I researched essex, and visited Hull, i'm from York so it's like a 45 min drive. And I was impressed by it I have to say. I can tell you now that the Halls are going quickly because I had little to no choice and that was 2 days ago about which halls to go into. The halls themselves are nice buildings but a bit annoyingly I got a room without a sink which is annoying. From Essex there was a lot of international students and the campus looked very small with not a huge amount to do. Hull was more convinient for me due to its location, and I've been a few times and it's not so bad as people make out.