The Student Room Group

Stay at home or move away?

I have the option of staying at home (Up north) or moving down to Bristol to study at UWE.

I'm torn and can't decide if I wanna move away or not. Basically I have no friends as of right now, so I feel moving away will give me a fresh start and a chance to make lots of new friends. On the flip side though I am worried that if I don't make friends, then it's going to be very lonely.

Other thing is the cost of living away. I'll be studying radiography, so I don't think I get as much of a 'loan' as its NHS funded course. Yes, I could get a job (although there is no guarantee that I could find one) but even if I did, I don't want to stress myself out too much whilst studying and doing placement. I want to be able to have free time and enjoy uni.

Obviously if I stay at home ill be better off financially but I fear ill miss out on things, was thinking about moving out for my first year and then moving back home for second year if I make no friends.

What are your thoughts / advice on moving away or staying at home?
You'll definitely make new friends, plenty of them, university is the easiest place in the world to make friends if you want to.

I lived away for the first two years and am living at home this year and next but for other reasons, my gym down the road is specialised for my needs, I find it a better study environment at my local library and at home. I just adhere to my relatively strict lifestyle better than when I'm away. It also only takes me 30 minutes to get to university and I already have 2 lockers loaned out for my swim gear and lab attire etc.

Point is there are plenty of good reasons to stay at home, but worrying about being lonely won't be one of them. :smile: Unless you're a loner :p:
Original post by daniellee0
I have the option of staying at home (Up north) or moving down to Bristol to study at UWE.

I'm torn and can't decide if I wanna move away or not. Basically I have no friends as of right now, so I feel moving away will give me a fresh start and a chance to make lots of new friends. On the flip side though I am worried that if I don't make friends, then it's going to be very lonely.

Other thing is the cost of living away. I'll be studying radiography, so I don't think I get as much of a 'loan' as its NHS funded course. Yes, I could get a job (although there is no guarantee that I could find one) but even if I did, I don't want to stress myself out too much whilst studying and doing placement. I want to be able to have free time and enjoy uni.

Obviously if I stay at home ill be better off financially but I fear ill miss out on things, was thinking about moving out for my first year and then moving back home for second year if I make no friends.

What are your thoughts / advice on moving away or staying at home?


Living out is much better home students miss out there are no two ways about it and living out does help with making friends atlas for the first couple of weeks.

Being close to the uni has multiple benefits that people don't often mention but I've herd Radiography is a pretty full on course so it's likely you'll get days that I detail later on.

So what are these benefits and how does living out effect them.

Cost Most people say I'll save money if I live at home, while that can be the case it's not always true. it all depends on how you plan your journey for instance If i went from say Reading to Southampton and I was in every day it would have cost me £100 a week the price is now more like £150 a week. halls cost me £93 a week. So I saved money those same halls are now £150 a week but they are some of the more expensive halls at my uni so i could got to other halls and save money. so the train can cost more particularly if your travelling over 1 hour it's a little less if you travel off peak but that's not always an option and again if you have to change from branch line to a central line or have to change but it can still be a lot of money and could work out more expensive.

Academics yep thats right what you at uni fore can be severely affected by travelling for one thing travelling is tireing you can do some things on the train but if you want to get your teeth in to some studying or any academic work you can't really do it to a good standard yes you can read but thats about it. if you just a 10 minute walk to your hals os or something then you can study or do academic work if you don't fancy the library for whatever reason much sooner than if you need a train ride to get home so you can really get stuck in.

Social life this is a big one social life at uni is vital at school things are planned for the weekend holidays or Friday nights at uni it's different you go out most of the time and OP don't worry the first night you will have group to go out with from your halls student are usually a social bunch and there are a married of ways to socialise which if you live at home are harder I'll detail these below

societies (they usually have a social and then the thing you actually do like skiing or whatever this usually happenes at night after lectures so that closed to you if you live at home (I mean it harder to do your of course welcome if you can make it)

Club nights (spur of the moment usually not planned so thats pretty much not going to happen)

Cinema and things like that (again unplanned)

Hall parties (your not in halls you won't know)

Video game trnouments (you might be able to do that but again it need to be planned)

Just plain hanging out (you need to get home so you just can't)

Your timetable This is never mentioned but on some of the more full on hell even some of the not so full on courses you can have 12 hour days and trust me you possibly miss your stop after dong 6 hours then lunch the another 6 hours being able to walk 10 mins or a 15 minute bus ride and then crash is much nicer you can also have big long breaks on some days (I had 9 hours one year) sure you could study in that time (and most people do do a bit) but studying continuously from 10-7 or even later just cannot be done you need breaks watching TV or playing video games both of which you can't do because you live at home and are stuck at uni because going home is along journey.

Any way hope I helped feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about my time at uni and do let us know what you decide and I got move out.

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