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Not sure if accommodation is worth it.. should I commute instead?

I live in a lovely accommodation at the moment, my flatmates are really friendly and polite, the rooms are clean, it's a great area with tons of facilities. The reason I chose to live here was because I thought I'd be at uni 9 to 5 everyday, and so commuting there and back wouldn't leave me with enough time to study. It turns out I'm actually in on average 2-3 hours a day with Mondays off, after Christmas, I'm only in 3 days a week for 2 hours a day so I'm barely at uni.

It'd take me an hour to get to uni by bus so I'd still have a lot of time to study at home. My accommodation rent per week is £125 a week so quite expensive whereas commuting would only be £50 a week. Should I start commuting instead and cancel my accommodation?

Reply 1

Gouki

Commuting is not too bad, especially an hour. Can you concentrate better at home or halls?

And btw can you just cancel your contract as my friend had to find a replacement

Reply 2

aliman65

Commute to save money. Unless you are wealthy.

Reply 3

Magenta96

Original post by Gouki

Commuting is not too bad, especially an hour. Can you concentrate better at home or halls?

And btw can you just cancel your contract as my friend had to find a replacement

I concentrate pretty well at home, back in high school/college I was a complete workaholic who studied almost all day and I was living at home. There is a Facebook group for my accommodation where people frequently sell their rooms and they get bought pretty fast as the building is quite popular. The accommodation also have a waiting list so I imagine I'd get a replacement.

Reply 4

jonathanemptage

You don't seem to be having a bad time in your halls commuting especially an hour will basically kill your social life i'd stay especially for the first year after that you can move home or go private which is much cheaper.

Reply 5

Magenta96

Original post by jonathanemptage

My social life there is dead anyway not to mention how bored I am all day, all my friends and family are at home so I'd probably have a better social life here at home. I think it'd be better for me to live in halls in my second and third year as my hours will be longer so it'd be more convenient to stay at uni. Right now me staying there is costing me double whilst keeping me bored.

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 6

McMicheal

Original post by Magenta96

An hour doesn't seem that much.

However if you put it through different perspective say, an hour to get to a lecture where someone's just reading slides to you that you can do yourself at home and then a tutorial to work out 10 - 20 problems that you can also do at home and if have any questions just drop an email, getting hungry so have to buy something to eat and then 1 whole hour to get back home. Then you question like why even bother going to uni for days like this.

You'd save a lot of money.

However, if you choose to stay at home I assume with parents, then it doesn't necessarily mean that you'd have those 125 p/w in your pocket, depends on parents obviously, then there's the fact that you're living with your mum & dad, not independently. It would be annoying to go every time an hour one way to get somewhere with your friends or for some 1-2 hour event.

I'd say if you're not struggling to get by, it's not always about the money, stay in your accommodation, join some societies, start one maybe, participate in extra curriculum stuff, go out more, there should be loads of things you can do at uni if you want, not just study.

And if you really don't want to participate anywhere, just study to get your degree, then stay at home save up for holidays abroad I guess.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 7

MIMIPEEKS

Im in the same situation now apart from my halls aren't great and my flatmates are worse im really considering commuting and saving money

Reply 8

Magenta96

Original post by McMicheal

Thank you for the really detailed response. I've been thinking about it a lot more, I kind of prefer living on my own at uni to be honest because I just get a lot more quiet time and I'm probably more likely to study. I haven't properly settled into the social aspect of uni yet either, as I haven't joined any societies so I'm going to find out what societies the uni actually has tomorrow.

I feel like if I stayed at home, yes it'd be cheaper but I feel like commuting is just me taking the easy way out as I don't have to be as independent. All the money for transport is coming out of my student loan anyway and I'll only have to pay tiny amounts of it at a time once I earn enough, so money isn't that much of an issue. Commuting seems like the logical, sensible option whereas staying in halls seems more spontaneous and different for me. Either way I'll have to make some decision by the end of this week or next!