First year uni accommodation - is en suite worth the extra cost?

[MotherOfGirls]

Just wondering if I'm being mean suggesting my DD goes for shared facilities....

[OddBoots]

How much extra is it?

[MotherOfGirls]

It's around £40 per week more, OddBoots. (Starts at £79 for shared and starts at £123 for en suite.)

Thanks, Vicki, that's what I was hoping to hear!

[EduCated]

No. She'll only have a shared bathroom if she moves out of halls in second year anyway.

I shared, mixed flat of 6. It was grim, a lot of bleach was used, but no-one died. It also meant we had a decent sized bathroom, all the en-suite rooms I saw were essentially a shower in a cupboard and lots of friends had problems with them flooding, things in their room getting damp, not having enough room etc.

[EduCated]

Also, agree with Vicki that it wasn't a problem in terms of queuing etc. In the whole year, there were only a handful of times I had to wait for the shower and then it was a case of just waiting 5 mins. Everyone will have different timetables and habits. At home I was in a house of 5 adults who all needed to be out the door by 8am. It was much, much easier at uni.

[MotherOfGirls]

Thank you EduCated. I'm beginning to feel less mean already!

[reddaisy]

I had an ensuite at uni and LOVED it. And some of the shared facilities were seriously disgusting and people showered wearing flip flops so they didn't have to touch the bath with their feet. But I paid for my own accommodation and £40 a week is a lot extra when it is a luxury.

[CarpeJugulum]

Make sure you invest in a lovely dressing gown for her - lightweight towelling (for ease of washing & drying) and with good coverage of body was the order of the day when I was in halls.

While she may be in a "girls" section, there are guaranteed to be men floating about and it's much less embarrassing all round!

Also the towelling means that when you're slightly hungover and forget the towel, the robe will double up!

[500internalerror]

Gosh, I'm torn - I was about to say there is no way on earth I wouldn't have en suite, but £40 a week is a lot. We shared for our first yr & it was DISGUSTING , after that we rented a private bedsit (stand-alone, in the middle of nowhere too ) & it was much nicer....

[Bonsoir]

When I was in hall, there were two bath cubicles and three basin cubicles for 18 girls. It was gross! I used to scrub the bath out with Ajax before running it and there were often long queues.

I think that you need to know how many girls there will be to a bath/shower room. 2:1 and 18:2 are quite different ratios and worth different prices.

[fraktion]

We were 5:1 and it was a bit grim. I would infinitely prefer ensuite!

[wigglesrock]

I'm a cleaner and have worked in both ensuite and shared facilities Halls of Residence. If you can go for ensuite - do it.

[TheFallenMadonna]

12 students (mixed) to one loo and one bathroom in my first year hall. It wasn't my ideal, but it was cheap. I also shared a room to save money and we had bunkbeds!!

[jojane]

We had ensuite in first year and I loved it was a wet room so toilet and sink and shower without a cubicle but I had come from boarding school with 2 shower cubicles for about 20 of us and was a nightmare waiting for a shower to be free.

[MirandaWest]

I had a sink in my room and then shared facilities. Can't remember any problems at all.

[RugBugs]

My experience was fine, 3 boys and 2 girls in our flat with one shower/toilet and a seperate toilet.
The flats with en-suite rooms had more bedrooms, 7 or 8 and students were responsible for cleaning their bathrooms.

A friend of mine bless him was so worried about his privacy he put net curtain up!

[QuickLookBusy]

Having looked at many unis with 2 DDs, we went for ensuites.

The shared facilities were on the whole very grim.

[MotherOfGirls]

A pretty mixed bag of opinions! I will look at ratios, as that is obviously a factor. Thank you.

[TheWoollybacksWife]

DD has ensuite and loves it. Her friend has shared facilities and it smells like swimming pool changing rooms despite the best efforts of the housekeeping team.

She'll be in a house next year and will be back to sharing a bathroom (and being responsible for her own cleaning) - should be smelly interesting after a week or two.

[MariscallRoad]

MotherOfGirls a reasonably quiet environment to study undisrupted is the most important for a student. The bathroom is a not the most crucial and one uses it few times a day. I believe it will be regularly cleaned. It could be seen as a comfort but it is not guaranteed that will not block/flood at all and it is not certain it wont have the same problems as a shared one.

[JoJoCK]

Definitely not worth the extra cost op, and I say this as someone who works for a privately owned uni accommodation provider (outs self!)

[ggirl]

dd had ensuite in her 1st yr , they are seriously tiny, think aeroplane size , but she liked it
she's now in a shared house and misses her ensuite ...shared bathroom is totally gross but depends on your housemates and the house really. Dd's house is like out of the Young Ones if you remember that series.

[fussychica]

DS had an ensuite at home at the time but opted for shared facilities at Uni (with sink in room)as he wanted the extra cash (£700 more pa). He figured he better get used to it as he knew it would be shared once he went into a flat in his 2nd year. He's never had a problem, both halls and flat mixed and shared bathroom between 4-6, perhaps he's been lucky or perhaps it's a girl thing

[webwiz]

Both DD's went for shared facilities and neither of them had a problem with it. They both lived in friendly blocks with people they went on to share houses with so that seemed more important than having your own shower.

[BestIsWest]

DD was very worried about sharing facilities but had no choice in the end as all the ensuites at her of uni went to unconditionals. She was fine and is in a house where all facilities are shared now anyway. I'd save your money