Best accommodation for the 'uni experience'/social life?

I'm currently on a placement year, and am about to come back for my 3rd and last year of my degree (so I won't know anyone I can get accom with).

I lived at home for the first two years to save money, but I feel I've missed out a bit on the "uni experience" so I'm hoping to get a bit of that in before I leave!

What sort of accommodation would be best for meeting new people and having a vibrant social life? Town or campus? And if I am on campus, would townhouses be more social than ensuite accommodation or is there no real difference?

Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

You haven't said where you are at university. Some people might be able to give specific advice.

It sounds like a campus university, in which case halls on campus will give you a higher concentration of students with whom to social. Shared kitchen would be good - ensuite or not irrelevant (you don't usually hang out with people in the bathroom!) - definitely not a studio. You'd probably prefer being either other 4th year students or even 3rd years, 1st years might grate after awhile!

Reply 2

bhav_

Original post

by Anonymous

You haven't said where you are at university. Some people might be able to give specific advice.
It sounds like a campus university, in which case halls on campus will give you a higher concentration of students with whom to social. Shared kitchen would be good - ensuite or not irrelevant (you don't usually hang out with people in the bathroom!) - definitely not a studio. You'd probably prefer being either other 4th year students or even 3rd years, 1st years might grate after awhile!

I'm at Lancaster in County College :smile:

That's true about ensuites ahaha, it's more that those types of accommodation don't have a shared seating area so I wasn't sure whether that would make it less social

Reply 3

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post

by bhav_

I'm currently on a placement year, and am about to come back for my 3rd and last year of my degree (so I won't know anyone I can get accom with).
I lived at home for the first two years to save money, but I feel I've missed out a bit on the "uni experience" so I'm hoping to get a bit of that in before I leave!
What sort of accommodation would be best for meeting new people and having a vibrant social life? Town or campus? And if I am on campus, would townhouses be more social than ensuite accommodation or is there no real difference?
Thanks :smile:

Hi @bhav_

It's really going to be a personal choice. If you are in any group chats with other placement students, maybe reach out to them and see if any of them are looking for accommodation and are looking for a third person? You could also email your college accommodation team to ask how they group up accommodation for returning students e.g. if its likely you'd be in a flat of all returning students, 3rd years, or a mix of years.

Honestly, you can probably make any option work in terms of social life if you commit to chatting to new people and making plans! I'd also obviously recommend the generic advice of ensuring you chat to course mates and join some new societies. I managed to make lots of new friends through my course when I returned from placement by putting in effort to chat to them outside of lectures.

As a side note, I was in ensuite first year (Fylde) and didn't find the lack of sofa a limiting factor in socialising, we all just sat around the table to hang out, or squashed into someone's room!

Best of luck with your return to university!
Rebecca (Lancaster Student Ambassador)

(edited 9 months ago)