Bristol university halls wisdom

[Tindrum]

Hi

My daughter has decided to firm Bristol University for English. Just wondering if anyone whose children have been in the past have any thoughts or perhaps reflections on the pros and cons of Stoke Bishop (and any further recommendations of halls here) and West accommodation (is there a reason why people don’t go for Manor Hall, Clifton Hill, Goldney etc?). West seems closer and cheaper whilst Stoke Bishop has a rep for a good social life but is pricey and a bit further out. She says she would prefer self catering but that’s not an dealbreaker. She would like a good social element - is the West Village lively as well but Stoke Bishop has the edge? As you can see we’re very confused. Thanks in advance for any guidance.

DD is first year at Bristol. She is in Goldney and it's a perfect location for her. Everything is walkable. She wasn't keen on SB as she felt that she didn't always want to take the bus. She loves clubbing and feels that she rather walks back to her halls. She also likes Manor where some of her friends live.

@EssexCat
You obviously don’t know how the benefits system works. Family member does exactly what I said. It’s a well known loophole. I guess you don’t know people who work the system!

However, that’s not the point of this thread. It is true though that many parents with Dc at university struggle to make up the difference between the loan and the max loan amount that’s is required to have a reasonable amount of money. That is a fact. Martin Lewis pints this out regularly. Their DC are the ones that struggle the most. Therefore the Dc with an automatic max loan plus a bursary are far better off. Obviously plenty can pay above and beyond and do. That’s not just at Bristol. In fact plenty of seemingly well off parents do not do this though. DD lived with a DD managing on very limited means but went shooting at home in Norfolk. Her boyfriend at the time had been to a famous public school. Parents were ultra stingy. No frills at all. Takes all sorts! However it’s still perfectly possible to be friendly with everyone and the privately educated often have to manage a budget too. So nothing really needs pointing out!

You obviously don’t know what I do for work, or my family or where I live.

Plus my state AND privately educated child and his friends specifically wanted to know that sort of information so perhaps to some it does matter. Because to some it’s a bubble that they want to break away from.

Anyway the point that made me so cross was that someone thought and actually said that a child from less well off parents accruing greater debt was better off than someone whose parents were higher earners.

But tbh your ‘single mum (not parent just the trope of single mum) deliberately earning low’ showcased your own perceptions clearly enough that you and I are never ever going to agree.

Quite.

My kids is privileged. He knows he is lucky. He has parents who are eligible for the lowest value loan. That makes him one of the fortunate ones.

He was also lucky to get his first choice of housing but quite surprised that his corridor of 40 in the modern block were all private school kids. I think he was thinking it would be more of a mix; he is very interested in social issues, demographics, politics etc so could not help but notice the makeup of his peers.

But he has made brilliant friends. As have his school friends who went to all the other halls in Clifton and the centre! That’s what we all want in the first year I think. For our kids to find a secure social circle.

He thinks Bristol is a great city. OP I am sure your girl will have a great time!

‘Because to some it’s a bubble that they want to break away from’

This was definitely my son.

I was the one raising the child on £4300 a year minimum maintenance grant with parents not paying a penny extra v child of someone very badly off who gets well over double that and to an extent lives like a King in contrast! That is simply a fact. I agree there is the student loan but most will not pay it back and some will be in work where they never pay a penny of it back so it is not like a normal loan.

it is certainly hard to generalise and I agree most parents DO try to make up the minimum to the full maximum the badly off get.
My son had a friend given £20 a week by parents (who also paid his halls bill) who had been to a leading boarding school (on full scholarship and is really a working class boy) - but as you can see how complex can be the picture of who has what!

I am happy to concede my sons without student loans of any kind and £150 a week after I paid all their rent were very lucky boys. That package is halls cost plus 7800a year . The total of those two sums is more than the full maintenance loan. However most of my sons' friends did "just" have parents makig the minimum loa up to the maximum sum the less well off get, not going over and above that sum.

(And yses I also heard of the "Wills on a bus go ra ra ra" chant.... I think Willis has tried more than some other halls to try to get state pupils in however of late and my son's block of 6 or 8 boys as far as I remember was all state school pupils except for my son (but I might be wrong) It certainly surprised me at the time. Stats for wills show it is now about 50% private school which will be a mixture of reasons - if you have less money you may not want to be paying for good in a catered hall, if you are used to your own bathroom at home (middle class state educated children) you might want something less basic than these catered halls can be but if you have roughed it with ancient bathrooms and room sharing at boarding school eg you may not be so bothered etc etc.

Anyway the bottom line is most of the students make good friends with people where they live and have a good time and it is not particularly significant which halls you choose.

Stoke bishop all the way

‘Stats for wills show it is now about 50% private school’

Oh can you send me the link to current stats? Would love a read!

Just wondering @Tindrum - are you any less confused after all these posts ?

My daughter is in Goldney at the moment, I think her room is horrible and have had to buy loads of damp ‘collectors’ as she was getting mold on the inside of her room. She is a mucky madam so that probably didn’t help. It’s in a lovely part of Clifton, although you can’t escape the bloody hills! She adores her flatmates and Bristol is a fantastic university city.

Ha! Well it's plain to see that we were right to be confused as both options seem to have pluses and minuses : ). DD's told me in retrospect she's rather go for cheapest accommodation (Manor at top of her list) and pocket the rest - wise girl! Totally take on board that she might get nothing on her list and we're prepared to take that on the chin. We're a mishmash of posters above - DS went to a London day school, DD chose to go to a selective state. We're neither rich nor poor and will certainly feel the squeeze having 2 (1 at a London Uni) to shell out for at once. We gave DS enough to survive for one year without needing to get a part-time job and will do the same for DD. Both will need to have a job on the side from yr 2 and I'm sure that will be a good rather than negative thing. I'm really feeling the love for Bristol from these posts and that's really heartening. Thanks for all the perspectives - it's been really helpful. 😎

I agree.

I was simply answering how a student may know how social different halls were.

I looked up the Wills states when I first said 50% private school earlier on the thread.
2019 Wills follows with 54 per cent of its cohort from private schools. https://epigram.org.uk/2019/04/10/privatelyeducatedstudentshalls/

It is extremely unlikely the 54% on the link is higher now and very likely it is under. I think I found a 50% elsewhere when posting earlier on the thread but may be I rounded 54% down to 50%. About 20% of sixth formers are in fee paying schools.

That’s interesting. I suspect my son’s modern block has the expensive ensuite rooms so that’s the confounder. Thanks for posting.

I was at Bristol uni a few years ago and ended up at 33 Colston Street (not sure if it's still called that!) in the city centre. I loved having a short walk to uni, and it was convenient for shopping and the train station. I would say to avoid the city centre accommodation not run by the uni itself, as it tends to be more expensive and I got the impression it was harder to get any problems sorted out. When I was there, some of these were also shared with UWE students, which (ridiculously!) could lead to conflict.

Goldney is lovely and would have been my second choice I think. If you choose somewhere outside Stoke Bishop, I think it's wise to choose a place with large flats and/or a lot of students there for more potential friends.

As a relatively confident middle-class teenager with no financial troubles, I didn't expect to have any problem with the fact so many people at Bristol went to private school, but actually it was quite difficult sometimes. I found it jarring chatting to coursemates in my first week to find that actually they already knew each other from school! Not that they weren't nice, obviously, but it was sometimes hard to move from 'acquaintance' to 'actual friend' with the classic Wills crowd. For that reason, if I had a child going to uni now I would probably steer them away from the halls with the poshest reputations for friendship reasons.

@CheckingOutNow i was thinking that about dd having the most expensive block with the en suite.
@Tindrum the good thing about Bristol is that there's lots of jobs with it being a big city.

Anecdotally, many of the state school students are actually from selective or grammar schools in leafy towns, which often still represents a very different background from an ordinary comprehensive. I’m sure the distribution of nice/nasty kids is the same regardless of how you were educated, but it may well affect the perception of whether or not you “belong”.

My daughter is just finishing her first year at University Hall in a basic room and she’s loved it. It was her 9th choice and at first she was really worried about sharing a bathroom but she quickly overcame her fears and it’s saved us about £3000!! They are small flats of 5, and she found herself sharing with one other girl and 3 boys. The girl is an older international student who keeps herself to herself so initially it was a bit tricky as essentially she was the only girl, but she soon got to know the boys and the neighbouring flats and has formed a lovely friendship group. It tends to attract more down to earth people and the common room does free pizza, wine and a table tennis competition on a Friday night . The kitchens are small, there isn’t a lounge, the corridors are an outdoor stairwell, but they still manage to socialize and have a good time. It’s walkable to Uni but the free bus is also great.
To be honest though, I don’t think it matters too much where you end up as she has friends in a number of halls and they are all what you make it, plus quite a bit of luck with your flat mates. It varies from year to year, but my daughter has liked Baddock when she’s visited and hasn’t found the druggy reputation it’s renowned for. She also said Churchill had a nice vibe, although personally she wouldn’t want catered and most of them seem to miss breakfast and say the food isn’t great. She’s got less friends in Hyatt Baker despite this being her first choice and next door to University Hall- it does look nice though, although the flats are big and if you end up in a party flat it could be noisy. She’s liked the feel of Manor Hall when she’s visited and has friends in a couple of the city centre halls which are a bit quieter but again what you make it. As far as I can se everywhere in Bristol has its pros and cons, and overall the accommodation is pretty good. However, I would say expect it to take some time for your son or daughter to settle- certainly in terms of University Hall apart from the pizza nights they we’re pretty much left to get on with it and unless you’re confident and fall on your feet it will take some time to get to know people. My daughter found freshers week horrendous and felt everyone knew everyone and was having a good time except her ( which of course wasn’t the case, but Bristol doesn’t have as much support to help you settle in as some other universities in my opinion) . However, 9 months on and she loves it.
I would recommend some tatical choices- put your first choice first and you might get it, but there’s no point putting oversubscribed choices lower down the list as you won’t get them all if you don’t get your first choice.
My other tip is regrettably to consider finding year 2 accommodation early on. I encouraged my daughter not to rush and find accommodation with people she didn’t really know, so she waited until the second term but by then it was almost too late and all the best houses were gone. She spent much of term two going on multiple viewings with multiple other groups of students chasing the same houses only to be told they had been given to another group. She did eventually find somewhere but considerably further from Uni than she would have liked ( about 35 minute walk) but the upside is that she’s with people she knows she gets on with. It all works itself out in the end.

‘My daughter found freshers week horrendous and felt everyone knew everyone and was having a good time except her ‘

My child said the same. And they are the most confident and gregarious of souls normally. I have no idea how quieter and less confident students coped. It was one of the worst weeks they have ever had!

It is obvious not all students can know each other. It’s impossible. So the key is to talk to anyone who isn’t in a group already. Suss them out quickly. Don’t assume en suite is full of privately educated Dc. They don’t mind roughing it and lots of posh people don’t spend the money on en suite. Often the most expensive accommodation is taken up by people who have never shared a bathroom. Boarders have. So it pays not to make assumptions.

Goldney is usually over subscribed. Getting the bus from SB isn’t an issue. 2nd year - don’t leave finding accommodation late! Do what your friends are doing. Not Mum’s words of wisdom.

@TizerorFizz who has never shared a bathroom 😂? Most people share one with the family. Do some people have their own ?

To be fair, dd went to state school but does have her own bathroom so not shared one since she was 12 when we moved house. Next year will be a shock when not in halls!

Suppose an en suite is normal for some 😊. Mine had to make do with the family one, and clean it after use too.

Lots of Dc have their own bathroom at home. Plenty more won’t share with randoms at university. Hence lots of en suites at uni these days. Were there en suite rooms 50-40 years ago? Rarely I would think . DC were always amazed at the angst over sharing a bathroom.

Can I ask how many people on here have actually been given one of their choices for accommodation (if so was it one of the most expensive?) and how many have had none of their choices at all ? but if so were they given something reasonably similar (so self catered if all choice were self-catered) or was it totally random ?
thanks