Did any of you share a room at university?

[LivBonas]

I wondered if any of you shared a room at university. It is one of the accommodation options at the University of York that my DD was considering. Any experiences, positive or negative, please let me know! 😊

Yes I did. Nearly 20 years later we are still great friends, it was so much fun.

Thank you for your replies. It seems to be a real gamble as to whether you like your room-mate or not...seems a bit TOO risky for my liking, but I will respect her decision in the end.

I shared in my first year. Not sure I'd choose to do it again, but we got on OK and between our 2 very different schedules had almost a timeshare (I had 9am lectures, she had hers all after lunch, then went to the library after hours or stayed out later while I needed sleep before another early start!)

I did, it was awful. Ruined the start of my uni experience.
It's not like sharing with a friend. It's literally sharing with a stranger.

I did, 20 years ago now. Still one of my best friends.

Oh dear @MiniDoofa, out of interest, before you began sharing a room, did you fill in a questionnaire so you were suitably matched? or was it simply a gamble as to who you were put with? Were you just very different people or was she just not a very nice person?
I just worry that my daughter will be miserable if she shares like many of the experiences on here.

DH did almost 40 years ago. Didn’t like his first room mate and moved.
DD1 did at an American university. Quite normal there and fortunately she got on well with her room mate.

I’d say avoid doing it if possible.

Yes, because it was the only way I could afford a Hall of Residence even back in the days of grants. Small room still. I slept on the bottom bunk! It was fine. We got on well.

In my halls there was a shared room on each floor and 9 single rooms. The girls who shared a room on my floor got on brilliantly but that's because they were childhood best friends who applied to uni together and were on the same course!

Most of the other room sharers seemed to end up moving out/getting the room to themselves by about halfway through the year tbh. I think most had ended up with a shared room as it was the only room left via clearing so they were on waiting lists for single rooms and were out as soon as one was available. Or they were Americans on JYA programs for a term (the floor down from me had 3x lots of JYA sharers during my year there, all used to the sharing set up so they didn't mind).

I'd hate it. It would literally have stopped me from going to uni if they only way was to share a bedroom with a stranger! I would hate sharing even if I already knew them and liked them a lot. Maybe that's just me though.

I did 20 years ago. We had a brilliant time together and moved into a shared house in the second year. We are still good friends now. We were very similar and both partied hard and we were both single which helped I think.
We had quite similar backgrounds which probably helped. Both went to private school etc. Don’t know if that was a factor.
I do think it is luck, my sister also shared in her first year and she didn’t hate the other girl but they weren’t close.

It was also a lot cheaper than the other rooms if that is a concern.

In fact I just remembered one quiet, studious, religious guy I knew who had a shared room during term 1. The other lad was a self proclaimed 'party animal'. He would invite all his friends back after the bar shut each night, would have loud sex inches away from him while guy no.1 tried to sleep, would laugh and tell him he just needed to lighten up and he eventually got evicted after multiple complaints over several weeks. Really affected the poor lads's studies and got him off to an awful start at uni. Fortunately he got the room to himself for the rest of the year. God knows who thought they were a good match, I suspect no thought was put into it at all!

I shared for the whole three years; it was much more common then. Student rented houses nearly all had shared rooms so it wasn't just for 1st year in halls. We are still mates, bridesmaid for each other, godparents to each others' children etc.

I found it hard though. I'm much more introverted than she is and had to find other ways of finding space. We're very different people but I think in a way that works. There have been stormy bits in our friendship, and I sometimes think that we wouldn't necessarily be friends if a) we met now or b) we'd met at uni but not shared. It's a friendship based on three years of shared experience rather than naturally getting on, but a real friendship nonetheless and we've supported each other through some shit times since.

@Gnome134 Same here. She did PE, I did a long contact hours subject (trainspotting). She was a morning person, I got to breakfast twice in the first term. Very few interests in common. It was horrendous.

My DD is in second year at uni in the States, so sharing a room is the normal thing. They know which uni they are going to from March, so DD spent the summer chatting to fellow students on line, and ended up sharing with a fellow veggie. There was much longer to do this sort of thing than in the UK. All went well, but this year she is in a uni flat for four, sharing a bedroom with a friend she made in the first year. Next year, she is moving out of uni accommodation, but will still be sharing a bedroom with the same friend.
I cannot imagine anything worse, apart perhaps for the bedrooms for three which were available in the first year!
To be fair, my daughter has had no problems, which is probably down to good luck. Only slight irritant from her point of view is if room mate never leaves the room, so you don't ever get any time alone.

If you can afford a better room, go for one. The insurance offer students will probably fill up the shared rooms. They will be grateful to get anywhere. Few students these days actually choose them.

Yes I did. We were well-matched (no accident I think). I don't remember being in the slightest bit phased by sharing - odd really as I'm a very private person.

I ended up sharing lots of flats and eventually buying a flat with my first year room mate. She is also godmother to my, now grown up dcs.

Having said that I would be very anxious if any of my dcs had shared a room at university.

Yes, I did. Lived in an old-style hall. Twin and single rooms, bathrooms in the corridor and a canteen rather than self-catering. Many first years had to share. It was a good way to make friends. I hung around with my room-mate's friends whether I wanted to or not and we did become close. Now, over twenty years later I'm not in contact with the roommate, but I am with a couple of the mutual friends.

Plenty of downsides of course, you wake up whenever the other one comes in or gets up. You might not like all of her friends. Mine insisted on not locking the door, which I really wasn't happy with, but couldn't do anything about. I once came back driven by my (very traditional tee total) grandparents to find old spliffs in the bin and the place stinking as she'd allowed people to smoke in there.

I wouldnt choose to. It could be fine. But then as pp have said their would be the people with lt boyfriends or 1n stands. One girl met her boyfriend freshers week and he stayed the first night.
And yes to the smokingwhatever in their rooms. Sometimes it's bad enough sharing a kitchen with other people. The lads never washed up and i saw a girl wipe something off the flor with the kitchen cloth. All the boys cutlery and pans was left at the end of the year and thrown out.

I did - still good friends 20 yeas later (and I'm very much an introvert). We were lucky enough to have similar backgrounds though, and she had been to boarding school so had a thorough grounding in communal living 😊

Yes I did and 15 years later I'm still sharing a room with him, sharing a home with him and sharing 4 dc with him! When we first landed there was a mix up as the opposite sex obv weren't meant to share. We had to for 1 night until the accommodation officer sorted it. The swapped him with a girl in the same flat but we all quickly swapped back! Saying that I would be horrified if my dd did that. I never let on to my dm though!

Yes. Still close friends 20 years on.

I did, we got on really well and are still friends now, almost 30 years later. But it was luck I think. The blokes in the other shared room on our floor absolutely hated each other. So it really can go either way.

Neither of my dc did and I discouraged it. DS's halls had two rooms for double occupancy, two girls shared one room but they were friends from home so all good. Two boys shared the other and it was a nightmare, one boy smoked weed and only ate pizza and the room was filled with empty pizza boxes and the stench of drugs on his unwashed clothes.

As others have said, it's hard enough sharing a flat or halls with some people but at least you can retreat to your room.

Why is your DD interested in sharing, OP? That’s certainly not a trend these days. Is it money related?

My DD had a room where another girl had to go through it to get to her room. Diagonally- from one corner to the opposite one! She was an odd flatmate in that she was hardly ever seen but was up all night. She was a vet student. There was a shared kitchen and bathroom between 7 in the cluster of rooms. Dd has boarded so wasn’t averse to sharing and was insurance so was happy to take the room in a catered hall. It was way better than being in a private rented house with people who were insurance and also didn’t get allocated a university hall.

Lots of other students want en suite bathrooms and mod cons! There is a middle way and sharing is part of university life, but sharing a room is a risk.