Moving away for uni

Hi,
Starting to think about uni preferences and I've met the usual predicament, to stay at home or move away. I live in Liverpool and want to study architecture, the uni of liverpool architecture school looks great, but I would like to move away for the full experience. Just discouraged by costs etc, and wondering whether it's just stupid leaving behind a perfectly good uni for the sake of living away.
Is it worth it?
Thanks

You need to draw up a pros and cons list for staying at home and moving away.

You get 5 choices so its likely 4 of them will be varying distances from home.
You will have an opportunity to do research plus go to open days, which will give you a better idea of what you want.
You are also restricted by who gives you an offer.


Once you know the 5 or even before just make some lists of:


Unis which interest you.
Criteria you will judge unis by: Teaching, facilities, location, course content, rep etc. That is to get a good understanding.
Make another list of pros and cons of each or score them out of 10 based on categories above.
See if any of them are clearly stronger than others.


The real difference from staying at home imo v going to one away is:

At home it will be a continuation of what you have now and that depends on how well you get on with parents.
You will be better off, but you will have less contact with freshers as you wont be living with them and that may mean less opportunity to make friends/ sometimes its enemies. If your social skills are strong it may not matter. You do find a lot of friends are made within halls, but you can make others at societies and on course, but sharing a flat can be bonding. Not everyone is interested in friends.

In contrast going to uni away means you have to pay rent, but you get independence and the chance to make friends with other freshers. Its different from clubs and societies because you live with them which means you share things like meals, just being in the same vicinity, going out etc. Not every student flat works out nice and not every set of flatmates are nice, many will never develop into long lasting friendships. You are also likely closer to campus.

The danger of living at home is people dont make the effort to socialise, they go home after class and then end up feeling even more isolated. All depends how good your social skills and self esteem is. Some people think friends happen by magic but if you are shy, anxious and with low self esteem you could end up just going home and not making an effort to make friends, meaning you have few. That might leave you isolated.

Do your research and think what appeals to you plus which offers the uni experience you want and has the most advantages plus least disadvantages. Some people do both. Just remember once you sign a contract you are committed unless you find a replacement. Think about do you have friends now and make them easily? If not then its not a bad idea to focus on developing social skills whether you decide to live at home or in halls.