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Oxford Brookes University

Oxford

What type of accommodation?

OB have offered me a place, so its deffo time for me to thunk about where I'm going to live.

I'll be 23 when i start in september.

Should i go into accommodation for mature students?
Should I go ensuite?
Should i go non-ensuite?
Which is most expensive?

What do you suggest?

Im open to any and all comments.
Thank you all in advance. :-)

Reply 1

Torrent

Take a quick look here: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/studying/accommodation/halls/index_html :smile:

I, personally, will probably apply for the en suite. (OB will be my insurance - hopefully - so I can't really apply yet..).

Oxford Brookes University

Oxford

Reply 2

green.tea

Hey all. I'm wondering the same thing. I'll be 29 when I start but the mature halls are pretty expensive. I'll be studying Japanese and am trying to save as much as I can for my year in Japan. A 50 week contract there would be 7100 which would be all my student cash. Cheney student village would be 6321. Can anyone living there give me any idea whether it'd be worth the extra cash for me?

Ta :smile:

Reply 3

Charlottay!

Ok so accommodation.

For mature students i believe they try to group them together when in other halls. I live in crescent and there is a couple of flats which hold just mature students.

Each hall has pros and cons but just to make you aware you are only guaranteed accom if you firm the uni. If you are an insurance choice there is a strong possibility you may not receive accom in halls.

if you firm you are only guaranteed one of your 5 choices. i got my 4th choice.

im dont have en-suite and it really isnt a problem. the bathrooms get cleaned twice a week so its never grimmy.

Reply 4

tom_tom_tom

I was in Crescent aswell back in the day when i was in halls :moon:

I would definitely go for non en suite, i dont see the point in paying alot for an en suite which is more hassle really. As said above they are cleaned twice a week and you get over the whole thing of sharing pretty quickly.

Reply 5

green.tea

Original post by Charlottay!

Thanks. That's really helpful. :smile:

Reply 6

CrazyPerson

If my maintenace loan is not even £4000
How am is supposed to get the rest of the money to afford my accommodation? :/

Reply 7

green.tea

Original post by CrazyPerson

If my maintenace loan is not even £4000
How am is supposed to get the rest of the money to afford my accommodation? :/

As a mature student your parents incomes shouldnt come into it. Therefore you should also get the full grant of about 3300

Reply 8

CrazyPerson

Original post by green.tea

As a mature student your parents incomes shouldnt come into it. Therefore you should also get the full grant of about 3300

I'm guna be pushed to find an extra £40 - £50 a week from a part time job if i'm going to do well at my course.

Reply 9

green.tea

I'm getting about 3500 loan and 3500 grant. On top of that theres a bursary. Im just worried about funding my year in Japan.

Reply 10

jennifer.re

Original post by CrazyPerson

The most expensive are Slade Park and Cheney. And I think Dorset House is gonna be around the same too.

I'd suggest looking into where your lectures are going to be and how you'd get to them from halls. In first year a few of our friends were in Wheatley and Harcourt and had to get the earlyyyy bus to Headington and then walk to Marston. Meanwhile, I rolled out of bed in Cheney and casually strolled down to our campus haha.

I liked having ensuite, but obvs it's a personal choice.

Reply 11

flowers21

i live in the clive booth postgraduate halls which is just for mature students
i can tell u its way better than living in the undergrad halls (i lived there for a few weeks)
the undergrads party a lot and can be quite noisy, especially come the weekend
in CBPG its very quiet, our rooms are fab, we have a lounge where we have wifi, so we can go study there, we have a little pond, its really pretty
the only downside is the price, 138 pounds per week, and i think for the next academic year its going up by 5 pounds per week!

i havent lived in a non-ensuite before so wouldnt be able to tell u..
they are obviously much cheaper but i dont know if they stay clean all the time
CBPG is less than a 10-minute walk from the headington hill and gipsy lane campus, but when u live in halls u get a bus pass for free (so being lazy, i usually wait for the bus in the morning to get to class haha)

cheney is just down the road from the campuses but paul kent, crescent halls etc are a bit further- i would say aprox. 25-30 min. by bus each way- the buses are most of the time on time, but smt. they are off schedule!! and they are not that frequent so if u miss one, u have to wait atleast half an hour for the next one (needs some very careful planning!)

i live in a girls-only flat which is much much better than living with boys (sorry if u'r a boy!)
i lied with a boy before and he was quite lazy at washing dishes etc, which can become a bother after some time
so if ur a girl, u could apply for a girls-only room

hope this helps

Reply 12

green.tea

Do they put mature undergrads in flats full of postgrads or put them together?

Reply 13

Charlottay!

I dont think that cheney is worth that extra expense if your not planning on spending your breaks in oxford. Cheney is a 50 week contract meaning that you will get in from end of september to the beginning of september.

I live in crescent on a 38 week contract. really easy to get to gipsy lane via the U5. runs regularly and takes you directly to campuses. This is the cheapest option and if you wish to save money then sacrificing the luxury of having to walk to lectures instead of getting the bus might be a consideration for you. I currently pay around 3600. Paul kent is also available down the round from crescent where there is an option for en-suite.

Reply 14

peliqueiro

Hey Oxford Brookers, existencial doubt here.

I'll be a postgraduate student at OB and as I come from abroad I will apply for halls. My doubt is wether to go for postgraduate only halls/blocks or go to mix/undergraduate halls.

The thing is I am a pg student and also qualify as mature student (I'll be 24 in july). however, I lived in halls all my years at uni in madrid with people from 18 to twenty something and I never got the impression there was a sort of age gap....

Are you british undergraduates as noisy as they say? ¬¬ Even for a spaniard used to live in noisy Madrid?

I dunno what to do, sorry about the waffling around. But I don't want to end up in a PG flat with people old enough to be my parents and whose definition of fun is having a glass of wine at 8pm on a Saturday