University Accommodation

[pigrescuer]

I have to choose what university accommodation I want to put my name down for, and I am stuck between two options:

Option A
£76 a week.  Old seventies rooms, washbasin, kitchen and bathroom shared between 7 or 8 people.  Directly over the Student Union.  Right in the centre of campus

Option B
£95 a week.  Built in the last decade, washbasin, 4 kitchens

Comments

[littlered2]

HOW CAN THEY OFFER A ROOM WITHOUT A WASHBASIN? Crazy. As for which room to choose, it depends on your student loan and where the money for your accommodation is coming from (my parents are paying for mine, rather than it coming out of my maintenance grant. I know, spoilt and entitled etc.) - if you know you're going to have to budget carefully, get the first. I would much prefer the second, though, as being directly over the student union would be my idea of hell.

[pigrescuer]

Lol, I thought it was insane, but look at the comments below! Maybe it is a British thing (clearly students elsewhere live in squalor)?

I have foudn another option, which I'm sure wasn't there yesterday, for £90. With a washbasin. But no flat screened monitor, which I'm not entirely sure I need.

I agree that I don't want to be over the student union!

My budgeting is a bit iffy at the moment, because Student Finance hasn't finished assessing my parent's income. Also, I'm confused about everything. As far as I know, I get: 1. loan for my fees
2. maintenance grant
3. £1200 grant from Bath
4. Money from my parents to make my income equal to what I would have got if I'd gone to Cambridge (because otherwise my brother would get more, and that wouldn't be fair.

It's all so complicated!

[littlered2]

Well, I suppose it depends on how much your maintenance grant is, but as you're getting a grant from Bath and some money from your parents, it sounds like you should be able to afford the slightly nicer room. (Also, flat screened monitor? Explain, please.)

I have never seen a student room without a washbasin in the three universities I have stayed at. According to my college handbook:

All accommodation is provided with hot and cold water supply, hand basin and lighting and is furnished with carpets, curtains, bed, desk, desk chair, arm chair, book case, chest, wardrobe or clothes hanging space and waste disposal bin.

People from other universities are generally impressed with the armchair. Rob's room has two! People seeing it for the first time are always amazed (including people from Merton. His room is very big).

[pigrescuer]

flat screened monitor? Explain, please.

I can't! I don't know what it's for! The only thing I can think of is for accessing the internet and stuff - without providing a CPU - but everybody has their own laptop nowadays! And there's a giant computer room in the library open all hours.

I have been inside a room at: Bath, Nottingham, Oxford, Cambridge, Hertfordshire, Southampton, Aston, Harper Adams, Winchester and UCL, and not one of them was missing a washbasin. But I can verify that armchairs are not as standard. My brother has three armchairs and a sofa thing, but I don't think his room is normal, somehow.

[littlered2]

If they are providing you with computer equipment, then Bath is crazy.

Is your brother in a set or a single room? He is a third-year, though (right? Or is he a second-year?), so that might explain it. Although my friend Vanessa at Univ has a huge room - it's just one, technically, but has a sleeping area and a living area, and so many chairs! It's madness.

[pigrescuer]

Crazy, but cool. Maybe it's a TV? Or some sort of Big Brother-esque screen for watching us?

My brother came third on the room ballot, so he pretty much got his choice of rooms. It has a corridor, a bathroom, a bedroom that is larger than his (tiny) bedroom at home, and a sitting room about the size of my bedroom.

He is a third year, yes. If he was a second year he'd be the same age as Tim, which would be weird.

[pigrescuer]

Also, I felt the urge to make a smutty comment about Rob's room being very big.

But I controlled myself.

[littlered2]

I expected it even as I was typing, because clearly I know you Too Well. (Also he has made similar jokes himself, so I am used to it.)

*maintains a dignified silence in the face of smut*

[pigrescuer]

But. Excellent use of icon, no? I don't get to use it as much as I'd like.

[littlered2]

It was very well chosen. Good work!

[hebe0]

My advice is to try very hard to avoid living over the Student Union :-)

Hebe
who was spoiled by having an en-suite bathroom all to herself in her first year

[pigrescuer]

You spoilt person! And I bet it only cost 50p/week!

^_^

My mother likes to tell me when I complain about the cost of things about how she used to go to the cinema - including bus and popcorn and drink - for three people on a ten shilling note. And have change.

Not that I'm saying you're as old as my mother. :D

[hebe0]

IIRC it was the most expensive per week, but fewer weeks were charged because it was used for conferences out of term.

And I didn't pay in shillings ;-)

[pigrescuer]

Well. My mother didn't pay in shillings when she got to university, either. She's only 35 years older than me.

Was it not a pain clearing everything out every term? My brother has to do that. Where did you go (if you don't mind)?

[hebe0]

Where did I go? I went home for hols :-P

It was Warwick - another 60s concrete-in-a-field place. We each had a big padlockable cupboard so it wasn't too bad packing everything away.

[pigrescuer]

Ha. Ha. You are funny. :P