to feel sorry for today's university students?

[Lucydogz]

I live in a city with a couple of big universities, so this last weekend the place was full of new students finding their way around, most of them with mummy and daddy. When I started uni (admittedly decades ago) you were put on the train with your bags and left to it. It was sometimes hard and lonely, but I don't think having my parents along would have helped. Why do parents have to be so involved these days?
Plus (while I'm on the subject) student halls of residence used to be pretty spartan - shared bathrooms for the landing, and one TV, in the Common Room. Even if you were shy, you couldn't hide in your room all day. Now they seem to live in little pods and never need to actually socialise.
I expect I'll be flamed about this, but doesn't anyone else think that student life was better in the past (and that's without the issue of loans)

Wind power - yes I went to uni in 1977. I remember my dad and I taking my trunk to the station a few days before I caught the train myself. My room mate's parents took her up, which was quite unusual. A trunk and a bag on the train was enough but I don't remember having to take bedding, crockery etc. Flats were furnished with stuff like that.

My experience will be different because I was in Canada, but my uni was built in 1645

At risk of sounding pedantic, the first university in Canada was founded in 1663...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Canada

Anyway, I was driven to uni 20+ years ago, and collected at the end of each year if not every term, but I do think the common areas forced me to socialise in a way I might otherwise have dodged.

I started Uni in 1985, and my mum and dad came with me on the train- it was a 4 hour trip. They stayed for an hour or so, and then had to get the train back. I lived in a n all girl hall and we had a sink in our rooms, but had to share a bathroom/toilets with the others on the landing. It was catered, but we also had a small communal kitchen with a crappy kettle and oven.
I was desperately hoewsick for about 4 weeks, and then had the time of my life!

My parents took me down to Exeter uni back in 1989. I had so much stuff, there's no way I could've got the train. I don't recall anyone getting there on their own.

We are all going to drop off ds in 2 weeks. He is 18, ffs and needs our help and support and we are happy to give it to him. We are also sending him with a load of store cupboard stuff. This is the norm - we support him where needed and he will definitely need our help on this day.

I went to uni in the mid 90s and no one I knew came alone without parents in the first day, they all got lifts in. I was expected however to do all other trips home and back by myself

I left by myself drove up there, there was a fire in the motorway an hours journey took 5 I got there at 11pm just sat there like now what? I ended up driving 20 minutes down the motorway to someone I knew

And that was 6 years ago

It's now over 20 years since I started Uni. My parents drove me there. I lived in a flat with ensuite bedrooms and a communal kitchen with 6 others. It was attached to a hall of residence.
I had a ball and socialised a lot.

I was taken to Uni by a friend as we didn't have a car. At times I stored things in other people's houses/flats over the long vacation. And after one holiday my mum came with me on the coach to help transport stuff.

The problem with all ensuite posh halls is that they cost so much. At least one of my DC is considering going overseas where first year accommodation can still involve shared rooms.

When we took our son last year, the things he took which I didn't in the 70s included -

A duvet
4 pillows
Bed linen
A printer
An iron
An ironing board
A clothes airier
Pans
Crockery
Cutlery
Food basics (pasta, rice, cereals etc)
Towels
A laptop
Sports gear

In my day halls provided bed linen and towels (and a laundry service!). Even student flats provided bedding and came with fully equipped kitchens (at least the ones I stayed in did). I'm not sure how students could get there under their own steam these days!

Having constant access to people via mobile phones must be a nightmare for those with helicopter parents. We had a pay phone on each floor and were not called every five minutes to see if we were eating our vegetables, wearing a warm coat not getting drunk etc.

Took my uni dc by car each time except once when it wasn't possible for logistical reasons. Then couriered the heavy/bulky items for probably around the cost of the petrol.

Are you from Yorkshire OP?
Are you a man?
Were there 3 other Yorkshiremen in your flat?

1985 my DB took me, put my bike together for me then left. I was always a bit envious of those students whose parents would do a first shop, send first aid parcels of cake etc.

I get so bored with these posts judging the parenting of others, because that's what it is. Oh, and forgetting history. In the olden days (e.g. back in the sixties and seventies) fewer people had access to cars and public transport was the method many people used. Doesn't mean people were dumped.
Yes, mobile phones have made people easier to reach, but I know very few people who text their children constantly, even helicopter parents (hate that term). People tend not to write letters as much, so emails and texts have rather taken up the slack, that's all.
Oh, and I was dropped off by car in 1976. I unpacked and went out for a meal with my Dad. I did the same for DS who is now doing his Masters, without the help of Mum, and will be doing the same for dds. Not really your business though, is it.

My parents dropped me off 4 years ago for uni (as their parents did 35 odd years ago). They also, shock horror, took me to Tesco and bought me some basics AND took me for lunch. I actually think the extra 2 hours I spent not meeting people really affected my entire uni experience
I mean, Ive managed to make loads of friends and have a fantastic time but just think how much more fantastic it could have been if only I'd not had to spend
those 2 hours with my parents
My halls were pretty crappy (and about 30 years old so presumably the same ones used by people of OPs generation) they did have ensuites, but no common room and definitely not a tv . They had a small kitchen and a really grotty, sick smelling stairwell.
I really don't think its mollycoddling to drive your DC to uni, its just being nice. And it really has no bearing on how the DC will enjoy their time at uni, except for the fact they will be able to cook with the saucepans and sleep under the bedding that they probably wouldn't be able to carry on the train

We pick ds up and drop him off at the beginning and end of each term. Quite how he would manage on Eurostar with all his stuff is beyond me, and anyway, taking him to and from the UK means I get to go to Sainsbury and Pets at Home to stock up with essentials for the feline overlords, plus Lurpak and reasonably priced cheddar for me.

Halls in ds's first year were a single room with a sink and
shared bathroom and loos, with a pantry on the corridor. hardly en-suite luxury. He now shares a house which is not as nice as home, but gives him life experience, and is about a 20 minute walk from university, which means he gets some exercise each day.

We ferried our daughter to uni 4 years ago because she had a car full of stuff (bedding/kitchen stuff/clothes etc) that she couldn't have taken on the train and she hadn't passed her driving test.

We hauled it all up to her room, gave her a big hug and then left her to get to know her flat-mates (the halls were split into flats of 6). I don't think she was unduly affected by us taking her as she made lots of friends - even ones from different halls!

In 1992 I caught the train down myself midweek as my dp both had to work. They followed at the weekend with a car full of stuff. Worked well for us but was through necessity rather than choice.

It feels a bit odd (and sad) to be mocked for caring for our own children!

Taking the kids off to uni isn't new, DH's dad took him 20 odd years ago, even though he had his own car. He wanted to see him settled in. And he had food parcels (tinned potatoes & stewed steak, yum!), gave him weekly money and paid his rent, etc. In his student house they let out every inch they could, there was no communal lounge to socialise in as it was a bedroom, they'd have let the kitchen out if they could.

We're taking DS, I couldn't just wave him off on the bus with a rucksack, pillow strapped to the top and a pan hanging off the bottom... We'll take him shopping and for something to eat before we go. I'm dreading it, I'm worrying about him and he's not there yet, but that wouldn't be any different if he was leaving home for work, which incidentally, most children don't do at 18.

I started in 1997 and I think everyone arrived in the car with their parents. I remember massive queues for the payphone (a few people had mobiles), and parents ringing the payphone at the bottom of the halls and people pressing the buzzer to let you know their was a phone call. We had email from the start - the first time I had used it.

The halls I was allocated were relatively new and en suite, with a tiny shower and toilet. I wanted to get the cheaper non en-suite halls but didn't get my first choice (that was in the days when I could sleep through the night without needing the loo).

Some things I think are better now. Had such things been available then I would have loved to have had an Internet-connected laptop in my room and to have been able to watch TV on iPlayer. On the other hand we did hire a TV and watched it together in the kitchen sometimes which was nice. Definitely easier when everyone has mobile phones (everyone did by the time I graduated - the number of computers available also increased exponentially and the Internet was no longer agonisingly slow). I would have loved internet shopping deliveries as well.

On the plus side I was the last year that didn't have to pay fees and I even got a grant.

You know, not every student is battling their way 300 miles to uni across hill and dale. In 2003 I was dropped off in Durham at my catered halls (college) but it was only about 1hr20min from home so I was driven up there on Sunday morning, we unpacked a bit and then my parents drove home in time for a late lunch. It was a fairly standard distance for us to travel for a weekend day out.

What's really shocked me is that in 2003, my halls were £3k a year catered, 3 meals a day, with cleaner/change of linen fortnightly. It was 10 rooms to a floor sharing 3 showers and a small kitchen with a common room (chairs in a circle, no telly). The same room in the same building with the same food is now £6700 a year.

my dad used to send his washing home to his mum each week by bus when he was at university in the mid 60s, that was considered perfectly normal back then, but would certainly be on the helicopter-ey side nowadays .

We'll be taking DD2 by car this weekend, as no way would she be able to take everything by herself on the train (three trains, plus crossing London) - I don't see that as us not letting her be independent, just simple logistics.

I've just looked and my halls now cost double what they did when I started - £5800 for self-catered non-en-suite room for 39 weeks, compared to £3000 when I was there (which was bad enough). Plus the rooms and facilities will be 15 years older and shabbier now, and they're paying, what, £9,000 a year in tuition? That's nearly £15,000 a year.

Considering minimum wage for 18-year-olds has only risen 95p per hour since I was at University, yes, I definitely feel sorry for today's students.

My dad gave me a lift to uni. Helped me get my stuff out of the car,had a cuppa, pressed a few quid into my hand and said "Right, I'll bugger off then". Cheers dad
Student house(but owned by the uni) with common room, shared bedrooms and bathrooms but in a vair posh area. It was luxury.