Starting lectures at uni 2017

[HSMMaCM]

The other thread filled up really quickly, with exciting talk of laundry, mattress toppers and lost property.

Here's where the rest of them settle in, get through freshers and the work gets serious.

Oh gosh so sorry to see that a few are struggling. Hugo how are things now? Can you go to see him?

DD seems OK atm but I bet she will have a wobble at some point.

Why on earth dont they designate some halls non-drinkers or something so those students dont have to put up with the daft antics of my DD and mates. Though I guess they may think it waters down the drinkers a bit - like quiet, studious chidren in a lively class.

DS finally got his student loan, a mere 22 days late owing to the university's error, not his. Given the implications for paying rent, and whether his tuition loan would get paid, I'd say that's pretty stressful for any age, let alone 18.

They asked Dd for preferences around noisy/ quiet, drinking/ non-drinking, mixed or same sex flats, and I think that's helped a lot as she seems to be in a small group of fairly like-minded girls, very friendly (cooking together and went round Freshers events together) but not so much late night partying (from what she tells me!)
More the odd quiz night over in the halls bar, and they had a firework event at the weekend.

Seems like an idea they might usefully take up at more Uni's?

I think in London they have designated some halls non-drinking, but unfortunately it appears to be a euphemism for self-division along religious lines.

I don't think most students mind others drinking per se, just not to excess all the time and not so that it is disturbing every night.

Mind you, I think the novelty wears off pretty quickly and hopefully they should all have some work to do which does put rather a dampener on the jollifications.

There's a flat in DS's halls that are on a final warning for noise already. Crazy.

Lineys thank goodness it's finally arrived.

DD was asked to write a pen portrait of herself, she's now in a flat with three others who are all very much like her so her uni seem to have got her fairly well placed. It must be a nightmare to organise though, imagine having to read all those pen portraits and place people accordingly.

Sleep deprivation must be torture for those students living with other people who are noisy. I can certainly imagine that this would be an issue.

They need a giant Sorting Hat.

Hope the unhappy ones get some good advice. There is a bit of luck involved with getting compatible flat mates.

Communal living is not easy.

With the best will in the world when you live in halls/college you will hear your neighbours talking/singing/watching telly/ coughing their guts up/ having energetic sex.

Doors will endlessly open and shut.

Communal areas will be messy. A shit hole is not appropriate but realistically they will be messy.

You won't like everyone. Not everyone will like you. At times people will have words.

My advice to students each year is wear ear plugs, smile where you can, nap where you can, speak up if you feel strongly about something, and if you're really unhappy ask for a move.

BTM, I think the issue is that the worst offenders are extremely young and think it is normal to go out night after night till the early hours. Some also seem to have amazing amounts of money.

Most kids drink, and like to socialise, but presumably most have been used to only going out at weekends and a lot would not want to, or could not afford to go out, much more than that. We looked into quiet halls because of my daughters dyslexia and her need to be able to access quiet study, but for some bizarre reason quiet equates to no alcohol and single sex. Perhaps reinforcing the idea that if you are not a fully paid up member of the party crowd you are a real saddo.

I suspect it is only a small minority who are making the noise, but they seem to have no understanding how awful it is for others. Or understanding of how much work is entailed in getting a good degree, or how tough the job market can be, even for graduates.

I could barely hear my daughter on the phone one night because of the noise outside at 10.30pm. The University happily schedules plenty of lectures for 9.00am, and expect quite a lot of pre and post lecture study, so they must assume that their students can get some sleep. One lovely, and sociable girl we know dropped out of Bristol last year, and another from Exeter. Both are now happy and settled in London. Another, albeit from Thailand, similarly had to leave Birmingham because her flatmates lived like pigs and she could not cope.

Hopefully the weather will get colder so they will stop using the lawn outside my daughter's bedroom, and parents will start imposing some sort of budget rather than topping up when money runs out. Apparently quite a lot of students will disappear for half term (lucky parents if they live at home like they do at college), so hopefully the ones who don't get half term can plan for a week of early nights. (DD who was already looking pretty zombie-like certainly is hoping so.)

Its tough on the less well off. DD gets the equivalent of a full student loan, because we cannot see advantage in her having more than her peers. Once she has bought textbooks, paid subscriptions and bought her university required sports kit including jacket, she is on a pretty tight budget. Which must be true for most of the others. The trick perhaps is to convince them that it is alright not to have the money to go out every night, and that in the end they may benefit from focusing on their degrees.

Carl, there is probably no escaping noise at Bristol as the student population is pretty concentrated. Its different in London where non student neighbours would complain. Plus you have a much bigger concentration of overseas and EU students who have a very different approach to study. DS' hall had around 800 students, but was pretty quiet.

I think you probably need to be realistic about money at Bristol.
The student body sits at the more comfortable end of things. Parents don't need to and don't want to keep their DC short.

As for going out midweek. Well again I think many students will still do so and manage to get their degree. I'm almost 50 and still regularly go out on the raz on a school night .

I went to University in the days of full grants but things seem a lot worse now, and from what I hear Universities like Newcastle, Manchester and Exeter are just as bad. DD says she is fine but some of her coursemates are working astonishingly hard. There is a case to be made for learning to work smarter but all the same she thinks some are finding it very tough.

I am still not convinced that hard partying needs to be synonymous with studying. Dds friends who went to London or Oxbridge, universities with similar state/private ratios don't seem to have had the same issues. It just seems so very tough on the majority who want to balance work and study.

Works and social life.

How does the flat fine work if one or two aren't making the noise?

At DS's uni the students voted to have the hall of residence that he is in booze free for the first week, or maybe two, so that people didn't seem intimidated. I must ask him if people kept to it!

Students have wildly different incomes. What each family gives their child is very individual.

Some won't have a pot to piss in and others will be cash rich. And every permutation in between. Oxbridge and London are not immune to those vagaries.

Some universities have more at one end than the other and Bristol is generally known for having a comfortably off student body. For a start the accommodation is so expensive that anyone from the less flush ( by which I mean parents who can and will facilitate as loans will barely touch the side ) end of the spectrum wouldn't apply.

Oxbridge accommodation is much cheaper.

That said, going out is not so expensive. Students share a cheap supermarket bottle of booze pre club. They attend a cheap student night ( nearly always mid week - clubs need to fill up with normal folk with full wallets at the weekend) and walk or get an Uber home.

DD says her flatmates are pretty down-to-earth (we are giving equivalent of full loan) and they are not all partying every night. She is also using the library (she is very impressed with it looking like Hogwarts!) and has 9am lectures on 2 or 3 days

Glad loan has come through Liney!

carl that's not always the case, we are at the lower end of the financial scale and Dd is at Bristol.

Well of course it's not globally true.

But as need and her DD have observed, her peers tend not to be short of cash.
And that would be the trend at Bristol.

This isn't news, surely?

Needmoresleep I absolutely agree about quiet flats. DS, who is a very light drinker and not a party animal at all, requested a quiet flat. He is also the sort of person who needs their sleep - a bit like DH - and would find drunken screaming outside his door very unsettling.

However, he is friendly and fun, and was envisaging a flat which would hopefully contain other quieter but perfectly sociable people, much like a lot of the DCs on this thread! Although he has made a very good mate in another engineer opposite, the others in the flat are almost invisible - four international students who, whilst perfectly pleasant, tend to keep themselves to themselves (he's only seen one girl once in over two weeks!) and one other lad who also never seems to be there.

To be honest, he isn't bothered; he's joined clubs and been socialising with the other engineer, who knows quite a few people from pre-university, in the flat. It would have been nicer to have other sociable people whose idea of fun is not just getting plastered; I get a bit wistful for him when I read about some of your DC's lovely flatmates - but when I hear about the noise some of your DCs are having to cope with, he's definitely not done too badly.

And think oldie has said she gives her boys (both at Bristol) a generous allowance. This wouldn't be unusual.

Thank you fairy and Tilly, it's a big relief. I wonder when SFE will charge interest from, as it was due to be paid in on 18th September. Oh let me guess.

The cheeky fuckers really shouldn't start running interest until it's available liney.

I have to say that DDs accommodation costs seem to be similar to friends at other unis, though she is in one of the cheaper halls. Maybe I'll find out more when I go to see her on Sat