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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

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Original poster

What essentials are needed for uni?

91 replies

doglover · 22/08/2017 12:04

DD has a place at Oxford starting in October.

Apologies if this subject has been done to death but we are newbies to the whole university experience! We are now starting to think about what she will need to take - college room / catered.

Will her college send her a list of requirements? She's really keen to buy bedding (mattress protector / pillows / quilt + cover / sheets?? Or is any of this provided??) and towels plus ..................

Any suggestions or links to previous threads would be very welcome!

OP posts:

Squirrills · 26/08/2017 12:40

Specifically the ACWY vaccine. They should be able to get it at GP. I had trouble getting it for DS1 as he was a second year but we got it done privately. Can cause a sore arm / fluey symptoms so best done when they have nothing planned next day.

Freshers flu is very real, so a first aid box with paracetamol, lozenges etc is worth packing. DS2 and all his flat went down with it at the end of freshers week. He was quite poorly and it dragged on for weeks. If I recall the "Uni freshers 2016" thread all the DC went down with it .

Dunlurking · 26/08/2017 13:07

Not mine Squirrills Ds kept his drinking and partying down in the first term and had a flu jab before he went. Now this term he's highly likely to get stuck into the partying, and I haven't sorted his flu jab yet . . . .

Dunlurking · 26/08/2017 13:13

randomer that's awful.

Yes to ACWY being easily available from GPs - you'll probably find they are a running a few clinics in September specifically for those heading off to uni. Having said that, maybe your year group have had it already??? I've lost track of which age groups are getting it at school now.

Mytimenow · 26/08/2017 14:27

DS1 had a men jab last year even though still in college when most of his friends were going off to uni, does he need another jab this year?

Dunlurking · 26/08/2017 14:45

Mytime he only needs to have it once. No boosters needed www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/men-acwy-vaccine.aspx

Mytimenow · 26/08/2017 15:51

Thanks lurking, that's one less thing to worry about. DS2 had it a few months ago Y9.

mummmy2017 · 26/08/2017 16:08

Send them with a double duvet not a single. DD wanted the single, I got a double as well, guess which one came home after a term.
The heating was on a push switch, 20 mins at a time and at night it got cold, so the double meant she was nice and cosy.

Ikea do a massive deep frying pan, it could be used to cook things or bol things, and she said she never used any other pans.

Cheap Tesco kettle, cost £5.

Lots of stuff was bought on a as you need it, as it turns out so much is left each year, the kitchen was stocked apart from cuttlery and plates.

OddBoots · 26/08/2017 16:47

DS had a meningitis jab in Y9 but it wasn't this new ACWY one, he had to have the ACWY one a few weeks ago.

goodbyestranger · 27/08/2017 12:12

Sorry, bit late to this but on the Oxford bedding front I would strongly counsel a student to bring his or her own duvet. Seven colleges later I still have the gravest possible reservations about the state of the mattresses and the duvets, if supplied (they are in some colleges, not in others). Where colleges wash the sheets the students still have to strip their beds weekly at the appropriate time and can opt out, so it's by no means certain a student will be in crisp new linen once a week :) Also, the mattresses are very thin indeed on the whole, so mattress toppers as well as protectors are the name of the game, an innovation for my DC after DC4 which made a good deal of difference to the younger DCs' quality of life.

On the electrical front there can be lots of bans on any equipment which isn't brand new. DS2 and his friends played cat and mouse with the bursar and a much coveted hob for their entire second year (it was confiscated on a bi-weekly basis).

Glad to hear a decision was reached and your DD is now happy again Carl. Things do have a habit of working out, as Lucy often observes.

Hassled · 27/08/2017 12:16

Passport photos. They always need passport photos.

GetAHaircutCarl · 27/08/2017 12:29

Thank you goodbye.

Calm and harmony have returned to Casa Carl. Well, as much as it's ever calm and harmonious here.

GetAHaircutCarl · 27/08/2017 12:32

BTW as of today we no longer have any children in this house .

GetAHaircutCarl · 27/08/2017 12:33

I mean it's their birthday! Not that I've buried them under the patio or something.

Horsemad · 27/08/2017 13:57

Aww, Happy Birthday Twins

Lucysky2017 · 27/08/2017 14:35

Happy birthday to the twins.

(I think I may end up driving to Bristol two days in a row as one of them is not at all happy about going a day early. There probably is a simplicity doing them one at a time anyway and it's not as if I am driving to Durham which woudl have been likely had they both accepted that as their firm choice. I emailed the children some photos of my father on a Durham University field trip at age 19 yesterday which I came across by chance.)

GetAHaircutCarl · 27/08/2017 14:37

Thanks for the good wishes.

It's boiling here and they're in the pool, diving around as if they were eight not eighteen!!!

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