I have not done an away rotation there since I'm a student here, but I think I can answer some of your questions. The students I've met who have done away rotations have had an overall positive experience; however, most of those were not ones doing IM, so I hope someone else can provide some insight into that question for you. The IM department at Duke is excellent and every attending and resident I've worked with has been very nice, helpful, and great teachers. I was treated very well as a medical student, and I'm sure an away 4th year would be treated well as well. An interesting thing to note about the IM program is that it did not fill last year, which devasated the residency director and prompted a few changes. The feeling was that the IM residency at Duke is "hardcore" (and it is very busy for sure), so they started with changes such as the teams cap at 7 patients no matter what time of day it is (it used to be that they didn't cap until 8pm) and that interns will now where long instead of short coats. Little changes, but hopefully some that will improve its image. All in all, though, it's a great program with a particular strength in Cards.
About Durham- I've been here for 7 years (undergrad here too) and I really like it. Some won't, many will. It's not a big city by any means. It's very suburbial and Duke definitely dominates the city, though less so than UNC does to nearby Chapel Hill. Duke is 15 mins from Chapel Hill and 25-30 from Raleigh. It has some bad areas and some very nice areas, and housing is VERY affordable. Many one-bedroom apartments go from $500-600/month, houses nearby are usually between 100-200K.
I hope someone else can chime in for you about what it's like being an away student. Any other questions about Duke/Durham, I'd be happy to try to answer them. good luck!
Edit: So I just realized you may have been asking specifically about housing for away students. If that's the case, most people I've heard either sublet from someone or just find a room with a current student for the month, which is easy to do because people with the rotation will help put you into contact with the right people.
