Socialising in halls, catered or self-catered?

I don't drink alcohol so I feel like socialising at uni might be slightly restricted for me because of that but I'm not sure, maybe I'm worrying without needing to. I want to apply for accommodation but I'm not sure if I should go catered or self-catered. I was set on self-catered until my sister told me she's glad she went catered in her first year because she thinks she wouldn't have socialised as much without the setting of meals with other students. Obviously we're different people but it's made me think a little more and I just wanted some input :smile:

Pros of self-catered:
-I like to eat healthily and I'm fussy with what I put into my body [excluding pizza, that stuff is damn good]
-I don't have regular meal-times and my portion sizes totally depend on the moment. Sometimes it's full, sometimes it's barely anything.
-I want to lose some weight/tone up so having full control of my meals is definitely a bonus.

Cons of self-catered:
-I hate cooking. I have an A* at GCSE in it [didn't want to study it at all] but I managed to **** up every single dish in every single exam. Apparently the coursework was damn good. Cooking bores me and I usually just eat raw out of laziness.
-I can't cook. Seriously. Even when I follow recipes exactly I somehow manage to screw up.
-Takes time and I'm lazy.
-Cleaning up.
-Healthy food is expensive seeing as my diet is mainly fruit, veg and nuts.

Pros of catered:
-Food made for me and no hassle with clearing afterwards.
-More socialising.

Cons of catered:
-Less choice in food.
-Have to stick to set times.
-I'll feel bad for wasting food/money if I don't take every single meal offered.

I might be wrong on some points but I just wanted some input and opinions. Thanks :smile:

Go for catered

Original post by flyyoufools

I might be wrong on some points but I just wanted some input and opinions. Thanks :smile:

Self catered halls are typically flats, whereas catered halls are typically corridors. Corridor > Flat by a country mile in terms of socialising. You have so much more potential for meeting people.

For example i'm currently living with 5 other people, 4 of whom lived completely the other side of the hall from me. Would I have even met them if our halls were divided into flats/blocks, never mind got to know them? Doubtful. The majority of people I know who lived in flats in first year barely knew anyone outside of their block and in extreme cases, half the flat wouldn't even talk to the other half so it was really awkward to live there.