Friend’s DS only wants a catered uni!

[Breakfastbars]

Rather than filter unis by campus vs city, distance etc, my friend said her Y12 son is only picking ones that offer catered accommodation. This is ridiculous in my view and, even when I pointed out that he will only live in halls for the first year, she got cross and said she thought it was a perfectly valid filter. AIBU?

It’s actually probably a pretty good filter for better universities - almost all older/Russell group types will have a catered option and ex-polys are much less likely to. So much of choosing universities is guess work or based on slightly strange things that feel important at 17 but inexplicable to older people. It’s quite sweet that that’s his filter.

I went catered in first year. There's often not much between halls so may as well filter on something that matters to him. It can be helpful for some students not to have to worry about cooking/shopping when living away for first time.

Why does it matter so much to you anyway?

100% a valid consideration, I went to a load of open days and thought very carefully about the food we got!

Agree with this. Dd didn't want catered & she's done ok but it IS a lot for them to take on the first year no matter how much they do for themselves at home.

I was in catered halls at uni. I made really close friendships as we ate together every day, it was great. I'm still friends with them nearly 30 years later!

Also, more time to study, easier to budget. And no washing-up, best of all😀

We had a blast in catered halls. Far easier to meet people. I think it's as good a filter as any

NONE of your business. I wish I’d had this option and finances to afford it and then maybe I wouldn’t have been so sickly and missed so much uni. Cooking added stress on top of being away from home that first year. In hindsight I should have gone a lot closer to home.

Why waste time cooking in the first year?

he sounds practical and sensible to look for catered accommodation

We all moaned about it at the time but looking back the catering at my college was an incredible resource. Even after first year when I was no longer living in I could go and have a (subsidised) hot lunch in hall rather than remembering to bring a packed lunch or having to go back to the flat.

There are much worse criteria to choose a university. I remember a delightful article in a lads' mag about which university had the 'easiest' girls which was passed around our brother school's sixth form common room and certainly influenced a few UCAS forms.

The ability to stand crammed in the corner on one leg avoiding the slick on the floor trying to break your dinner down into amounts that will fit into a teacup size saucepan to get onto the back burner of a hob meant for 4 that has 18 people attempting to manage to get access to it by rota of 9 at a time, then not having the elbow room to pour the contents onto your plate, and not even being able to catch sight of the sink through the throng, so having to to stack you saucepan under your desk back in your room where the heavy fire door slams you into total isolation while you spoon up your dinner while perched on the edge of your bed is hardly a life skill worth cultivating

My friend's DC only considered unis at the seaside. 🤣🤣🤣

I approve of this priority for filtering! If you can afford catered, go catered! not that it is my business or yours, what any individual chooses to prioritise.

No I disagree. Its a good way of meeting people and saves time messing about shopping and cooking food.

literally nothing to do with you.

Catered halls were the default for first year students when I went to university in the 1980s, and were good for all the reasons people have already outlined. There was no need to think about shopping (apart from biscuits and fruit for snacks) or cooking and washing up, meals provided built in social occasions twice a day, and as young folk just leaving home and school we were used to having very little choice over what and when we ate. I think the young man is likely to be making a sensible choice.

It's none of your business.

It is a valid filter and may be connected to something that you know nothing about.

This.

My DD has some body image issues which can cause anxiety and panic attacks. She ruled out one university largely because the majority of it's halls are catered and she'd find it way too stressful not being able to manage her own meals.

I agree that older unis usually have at least some catered halls. Newer unis and newer accommodation at older unis tends to be self catered.

It appears more kids fancy self catering. If we on MN are parents of uni aged kids, we are far more likely to have had catered options than most do now.

I wonder why most are keen on self catered? Is it because they are fussy eaters? It will be cheaper, but it’s also an added burden in that first year away.

Personally I liked and like catered. I agree that it’s easier to meet many more people than if you’re shut in a flat with 8 people. However, it’s no good being in the one catered hall if all of the others are self catered, or vice versa to be honest.

Moaning about hall food is a common past time of students. Perhaps more kids and more parents worry about not liking food than they did previously. In my view, it probably won’t be gourmet but it’s one less thing to worry about, as parents we know there willbe meals every day, and I do think it’s good for socialising. To be honest, it’s a bit more like a boarding school experience in some ways….probably a bit more of a stepping stone to independence and cooking for yourself in the 2nd year in a private house.

How does this affect you? His choice, his problem.

He and his mother are eedjits. Must be genetic.

Well I went to Essex in 1974 and there were students who just ate in the restaurant or cafe. They made hot drinks in their tower block flat but that was it. I assume that they had thought it through.

I think its a great idea. I would probably have benefitted as someone who spent their overdraft on cigarettes rather than food.

No he is not Oxbridge material

Somehow I guessed that.

Of course it's a valid filter, otherwise it wouldn't be an option

I once ran a residential summer-school and had to stay in one of my university's halls for three nights. After that, I can't understand why anybody would want catered accommodation: very limited choice of unappetising food at restricted times of day.

But it's still none of your business what someone else's son does, OP.

Why are you sticking your nose into this?