What you wish you were told about the uni of manchester before coming

Which hall are you staying at?

I'm not too sure which one i'll apply for yet. Still deciding between catered or self-catered. Not sure if i'll have the budget to eat out every day!

Which hall's you recommend?

If you're self-catered, you have a kitchen to cook in, and there's a supermarket nearby. Because catered halls only feed you ten meals a week (breakfast and dinner Mon-Fri), and they charge you about £30 for the privilege, it works out v. expensive. You still have to cook (in the substandard kitchens that catered halls have) all the other meals you have. I'm self-catered, and I can feed myself for about £22 per week.

As for which halls - if I were you I'd go self catered, shared bathroom in Fallowfield, which leaves you with Oak House.

I personally think Fallowfield is the best place to live, definitely the place to be for fun and if your will is strong enough you can always use the libraries to study if not your flat.

In Fallowfield I recommend Oak House

I don't know how to cook =x. Haha.

Well one of three things is going to happen:
1. You'll learn
2. You'll starve
3. You'll eat takeaways all the time, and then realise that you're fat and have no money. Then either 1 or 2 will prevail. Or possibly you'll go through a cycle of eat takeaways - put on weight - run out of money - stop eating - lose weight - loan comes in - eat takeaways [repeat]. It could work.

Seriously, the Beyond Baked Beans series of cookbooks are excellent for those who "can't cook", and you will have to learn before you live in private rented accommodation in the second year.

True. Seems like its gonna be unavoidable then.
Hopefully I wont contribute to the already alarmingly high fire alarm rate ( No pun intended) .

Most people do at one point or another, and there have been several kitchen fires (of varying severity - one from a few days ago was quite bad, and even the neighbouring bedrooms need redecorating) in my halls so far this year. We had one, but it was pretty minor TBH.

Seriously though, if I can teach myself to cook from Beyond Baked Beans, then so can you. It starts from "how to cook pasta" and works on

Haha alright, Sounds idiot-proof enough!. Hopefully it'd be a simple as you said it is!
Food aside, How much do you budget on recreation?

Freshers cost me the best part of £150 on tickets + drinks, but that was obviously way out of the ordinary. Nowadays, I typically go out on average about every 10 days (primarily because I have too much term left at the end of my loan, not gonna lie), and each night out will cost me around £10 (£5 club entry + drinks + maybe a bit more if it's fancy dress and I have to buy a few bits and bobs).

Plus, I spent £70 to join a sports club at the beginning of the year, plus the same again on kit, but each time I go it doesn't cost me any extra.

Ahh i see. Thanks for all these useful information!
Doesnt seem like the cost of living is too high afterall!

Nah it's not too bad at all, although you will come to realise that all students are rich as soon as their loan comes in, and then poor for the rest of the term.

I see you lived in Australia - I did previously too, but on a working holiday visa. The UK is significantly cheaper (probably about 2/3 of what it costs to live in Oz) but at the same time wages are lower. For those students whose parents have such low incomes that the government says they don't have to contribute, loan + grant + bursary will typically come to £7500, plus you'll work during the holidays. You can live a student lifestyle on that budget, but it won't be luxurious - a room in shared house / halls, basic food, some nights out and public transport is about it. But then, if you're like me, you live like a pauper so you can afford to go abroad at Easter

I heard that if you apply for Oak House are you most likely to get that accommodation?
At the moment I want to go there the most as it's self-catered, said to be sociable, and in small flat blocks. Plus I can sleep through anything as I'm an incredibly heavy sleeper so the noise issue doesn't bother me.
Does anyone know it's main pros and cons of OH from experience though? If so thank you

I live in OH.

Pros
- Good kitchens / lounge areas
- Maisonette-style accommodation
- Good bathroom : occupant ratio (4:1)
- Self-catered
- Relatively cheap
- Bar on site, with free stand-up comedy once a fortnight

Cons
- Can be a bit noisy (but I'm a super-deep sleeper too, so I don't notice this as much as some other people)
- No wifi
- Doesn't have all the facilities, but you can just walk next door to Owens Park to use the computer cluster, cafe etc.

I'm quite happy with OP

Thank you
I definitely like the sound of those pros and the cons are not too much of an issue for me (:

Considering there's no wifi in any of the uni halls, you can remove that as a con