Oxford Uni - end of term pick up?

[roisin]

Hi!
I presume this is a bit of a mad scramble! ds1 seems incapable of finding anything out. As far as we can tell, he has to be there on Friday of 8th week, as he still has lectures and stuff that day; probably parties that evening.

But we are fairly certain he must vacate his room by 10 am on the Saturday; along with almost all other undergrads in college.

Any survival tips gained from experience?

Bloody hell. I was at Oxford, and have no memory of how/when/if I was collected by DM, or where she parked. How self-absorbed must I have been?

M48 - they use the rooms for interviewees during December.

Their rooms are used by other visitors in the holidays - including people there for interviews in December. So they have to be completely emptied each holiday. And it is a PITA but that's how it is while they live in college.

Hocus my DS is having his boxes on pick up day - end of. If you're really, really indulgent you could order two Tesco under bed storage boxes for a fiver or so each and get them delivered to the lodge. I'm certainly not doing that though - apart from anything else Sainsbury's and their cardboard boxes are several hundred yards nearer to his room than the lodge.

DS's 'modern' annexe has two options for heating apparently, entirely dependent on luck of the draw: none (DS) or roasting 24/7.

Thanks Molio, top tip - it will remain to be seen just how indulgent I am. In my defence I have had less practice

I remember just going to university with one big suitcase. However, after a 2nd year flat share I do recall my father , who had come to pick me up, saying "Jesus Christ" (rather in the manner of Fenton the deer chasing dog's owner ) , when he thought the car was fully loaded and I said - Oh and there's just the rug to take.

M48294Y, the full story is that there isn't a single university in the country that allows students to rent their rooms or move their belongings to a storeroom free of charge over the holiday periods. This 'infantilising' experience is therefore not unique to Oxford. The annoyance of having to clear the room has to be balanced against the financial saving.

Thanks for Jesus Christ in Richmond Park Hocus. That's a good start to the week :)

Gasp0de - don't know if it's changed, but when I was at college (Girton) they used to let you leave your stuff in corridor cupboards / the cellar over the holidays.

Of course, how much of it you got back was always a bit of a lottery

I'm going by my son's experience (graduated this year) and comments from others on here over the years. Universities work hard nowadays to squeeze as much money as possible out of their accommodation. A lot of it is built/refurbished to quite a high standard, certainly far better than what I remember from my own student days a million years ago.

Interestingly I just checked and you still do get corridor cupboards at Girton. Presumably they failed to turn them or the cellars into accommodation meeting health and safety rules (I imagine there isn't much issue with parking for pick-ups either, OP & daughter should take note there are some advantages to living 2 miles out of town . . .)

Sorry, got confused as to threads

Wait, sadik, you've got me wondering if there's a Cambridge thread paralleling this one, and I've been missing out posting on the wrong one...

M2849etc

As others have said, although it's a pain, it's also a cost saving. Also, one of the under-the-radar pluses of oxford, relative to some other universities, is that everybody who lives in gets the same quality of accommodation, irrespective of their parents' ability to get their cheque book out. Early friendship groups are far less likely to be related to your parents' income. Where differential first year accommodation is offered - with some blocks rather more high quality and expensive than the rest - there will be an inevitable tendency in the opposite direction.

Untill my friends DS went to Oxford I hadn't realised that some universities need students to move out of halls completely every term. All 3 of our DDs have gone to university and rent was until the end of the academic year. DD3 was even able to rent summer halls this year.

Yes, and I would imagine that is reflected in the rental costs.

Gasp0de , I have to say we were pleasantly surprised at the Oxford accommodation charges. If that means a bit of faffing and lifting twice a term, I'm happy with that - particularly as the faffing and lifting on the whole won't be mine. Also as Figment says , certainly at DS's college it is a complete lottery - you pay one price and get a room drawn out of the hat. I think some are different but I agree it is a nice system.

When I was there (left in 2007) I used to go out on the Friday night, stay up all night and start packing at about 6am. By the time my mum arrived, I was usually more or less ready to go. I think she used to arrive at about 10.30/11. There was nowhere to leave stuff during the holidays if you were a UK student, it all came home with you.

A girl I knew left some beer in her room once while she was carrying the rest of her stuff to the car, and when she came back to fetch it, the scout had taken it!

alma according to a group of St. John's students who I passed looking green in the vicinity of Lamb & Flag Passage on freshers' drop off day in October, an outgoing student had left a slab of raw meat in the mini fridge in June and the scout had unfortunately not taken it.....

I didn't realise you had to vacate the rooms each term .its not like that elsewhere I think, you rent for the academic year.

That would drive me nuts! I don't have any part of the taking and fetching back my DD turns up when she's done and goes off back when she's ready.

I think it seems a bit more like boarding school than uni!

You don't have to leave in the vacation. You just have to pay more if you want to stay there and I believe you might have to move rooms. The cost saving is well worth the inconvenience!

DD2s rent was quite expensive but that's partly because it was private halls and also in Greater London. DD3 is up north and her halls are a lot cheaper.

I can understand "moving out" might seem inconvenient but how much are students paying in other universities just to store basic items. I'd venture most are paying £600 plus a year for the pleasure. I could put up with a little inconvenience for that sort of saving!

The holidays are much shorter at my DDs uni, three official weeks at Xmas but almost everyone goes back early to study for exams.

It's my impression that most universities now have very little happening in the summer. A few revision classes, exams in April/May and that's it till well into September. At Oxford the third term goes on till June. So although the terms are shorter and the vacs are long, I would say it all evens out in the end.