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!

@GoodnightGrandma nothing good, I fear.

If it's literally 1 bathroom between five then that could be an issue. It's it's 2 showers between five then it will be fine and so much better and more sociable to be on campus.

I know people who opted for the en suite option (St. Peter’s) and regretted it. They miss out on so much. A lot of students are a bit worried about shared bathrooms but soon get used to it. Also, campus is catered and works out much cheaper than the accommodation I think you are talking about.

I think it really depends on what proportion of first year students choose to live in the campus accommodation vs the one further out. She doesn’t want to be one of only a handful of first years living out in the sticks. No fun. However if it’s more like 50:50 this means the outer accommodation will probably have some life of its own.

This is probably something she can ask the university?

Is the bathroom shared between five females or is it mixed sex?

Proportionality the vast majority live on campus. The ones who don’t generally feel like they have missed out. When everyone has the university facilities on their doorstep, eat communally in the dining halls and only have to walk a few hundred yards back to their beds, a 15 minute walk (it’s longer) is a real pain.

Two or three showers between 5 really doesn’t sound like very heavy loading. Thanks’d go for central and in the swing

Shared bathroom - if it's awful it'll give her something to talk about in years to come, however I suspect it will be just fine.
I lived in a uni flat with shared bathrooms - 2 tiny ones for 6 of us, it was never a problem. The shared kitchen was way more stress.

My old flats were kinda legendary for their awesome crap ness so much that there is a website dedicated to them and everyone who lived there had a story to tell . They are alas no more as they were pulled down and replaced a few years back by bland modern flats that apparently aren't as much fun.

DD2 was in a flat where there were 10 single rooms, one large-ish kitchen, 2 showers (each of which also had a toilet) and 2 separate toilets. They did have basins in their rooms. It was absolutely fine. She was in a shared house last year with only 1 bathroom between 5 but again there was a separate toilet and they coped. She's back in the original accommodation again until she can get a visa for her year abroad and I suspect will be there again in her 4th year. It was just not a big deal.

DD1 had to have an ensuite room in years 1 & 4 due to the way accommodation is allocated at her college. In years 2 & 3, she was perfectly happy to share a bathroom, yet she has an ensuite at home. Both are very cost-conscious and as someone else has pointed out, that's a lot of alcohol money!

This is all new to me, ds is applying this academic year. In halls do the bathrooms have cleaners, or are the students responsible for their upkeep? I must admit the thought of shared bathrooms especially if the students are all like ds makes me heave and I'd be encouraging an ensuite.

@questioner123

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!!

I suspect this may be the same halls my DD was in. The shared bathroom was not a huge issue. It was cleaned very regularly. The location of the halls was much more important. Notts has such a great campus that it would be a shame not to be on it and enjoy it.

My DD had friends who lived in off-campus accommodation and they spent a lot of time on buses and less time using the uni facilities.

Please remember that in second and third year students live off campus in houses where they will have to share bathrooms and clean them themselves. These bathrooms are more disgusting than any shared bathrooms in halls

@dontstealmymagnolias

This is all new to me, ds is applying this academic year. In halls do the bathrooms have cleaners, or are the students responsible for their upkeep? I must admit the thought of shared bathrooms especially if the students are all like ds makes me heave and I'd be encouraging an ensuite.

Shared bathrooms are usually cleaned by cleaners but ensuites are generally the responsibility of the students. The shared bathrooms are usually cleaner.

Might as well get used to a shared bathroom. Both DDs shared flats were four bed, 1 bath. In places where the private rental housing stock is Georgian or Victorian, this will be common. Save the money…spend it on beer!

Sorry I meant to say, her second and third year flats. Her first year was one bathroom between two. Unfortunately the second was really messy and unclean, with a tendency to vomit and incapable of buying loo roll. But that is life. When you can choose, be careful who you share with. All part of being a student.

None of mine had ensuites, think they had sinks in rooms

When I was at uni there was 6 of us in our student flat (we had our own rooms) and we shared two bathrooms. This worked perfectly I don’t ever remember waiting to use it as everyone had different time tables so unlikely to be up at exactly the same time.

Shared bathrooms are usually cleaned by cleaners but ensuites are generally the responsibility of the students. The shared bathrooms are usually cleaner.

This ^

DD is waiting to hear which Warwich hall she got, but put down mostly shared bathroom because they were cheaper and she would rather have money to spend on socialising. I think her first couple of choices have sinks in the room though.

In the second year she is likely to rent a house which is highly unlikely to be en suite.

Shared bathrooms are usually cleaned by cleaners but ensuites are generally the responsibility of the students. The shared bathrooms are usually cleaner.

This although the added £173 on accommodation a month would put DS off the en-suite.

Even if she has an en suite this year she's unlikely to when she's in a shared house next year.

DS2 went to UoN. He shared a shower room in Y1 (Ancaster Hall). He loved being on campus, wouldn't have missed it gir the world. In Y2 He shared a house with 4 other people, 2 bathrooms and an additional loo. It was fine.

At Nottingham, being on campus trumps having an en suite.

Not Nottingham but I remember when the boys in our corridor would occasionally get
into someone's room and move their bed and possessions so it balanced on the walls of the bathroom cubicles.....

Despite that I'd definitely pick location over an en suite!