Accommodation (again sorry)

I feel that i am being a pain on the issue of accommodation however it is a big thing that needs lots of thinking about so then:

if you have lived in self catered accomodation please can you give me your opinion on the following:

if you lived off campus, was it an annoying trek to get there?
if you had a communal bathroom, how did you find it? (currently *sounds posher than i really am* i have my own bathroom, and i like to keep it clean etc do other people be annoying and leave scum everywhere?)
how was the overall experience?
Was it value for money?

do you feel i am just over thinking it and wherever i go i will cope?

thanking you

Reply 1

mauritius

Hello there, not pain at all!

romeosbitch

if you lived off campus, was it an annoying trek to get there?

I lived in Pennsylvania Road, which is just off campus. I love it. I am close to campus but at the same time can spend some part of my life outside uni life, which in uni accommodation on campus is around you 24 hours/day.

if you had a communal bathroom, how did you find it? (currently *sounds posher than i really am* i have my own bathroom, and i like to keep it clean etc do other people be annoying and leave scum everywhere?)

Well, I don't have any problem, I guess at home you share with your family as well? But yes, there are pigs and I find this worst in the shower where I find hair every single time I go there. This, however, would never make me not accept shared facilities: you will survive it, and remember there is a cleaner coming at least twice per week.

how was the overall experience?

Very positive. Love catering for myself, having a kitchen (and garden!) to invite friends into for small informal parties.

Was it value for money?

Ahm, well I find Exeter accommodation in the overall overpriced, so whatever you take, for my part I will consider it overpriced. I would not pay the more expensive halls (140 or so per week now?) - for that money you can rent a house in other parts of England. In general, though, these expensive places are very very nice. Standard accommodation tends to be horrible. Best option value-for-money for me is "Enhanced".

do you feel i am just over thinking it and wherever i go i will cope?

No I felt the same before I came to uni the first time, this is absolutely normal and after all you want to make the right choice. Just keep in mind, wherever you go, it's the people you live with more than anything else which will make your year, and those you can not chose in your first year. Walking a few meters more to campus or having a larger room will probably turn out not to be so important. A last note: many people I know who live in en-suite feel rather isolated, as they meet their flatmates only in the kitchen. Many people in en-suite also want to be left alone rather than socialise a lot, although you may as a first-year student actually be allocated into a flat with other first-year students so this might not be aproblem. But honestly, having seen three of my friend's flats in en-suite accommodation, I much more prefer my friendly shared-facilities standard accommodation house off campus. :smile:

University of Exeter

Exeter

Reply 2

kellywood_5

romeosbitch

if you had a communal bathroom, how did you find it?

Surprisingly (you'd understand why if you saw the state of the kitchen!) it's always clean and you never have to wait more than a few minutes to use it. You have to bring your own toilet paper though.

romeosbitch

how was the overall experience?

Much better than catered (which I was in for the first term through no choice of my own) because you can eat what you want, when you want and sitting with only a hanful of other students watching TV is pretty sociable.

romeosbitch

Was it value for money?

But nowhere in Exeter is really. It's cheaper than catered as long as you don't go overboard with food and look for the special offers.

romeosbitch

do you feel i am just over thinking it and wherever i go i will cope?

You will cope wherever you go (I did in catered) but it's an important decision, so it's good that you're really thinking about it.

Reply 3

Angelil

romeosbitch

if you lived off campus, was it an annoying trek to get there?

I lived off campus in my second year, on Hillsborough Avenue (just off Pennsylvania Road). It wasn't really annoying to get there - it's uphill, but by your second year you're used to that - and it's absolutely no more than 15 minutes' walk.

romeosbitch

Personally I've never experienced any problems. Cleaners came in the first year (when I was living in uni accommodation) and although someone was sick once, they cleaned it up themselves before anyone else was unfortunate enough to come across it. In my second year, the girls and boys were lucky enough to have separate bathrooms and while the boys never cleaned theirs except just before an inspection, we girls cleaned ours every week, so it was fine.

romeosbitch

how was the overall experience?