To ask about your university experience?

[namechange978]

Something I've always been curious about. Didn't attend uni, I'm outside of the UK. I'm not sure if I'm just really underknowledged about this

Specifically for those who lived away from home and used student accommodation...
How many people did you have to live with?
Were you close with the people you lived with?
Does everyone get their own room?
What was the state of the place you had to live in and was it a house/flat?

And also, how many lessons do you have a day on average? Did everyone work part time too?

I have distant friends who've gone to university in the UK so a bit surprised at myself that I don't know anything about university life at all!

@Dionysa sorry I thought I had explained but may have been confusing. I mean that just because someone doesn't need to do something doesn't mean they're incapable of doing it.

It was fucking awesome, even if .the accommodation was a bit shit!
In halls - rptwin room for about 6 weeks until my roomies found a single. Toilet and bath shared between about 8.
2nd and 3rd year - house share with 8 others. One bathroom, one toilet and two kitchens.

Ok! Sorry - being dense!

I didn't work part time but that's because of health reasons, barely anyone worked PT in first year that I knew (had to get use to uni life etc)). Few people started to work PT as the years went on.

I did not find my course that intensive, sure there were a few late nights but on the whole I still had enough time to socialise, play some sport, watch telly etc

Oh yes I bloody loved Uni, best years of my child free days - freedom, independence but no responsibilities other than course work etc

In my first year I lived in halls with 5 other people, two I got on with, one was extremely unsociable, and the other two were noisy nightmares. My neighbours were constantly noisy and I barely slept.

I had my own room in halls and it was a corner room so it was about twice the size of the other rooms, but with the same furniture so it was pretty much wasted especially as I wasn't the partying sort. It was six rooms to a flat, I was on the second (top) floor. Next door's corner room was unfortunately the party room so I did wish I'd been allocated a normal room! We had a tiny communal kitchen which I barely used, no other communal area in our flat - only a common room for the whole block, which I don't think I ever bothered visiting. I had an ensuite bathroom which was a plastic pod with a toilet, sink and shower in the corner of my room.

Year 2 and 3 I lived with someone I met on my course, we got on well enough and respected each others' space and it was generally great. We privately rented a two-bedroom flat in a highrise for what worked out to be around £300 a month each (in 2010).

I was in uni at least 4 days a week, mostly for 3-hour lectures, I think one day in my second and third year I had two 3-hour ones but most other days it was just one and the rest was study time or optional tutorials. I only lived 20 minutes walk from uni so I would go in for my 9am, pop to the shop after and be home before 1.

15 + years ago.

First year lived in halls 24 people mixed male and female in my block, sharing 2 kitchens, 1 laundry room, 4 showers, 2 baths, 6 toilets. There was a cleaner for communal areas, but individual rooms and washing up was each person's responsibility, and some people left piles of washing up. 2nd and 3rd year shared house with 4 other students/friends, mixed male and female. Our house was quite clean and tidy, but it depended on who you shared with.

First year was a great way of meeting people and making friends in halls, we socialised a lot together and generally then moved into houses with friends from halls.

Number of lectures depended on the course, I had 30 hrs per week, some only had 8hrs per week, a lot of additional self study expected in addition to this. Some courses included work placements which were full time hours and unpaid instead of lectures at some points in the year. I worked in the holidays but not term time due to the demands of my course and work placements, a lot of students did work part time though. If you are a foreign student it would be worth checking if you are allowed to work part time on a student visa.

I was at university in the mid 90s. My halls of residence were grim, and I shared with 5 others. It was ok, not miserable, but not loads of fun either. We had one shower and one toilet between us.

I shared a house in 2nd and 3rd year. It was ok, we got on well enough. But it was very basic and lugging stuff to the launderette and often having no hot water was pretty tedious.

I think 'the university experience' is hugely overrated. I wish I hadn't bothered.

Really treacle? I bloody loved mine. As a student in the 80s it was very basic (but free) and I loved it. I don’t care about hot water and laundrettes etc. I) or detail. I made good friends, became independent, and learned stuff. I also drank loads.

80s. Twelve of us completed our course. All very close and most in contact still. I’m in regular contact and godmother to the children of the two of the three I shared with. One didn’t have children.
It was a time of exciting new experiences, huge fun and slightly outrageous behaviour - or at least it felt outrageous at the time. Living on lentils and noodles. Rooftop parties. Theatre trips, new restaurants with foreign foods, a hard work life but huge support and hard play time too.

Minor detail*

In halls for the first year - which were old fashioned dorms rather than the flats they have now. All first years had to share a room & there was one bathroom with showers & a couple of toilets per corridor. No option for self catering - it was hospital canteen food shared with the nurses' home.

After that it was into private rentals - I was at university for a long time so there were lots of house moves. Anything between two and four other housemates. We always had our own rooms. Some people I shared with for more than a year (my first year roommate & I lived together until I got married) - with others one year was more than enough. I generally had nice places to live - two were houses owned by friends' parents which meant they were a bit smarter. I never had to live anywhere really grotty.

I did medicine & didn't know anyone who worked during term time. A few did in holidays but only in the pre-clinical years. Lectures/practicals were 9-5 four & a half days a week (Wednesday afternoons of for sport to get drunk). From the third year onward we were on clinical placements spread all over London/Essex so worked pretty much full time with short holidays rather than short university terms.

I got married before I graduated so shared with dh for the last year or so, a couple of my housemates were my bridesmaids. Long time ago now!

oh corridors were sex segregated in halls but my shared houses were a mixture of women & men though they were all medics. I was at a medical school that was just starting to integrate with the main university & medics didn't really mix with anyone other than the dentists! We had our own pubs, student union, book shops, sports facilities & teams etc. I think it's very different now.

I've just realised that I started university 41 years ago - crumbs!
1977 - 1981
Free education plus full grant. Bloody lucky!
Loved every moment of it.
First year: shared a room in a student house. Not great. Someone left so I got my own room.
Second year: lived out in one of the original Salford Coronation Street houses before they were pulled down. Green and black mould on the walls; slug trails on the floors; ice on the inside of the windows during the freezing cold Winter of Discontent. Loved it.
Went abroad for term 3 of the second year and the whole of the third year (France and Italy - studying MFL). Loved it! Lived with French and Italian families - excellent for cultural insight and linguistic development.
Final year: lived in student village - room in shared house with 11 other students. Great!
Some of the best years of my life!

cardibach yeah, I'm really envious of people who say it was the best experience of their life.

My course was mostly huge lectures, so no opportunity to get to know anyone. We had a tutorial once a week but no one really got to know each other. I didn't get to know anyone at university really, I found it a very lonely experience.

treacle, so sad to hear that you had this experience. It is obviously different for everyone. When my Dad dropped me at university in my first year, I have never cried so much as I cried then (I am a tough nut). Until the end of my second year, when Dad came to collect me. Then I cried because I didn't want to leave my house and friends. This is the same girl who didn't want to go 5 mins down the road without her mum in Yr 13...

I loved university. I was in halls in first year - own small room, shared loo and showers etc. I shared with friends in a student village in second year and then in a very cold flat after that. Made lots of good friends that I’m still close to 30 years later - mostly people who did other courses, but some from my course. We had about 15 hours of lectures each week and I did study a bit although I spent a huge amount of time on other things: sport, music, drama, various other clubs, and lots of drinking and shagging. I’d love to do it all over again!

Studied psychology 1982-1985
Lived on campus in first year shared house for 8
Lived in student house next 2 years also for 8 although 2 of us had DP living with us as well
I worked part time to make ends meet
We had 7-8 lectures a week, 3-4 seminars and a few individual tutorials rest of time spent studying in library and writing essays etc
No computers
Didn’t have a car, phone, tv, Washing machine, microwaves were equivalent to a third of my annual income
We protested a lot, believed in unions, staged sit ins oh and got drunk a lot and took drugs