Apologies in advance, this is a long post. DS (19) has accepted his Uni offer, since he already has his A2s, and is currently doing an Art Foundation course, he will be definitely going in September. However, he has applied for accommodation and although some students have not received their uni offers, so cannot even apply yet, already there are no single rooms left on or off campus in uni accommodation. He had intended to apply for a single room, ( and we were given the impression that there were far more single than shared rooms). As there were none left, he had to apply for a shared room, and his second choice had to be, again in a shared room, at other accommodation 12 miles away from where he will be studying.
The uni in question is apparently taking a lot more students this year and so has converted a lot of its single occupation bedrooms to shared bunk or twin rooms. We did not know this when he decided to firm this choice (he had offers from all 5 unis he applied to).
DS is anxious about going away to uni anyway, and is doubly anxious at the thought of having to share a room that was only intended originally for one person, as he thinks it will be short on space and is worried about sharing with someone he has never met before. He is naturally shy and is already stressing that he will have nowhere private to escape to if everything gets a bit much. He is now saying he wishes he had firmed one of his other offers.
My dilemma is - does he accept the sharing offer (I hope he at least gets a shared room on campus), it may all work out for the best?
My feeling is that at least he will get to see what living in halls is like, hopefully make friends and, his room mate could turn out to be a great friend, or at least someone to go with to all the Freshers events. We have been told, that sometimes after the first term, people drop out or find other accommodation, so you can end up in single occupancy of a shared room anway.
My worry, however, is that if he gets allocated a shared room, he will end up miserable if there are issues with his room mate, or if he just finds the lack of privacy overwhelming, leading to problems with his work or worst case, he might drop out.
The alternative might be to look for a house share, so that he could have his own room. Of course, being a new first year, he will not know anyone to team up with to find a house, or might end up sharing with 2nd/3rd years which might not be so good for making new friends in his year. Also, , it will not be on campus, so again may be not so well place for all the socialising.
Added to this we are 7 hours drive away from uni, so it will not be easy to go and look at places. (I was hoping we wouldn't have to jump this hurdle until next year, by which time I had thought he would have got to know the area, found a group of friends to share with etc)
Any advice from mumsnetters whose DC have found themselves in this situation would be very welcome, just to help me get some perspective on this.
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Uni accommodation dilemma
37 replies
dottygamekeeper · 20/04/2016 21:50
OP posts:
Coconutty ·
20/04/2016 21:59
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