FYI to any potential Sheffield Uni students

Hi there - 1st year here. I made a post about this somewhere else and I thought you guys would like to know since it's the one thing I regret choosing when I applied.

DO NOT GET CATERED ACCOMMODATION

In my opinion it's a total waste of money and time. Here are my reasons why:

Firstly, catered students get given this card (you cannot opt out if you are catered) called the GeniUS card. You can use it to eat in any one of the 30-something University venues, this includes main dining rooms, restaurants, cafes etc. If you are catered you get £45 or so automatically loaded onto the card each week, you cannot stop it being loaded. That money you then spend each week on food etc until the money runs out, then you pay with cash.

However - if you are self catered there is nothing stopping you get the card as well. In fact there is no advantage to being catered over being self catered since the card acts in exactly the same way (same "points" system etc) you just have to manually load the card online instead of the money being automatically loaded.

If you are self catered you get a nice communal cooking area (really social) and decent cooking facilities. So you get to have the choice to cook or to eat at one of the Uni places (or elsewhere).

If you are catered you get a terrible, small kitchen with virtually no cooking facilities (microwave and kettle) and much more spread out accommodation where everyone has very little reason to see each other (since they aren't all cooking together).

Even if you intend to eat catered food every single day, still go for the self catered accommodation since you will then have the option to cook for yourself if you want to.

If you go catered you no longer have that option.

Rant complete. Really annoyed me that I fell into this problem.

Also the money on your GeniUS card lasts for you entire time at Uni.

Any questions please ask.

Thanks
FLG

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

vinhvu95

thanks for the heads up!

University of Sheffield

Sheffield

Reply 2

andreea1007

Thank you for your advice.

I have some questions about accommodation. How much did you pay when you first arrive at uni?

I'm kind of worried about how much money shall I have, because I really hope to get a part time job after a short period of time from my arrival.

Reply 3

Sezzy2310

Original post by andreea1007

I had to pay my first term's accommodation cost up front for my flat in Endcliffe, and because I was in the cheapest flats that was about £1200, but it would be a few hundred pounds more in other flats. For the uni accommodation you have to pay termly, rather than monthly, and always up front. So you will need quite a bit of money ready for the start of term, sorry!! :frown:

Reply 4

Muddle123

Make sure you take photos of any damage in your room when you move in and put every little tiny scratch/ mark on your inventory because they will charge you extortionate prices. I was a victim of this and like a fool didn't take photos and got charged a lot of money for damage in my room that was already there when I moved in.

Reply 5

Bees32

Totally in agreement. I took a leave of absence from the university and I was in Stephenson - awful. The bathroom was also three floors below me. And the 'kitchen' was tiny, and the catered food isn't even that nice! Had a friend in Ranmoor who had an en-suite and a really big kitchen as she was self-catered. It was so much nicer! When I apply for accommodation next year, I'm deffo going to apply for self-catered. The accommodation for self-catered tends to be much nicer in general - but apply early to avoid disappointment

Reply 6

ohdrama

Original post by Muddle123

Same. Be very, very careful when doing the inventory after moving in. They will charge you for EVERYTHING if it's not on there. I didn't take it seriously and just answered the whole thing on a whim before going out and ended up paying a ridiculous amount of money for stuff I wasn't even responsible for...

Reply 7

jo95

Thanks for the advice!!! :biggrin:

Reply 8

DForDan

Original post by Sezzy2310

If I have to pay it all up-front what do I do if I have no money? I'm struggling to get a job, so I don't know if I'll have much saved for when I first get to uni :frown: