I (am in) a quand(a)ry!

Para?noid on 4/4/2006 at 09:23

The end of the academic year is looming in university land, and unfortunately for me, although we have got in stellarly the last two years, all six of my housemates are either leaving or taking a year out, and strangely, a few other friends on the course. Finding accomodation isn't a problem, I have plenty of options, but I want to know what you guys think:

1) Uni Campus: Fucking expensive (£360 p/m), but includes loads of facilities and shit plus lots of young, naive ladies and lads up for getting hammered. I can literally get straight out of bed at 8.45 and be in lectures by 9.00!

2) University-managed accomodation: Cheaper, (£230 p/m environ) usually four people per house and no guarantee of who you mix up with. I did this in my first year and shared a house with one sensational french chick and an absolute dude. Naturally it's further away and you have to pay for da billz.

3) University-allocated accomodation: A bit pricey (£292 p/m), but it's in the center (more vibrant) and shit and has excellent facilites. A bit like Uni campus but the problem is it will be an absolute nightmare getting into uni which is fricken light years away.

The thing is, because I'll be losing so many buds, I want to take this as an oppurtunity to get in with a new crowd and make some new friends and party. But on the other hand, it'll be my final year and maybe a year of solitude, crying in dark rooms is what I need so that I don't piss it all down the tubes and actually get some work done. I just don't know. I crave human contact like you geeks crave butter but maybe campus accomodation is just a step backwards?

Scots Taffer on 4/4/2006 at 09:37

Do the other places incur sufficient travel and bill expenses to make the "expensive" student accomodation the cheaper of the three options?

Para?noid on 4/4/2006 at 09:45

Yeah. Buses are freakin' expensive, and 2 and 3 contain bills, whereas 1 does not. <a href="http://www.uwe.ac.uk/accommodation/university/village.shtml">1 is also bitchin' brand new and totally sweet</a> but the rent is astronomical for my budget. Yes, Scots don't give me that spiel about "expensive" I was talking relatively you gonk.

Myoldnamebroke on 4/4/2006 at 09:59

As well as the bills being added on, how many months do you pay for the uni one? Halls for me were always a 9 month lease, so you weren't paying over the summer if you weren't there, whereas you had to pay the full 12 months for private renting. Might bring the relative price down a bit. Of course, that also depends on you not living there over the summer.

Also, having done the 'sitting on your own in a dark room in the third year', I can tell you I would have killed to be back in halls, especially if your mates are busy/elsewhere. Depending on where you live/where other people live/how much work everyone else is doing, it can feel pretty isolated. I suppose that's my fault for living with people who are going to get useful degrees and actually have lots of work to do.

Para?noid on 4/4/2006 at 10:05

Yeah, Uni will be like 9 months lease. I'm currently on 12 in private accomodation, which is excellent since I don't live at home and I don't have to sort anything out for the summer. The length of accomodation is meaningless, as long as it goes through the academic year. I just get jobs in and around when Uni kicks out to support da rent.

Scots Taffer on 4/4/2006 at 10:05

Quote Posted by Para?noid

Don't be a tard, mang, I wasn't using the "..." in a nitpickey fashion. I was just trying to get to the point that the rent isn't astronomical if you factor in the bus fares on top of option 3, say. Plus the fact that when you factor in the buses and the bills (food, utilities) onto the 2nd option, you'll be in the £300 region anyway.

If the options are pretty evenly weighed financially, it's then down to the most important properties (to me, at least) such as: how well you'd work at each of them, how comfortable they are in terms of your everyday life, and the people you'll be sharing with.

OnionBob on 4/4/2006 at 10:54

Scots has covered a lot of the things I was going to say, IE living closer to uni will be more expensive in terms of rent but save you money on transport etc. However it would be worth considering a few things:

1. Living in halls in your final year may not be the best plan because you're going to need some degree of peace and quiet to work, and halls don't necessarily provide that, especially if they're undergrad halls. And on the other end of the scale, if you live in dedicated 3rd year/post grad halls you're going to end up with some of the most boring people you can imagine who will complain if you fart too loud in your sleep. Also the internet access can be pretty shitty in halls (firewall'd). So I think a house is still the best option.

2. Living in a house with randoms can go either way - 2 out of the 3 times we've had random people mixed into our group they've turned out to be wackjobs and it caused all sorts of drama. That's just luck really, but again you don't want it in your final year, so try to meet the people you'd be living with beforehand if at all possible.

3. Make sure you don't live near people who are going to call the police every time you play guitar :(

anyway that's all i can say right now k

Scots Taffer on 4/4/2006 at 11:23

Yeah, just agreeing with OB here, ob.

Although they were just variations on my second paragraph soz ^_^

piln on 4/4/2006 at 14:48

I spent a year in a living-with-randoms shared house and ended up with a paranoid schizophrenic body builder who'd decided to throw caution (and reality) to the wind and denounce his meds. That was an interesting year.

I recommend not doing that.

Does the uni or some other company have message boards for organising house shares? We have (http://www.unipol.leeds.ac.uk/) unipol in Leeds, which is very useful.

OnionBob on 4/4/2006 at 15:17

I'm going to buy a house when I move to newcastle. I feel so old :(