If you went away to university...

[PrincessTuna]

Did you make friends with anyone local to the uni?

I went away and stayed in halls first year, shared house for the rest. I don't remember meeting anyone from the local area on my course. All of my friends were from all across the UK.

And I guess the other question is "if you stayed at home for uni, did you make friends with non-local students?"

DS had a girlfriend in his 1st year who, although she lived in halls was only from 15 mins up the road and would regularly pop home. He also has a friend on his course (undergrad and now post grad) who lives a mile down the road from Uni. He says there are quite a few local students at the Uni.

The local students in my subject were more likely to stay in the city afterwards or do a stint abroad/in london and return. I'm one of a small handful of non locals who stayed in the city afterwards - 20odd years later I'm still in the region (NE) but no longer in the city

I wonder what the average % of "local" students is at universities.

There were 2 uni in the town I went to and we didnt mix. There was also a bit of an arts vs sciences divide. Maybe students are quite tribal!!

I made two friends who were quite local (they were both from just outside the university city). I don't really recall meeting any other students from the local area though.

I was a student nurse and my friends were students. DH came to uni in my home town and met me on a night out with them. That was 30 years ago and he never went home.

Not really, I went across the country and we found that people that were at their local uni already had a local social circle so mostly treated it in the same way as school or college

Whereas people in halls/living in house shares were much more immersed in 'uni life' as their social circle was built around the people they lived or studied with

You also found that the people living together would often do things on the spur of the moment, so any friends that were living elsewhere (eg at home) got forgotten or were invited but couldn't just drop everything to join in/got there a couple of hours later etc

Yes but not any long standing through various part-time jobs and a few boyfriends.

Went to York, one lass was local but had moved into halls and had grandparents that were cental to York but her parents lived on the outskirts. She was the only one though, otherwise we wouldn't have mixed with anyone local. I think many went to teesside where I was from and mixed with others that was on my friends course so maybe depends on the university.

Oh I misunderstood, no-one on my course was from the local area afaik but I did meet locals during my time there.