Para?noid on 4/4/2006 at 16:16
The problem here isn't what to do - I know exactly what to do, (if you read my post) and I know what to expect from all three scenarios, since I've been in them and shared experiences with other about them for some time now; I just want to see what you guys think is the best option, because I can't bloody make my mind up
Vigil on 4/4/2006 at 16:23
<img src="http://www.washboardabs.net/stuff/noid_before.jpg" alt="Before" style="margin: 1em" />
<img src="http://www.washboardabs.net/stuff/noid_after.jpg" alt="After" style="margin: 1em" />
Fearless_Fish on 4/4/2006 at 16:50
Whatever you do don't go into private accommodation!
I'm living in a house ran by criminals and we have no windows :eek:
I think close proximity to University is important. I'm in my final year, and live a 25 minute walk from my Uni, and when it's raining I just cannot be arsed getting up to go in.
You'll be living with randoms no matter where you live, won't you?
Rug Burn Junky on 4/4/2006 at 17:10
Quote Posted by Para?noid
<u>1) Uni Campus:</u>... includes ...lots of young, naive ladies and lads up for getting hammered.
My 2 cents? Don't be that guy.
Maybe it's different there, but the-older-guy-who-was-still-living-on-campus-in-order-to-party- with-freshman-when-everyone-else-his-age-had-real-apartments* was sorta looked down upon by all involved.
I had a friend who did exactly that, and he kept talking about how great it would to still be in the dorm where all of the freshman girls were. It was: for the rest of us. We would throw parties, he would invite the underclassmen, and we would be the guys who had our shit together and got all the hook-ups that he couldn't get. We loved him for it, but I'm sure that was small consolation.
Hanging with the kiddies to party is ok, but don't try too hard to be one of them. You have to at least have some noticeable differences or nobody'll take you seriously at all. Just think of how big of a dork that some of the old folks around here come off as (yeah, ok, I know, including me) hanging out on a videogame forum with you guys. Like I said: Don't be that guy.
Don't know if you've seen either movie, but it's the difference between Wooderson in Dazed and Confused (Loser still trying to be on the same level as the high school students) and Til Schweiger in SLC Punk (Guy who had a phat pad and dealt drugs and hung with the college kids, but didn't try too hard to be one of them). So, by all means, do it if it makes sense financially, or any other reason, but just do your own shit, and don't do it to maintain an arrested adolescence.
*This is to be distinguished from the Older Guy Who Had Legitimate Reasons for Being On Campus Other Than Partying With The Young'Uns.
Chimpy Chompy on 4/4/2006 at 17:17
Hmm, that might apply if you're a 26 year old PhD Student but I honestly never saw such a stigma about being a 3rd year around 1st years. (but maybe it's just different in the US).
LesserFollies on 4/4/2006 at 17:22
I've done all of those, or at least a version of all of those, and I can second the people who say avoid the dorms. You will NOT get any work done. Don't go for the far-off allocated; it leads to skipping classes because you just don't have the time or energy to make the long haul that day.... Go for the middle option, the one with the possibility of ze franch cheeks :D
piln on 4/4/2006 at 17:26
Quote Posted by Para?noid
I just want to see what you guys think is the best option, because I can't bloody make my mind up
Then I say 2. Hate to sound like the boring old man, but 1 and 3 may offer too many distractions for your final year. Also factor in the likelihood of being ill all year if you go for number 1 (studenty germs). Look at it this way: you might move in with a bunch of boring nerds and get a 1st. Short-term sacrifice for a lifetime of smug self-satisfaction.
Rug Burn Junky on 4/4/2006 at 18:06
Quote Posted by Chimpy Chompy
Hmm, that might apply if you're a 26 year old PhD Student but I honestly never saw such a stigma about being a 3rd year around 1st years. (but maybe it's just different in the US).
Like I said, it might be different, and a lot may have to do with the situation peculiar to my school (The first two years of school: virtually everybody lived in the dorms, junior year and above: everybody lived in off campus apartments.) as well as the drinking age here (21, which roughly translates to senior year, so the older you were, the closer you wanted to be to the bars, and the younger you were, the closer you wanted to be to the underground dorm room kegs).
In either event, there was a distinct dividing line as to who lived where, and "the old guy in the dorms" wasn't exactly the optimal guy to be. I wouldn't quite call it a stigma, but it was certainly a drawback. But if you're cool, you're cool, and Noid's not a social retard, so I don't know it would matter that much for him, just throwing it out there as a consideraton.
Ulukai on 4/4/2006 at 18:28
I got so little work done when I was living on campus, I failed all my exams first time around. My how I laughed :(
We had a 3rd year student living on our floor, he was called Jonno and he was the coolest scotsman you could ever hope to meet.
We had a 3rd year student living on the floor upstairs, she thought she was a 'mother' figure to us 1st years and annoyed the fuck out of us with her incense sticks and her clucking hen antics.
Subsequently, I opted for university managed accomodation but then I knew all the people I was going to be sharing with.
Eventually, I moved back home in my last year because I wasn't getting any work done anywhere. Not fun, but it's the reason I passed.
SD on 4/4/2006 at 19:05
Quote Posted by Chimpy Chompy
it's just different in the US
It is (and I speak as someone who has attended universities on both sides of the Atlantic).
And the reason is: alcohol. In the US, if you're in halls, you can pretty much forget about boozing. If you were at all inclined towards getting wasted, you'd have to attend the parties that RBJ mentioned with your fresh, er, women in tow, and risk seeing them snaffled by those Grown-up Boys with their fancy-schmancy off-campus apartments, because in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man truly is king.
But over here, it's a different story. Why go to some lame kegger party when you can just go and drink, legally, in a bar or nightclub? Hell, 99% of universities operate their own bars and nightclubs these days - getting hammered isn't merely tolerated, it's actively
encouraged by the powers that be as the quickest way for young people thrown together to gel socially. As a third-year student living in halls, you'd be the first person that brand new students would seek the counsel of, and for sure, you'd be the guy to show them all the best (cheapest) nightspots. In my third year, living on campus, there was a buch of third year guys on our floor, and we would average four nights a week partying with the first years. Which probably explains why none of us got better than a 2.2 :erg:.
And therein lies the rub. If you have any deep desire to achieve a really good grade, you'd be well advised to live off-campus. On the other hand, if your chief aim is to have one last year of carefree, irresponsible partying with 18-year-old girls who are away from mummy and daddy for the first time, then go right ahead and live in halls. Your call.
