He was in George Eliot halls,which was about £6500 for a 38 week rental and was brand new last year. They’re set up as townhouses with very well equipped kitchen and communal areas, then four bedrooms on the upper two floors with two bathrooms on each floor, so the kitchen is shared between 8 (I think it had 2-3 sets of cooker etc and plenty of cupboard space, one fridge shelf and one freezer drawer each), and the shower room is shared with one other. His main gripe was the laundrette was expensive, he’s a sports scholar so has a lot of kit to wash.
This year his house is in Englefield Green which is a 5-10 min walk from campus. It’s £110/week. He works too so didn’t choose the cheapest house. It’s nicer than my eldest sons student houses (which were Nottingham) - room is spacious, kitchen and bathroom are decent and the main thing for him, great internet.
Food shopping, close shops and SU are expensive, most walk down to Tesco in egham which is about 20 minutes. This year he and his housemates have already set up a subscription for supermarket delivery and are doing a weekly ‘house’ shop.
The campus is lovely and the teaching staff are supportive. He says in many ways he has the costs of being in London, but not the benefits - eg he doesn’t get the London allowance on student finance and can’t get a student oyster. But overall he’s happy. He likes the quietness of the area and the fact that there’s social stuff if he wants it but it’s not totally party/club orientated. He likes that the packhorse pub (opposite the uni and I think I’d run by the SU) do a very cheap cooked breakfast!
His main gripe with his course last year was the summer term. He went back after Easter, had two weeks of exams then... nothing. No timetabled classes until October, which made him wonder what he was paying for, especially as he’d just paid a terms rent. He ended up just coming home as he was bored, but more sociable people might have enjoyed this period of time more. It may well not be like this on other courses.