Going to university (2019/20 academic year) - finance, flat shares, friends old and new and freshers' week to come...

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Following on from thread 8 which filled up in just 72 hours.

@DrMadelineMaxwell my DD has worked since the end of April and has really enjoyed it. She works at a wedding venue as a waitress and found that it provided a welcome relief from revision and exams and has enabled her to save up a decent amount of savings to help her through her first year. She will work until the end of September and they have asked her to return at Christmas and she is really keen.
She may look for something during term time but I'm encouraging her not to commit for the first few months while she finds her feet and gets to grips with her timetable, the workload and her social life! I did see that the uni she is going to recruits student ambassadors to help run events etc so that may be of interest as it's on campus and would be a good way to get to know people, the pay is good too.

Does anyone have a DC who smokes? There seemed to some obsessive asking about smoking areas on the Facebook feed. None of DS's friends smoke and nor does he. I don't know maybe if smokers are more vocal in asking about it! But they were all threatening to meet up on the patios and , it seemed to me, rule the roost. It'd be a shame if the lovely patios turned into exclusively smoking areas.

I haven't seen any of those posts. DD hates smoking as much as I do.

Oh no,not on here : on the accommodation feed for DS's halls. He does seem reasonably pleased that he can walk to the football ground (via KFC) from his accommodation. He has even looked up fixture dates!

MrKlaw That’s tricky. Does he know that he has definitely been allocated shared yet or is he just worried that he will be?

IIRC your DS is taking Maths? Lots of the unis we looked at frowned upon gap years for maths. I think some won’t allow it but you probably already know that.

How about trying to find some encouraging threads about shared accommodation on student room. Or perhaps the uni accommodation service could reassure him by putting him in contact with a year 2 student who shared last year.

My DS is working at a pub this summer, we are in quite a tourist area (no idea why people come on holiday here ) so its quite easy to pick up part time jobs, we are also encouraging him to get a part time job at uni (max 2 shifts a week), it is unlikely he will have a full timetable on his course so should be able to manage it & he has already registered on a coupe of job sites at his uni town.

@MrKlaw I know 2 people that shared almost 30 years ago. They are still the best of friends. They had never met before sharing.

MrKlaw I was at Bath Uni over 30 years ago, and am still friends with the girl I shared with in the first year. I don't remember anyone not getting on with their roommate, although it does happen.

Also, have just read your posts upthread re wanting campus accommodation. I had town accommodation all those years ago, and there was a whole large group of town freshers. It was just as good as being on campus, and better for going out in the evening.

Practically impossible for students to get part time jobs in our town. It's a well known complaint that you're fine in our town if you want to have a hair cut, get a tattoo or your nails done or shop in a charity shop.

DD has tried on and off to get a job inc applying in the next town and the local shopping centre in another town since finishing GCSEs. But getting one with not too many hours while she was in sixth form was a challenge.

In the end she only got one this July, which was advertised on the local fb page, which I'm a member of. So she was lucky enough to land one in the cafe/laundrette/dry cleaners a 5 min walk away from home.

And the owner must be pleased with her as she's given plenty of shifts, including several while the owner is on her holiday, so plenty of extra hours.

And, as I've mentioned, she's been asked if she's coming back at Christmas so she can pick up more shifts then.

It's given DD some much needed confidence, despite hating the coffee making machine to start with.

MrKlaw I doubt he’d be sharing for long if he really didn’t like it. There is always movement in accommodation with students dropping out of uni. He needs to get on a list at accommodation services and befriend them. Or look at direct swaps on Facebook pages. Chances are something will come up in a few weeks. By then he might be fine with sharing.

DrMadelaine DS2 counting down the shifts on the job that he has had :) I think he has gained a lot from it beyond just the strong financial position it has put him in. He's not looking for this first term,and probably first year at least, at getting a term time p/t job whilst at Uni, but like your DC, has already had confirmed that he will be able to pick up some shifts again, probably bringing in close to £1,000, over the Christmas break from Uni - which he has wisely, to my mind, accepted.

DD got a part time job two weeks after she turned 16 and has worked ever since. Before then she did voluntary work at the shop in our local hospital. She loves working.
Her current place offered to transfer her but it would have to be a full weekend instead of the 8 hours she had here which she thinks is is a bit much. Instead they've said she can work here whenever she's home.

DS is the same he has worked full time over all the summers since finishing GCSE and has savings over 5 grand. He plans to work part time Christmas, study over Easter and full time next summer. He is not planning to work at all whilst at uni for the first year. He struggles with the social side so wants to get involved as much as he can.

It'd be a shame if the lovely patios turned into exclusively smoking areas

Dd was obsessive about not getting a ground floor or low floor flat because of the amount of fag butts in the flower beds at a couple of the unis we visited (ntu and bath I'm looking at you). She wanted to be able to open her window in the evening!!

Thanks for the reassurance everyone. There are only four options on the list - two single occupancy on campus, one in town, and one shared on campus.

At the moment it’s just a worry but hopefully like mentioned he can try and get onto a waiting list for dropouts and look at direct swaps too

Sorry, I thought you meant on the WIWIKAU page Piggywaspushed. DD has been too busy since results day to join any FB groups.

DD has been allocated a ground floor room which she is a bit disappointed about but it's in her first choice hall.
She's heard stories from friends about the ground floor rooms being noisy because people congregate outside to smoke and that you can't open windows because the smoke is overpowering. She also heard that the toilet in the ground floor flat of her friends hall is always disgusting as anyone passing who feels 'unwell' uses it so it's often full of vomit 🤢🤢🤢
On the plus side at least she won't have to haul her shopping up lots of stairs!

DS is in a top floor flat - only six of them in it!

What a friendly, supportive bunch we are on here. I had a laugh at another thread at the extent an opinionated poster was going on and several of us were trying to point out (the obvious) generalisations. But actually it was quite sad and frustrating.

Dd is a bit down at the moment - I think it’s doldrums before it all revs up. Some bedding is arriving today so hope that will cheer her up. Need to get some good (battery operated) fairy lights!

@ZandathePanda I think as with some of the parents feeling a bit low, the same will happen with many of our DC too. Once the initial excitement wanes, there will be a sharp intake of breath as they realise the reality of what they've signed up to for the next three/four/five years of their lives. Hope your DD perks up soon.

A bedside light is possibly the last thing I'm buying DS. Annoyingly they didn't have the one in stock that we were after when we last went to IKEA.

MrKlaw DD actually asked for a shared room. She wanted to save money for other things. Also, when she started boarding two years ago it was a real shock, part of which was spending a lot more time on her own - even at the end she'd go to the library to work, rather than study in her room. So, that's one positive, they'll be someone else around and someone else who might know the things you don't about the uni yet.

Is it your son's birthday today? My DD is 18 today, she's abroad celebrating with friends. We mentioned speaking to her today, but whether she'll have time. We'll be celebrating here on our own with a chinese and some wine!

Two weeks today and DD will be at uni. Need to make sure all the boxes are ticked next week.

Yeah birthday today. Can’t believe he’s 18. All gone so quickly. Now he can get his bank account sorted. Off to the football with his friends up in London somewhere which we’re paying for (he usually goes to smaller clubs so not too expensive)

Wow he’s got some nice grandparents! They’re Japanese so this is the wrong ‘season’ for university so we told them today. Apparently they’ve been saving up so have some out aside for both DS and DD. They said they’d cover the first years fees but we explained that’s not how our system works. So instead they’ll cover any difference between the maintenance loan and his accommodation for the length of his course.

That helps us out as we now only need to cover living expenses and helps keep our savings alive :)

I was all set to get ds a double quilt cover as I thought the beds were like a small double or 3/4 bed. Now realised by reading handbook that they are actually just longer but still narrow like single beds are. Can't decide between which quilt will be best - double or single. I don't know why I worry about these trivialities tbh - I don't think ds will care lol.