Newbie questions about first year accomodation

[SmartHome]

Can I ask some dumb questions please as eldest starting in September so all new to us:

1. When the university accomodation website quotes me a weekly price for first year halls - do I need to times it by 52 weeks in a year or X weeks in 3 terms to find out the annual cost to budget for - how many weeks are ina term?
2. Catered/Part-catered/Self-catered - pros and cons please.
3. En suite or not - pros and cons
4. What the most expensive type? Catered en-suite?
5. Is SC shared bathrooms cheapest?

1. Very unlikely to be 52 weeks but will vary depending on whether they have to clear their rooms and move out in holidays or not. Generally they get to keep rooms/pay rent over Xmas/Easter.
2. Depends whether they can/want to cook/will get up for a scheduled breakfast etc.
3. Generally communal bathrooms are cleaned but student has to clean if has an en-suite - this may/may not be deciding factor! Ensuite more expensive.
4. Yes. Catered ensuite most expensive.
5. Yes. SC shared room and shared bathroom cheapest option.

Btw not dumb at all!

Which universities are you looking at as they’re all different? Bizarrely it doesn’t necessarily follow that S/C with shared bath is cheapest as some universities have renovated those rooms/or bigger/or closer to amenities. It should say this on the accom section of uni website.
Some universities say the weekly cost and the contracted weeks. For example Bath’s is 38 weeks. Whereas York’s is 40 or 44 in the main despite most of their courses being 38 weeks.
It should all be on the uni accom website. Is your uni only giving the yearly sum?

Thank you! I pointed out th enuance of the en-suite vs shared bathrooms to DS and having to clean your own and suddennly they are looking less attractive! :)

This is for Southampton Uni and Reading Uni - both are quoting weekly cost, rom what I can see at the moment. So trying to work out what that equates to in annual cost as we will be paying for the accomodation ad DS will only get the non-means tested part of maintenance loan.

Also, do they just request or rank accomodation for the Firm choice now - or do some let you do it for insurance choices at this point too?

Forgot pros and cons. For some accom the catered have smaller kitchens shared with more people which could be an issue when they want to cook at weekends. Some catered aren’t in prescribed canteens/cafes/halls as such but a card loaded to spend wherever. Social aspect could be a con or a pro. Consider time and effort of shopping for food as well as cooking.
Sharing a bathroom will usually be cheaper than ensuite. If there’s parties or friends over they’re not using your ensuite if there’s a shared loo. The shared bathrooms get cleaned. Some rooms have basins in the rooms if they’re not ensuite - but not all.

It will vary from one uni to another so you need to check. Some are 30 week lets, so term-time only and you have to clear the room over Christmas and Easter, others longer. Catered tends to have limited shared cooking facilities even though catered may not be every meal especially at weekends. Shared facilities means you have to tolerate others entertaining in your shared kitchen/diner, showers and toilets left grubby and floors wet and rely on cleaning rotas. Even in sc you may fund limited storage and fridge freezer space.

My DS1 is staying in halls (1st yr), he gets his room once a fortnight but he has a hand held VAX hoover.

Communal kitchens and bathrooms are cleaned weekly (- apparently anything left out in the kitchen that's not already in the communal kitchen gets binned).

He's gone from messy to hyper clean in 8 months (even dusted the shelves in his room when I mentioned it 😊).

Room cleaned I meant to say.

Both dc have had issues with uni cleaners where they refuse to clean due to the behaviour of others and the state the communal areas were left on. Also very elusive vacuums assuming they work.

Wherever DC is insuring it should say on the website. Again, depends on the uni. They’re all so different.

Hand held vax is a good idea!

@lorn195 he gets his ROOM cleaned once a fortnight? We’ve not been anywhere that does this. Wow! Some universities are fortnightly on cleaning the communal bathrooms. I can only imagine what they look like on day 13 when there’s 22 sharing 3 loos.

My DC got their en-suites cleaned weekly.

@NotDonna yes, his room gets hoovered and the bin emptied. In between the hand held hoover comes out.

It will say on the university websites how long the rental period is. DD's halls contract was for 38 weeks.

Ok @SmartHome youll need to read the small print re the difference in cleaning en-suites & communal as the ones we visited defo didn’t clean rooms or en-suites. IF that’s a deciding factor? Your DC will need to clean once in 2nd & 3rd years when living out so will have to get used to it as some stage.

We were told on open day that room/ensuite cleaning was included weekly as well as pantries - then Covid struck and it never resumed.

DS1 has a communal bathroom, 3 between 6 of them. I’m pleased as judging by the state of the sink in his room, an en-suite would have been grim. As it is, the bathrooms are cleaned by staff I think twice a week with toilet paper provided. There are never any problems with waiting to use them from what he says. This option is definitely cheaper at his uni.

I had an en suite at uni but regretted it - much better sense of community/ flats bonded quicker in the blocks with shared bathrooms.