Surviving University: Choosing Your Accommodation

Life in halls is amazing. You'll meet some incredible people, many of whom will probably become your closest friends, and even housemates for the years ahead. You'll learn drinking games you'd never imagined before, share plenty of weird and wonderful moments, and become closely acquainted with the cleaners, security, maintenance staff and regular fire drills... It's an unmissable way to start university, and although I'm looking forward to moving into a house where all of the hobs work, I will miss my 'house' and the 42-odd people I live with, two of whom I will still be living with next year!

I chose my halls for three reasons. Firstly, I wanted my own bathroom, which narrowed it down to 'Ensuite Premium' and 'Ensuite'; secondly, I couldn't afford Ensuite Premium; and thirdly, I'd read about accommodation choices on the student room and seen lots of positive comments. All halls have reputations attached to them, and every university has one accommodation type which has a reputation for parties! The word that came up most often in describing the Village, (the name of my halls), was community, and it was a good description. There's a kind of family connection between Village residents - and a friendly rivalry between the houses!

As a general rule, you can't go wrong with university accommodation. Most universities seem to have renovated their accommodation or built new blocks in the last ten years, and standards are high. Even if you end up in somewhere 'a bit scabby', you'll be sharing that experience with a group of bright and lively people who make the experience enjoyable!

Price is obviously the most important factor, but look at other things too. Flat size, location and facilities are important. Catered halls will save you the hassle of cooking for yourself, but will restrict you to rigid meal times, including very early dinners. Self-catered allows you more flexibility, and even if you're not a natural cook (like me!) I would definitely recommend self-catered over catered if you have the choice. 

Location is the other big factor. At my uni, halls are located on three sites. Most of the accommodation is on campus. These lucky people can roll out of bed 15 minutes before their lectures, and still have time to shower. My halls, the 'Village', is down the road, about 8-10 minutes walk from the centre of campus. Although further away from the uni, we're nearer to Tesco's and the Co-op, and we have our own stream and park area hidden at the back of the village. Plus we have our own laundrette! The third location is a good half hour's bus ride away, in the city. The smallest hall group, it's generally acknowledged to be the worst accommodation offered by the uni. If the accommodation is good enough, the distance might not matter so much, but it does distance you socially from other students.

Some things you should consider:

- Where are the halls? 

- Will I be able to park my car (if you have one... not likely) or store my bike?

- Are there any bus routes nearby, and is there a bus route to the university?

- Are there any shops nearby?

The best way to choose your accommodation is to visit the university and talk to existing students, but if you can't get there, go online! Many universities offer 'online tours' of accommodation or comparison charts, and the Student Room is quite good for consulting current students. 

The Confusing Bits!

Private Halls: There are some companies, like UNITE, who own private halls in various cities, especially London. As a general rule these halls are more luxurious and more expensive. They may house students from a mixture of universities. If you can, go for university-owned halls rather than private halls: the university will offer you more protection and support, for a lower cost. If something goes wrong and you can't pay your accommodation fees, the university will see you as a student first, tenant second: to a private hall company, you are a tenant first. 

Contract length: Residence contracts are usually 38, 40, or 52 weeks in duration. As an undergraduate, you will only need the shorter length (except students on health courses). Avoid contracts which requite you to move out at Christmas/Easter (although these are rare). 

Bills: Water, gas, and electricity will all be included with your rent in university-owned properties. Normally internet will also be provided. Not all halls have wi-fi - I'm using a data cable right now - but you'll adjust to that soon enough! In private accommodation, bills are almost always paid separately. 

Insurance: This is not usually covered; it may be offered with your accommodation offer as an optional extra. Endsleigh advertise as a student insurance company, but their rates are actually quite high - it's cheaper to get contents insurance with the company your parents use at home. Your current insurance plan may already partially cover you! Do insure things though, especially electrical gadgetry and musical instruments; if something is stolen from your university room, the university is not obliged to pay for replacements. 

University accommodation is usually allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, so don't delay on getting your application in and accepting your room offer!

Blog on living in halls coming soon...

J.R

A short-ish update (You know me...)

It's now under a week until I leave for university. Facebook and Twitter are humming with university posts. Many of my friends moved in this weekend, so today's speciality has been pictures of beautifully decorated university rooms. I have some plans for my own room: I have two rolls of 'Poetry on the Underground' posters, one of my cosy IKEA rag rugs, and a box of multi-coloured, flower-shaped fairy lights. 

(By the way - where does the phrase 'fairy lights' come from? Is it old? I like it. It makes the fire-risks and all that seem a lot less realistic)

Half of my belongings are now in bags and boxes ready to travel. This has not been an easy process. I am a hoarder. I invest deep stored emotions in everything I won. Throwing things away for me is like being Voldemort and throwing away your Horcruxes. Still, the process proceeds, and this move is becoming more and more real. At the same time, we are preparing to move house as a family, and my long suffering Dad has just painted my new room in the exact specification of red-y orange I demanded, a sort of Heinz tomato soup colour. I have decided that I do not feel at home without my orange walls, so although I shall have to survive without them at university, I'm glad that for at least the next few years there will be somewhere familiar, and orange, for me to return to. For some strange reason, other people do not seem to appreciate the radiance of my orange walls. Each to their own.

So what is, or where is home? Moving to our fifth house, it's a question that's ceased to both me. Around the age of thirteen, and living in my least favourite house, I took to reading with great care the property sections of the newspapers, and grading the houses based on whether I'd live there or not, and preference. My ideal house had at least six bedrooms, looked beautiful, ideally included a study, pool and attic conversion, and sat in the middle of a sprawling landscape garden, stables optional. It was a vindictive, childish way of hinting at my parents that what they'd provided wasn't good enough, and it makes me wince to think back to it. Thirteen is a difficult age. But then we moved to our current house, and I turned fourteen, and stopped reading the property section. The worst thing you can do is long for things you can't have, especially whopping great grade-II listed mansions. 

Our family has two mottoes when it comes to 'home'. Firstly, and most importantly, home is where your family is. Secondly, home is where you make it. It could be a flat in Cornwall, a castle in Yorkshire, a suburban semi in London, but as long as we were all there, safe and sound, it could become home for us. More than that, 'home' isn't the building, or the locality: it's where we find ourselves in each other, where we belong. This makes 'homelessness' worse: not only are you without the physical comfort of a shelter, you loose the sense of belonging attached to shared living and to an extent, property ownership. Alden Nowlan, a wonderful Canadian poet, ends his poem 'He sits down on the floor of a School for the Retarded*' with these wonderful lines: 

'It's what we all want, in the end, to be held, merely to be held, to be kissed (not necessarily with the lips, for every touching is a kind of kiss.)  

Yet, it's what we all want, in the end, not to be worshipped, not to be admired, not to be famous, not to be feared, not even to be loved, but simply to be held.  

She hugs me now, this retarded woman, and I hug her. We are brother and sister, father and daughter, mother and son, husband and wife. We are lovers. We are two human beings huddled together for a little while by the fire in the Ice Age, two thousand years ago.'

These lines never fail to bring me reassurance and comfort. If you're interested in reading the full poem, I found it online here. The Selected Poems of Alden Nowlan was one of the first poetry books I ever bought myself, so it's very dear to my heart :') 

So my physical home is changing drastically, splitting into my university home and my 'base', with my family, but I'm not loosing anything. In fact, I think I'm gaining more than I'll miss. I really love my home here, in my little town, but not one but two new homes offers me the chance for a complete, fresh start. The chance to live the adult life I've been dreaming of and become the person I aspire to be, starting again with a clean slate. Besides which, I am completely in love with Norwich, and I can't wait to live there. The first time I stepped onto the campus I had an instinctual feeling that this was where I am meant to be, and God's been so good to me, guiding me this far. I honestly doubted I'd get there, but I shouldn't have. He's got me under his wing. I think I'll be okay. 

So next time I update this blog - unless I get really bored during the rest of the week - I will be somewhere new! I love the idea of a new landscape and a different setting to work in, with new inspirations, a different atmosphere. (I promise not to use the word 'new' again now, okay!) 

As always, thank you for your patience, your time, and your forgiveness for my enthusiasm for the semi-colon, hyphen, and bracket. 

Until then, God bless.

J.R. x 

* Retarded - This was written in 1982, so no offence meant.