Fighting our way through 1st year uni (starting Sept 17)

[HSMMaCM]

Continuing the previous thread.

Exams, assessments, essays, etc.

Support, or lack of it.

Will they all get accommodation for next year and can they cook a balanced meal yet.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

DD has shared a few stories of people not owning up to things, especially food related. Hopefully there will be less problems like this next year when she's sharing with a smaller group of friends. She has just organised her friends to get their application in to view some Uni owned ( or at least Uni managed) student flats so that's a great thing to get done during this quieter week at home. Hopefully viewing somewhere together next week.

[Needmoresleep]

My big piece of advice when DD was looking for a flat for next year was to make sure it was top floor. Student flats may be noisy but conversions of Victorian houses are worse. The top floor flat may be colder and stairs are a drag, but you escape the problems of, even normal domestic, noise from above.

[Needmoresleep]

Oh and no one owned up to the regular cereal and milk stealing until we bought her Lidl's cheapest and most boring bran cereal. One boy then complained, saying he would prefer something nicer. Despite this she only managed to average one bowl for herself per packet.

[HSMMaCM]

There must be student's who get through uni without ever paying for any food. And I bet it's not the poorest ones.

[bigTillyMint]

My DD isn't complaining about flatmates stealing food so I guess thats OK. But she is complaining about the boys never cleaning up - she has finally realised why I used to get annoyed by crap everywhere

She is a bit upset about recent essay marks - not as good as the "formative" ones. She said she did email the lecturer for advice, but they never got back to her. Is that usual? Also she was penalised 5 marks for going over the word count but she said she was dead on it

[LineySt]

She needs to challenge that, Tilly - she's paying a lot of money for feedback & advice and fair marking policies as part of the teaching.

Bloody food thieves - it's been many decades and I'm still bitter about the buggers who helped themselves to mine. And yes, all nicely 'middle class'. It was the same with loo rolls!

[Needmoresleep]

Tilly, does the lecturer have office hours. If so she should go along. Virtually no one does, so they can become essentially tutorials. An added advantage is that the tutor then knows who you are should you need a reference. Indeed one even threw some research assistantship works DS' way, which was both useful and paid.

[Haffdonga]

DS is a self-admitted clean freak and has been incredibly lucky to land in a flat with 6 other very clean tidy people who are all sticking religiously to their self-inflicted cleaning and bin duty rota! There's only one student in the flat who infuriates ds by actually doing his washing up but leaving his cutlery to dry on the draining board. DS did make me laugh when we dropped him off this term and he pointed out flatmate's plates on the draining board with great tutting and rolling of his eyes. Look! You see what I mean?!

Judging by the texts he was getting, asking if a flatmate could 'borrow' a single clove of garlic I don't think they're stealing much food either. Strangely enough at home, ds has never once in his entire life noticed washing up that needs putting away.

[CautionTape]

Hello all.
Just sticking my head in to give everyone a wave and read the thread to see how all the younglings are doing.

Everything is good here.
DD's days at RADA are extremely full and she is enjoying herself. Her flat mates are all lovely and came en masse to visit us at Xmas. They were loud but sweet and good natured to a man. Definitely no food stealing types.
Accommodation has been sorted for next year.

DS has gone back to a much fuller timetable, with four early starts , that will curtail his partying. Maybe. Or probably not. He says he will nap in the day.
He's fully catered so no food to steal ( he keeps drinks and snacks in his room).

Apparently Saturday visits are no off as he's doing a lot of radio stuff.

[HSMMaCM]

DD is having afternoon naps to make up for any lack of sleep. I can only imagine what a houseful of drama students is like

[TheOrigRightsofwomen]

DS sheepishly ask for a £44 loan to pay for a festival ticket he agreed to buy when drunk.

Regarding food stealing - he tells me they're all pretty good and quite open about it, but it's MILK, always milk! Nothing changes!

And he's just asked me if he should get more teeth. I guess it might be his wisdoms.

Kids are funny.

[Needmoresleep]

Yes always milk! 4.00am bowls of cereal consumed by returning clubbers. I suspect one factor is how close accommodation is to late night shops and take aways. DDs is nowhere near, so the major annoyance is the inconvenience rather than the cost. Perhaps time for Tesco Metro to open up shop. (Or Little Waitrose..for the posher campuses.)

[simbobs]

Funny, my DD's vegan alternatives seem quite safe! She does complain about the potentially dangerous habit of one of her flatmates who leaves a frozen chicken breast in a pan of warm water to be cooked when he returns in the evening!!! She said that the others have asked him not to do this and scour everything in boiling water after he has used it. The same flatmate (oriental, never cooked for himself before) does not observe use by dates at all. Apparently the cleaner found some eggs 2 months out of date. Obviously not allowed to throw out student food but pointed it out to one of the girls, who had no hesitation. He's bound to get food poisoning sooner or later!

[HSMMaCM]

There is a vegan in DDs house and the others have let her have her own fridge.

They all leave their juice, ketchup, etc out on the sides. I told dd to just drink it quickly.

She is not great at checking things at the back of the fridge for dates, but has survived so far.

[bigTillyMint]

Thanks for the advice - have passed it on and DD has emailed lecturer and will chase it up. They are paying good money and should get some support if they need it!

[Auntpetunia2015]

Urgh not liking the sound of the chicken defrosting Flat mate. DS isn’t the tidiest but that would gross him out. He’s not given himself good poisoning yet and is definitely eating well putting on weight, definitely a beer belly

BTM the lack of support and response isn’t good and should definitely be chased.

DS handed in his first solo script idea all neatly typed s professional looking and was told it was good enough to be sent off to see if anyone production company fancied making it as a short film. If not the department will make it and send it off to a film festival! . So very happy boy there...dd was taking about which of her favourite actors he should get to play the parts🤣

Good luck to everyone for the next terms

[simbobs]

That sounds excellent Aunt Petunia, you can bask in his reflected glory.

[bigTillyMint]

Wow AuntP, that sounds fab!

DD and flatmates off to sign the contract for their house for next year this afternoon - hope there's no hiccups!

[Auntpetunia2015]

Well me and dd had a few minutes thinking about dresses for his first red carpet event and which actors we’d like to meet. But then we agreed it would be a long time coming !! 👗

[Eve]

..well done AuntP DS.. make sure he knows its mandatory to take mum to red carpet events just in case!

DS arrived home this afternoon - had a long hot bath.. and went straight to bed. Hes a bit knackered after the long nights revising, but 1st mark from exams in and he got 72% so doing ok!

[HSMMaCM]

Excellent mark Eve.

AuntP how exciting.

DD just sent me an essay she's written, but said she didn't need feedback. Half an hour later she asked if it was ok .

[Malbecfan]

It's exciting, but also slightly worrying. Thanks everyone for the welcome.

DD1 seems quite happy. She has discovered the "delights" of quorn mince; she has no freezer and her attempts to cook beef mince were ok but she then had to eat the same meal several days in a row. She is now ecstatic that she can leave the opened pack of quorn in the fridge as "it says use by the end of Feb" and she can have something different the next day! She has to spend £85 per term on college catering, which she has factored into her budget, but basically does most of her own meals and leaves formal dinners and Sunday brunches to use up the £85.

Now I'm trying to see if I can fit in a quick visit over half term with DD2, but DD2 wants to look at Leicester uni (and Sheffield and Leeds) and we need to be in S Manchester too. Does anyone know which cheap hotel (Premier Inn/Travelodge) is convenient for Leicester uni? We get free accommodation in S M/cr and can visit Sheffield and Leeds on the way there so I reckon it's only Leicester I need help with. TIA

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

DD seems to have found a flat for next year, even though she's home for the week. A couple of her friends visited it today and seems she only has to send an email tonight to confirm and then complete (and pay deposit) next week when she's back. Hope it works out! Very pleased and excited for her!

[Blogwoman]

Well done DSs of Eve & AuntP! House stuff is going to be a dominant theme here I think! DD returns to uni on Saturday after 7 weeks at home & the house-hunt commences in earnest.

[bigTillyMint]

Gosh Blogwoman, that's such a long hol. Is it a Scottish uni? Even Oxbridge went back 3 weeks ago!