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?

Ah, sure we’ve ages yet! Our DS is in Dublin and he had 9 days from finding out he’d been accepted to having to move down - that was frantic! This will be a breeze 😉

DS got his first choice college confirmed yesterday (yay!), with welcome pack. Really pleased it was quick, as he's had his place since early July (IB not A level), so it's felt like a long six weeks of no contact!

Slight hiccup is I stupidly only booked a Saturday night hotel for us not DS (not sure what I was thinking - hoping drop off would be Saturday, I guess, but it's confirmed as Sunday - no time slot yet), and hotel is now full. For anyone dropping kids off and travelling a long way, be warned that hotels are seriously booked up. We're staying a few miles outside, as hotels in the city centre are mega expensive.

@hoomhom that’s hard! I actually haven’t looked at DD’s email yet with all the info as she’s been out of the house since before it came in and I was in bed before she got home last night/this morning. We booked our hotel back in January as we had heard things booked up very quickly around results day, but are actually booked in Newcastle rather than Durham as DH had points to use up for a hotel there. Is it worth checking a little further afield? Newcastle is only 30min away so not really too bad at all. When we dropped DS off at uni in Dublin we stayed at a hotel in the city and it still took 40min to get to the campus because of traffic!

Thanks, good tip. We're quite happy to go further afield (can always go into Durham for the evening if we fancy it - though I'm guessing restaurants in town will be similarly busy??), but hadn't thought of Newcastle itself.

Have started a new thread here for 2026 starters so we don’t hijack this thread too much. Have really appreciated this thread in the run up - it has helped me feel so much more prepared. Thanks for letting us gate-crash a little!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/5566801-parents-of-durham-freshers-2026?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Thanks!