Help! To move out or to stay?!

GrammarGirl

I'd definitely echo ONW's advice - don't choose the local uni just because it's local. Choose the uni that's right for you in all senses - you don't have to go really far away, but just consider courses offered further afield and how they compare.

I stayed at home in my first year, but my uni was a 90min round trip and travelling was hard. I stayed at home because I wanted to be near my boyfriend (who I am still with) and I also didn't like the idea of halls. I like my home comforts too and am not a big drinker.

I moved into a shared house in my second year and absolutely loved it. In the third year, my boyfriend joined me in the city and we lived with other friends, and now we live just the two of us. I haven't lived at home properly since my second year of uni and would never consider going back now.

I definitely think I missed out on some things by living at home - I didn't really have a freshers week, didn't experience the solidarity of living in halls, found it harder (but not too much!) to make friends... but I saved some money, did really well with my work and am still with my boyfriend. All worth more to me now than that first year away from home.

bitsandpieces

Ditto - don't go to your home university just cause it's close. You're talking 3-4 years of full-time work for your degree, so it's important to find the best place for you to study.

Think about where has a good rep for your course, where the experts on the field are, covers the areas your interested in, what teaching and research at the universities are like, whether their are other benefits (e.g. do you want a work placement), where you want to live, etc - then decide.

waterhouse_melons

aww thanks to all, this has helped alot, well looking at the league tables just now, the one that local is pretty poor (which I thought was a about average). So would it be best for me to stay at home for the first year?...or to live in the halls for the first year and get the exp. and then move home?
From the sounds of it, uni is all about luck and how well you can manage money?Everyone has had different experiences and I hav'nt heard from anyone who didn't stay at halls so thanks to those who stayed at home, the advice helps!

melancholly

i agree with a lot of advice above - all unis aren't equal - not only in terms of league lables but in terms of what the specifics of the course are (from specialities in the department to methods of assessment; coursework vs exams). pick the best one you can! some will have a placement year that gives you great experience for your cv.... i think there is a difference between a top 10 and a top 30 uni when it comes to recruitment after uni, but when it's a couple of places, it doesn't matter. it's also about where the uni is for your particular subject. get to some open days to meet staff and current students if you can - some places have a good 'feel' and that will vary for each individual!

you can have a cheap time at uni - you're thinking about it now so that's ahead of most people. there are part time jobs, you don't have to spend all your money on alcohol and if you budget from the start you're onto a winner.

(oh and different newspapers base their league tables on different things - for some it's about student feedback whereas for others it's research funding. it's worth looking at a few to get a good general idea of how a uni is thought of).

The_One_Who

Are you looking at other universities as well as your local one? This is not to say don't go to your local one (I do and wouldn't change it for the world), but you should go to one that is right for you.

University is what you make of it, not luck as such. Halls are pot luck as to who you have to share with your classmates will be a mix of amazing people and complete idiots. If you do nothing to help yourself no one else will, so if you don't actively try to make friends or seek out help that you need then no one is going to do it for you.

waterhouse_melons

ok, cheers. Well the uni thats local is ranked 79th I think? Its the uni of hertfordshire if anyone wants to look it up for themselves? From what everyone's said, il go and look at more uni open days and reviews. I think i'm going to stay at home but look at uni's in London and the surrounding area. Thanks everyone!

lauh88

live at uni in 1st year, make all your friends and then live at home in 2nd and 3rd year
thats what i've done, sooooo much cheaper than living away!

DrScotsman

If you're considering a local university because it's local and not because it's good, I don't see why you should live in halls. Otherwise you have the disadvantage of going to a not (necessarily) good uni, and the small advantage of living NEAR family and friends. You might as well either bump that up to the advantage of living with your parents, or bump up to a good uni.

Now tbh I'm not a very social student, but I reckon if you live at home you can make up for not being in halls by going to all of the socials, societies fairs, etc. in the first few weeks. I think that would be worth the money saved, and the much higher standard of living.

Fire_Fox

waterhouse_melons wrote: »

I'm in year 12 currently and I have a nearby local university. This university is'nt exactly the best in the world, and neither the worst, but its improving in the league tables rapidly.
I'm going to study Computer Science and don't know whether it would be worth it to stay at home and just get the bus there and back to and from the uni each day or just to pay to live at the student halls?
Is it worth me to pay an extra £10,000 a year to stay on campus? I've heard that people who tend to live at home get less of an experience and don;t participate as much... experiences and advice pleaseee!!

Why would it cost that much extra?? That's £190 a week, even if you were on campus 52 weeks of the year! :eek: Then you are suggesting your social costs (which would presumable not change substantially whether you lived in or out) are extra? Are the halls very expensive or am I really out of touch? We are only talking about 24 weeks of the year living in, you'd be at home in the holidays. Perhaps you'd pay for the Easter and Xmas vacations too but still ....

3plus1

Personally, I'd recommend living in halls your first year.

It's highly likely you'll have to stay in catered halls and the food on offer will be largely inedible, but your first year is when everyone is going to start naturally falling into friendship groups, and if you're not around because you have to go back to your parents' house, you may start to feel isolated.

If you don't drive, you might have to leave by the last bus back. If you do drive, you'll never be able to have a drink with friends (assuming you're not tee-total) because you'll have to be sober when going home. If you live in halls, you'll be able to stay out as late as you want, and be able to walk home with other students who live two doors down from you. Safety in numbers and all that. If you always have to head back yourself, you're naturally going to want to leave earlier all the time. Not because you're anti-social, but because you need to stay safe and no one else on a night out lives anywhere near where you do.

I'm not by any means saying that the friends you meet in your first year are the ones you're going to leave university still liking, but they are the people you'll end up living with in your second year. If you don't maximise your chances for meeting new people and making friends in your first year, you'll find that everyone already has a bunch of friends they want to live with in their second year, and you'll have no choice but to stay with your parents again or move into halls. Which would be pretty unusual.

If you're an especially outgoing person, I'm sure you'll find a way to beat all this, and still end up the most popular person on campus. However, if you're more average, or worse, naturally shy, you'll struggle to make friends. Living in halls isn't always the greatest of experiences, but it forces you to talk to people. You might not like all of them, but you might get talking to a friend of someone you say hi to in your building, hit it off and make friends for life. You never know.

My sister and I are both firmly in the naturally shy camp. I lived in halls; she lived with our parents. I still keep in touch with friends from uni; she doesn't. I honestly believe she had a much harder time than me. I remember she came back home drunk once (this was when I was still at school - she's older than me) and my parents flipped. That was the only time she did it. I'm not saying you need to get drunk to have fun (I've actually never been drunk, but I do drink a little), but staying at home means you'll have to put up with your parents' rules and they may be hard to bear. I used to stay out til 3am in my first year - my parents certainly wouldn't have put up with that. My dad was on 6am shifts - he'd never have got any sleep.

Living at home may be cheaper in the short run, but if you end up feeling unhappy and wanting to drop out, then it's got to be such a false economy.

If you've come round to the idea of living in halls, then perhaps you should also consider moving away from home, as it'll cost the same. You should only aim to study at a local university if it's a good one. There are so many graduates these days; you do yourself no favours knowingly getting a degree from a uni that no one respects. After all, you do presumably want a shot at a decent job after your three years minimum studying!