Exeter/Bath - accommodation for insurance

[starlilly88]

My DD is looking at all her offers and trying to decide on what to firm and put as insurance. Looking at insurance for Bath or Exeter but have heard bad things about getting a room if it's the insurance place at Exeter or Bath. Neither sound good even it is firm so very wary about choosing them. Anyone have either of these as insurance and get decent accommodation, or know of anyone that did?

“Neither sound good even if it is firm” - I’m not sure why you say this about Exeter, which guarantees accommodation for firmed offer-holders if it has been applied for by 31 July. The portal opens on 8 April.

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/accommodation/applyingandpaying/#guarantee

They don’t guarantee accommodation for those who insure, but Exeter as a city does not have an accommodation shortage so if the university can’t accommodate there are enough places either in purpose-built private halls or private houses. We visited last month and didn’t meet anyone who had had difficulty finding good accommodation.

Just that I knew a couple of students who had firmed Exeter and ended up off Campus, when they really wanted the campus experience. Good to know that there seems to be enough accommodation generally in Exeter though. Not sure where insurance students would end up

Bath guarantees accommodation for firmed offers, which may be off campus.
The good thing about Bath is it isn't a first come first served allocation system. Students have a specific timeframe to apply, and a choice of (iirc) 10 accommodations. They choose 7.
It's then allocated end of the summer in groups.

DS & friends all still waiting on Bath re: offers - are others (?).

I know of quite a few people who struggled with accommodation when they had Bath as an insurance place. At least 2 of them had to defer as they couldn't find anything.

U of Exeter has expanded on-campus accommodation in recent years and is commendably transparent about the ratio of applications to rooms on a hall-by-hall basis (see page below for link to the relevant pdf); this will help your DC understand the location and type of accommodation they are likely to be offered once the preference of those who firmed Exeter have been taken into account.

U of Bath has also, to a more limited extent, expanded first year accommodation but, crucially, this expansion has been 'down the hill' in the city centre; to the extent that 20% of first accommodation is now off-campus. If those firming Bath are overwhelmingly likely to select on-campus choices, then those insuring are more likely to be in the city centre.

Both are great unis and I have DC who have, variously, considered Bath and Exeter from both firm and insured perspectives. Accommodation was a factor they thought about but I always encouraged them to be sanguine about that aspect and be accepting of what would have been yielded up had they needed to take up their insurance offer at either uni. For example, one made sure they got the service bus up and down the hill at Bath to get a sense of what that meant in reality and they felt fine about that and would have made the best of it if allocated city centre accommodation.

www.exeter.ac.uk/study/accommodation/applyingandpaying/#guarantee

Exeter is tiny so even if they're off campus they're not far.

@User14March still waiting here too... all others Back some time ago.

@Fringeundecided it’s a pain, isn’t it.

@User14March yes still waiting. Applied in October grades in hand and I know some offers for the course have been made.

Why are Bath so late re: process?

Heard from Bath a few weeks ago, they were one of the last
Thanks @PerpetualOptimist that info was useful. Looking at the Exeter info, they seem to have a lot more private halls that are not too far from the campus, so not too bad ending up there. DC is slow to make friends so concerned that they would struggle off campus, and especially trying to find something quickly for Year 2 with others

Glad that Exeter info was helpful @starlilly88. I get the impression that rapid friendship formation in Y1 is often not ideal but fully understand DC can feel like disadvantaged bystanders whilst others rapidly group together.

I think the best antidote is to ensure DC understand that others will be in the same boat and that an imperfect house, secured later, with a compatible group is possibly better than a perfect house, secured earlier, within an incompatible group. Cost rather supply is the key thing in both Bath and Exeter.

Last year U of Bath did have problems offering any accommodation to some insured students but that might have been partially because of more misalignment than usual between predicted and eventual grades amongst high attainment students, together with unis having to make judgements based on 2021 GCSE grades (TAG that year), thus causing hiatus in August 2023. I suspect U of Bath will be doing all it can to minimise that issue this time around and may also explain the lengthy deliberations and delayed offers for some.

Some useful responses here and OP I would be super aware of checking out insurance accommodation options. Often you find that some unis have better accommodation for clearing students than insured ones, as they have to “win” them over other unis and this should be a key consideration.

I wouldn’t underestimate how different and potentially difficult the experience can be if you’re not in uni halls on campus or wherever with the main population of freshers.

in case it’s any help - a friend’s daughter got a place in clearing last year at Exeter and didn’t seem to have a problem getting a place in halls on campus (catered)