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.

DS's university (Sheffield) seems to encourage the staying on in halls (and keep the first years separate) so if DS is happy with that we don't need to worry too much but I might gentle suggest he pops his head in the accommodation in the SU to see what they suggest.

I might wait a week or two to mention it though as I only suggested a few days ago that it might be an idea to see if the jobs and careers hub had anything about potential summer placements yet.

Afaik in Cambridge they nearly all stay in college the whole way through. Which is nice, but ... when DH started work and was finding a rental, another new starter seemed weirdly clueless about how to go about this ... never had to find accommodation for himself. I sort of feel they ought to be kicked out for a year and live in a somewhat grotty student flat as part of their education.

Except that they don't do "grotty" anymore. I think current students would derive zero humour from The Young Ones, whereas we thought it was a lifestyle to aspire to!

Pet rats?! obv need to catch up with the thread

DS1 doing well and happy. I can't ask much more than that really.

I agree with PPs and I wont mention the accommodation thing to ds yet. It just heaps on pressure to be successful and make wonderful friends instantly. They will all be well aware of this pressure.

When ds1 was at this stage I know he massively stressed about urgently finding and making friends as soon as possible for this reason. Although he didn't admit he'd felt any pressure until he had agreed with the friends that they'd share. He much later admitted that he didn't really like some of them after he actually got to know them but he was prepared to pretend in order to have a house share sorted. In fact after committing to this first group he later had 2 more offers to share from other groups which could have been more compatible.

Even those who have houses all sorted and signed up before Christmas have drop outs or changes due to unforseens so places come up through the year.

Panic not!

Ha! Accommodation for 2nd year. One of my dd's felt pressurised to commit to sharing with her first year flat mates. Total and utter disaster.

She then moved into a flat with people she hadn't met and loved it. Happy ever since.

Moral of the story. Don't feel pressurised.

LadyinCement oh yes they do. My DC have lived in abject squalor (in Cowley) but been completely content.

DS had a horrid night with the worst sore throat he's ever had. He went to the doctor (and presumably registered) and got a prescription for penicillin. The doc told him to buy cocodamol ( didn't give him a prescription for it the meany) and advised rest, a day or two of sitting around watching netflix and healthy eating. I'm so pleased she wasn't one of those docs who just dash off a script with no advise. I suggested he get someone to stand in for him tomorrow evening - the band parts are all doubled so players do alternative nights but he reckoned he would see how he's getting on. DS ask someone now so you can relax properly and get some rest I felt like saying, but didn't

Advice even. I know how to spel reely.

I find myself having to button my lip from offering helpful advice too.

Rats sound absolutely horrible.

DD tells me she has had conversations about next year's accommodation with the small group of friends she has made but they haven't made any firm plans yet, that sounds fine to me.

I'm with you, HSM, unless my DD has heard this somewhere else she will simply not believe me and think that it is something that I have devised to torture her. I guess the best way to go about this is to meet some 2nd years and find out where they live?

Long story but DS had some good news today. He got rejected from his first choice on results day last year, rang them and they offered him a place on a Cert HE, transferring to the second year of the degree if he passed. He deferred for a year and did a fast track A level and an AS level and went this year.
Any way the upshot is that they’ve reviewed his results and he is now on the degree course proper. Not that it makes much difference, I guess it’s a numbers game but pleased for him.

He’s coming home tomorrow having decided it’s cheaper to come home to do his washing (only an hour away) and his guitar needs restringing,

Excellent, well done to him :-)

Great news Best

Well Done to him Best.

(I do like hearing the "good" stories!).

What they said.

It's nice when something goes right isn't it?

Wow Best. He must have worked really hard.

What a great result for him Best

That's lovely Best - it's great when hard work and determination get rewarded.

On the subject of rodents, a friend's DD, who is a couple of weeks into her first term, is in a self-catering block which apparently has had rats (honest to goodness rats, not mice) popping up in the kitchen. The cleaners have told the students it's a recurring problem that the university was meant to have sorted out last year...

OMG that would freak me out Green I was hysterical when we had a mouse once, I'd move out if I saw a rat!!

Having rats in the accommodation is surely a reason to start discussing the suitability for human habitation with the university and then, if they are doing nothing, the local environmental health department?

Having paid nearly 7k for DD's accommodation I would be on the phone daily until it was rat free and kicking up a hell of a stink if she wasn't able to.

DS has been away for nearly 3 weeks. He sent me a text yesterday evening asking me how to do laundry - I had assumed he had managed to do it himself earlier but no. He was finally down to his last pair of pants 🙄