To think 25 is too old to live in uni halls

[User5556774]

And a house share should be considered rather than halls?

Halls might not be perfect, but I think a private rented house share with complete strangers will be a much worse idea!

If they have established friends in the town to share with then that may be more sensible.

As mentioned, many universities have accommodation specifically for mature students, which entry at 25 will usually come under.

I was a first-year (nineteen, never been kissed - for a couple of weeks, anyway) back in 1988.

On my corridor were 5 18/19yo british first years, a Malawian first-year (approximately the same age, but I'm not certain), a third-year, and a first-year in her thirties.

Looking back, I'm pretty certain I was the weird one

I was in a society with another first-year in her thirties, also living in halls. Slightly different set-up in that theirs were more like little houses than corridors, but still undergrads so surrounded by teens and early twenties. It didn't seem to be a problem.

How many people actually spend their social life with their corridor, anyway?

I was 17 when I lived in halls. My closest friends were a flat of mature male students aged 21-27. We liked the same music and were doing similar degrees with lots of shared modules. We went clubbing together, watched a lot of films and won the local pub quiz (with a significant cash prize) every week for a year. None of them were predatory and they always made sure I got home safely.

In my first uni halls there were flats of older students e.g. those over 25. Then there were flats where two students were between 21-24. (I was in one of those.) There were also flats were all the students were overseas students.

Some flats got on and others didn't. It wasn't age or nationality specific.

Most Halls have definite separate flats for older students, some have entire blocks for mature students and post grads. Halls can often be cheaper and more secure for lone learners. Why would mature students be excluded from this?

In my hall there was a pregnant married woman in her 30s, who went home to her husband every weekend.

It's likely they would struggle. There is a big difference usually between 18 year olds who have never lived away from home and a 25 year old with more life experience. Depends on the 25 year old though.

18 year olds tend to see anyone over 20 as old. When I was 19 there was a 24 year old girl in my music society and we all thought she was ancient. Good lord, to be that ancient now!

I vaguely knew a 25y.o. man who lived in uni halls, and he was pretty miserable and moved home.

@merryhouse

I was a first-year (nineteen, never been kissed - for a couple of weeks, anyway) back in 1988.

On my corridor were 5 18/19yo british first years, a Malawian first-year (approximately the same age, but I'm not certain), a third-year, and a first-year in her thirties.

Looking back, I'm pretty certain I was the weird one

I was in a society with another first-year in her thirties, also living in halls. Slightly different set-up in that theirs were more like little houses than corridors, but still undergrads so surrounded by teens and early twenties. It didn't seem to be a problem.

How many people actually spend their social life with their corridor, anyway?

How many people actually spend their social life with their corridor, anyway?

Well the last few months, when they've been forced to 'bubble' with their flat/corridor....all of them!

@User5556774

Well I would imagine the 18 year olds might find it odd?

When I was at uni most were 18-19 in halls but there were older students too. One guy was 26.

There was also a hall for mature/post-graduate students.

My uni has a lot of PG/International students on campus in halls. They’re grouped together, and we’ve folks up to about 50. We’re a campus uni, though, not in town.

My son is in halls - the mix in his flat goes from 18-25 and they all get on brilliantly.

I have a recurring dream that I am back in halls and have to try to fit in with my 18/19 year old flat mates. I am nearly 40. I always wake up very anxious after

I was 23, about to turn 24 when I started in Halls. I was only there s term as my parents sold our house and I needed to move to a flat to have my cats.

Was absolutely fine the short time I was there. I joked about having 18 year olds crying on my shoulder before I went which did happen. We all got on well as a flat apart from one girl we rarely saw, but we all had our friendship groups and did our own thing .

I lived with a couple of 23 year olds and a 24 year old in first year, and well as a load of 18-19 year olds and a 17 year old. It was fine- I think the 24 year old found us young’ uns annoying but that was definitely a personality thing...

Are you the mother of the 18 year old or the 25 year old? Either way, since you don’t seem to have experience of the situation yourself, why not let your child decide (since I hope you see a 25 year old as, you know, an actual adult?). If it doesn’t work out they can always choose something else in the second year, by which time they will have probably have made like-minded friends.

The advantage of halls over a house share is that you do come into contact with more people so more likely to find some you get along with - if you get stuck in a six person house and you don’t get along then it could be a bit claustrophobic.

40 year old man in our halls. Loved mixing with 18 year old girls in the bar. Early 90's.

Our halls were a student village and one of our housemates was 23. The rest of us were 18/19 when we started but didnt think anything of it. In the third term, a 26 year old moved in. There were other students in their 20s too and some houses were for final year/post grads.

At my uni there were a lot of people over 25.
There were post-grad halls but they were smaller and some ended up in the undergrad halls.

To be (45) 25 is young.

Depends on the person obviously. I knew a couple of people around that age when I was in halls and they were great. One did do a little bit of "looking after" with instructing others on things like cooking, but the other one you wouldn't have picked him out.

18y DD is in private halls for her first year - so basically flat shares.
Two of her flat mates are post grad students, one is older as had time out between university and post grad. We had been led to believe her fat was a mix of first and second years when we first put the deposit down.

TBH it hasn't worked out overly well for them. Neither left their rooms other than to eat and the older one tried to lay the law down on no friends over, so drinks 'parties - well get togethers with friends as no parties under covid rules. She was mid to late 20s and was 'there to work, not socialise and party' apparently.

For the first few weeks DD want happy and we considered bringing her home until university halls became available. Luckily both have now gone home themselves as their courses are 100% online. She is now in a flat alone but has bubbled with another flat and can socialise with them, have them round and have fun! She's hoping they don't return but if they do they will have to fit in rather than setting the rules.

So, unless they definitely sort halls into age groups (I'd check) then no, I don't think most older students would want to be flat (or house) sharing with a bunch of 18y first years on the whole.

I changed courses after two years and went into halls at age 20y rather than 18y. The first halls I was in was full of 18y and even that small age gap was too much. These were the type where it was room on a long corridor with a shared kitchen/bathrooms for many. I wasn't wanting to be partying with 18y fresh out of university every night. It was incredibly noisy. I applied for a hall change and went into halls for older students, everyone was over 20y - it was more appropriate for me.

I lived in a special postgrad hall, but it was bad enough, even though we only had four sharing a kitchen/diner. I can't imagine living with 18-21 year olds.

I lived in halls at 28 yrs old. Some of the stuff was super annoying, regular late night fire alarms because some idiot left pot on the stove etc. On the whole though it wasn't awful though. Entirely tolerable.

It's weird and the person will be seen as either pathetic or creepy