To ask if 26 is too old for halls

[thedaywewillremeber]

Ds1 has decided to defer another year as he doesn’t want to attend university as he feels he won’t cope at the moment. He would like to go into halls so he can live independently before properly moving out.

Yes, I stayed in halls at 26 (after a period out for illness) and felt ancient!

He is quite an immature 26 year old.

I think it depends on him. When I lived in halls yes I would say the majority were 18 or 19. However I knew a 25 year old and he fitted in very well and was hugely popular.

If hes quite immature for his age he might be ok. When I was in halls 5 of us were 18 and 1 of our flat mates was 25 and he fitted in fine with us.

In fact on the first day of freshers he was the one an ambulance was called for because he took the drinking waaaay too far and hurt himself.

Looking back, maybe he was being a bit of an idiot as he felt he had to keep up with us all .

2nd year we moved into a shared house and he came with us as we all got on.

Depends on the 26 year old. When I was in halls, there were a few mature students in my building who were mid-late 20s. Most got on with everyone else fine and made friends, even if they rolled their eyes at us occasionally they were pretty much the same as us.

There were two guys in their late 40s also in my building. One was being put through uni by his employer. He had an absolute whale of a time and we all adored him. He'd go out drinking with us and was a great laugh, we all had to pretend we didn't know him when his wife and kids visited The other guy hated all of us, hated any noise however quiet, hated our 'disgusting morals' and should never, ever have chosen to live in halls. He spent more time making official complaints than studying!

I think he might feel quite old or rather than the others are quite young. Does depend on his personality. I knew one guy a similar age. He was a very immature though so it kinda worked...

Yes he is too old for normal halls so unless there are halls for post grads or mature students I dont think its a good idea.
He also sounds too old for you to be having this level of involvement in his future living arrangements. He needs to sort this out for himself.

He’s got asd and mental health problems so I do get involved with his life to support him.

Based on your last post OP, how is he with noise? I would talk to student support before you do anything else. Explain his specific needs for housing and see what they suggest. They will be used to students with specific needs, but I really wouldn't put him in a standard halls of residence. Depending on where he's going there might be specific social and support services for mature students too.

I stayed in halls in my first year. I was 18 the oldest person was 24 ( she kept to herself). The halls could be really noisy some weekends were crazy. There were about 25 students per floor and 4 floors per building.

The good thing was having 2 meals per day included. No extra bills. Rooms were cleaned and we had clean linen given once a week.

Downside- fire alarm going off at 3am and having to evacuate the building...

Yes he will ask about mature student halls not sure there is any where he wants to go though unfortunately

I think he’s too old for halls unless it’s a post graduate campus. Most 18 year olds won’t want to share halls with a 26 year old! Teenage girls might find it a bit creepy to have a mature male student sharing their facilities.

And he’d probably get fed up with the noise, drinking culture and people vomiting in the stairwells at 3am.

No way, unless they could guarantee mature students together. The oldest in our halls was 23 but he was immature so it was fine!!

I went into halls at age 30. Was fine, i made more friends outside my halls though. I asked for quiet halls and paid more for ensuite.

My sister is in year 2 of uni she is in halls and is 22 she is loving it.

I went into halls at 19 and felt I was soooo much older than the 18 year olds 😂