durham accommodation

Hi, I have an offer from durham and I might go. But I want a little more information about the accommodation process and the quality of the dorms. Are the rooms new and comfortable to stay? Do you stay in the dorm of the college that you are allocated to? Which college has the best dorms? etc.

Hiya,
Congratulations on your offer! Once you are allocated a college, your college will reach out and you will have the chance to fill out a college preference form (essentially you telling them which type of accommodation you prefer, etc) and will be allocated college accommodation based on that 🙂 (Keep in mind the college accommodation team will do its best to assign you the preferred accommodation but its not 100% guaranteed!) You can read more about accommodation process here and here .
As for the quality of the accommodation/which college accommodation is better, its entirely subjective as every college is different (so it depends on what you want). The older or more traditional colleges (usually the Bailey) may have 'older' buildings but as someone who was at Cuths, older did not mean bad/worse. The Hill colleges tend to have more modern buildings as some of their colleges were recently established but again that does not always been better/worse. I would suggest maybe attending an open day/post offer visit day if you can, it gives you the chance to have a look for yourself and see which college accommodation you prefer. You can have a look at some of the available dates/times to visit durham here .
Alternatively, you can check out some of the college accommodation tours available on youtube or the respective college website. Either search '{college name} accommodation tour' or have a look through here . 🙂
Hope this helps!
-Ghala

thanks!! Will durham being my insurance choice effect the allocation process?

Hi, I have an offer from durham and I might go. But I want a little more information about the accommodation process and the quality of the dorms. Are the rooms new and comfortable to stay? Do you stay in the dorm of the college that you are allocated to? Which college has the best dorms? etc.

It all depends on what college you get allocated. As far as I'm aware, the only college where you're guaranteed a certain type of room is mine, Josephine Butler, because all of their rooms are single-bed ensuites. Theirs are alright, the room is big enough and it saves a lot of stress having your own bathroom, but the kitchens aren't the nicest (both are cleaned for you weekly though). HildBede is meant to have the worst accom, considering they've recently had issues with asbestos in the walls or something and they're the furthest from all the places your lectures will be. Mary's is the prettiest on the outside but some people did have to be moved from there this year because of pipe bursts. Castle is the most unreliable in terms of allocation because they have about six different accommodation sites that you could be put in, and the actual castle itself has very little rooms available, but no matter where you end up they all seem to be alright rooms. I've heard that South has the best facilities, makes sense because they're the newest.

what do you think about collingwood and cuths?