University

[Siobhan]

One thing I found when I was at Uni.. my bedroom was spotless during exam week cause I would rather do that than study hahahahaha

[Katy]

yeah mine to, and that you would do anything rather than study unless it is the night before the exam

Textbooks, dont make good pillows, i discovered this last night again! i really must learn to stop doing it.

[di marco]

One thing I found when I was at Uni.. my bedroom was spotless during exam week cause I would rather do that than study hahahahaha

yeah mine to, and that you would do anything rather than study unless it is the night before the exam

yeh i agree, the whole house is spotless when theres work due!

[Abbie]

Found this on Facebook. Soo true...

1. Pound Coins are like gold.

Thats true for me now!

[Abbie]

What kind of accomdation are most of you in and what would you recomend?
Caterd? self catered?
en suite? shared?

[Abigail]

I'm ensuite, self catered. There's five of us in a flat sharing a kitchen.

I'd recommend houses as opposed to traditional halls. They're more sociable as there are more people around and you can just pop next door. Here we have loads of security things so we can't just pop across the court and knock on someone's door. And you also get post delivered to your house

A typical house has 5-6 bedrooms, a kitchen/diner/living area, bath, shower and two toilets. You sacrifice floor space if you go in ensuite.

The traditional halls here have up to 12 people sharing a kitchen, three showers and three toilets.

I wouldn't go for catered halls because the canteens are generally only open weekdays and if you don't have breakfast or all meals every day then you're wasting money. I know Bristol catered halls don't have a cooker, just a microwave and sink.

Most unis offer a meal ticket option for self catered. Here its £35 for ten meals a week. A meal is a main, pudding and regular sized drink.

Depends if you can cook or can be bothered to cook. There's always the takeaway if you don't feel like it.

If you go self catering, paper plates and bowls all the way

[Abi]

I'm in a self-catered en-suite halls. There are 5 of us in this flat, and 11 flats on a floor. The flats vary from 4-7 people in each. I would def recommend this set up because you have your privacy in your flat, and know your flatmates inside out. But you also know every other person on the floor, and can just go and knock and see whos in when you feel like it.

Don't do self-catered. Everyone hates it. Plus cooking becomes a very social thing here.

[Abigail]

Yeah, cooking is a bonding exercise in the first few weeks. Highly recommended as a way to get to know your flatmates and what foods they like.

[Abbie]

Yeah at first I thought catered cos I dont want to worry about money and stuff but im starting to think more towards sefl catered
Im just so worried about money, my mums like 'you better get a job, cos what are you gonna live off'
I have no idea where to look about loan information and what I get

[Abigail]

Abbie, don't worry about getting a job. I know a few people who have jobs but they are locals and it makes sense for them to keep their jobs. The majority of students here don't have jobs. It will depend on how much you get for your loan and the cost of living at your uni as to if you need a job.

Don't stress about it, my mum was the same until I gave her all the info on grants, loans and bursaries. BTW, every university has to give a bursary to students who are paying the full £3k+ tuition fees. It's means tested but you will get something. You should get your full entitlement through around July and your accommodation allocation when you confirm in August so you can budget then.

On the student loans company website, there is a calculator that can estimate how much loan and grant you will get. As your dad is a lecturer I don't think you will get the full grant (was about £2500 for this year for earnings under £15k) but if your parents earn less than £60000 pa then you will get a partial grant.

Set up a student account at a bank that offers 0% interest on a decent sized overdraft and will convert to a graduate account after you graduate (no interest on grad accts). I'm with HSBC and I've got a £1k 0% overdraft, which goes up every September by about £1k to a max of £7k in the fifth year.