Is it possible to have a ‘full’ university experience only 25 minutes from home

[LeadOnMcMuffin]

DD has applied for economics courses in London and the Southeast but after visiting them all her strong preference is for Essex, only 25 minutes by car from home. She has chosen it because of its course content, the campus environment, three years guaranteed accommodation in halls, friendly atmosphere and employability prospects. She would live in halls for the three years and is already pretty independent. It really does tick all the boxes for her, but she and we are both wondering if she will miss out on the experience of moving to a new city and living ‘away’ from home. Any thoughts or experiences? I really do not want to sway her either way (and of course from a selfish point of view it will be a delight to have her so close) but want her to consider all the pros and cons. She is considering a year abroad and would like to work or study in London afterwards.

I think it will be fine though would avoid her coming home or you visiting all the time unless unavoidable as that can make it harder to settle but sounds like that is the plan anyway.

DD is around four hours away. It's just on the edge of what's doable there and back in a day, although she drives too, sharing that if I go in the car. She's doing an integrated Masters with a high amount of class contact/lab hours and they don't have reading weeks.

It would have been much more convenient and cheaper for her visits if she was closer, although I know it could be far worse. She snatches the odd weekend home, usually for special occasions. I either go or pay for the train. At most she gets the Saturday at home after arriving around 10pm Friday and is on her way back not long after lunch on the Sunday.

Whilst I think it's perfectly possible twenty five minutes away. DD refused to consider a highly ranked Russell group university 40 miles away because she felt she'd end up living at home (and not getting the full student experience), because of the cost of accommodation, especially after the first year. She simply didn't want the temptation.

DD's accommodation is good/on the better side for her university at £9,000 per year with food on top. Some of her friends are paying upwards of £12,000pa in halls. That's a lot of money to spend if the option was there to live rent free only twenty five minutes away.

My DD is at UEA. I met her in the city for a Jarrolds loyalty evening the other week and we're going to Highway to buy Christmas decorations in the last week of term. But she's also made friends on campus, joined societies etc. and is building a very nice life for herself there. We must be in the same area!

Is she liking it? Does she live on campus? We looked at some of the accommodation on the Open day and it looked nice. I'm not native to Norwich but we live just north of Norwich. I love it. I sometimes just get the park and ride into the city and just mooch around. I love Jarrolds!

If she lives there then no issue. Will be a full experience.

She loves it! She's pretty central on campus, rather than in the village, and she loves the convenience of it. We are also north of the city, so when she does want to come home it's one bus into Norwich and another north to us, but I usually just go and get her because I'm soft! She's signed up to be a student ambassador and will be greeting people at the next open day on 29th November.

UEA is DD’s second choice. She loved the campus and the friendly atmosphere. I think it’s a great choice. I know several students who are very happy there. QMUL was DD’s first choice but much less so after the open day. I think this is a uni where very may students live at home and she felt that if she didn’t get lucky with accommodation in year 2, she would end up home and commuting in.

Well my DS is planning to go to UoB which is 3 miles away, so intends to stay at home. He doesn’t seem in the slightest bit concerned about missing out on the uni experience. More to the point he’s actually planning this so he can reduce his debt. His point is why pay for accommodation when I have a perfectly good bedroom to stay in.

DS2 is already measuring up the curtains for the bigger bedroom so if I say DS1 is staying at home, he'll not be happy!

My DD is at Uni 12 miles away (she looked at Uni’s further away but both course and Uni were her first choice) and is in her 3rd year having lived out all 3 years, she’s loved the independence while knowing we’re nearby if she needs us. I think this helped her settle more easily in her first year compared to some, she was never really homesick and although she could easily pop home regularly we’ve seen her probably 2-3 times a semester. I didn’t go away to Uni, left home at 22 and moved to a town an hour away and never went back and yet where I live now lots of my friends went away for Uni but all moved back to bring up their families. Horses for courses, do what works for you and your DD.

Sensible lad.

That's good to hear. Yes everything seems to be on campus-the bars, sports park etc lots of green space so if he was living there it doesn't really matter how far our close we are really. He'll save on travel too. Lots of his friends are doing apprenticeships/ taking a year out anyway so he can still see them too.