is good even if not social or a drinker - my DD is coming back up for it this year. Be sure they attend the society fairs and their department socials! There’s going out activities and staying in activities and at St John’s an end of freshers party where they did dress up - but that’s the only time all year! Not even for Halloween, which was a surprising non event. And as @WombatChocolate
says the catered colleges is a good way of meeting people not on your course as you tend to see the same people day after day. It’s one less thing (food shopping and cooking) they need to worry about.
A suit for formals for guys a few nice dresses and a ball dress for girls (mine got hers off Vinted). Joining the JCR is not crucial and the discounts it gets you - well didn’t add up to much for my DD and she was pretty anti it but ended up on the executive committee by the end of the year!
They may well have a wobble quite early on. But they will get out what they put in. My DD is a total introvert non drinker but threw herself in; she is thinking long term, what experience do I need, what will look good on my CV, how can I take advantage of everything on offer? Guest lectures every week. Recitals/performances/Cathedral events. Societies, newspaper, JCR, department rep, sports. She hasn’t found her tribe. She may never. But she’s very busy - she’s already had a few Team meetings about stuff going on in the new term.
My DD did sign up for a house in November but there is still stuff out there now. I moved her winter stuff in July 1 and fortunately the house was clean with good equipment and decent sized bedrooms. One bathroom between five girls though!
Book your hotel now! Two of the ones near her house were already booked up when I booked three weeks ago so I’m a bit out of centre, unless you don’t mind paying mega bucks. Moving in day last year we picked Kate morning Sunday slot so we could drive up Saturday (7 hours) without time pressure, had one last meal out then all ready to move her in the morning and off I went!

I've just paid the £200 accommodation deposit and bought him a laundry basket.

And so it begins...

@MillicentFaucetwhen / how did you get asked for the accommodation deposit? Dd has had a lot of emails and she’s usually reasonably thorough but worried she may miss something important (and what she deems as boring and therefore irrelevant)…

The email is from College Membership and Accommodation Office headed up "Undergraduate Accommodation Particulars of Offer" it contains the type of room, dates of occupancy and fee amount 😩
There's a link at the bottom to pay by card.

For those still waiting to hear: it is worth checking Junk Mail folders. Also for parents there is a Facebook group Parents of Durham University students

Was there a deadline for the deposit, @MillicentFaucet ? We are travelling at the moment and don’t want to miss
anything!

@MillicentFaucetthank you, I’ll ask her to check.

DS's agreement says 28th August, I think they'll all be the same

hi there
my son will going to durham by the end of sept ? but we still not rcd any email for registration the accommodation yet !

anyone have setup a whatsapp for durham parent here ? i would like to join the chat group

Welcome, I wouldn't stress about the accommodation just yet. Which college has your DS been allocated to, because most of them haven't started confirming rooms etc just yet.
I don't know about any WhatsApp groups & I won't join one anyway ( past experience) but if you want to set one up then go for it.

DD was preliminarily allocated to Collingwood - but no confirmation as yet? Anyone else’s child not confirmed yet?
I was at Collingwood (loved it!!!), so fingers crossed!!!
( DS was at Mary’s and exH was at Mildert. Other DD is a Durham reject 🤦‍♀️)

Was this email to parents?

Have a Durham student who has just graduated I remember all the stress. I/we needn’t have worried as it all fell into place but it seemed too late in the day for me.

DS moved into John Snow College on the Sunday morning. The FREPS were extremely welcoming and very efficient. Our car was emptied in record time and they helped us take everything up to his room then DH was instructed to move the car to the big car park near the Hill Colleges. We helped him empty some bags made his bed up, set his computer up. He and we exchanged pleasantries with some students and parents. We then went out for a lunch and took him for a big shop. Then took it back to Halls. By the afternoon more students were moving in. He made a mistake in hanging back and back preferring to wait to choose kitchen cupboards so ended up with a very raw deal (where he had to negotiate a cupboard). Whilst some parents and students obviously couldn’t count and couldn’t work out if 12 students in the town house cupboard space was in short supply but some still tried to claim 4 cupboards and two fridge shelves as they had so much stuff!!?! I think they each had one fridge shelf, one freezer draw and two cupboards (a big cupboard and a small cupboard all were taken by the afternoon)!!?

We were ushered out he couldn’t wait for us to go. I somehow managed not to cry in halls but cried as soon as we left his building. He has had the most fantastic time at Durham and I am sure all your offspring will too.

There is a College Facebook group chat for parents for info and in and in Snow students were told the first names of people they would be living with a week before they moved in (which was long enough). Some were very vocal and extrovert in the chat most were subdued but when they all met face to face they were a good group and all seemed to look out for one another.

No it went to DS's Gmail account (the one attached to his UCAS application)

DS is off to Trevs to do Maths. I was not banking on him getting the required grades so I knew almost nothing about the course or university. We’ve been really busy so he is only today starting to get really excited about it.

We’ve just had an intense hour enthusiastically shouting over each other about the perfect societies to join. I don’t know if he is going to have any time to study…

He will no doubt figure it out. In my experience try and take a step back they will work it out just fine.

Honestly if I took a step further back it would be negligent. I literally knew almost zero about Durham until today.

DS is a Scottish student so he is hoping there will be at least some other Scots around.

This is so useful, thank you. Dd is also headed for John Snow.

Really daft question here, but where can I find bedlinen for their sized beds? A friend said Dunelm, but is it a "small double" size?

Just get double bedding. A slightly bigger duvet is cosy and will be more useful for later years. The sheets will just tuck under the mattress.
otherwise you end up buying the duvet and 2 sets of covers…and then need to do it again in a year.

Thanks for starting this thread, @MillicentFaucet. Frankly, I would have expected no less 😀!

DD (starting at John Snow) has been away this week but assures me she has kept on top of emails. She’s back tomorrow so I’m planning to spend the weekend ticking all possible boxes as she’s away again next week, too (really going for the post A-level summer experience!).

We’ve booked a hotel in Newcastle. Half the price and still very nearby if we are suddenly needed after drop-off.

Exciting times for all our DCs!

@fccwyfc - there’s a Durham Uni parent Facebook page which you can join and that gives access to Messenger groups. Each college has a Messenger group for parents. The John Snow one has been quite useful so far as parents of more senior students are able to share useful insights. That said, I’m finding it’s making me a bit panicky also but I think I’ll feel better when DD is back and we can get some stuff done.

I have to say the Treveylan Facebook messenger group was very useful as a few people posted pictures of the rooms. Which we couldn’t see in person on offer holder day due to the refurbishment going on (we just saw images).

Your friend is right re bedding thats what we did and it fit his double bed in year two and three.

John Snow college was great on the Sunday evening they organised an event or two and they had a drink in the townhouse and went as a flat followed by lots of things happening in Welcome Week with time to stroll into town etc.