Shared bathroom or en suite

[questioner123]

Hi all, me again.

DD has made the decision she is likely going to go to university... but she has been left with not very good accommodation.

The room/building is nice and on campus near all the main facilities. However it is a shared bathroom between 5 people and no sink in the room. Double bed and refurbished room though! She is worried about sharing a bathroom- she likes her own space and has her own en suite here. Or she can get an en suite room- but it is not on campus (15 min bus journey) and is £40 more a week. She is worried this may be more quiet as well? (For context, she is going to Uni of Nottingham. So we're talking about university park/Jubilee park campus here).But obviously takes away the stress of shared bathrooms. What would you advise your DC in this situation?

Thank you!

Is she an early riser? If so it might not make much difference but if she is a late riser she might struggle getting to Uni on time also she may be a bit isolated away from all the action.

But if five sharing a bathroom she may have to get up early anyway to reserve a bathroom slot.

It is also important to factor in the additional £40 a week plus bus fair and times this by 39 for the average number of weeks in a term (and this will make a big dint in her loan) or taxi cost if she goes out late.

Their may be a cancellation before September if someone changes their minds and if so could she easily move if an ensuite became available in the nearer Halls.

Personally, I would opt for a modern room on site (get up early) and hope I get on with my house mates.

I think I would try to find a bit more detail about the bathroom, ie, is it literally a single room with one shower, loo and washbasin?

I’ve seen the accommodation at UoN, the shared bathrooms are boak worthy. En-suite every time.

They are all a bit grim and really old, to add.

I've just put this to my 3, all at or been to unis similar to Nottingham and in unison and without hesitation they say take the campus room if you want a great first year with an all round student experience.

Also it really depends on the money situation, if bathroom is important and you can afford it then fine. We said to ours: there is £x a year. If you spend £x extra on an en suite that's the same amount less on other things. They quickly abandoned en suite ideas.

Campus first year. En-suite/ shared house with new friends next year

Campus every time. We had a shared bathroom at ours, worse ratio than that, though we did have sinks. Shower shoes and a shower caddy.

Being at heart of Uni life is more important than bathroom.

Thanks everyone. There is no sink in the room unfortunately @AvocadoPlant, it has a double bed though and recently refurbished!

@yellowbinbag that is interesting to hear... the Jubilee campus is another campus but smaller/not where the main facilities etc are but maybe DD is overthinking the distance?

@SpaceBethSmith the accommodation she has been offered is only 3 years old... not sure if that will make a difference however!!

@supersuds I think it is 2 or 3 showers between 5? Will have to check. DD would have been grateful for a sink though.

I always shared a bathroom at university. I didn't have an en suite at home though so never really thought of it. Never caused any problems. I'd go for whichever is nearest student bars etc.

It was 4 years ago that I went there, I’m in my 30s but went for the accommodation tours anyway, for fun A friend of mine from my Access course was meant to stay in those new ones, however they weren’t finished and he and others ended up in hotels for months

I'm an old gimmer for sure but sharing a bathroom is part of life at uni. I know the fashion now is for the wee plastic en-suites in your room but your whole room must get damp when you shower. What about next year, surely the 'normal' student flats are going to have shared bathrooms?

Crikey, just did the sums - an extra £1,500 for an en suite. That's a lot of pints at the SU bar.

DD had a sink and shared bathroom in years one and three. She had an en-suite in year two. So what did she choose for year four? Old room with character, shared bathroom and no sink at all. She thought it much more important to be in the right location and didn’t feel that the en-suite had been that important with hindsight.

Location location location

It's not just about ratios, it's about numbers too. My first year there were 4 bath/showers between 20 so 1:5 but that meant there was usually one free. Second year o was in a little flat type building and we shared one room between 3 so technically a better ratio but in reality it just meant if someone else decided to shower at that point you had to just wait it out. The only toilet was also in the same room so that really sucked too. Worth checking configurations but in general I would say closer is better and she may find the experience enables her to get friendlier with people quicker! It's a lot of money too.

Also it really depends on the money situation, if bathroom is important and you can afford it then fine. We said to ours: there is £x a year. If you spend £x extra on an en suite that's the same amount less on other things. They quickly abandoned en suite ideas.

This.
Remind your dd that if she feels she "needs" an en-suite, then that will leave her £40 a week, that's every week less money in her account to eat / drink / socialise / go away / shop / whatever her treat of choice is.
I can't understand why any student would pay £40 for an en-suite if they have any concept of budgeting.
£40 x 40 weeks is £1600.00. Imagine all the choices she could make with that money in her pocket.
(In this case, even before the considerations about time and money spent on travel)

From what I have heard from my DCs’ friends there is a free shuttle bus than runs between the two university sites. It also depends what you are studying as computing and business are on the new Jubilee Campus. Jubilee accommodation I sense is more modern, quieter and tends to attract more international students (not sure if the Jubilee site has a dedicated international hall). In my experience unless your DC has any specific health issues, they will be fine with a shared bathroom.

Name changed for this but had to laugh reading this. I spent 6 years as a student and 7 years as a junior doctor in accommodation with shared bathroom. Both my 2 DC are at uni now and both are in accommodation with shared bathroom. One has a sink in his room, other ds hasn't.

When I went to uni I was absolutely adamant that I needed an en-suite, so chose my halls based on that. When I got to second and third year, obviously privately rented student lets with en-suites we're a lot more expensive, so we went with shared bathroom - 8 of us sharing two bathrooms. It didn't bother me as much as I thought it would!

As much as I'd always rather an en-suite than shared bathroom, it's not the end of the world and I'd prioritise other aspects of uni life over the bathroom situation

En suite every time.

UON is literally campus based as there is a wall around the university. It's a shame to not live in the main site in the first year

@GoodnightGrandma especially during a pandemic!

[quote Bingobango69]@GoodnightGrandma especially during a pandemic![/quote]
Absolutely. And who knows what will happen this winter.

My daughter has opted for en-suite with the compromise that it's a 10 minute bus ride into campus. She absolutely did not want to share a bathroom!