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! 😊

Bear in mind this was 24 years ago!

20 years ago I shared a room at uni. She was the best. Person. Ever. Four children, several continents and many boyfriends later and I am so so glad she is still in my life. Can’t find words for how much I love her

@Greenhouse and @Blueskypink, I don't get why St Andrews make people share, and are happy to lose applicants rather than build extra dorms on the golf course or something. Or even under the golf course in the manner of the Tellytubby house. I'd have considered them then. :)

Agustarella - I don't know if they still do. It's 40 years since I was in my first year room share

That would be a deal-breaker for me. I need my space. Always have, always will.

I shared a room at Durham (late 80s) and it was pretty common to do so then. I think I had the choice of sharing for the first term with someone 'unknown' or choosing someone to share with for the second two terms. I did the former, and it worked out fine - nice big room, and we were very different but became close friends. Not sure I could do it now as I'm much more of an introvert...

Not sure I could do it now as I'm much more of an introvert...

Usedtobe - that's interesting. As a fairly shy 18 year old who had led a very sheltered existence and effectively been an only child (only sibling left home when I was 8), I can't remember being at all phased by sharing a room with a complete stranger (albeit someone who became a lifelong friend). I would run for the hills nowadays. I was even appalled when I went for a weekend break recently with my dsis and found she had booked a twin room. I wanted my own space!

Exactly! I absolutely couldn't do it now, but don't remember being bothered abut it then. On paper it shoudn't have worked - I was a fairly quiet non-smoking English girl who'd led a moderately sheltered life; she was a chain-smoking quirky American...

I had 2 room mates. I didn't get on with the first one nor did she with me so we were swapped at the end of the first term with another 2 girls who didn't get on. I had a fantastic time sharing with the second girl and we are still friends many years later.

I studied at Durham University fifteen years ago. I had to share a large room with TWO other young women for two terms in the first year. We got on okay but two of us had boyfriends, and once I heard the room-mate having sex with her boyfriend at night which was grim. We paid the same as students who had a single room, but didn't have a choice - it was all pot luck.

A friend of mine was in a shared room and it lasted about three weeks. After putting up with quite a bit of antisocial behaviour - dirty underwear all over the floor, drunk late nights, bringing men back for snogging and groaning - she snapped after waking up one night to find a strange man sitting on the end of her bed and her roommate giving him a blow job.

I was traumatised when I found out I had to share a room at uni (no choice) and almost took a gap year as a result. But my dad got made redundant and it was the cheapest option......
Turned out really well - she is still one of my best friends. She is a lovely outgoing human being and I think it actually helped me make friends. But even when you get on, lots of small things make it tricky - eg she worked with music on; I had brothers and male friends from home and initially felt awkward when they wanted to stay; I always needed the loo at night and woke her up; I am an early riser and she is a night owl - which means we could both end up spending hours of our day creeping around..

My college at Durham required everyone (unless you had an exceptionally good excuse, usually health related) to share for one term in their first year. Mind you, everyone paid exactly the same rate, regardless of whether you were sharing a hovel or living it up in a swanky ensuite. It was a remarkably egalitarian approach for a University with a disproportionate amount of well off kids.

Yes, most of the students at Durham University will share at some point in the first year: www.dur.ac.uk/university.college/undergraduate/accommodation/

In the USA sharing a dorm room is standard. You end up with either a really good friend or more commonly a comfortable sibling like relationship but at worst some entertaining anecdotes of tolerating bizarreness.
In any case it is a great way to learn how to share and compromise.

Is it possible to guarantee not sharing a room at uni and if so, which unis would enable this for sure? DD would simply refuse to go to uni if she had to share with anyone else and has already decided not to consider Durham (one of her original favourites) when she heard that so many first years share.

DH and I are happy to pay for her to get a single room wherever she goes to uni because we know how important this is for her but from this thread, it seems that you simply can't guarantee not sharing. Is that right?

If you choose your accommodation in advance, post accepting an offer, are you then guaranteed the single room accommodation you've chosen or can that be changed at the very last moment by the uni?

Crepuscular - some universities allocate on a first come first served basis. Others have an accommodation deadline and all applications received by then are treated equally.

Much will depend on the level of demand on accommodation at different universities. I remember when I went to an offer holder day at Nottingham with DS3 last year being told that everyone pretty much gets allocated the accommodation they want. DS ended up at Southampton and got his 1st choice of accommodation. In recent years I've heard of student accommodation issues in Bristol, London and Reading (ie not enough so students having to share).

Also, students taking up their insurance offer or going through clearing will have to take what's left.

Sharing usually happens due to clearing and insurance. First choice usually get what they want in terms of accommodation type but not necessarily in their first choice Hall (at Bristol anyway). Some halls are just hugely popular. Ditto at Durham but the whole system is more of a lottery there innthat you can only apply for one college. Many don’t get where they apply to and don’t necesssrily like the college chosen for them. There are ways round the Durham system by choosing the least popular in the first place!

Some universities open accommodation bookings in May if you firm. Early bird etc. Others are July. You just have to read through all the blurb and make a decision. I
didn’t see many shared rooms at Durham though in reality.

Bubbles, are you sure?

My old hall at LSE (Passfield) offers catered sharing for as little as £104pw for a 31 week contract, in Bloomsbury close to ULU and within walking distance of the University. Sharing is not ideal, but a surprising number of my contemporaries made friends for life, and apparently it maintains its reputation for being a good place to meet people. A good and popular option for those that worry that studying in London is unaffordable.

I rented a shared room in a YMCA when I was doing placement work (several months at a time). It was dirt cheap and generally not a problem. I always had the option to upgrade to a single room though so I think having that option made it much better.
I think sharing at Uni might be more of an issue - people keep such different hours.

It have to be much cheaper to be worth it.

I think London is completely different and have not mentioned any London university in my posts. However, it is fact that few students want to share these days in most universities, hence few sharing opportunities being offered.The London market is very different and students there make different choices. What people did 20-30 years ago, is not the same as today.

"What people did 20-30 years ago, is not the same as today.", yes but sharing is still a popular option for some. It depends how much money you have/want to borrow, what your priorities are, and how you plan to organise your life whilst at University. If, say, you don't have much money and expect to be on sports fields when not studying in the library or in labs/lectures, then sharing is not as difficult as if you were taking a humanities course, and wanted to spend large amounts of time in your room reading. At some Universitis a lot of the social stuff happens on campus. At other places a lot happens in hall, or in student neighbourhoods.

Overseas students, including Americans, often see sharing as the norm. DS applied to share but it is a popular option and he did not get a place.

It is really not just because you get somewhere via insurance. Or my observation is different, and without evidence who is to say whether you are right.

Why is London so different? It is worth noting that the LSE option is significantly cheaper than many outside London, especialluy when you factor in the shorter terms. And that more generally this has been our experience. Halls outside London can be really expensive, and not necessarily close to the University.

Also worth bearing in mind that 30 years ago there wasn't the 24 media/social media we have today which I imagine puts more pressure on room sharing. In my day pubs shut at 10.30 and you had to ask for a late key in halls if for some reason you might need to be out after midnight! Pubs closed at 10.30 so we kept quite routine hours.

I imagine if you're sharing with someone who comes rolling in drunk at 3am and then spends ages on their phone/laptop that might be quite disruptive.

There's much more of a drinking culture nowadays too, which can't help.

Yes, it was the done thing in my uni in the 90's, we were both only children too and used to our own space. We're still friends now. DH did too, he's one of our children's godfathers and we're godparents to his daughter.

I love the story of the mix up! What a way to meet your future partner

blueskypink I was at uni in Scotland, closing times were often 3am. But I can imagine the phone/Internet thing would be a problem. We didn't have that to deal with.