Durham colleges

Hi,
I have received an offer from Durham (Yayyy!) and I went to my application portal, and noticed that I can now rank the colleges. My question is: When does this have to be done by? Is it better to do it asap, or do I have time to think it over?

Also, me and my dad visited Durham before I applied, and we're having an argument over whether there are any colleges at the top of the hill the bioscience building is on (I have low mobility and cannot climb that massive hill every day, and have applied to psychology, so need to be in a college near to that building). Any suggestions for colleges to rank highly/ confirmation of whether or not there are colleges that you don't have to climb a hill to get to the psych building from are highly appreciated!

I can’t off the top of my head think of which colleges aren’t up the hill.
The majority of psychology teaching that I’ve had in the past 2 years has been on lower mountjoy (Calman learning centre, Teaching and learning centre etc.) with only ever being upper mount joy no more than 2 times a week (and often less).
I find walking somewhat difficult sometimes due to long term health conditions so this was one of my priorities when choosing a college. I chose Trevelyan which is ideal for me as my walk to lessons is never really longer than 10 minutes, maybe 15 at a push. It may not be suitable for you though as there is quite a steep hill where grey is that I go up in order to get to upper mount joy when I have lessons up there. Grey itself is a bit closer and is on a hill so would avoid for some lessons but if you were going anywhere else whether by foot or bus you would most likely have to walk up that hill at some point.
I’m not sure when college choices need to be made, may be worth checking to see if it’s said in any emails or possibly contacting admissions to ask. If you have the chance, perhaps it would be ideal to come to a post offer open day (not sure when these will be yet, possibly March) so you can understand better the layout of the city, where colleges are in the city and how accessible they are for you.

Thanks sm for taking the time to reply! I think the post-offer days are like, one a month for a couple months, so hopefully I can find one I can go to. I did not know that most of the lessons aren't in upper mtjoy, that really changes my priorities...
I have a bicycle, so distance isn't a problem, but I don't think I can get up that hill even with a bicycle. Me and my dad found a way around it- we sort of walked along, like, where that lake thing is? And then up a slower slope. But it took ages, so I couldn't do that regularly, hence thinking I needed a college up the mtjoy hill, but if there aren't many lessons there, maybe I don't have to choose my college based on that. Hell, maybe I could even go to a bailey- they're so pretty!

Does I just found out about the unibuddy thingy, so I think I'll try there in the meantime.

Hiya

The upcoming post-offer visit days would probably be in March as that's when they're usually held- you'll get an email from the university with an invite for it.

Unfortunately, there are no colleges exactly on top of that hill but Grey definitely has some accommodation blocks super close to it so you won't have to climb it to reach the biosciences building everytime. There are 4 ways to reach upper Mountjoy from lower Mountjoy and only 1 of them is super steep (the one next to Calman Learning Centre). One is near the chemistry building and 2 are near Grey College and these are much easier to tread.

The only thing to remember with the bailey colleges is the type of room you can get- many of them have a good amount of shared rooms so you'll have a chance of getting one if single rooms are oversubscribed (which they probably would be). Hill colleges offer a better chance of getting a single room since they are much bigger.

Unibuddy is a great option to chat with Psych students too- here's the link again in case you need it- https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/student-connect/unibuddy/

-Himieka