Live in university accommodation or stay at home?

I wouldn't particularly advise living in Elms Village tbh. Doesn't have the best rep.

I'd stay at home the first year and then get an apartment/flat the next year.
 
From someone who lived at home, I feel I made a mistake and missed out on a lot. Not just fun but life experience to.

I am now in a far better financial state than my friends, but sometimes there is more to lif than money.
 
Nymins said:
I wouldn't particularly advise living in Elms Village tbh. Doesn't have the best rep.
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What is it you have heard? I see your from NI, so have you been to Elms or have any experience with it? (your opinion means a lot more since your from around here)

I've only heard bad things about the Holy Lands, nothing about Elms
 
petemyster said:
What is it you have heard? I see your from NI, so have you been to Elms or have any experience with it? (your opinion means a lot more since your from around here)

I've only heard bad things about the Holy Lands, nothing about Elms
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Well its not the worst of places. Its probably the same across the board in most Uni owned living areas.

Just a number of my friends who stayed their got robbed more than once and its just a bit mad at times. Depends what you want really. Those are probably just localized occasions and don't happen too often, just something that i wouldn't particularly want to do/go through. Again it will probably be a lot more social, but if its just the first year then i personally wouldn't bother.

My brother who is still at Queens stayed at home the first year, got a house in Stranmillis the second, now a flat on the Lisburn Road for his third and now Masters course. Both great areas and super close to the Uni and Union (he works in the Union too).
 
I was also going to recommend Stranmillis or the Lisburn road for second year - you can get some amazing deals.
 
petemyster said:
The thing with that is, I plan to do Games Development (for the higher programming degree instead of computer science) and I doubt there will be many people who do it, and those that do I'd imagine won't stay at uni and be the most social of people (im sterotyping here :p which could easily be flipped back onto me!).
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Way to stereotype. There will be loads of people on GD degrees, there always are despite what you seem to think. My course (which has GD as a unit rather than over all degree) has people from all walks of lives, from chavs to quiet nerdy people, and loads of girls too. Not to mention most people want to get into GD (personally I don't see why) so it's one of the more popular courses/subjects.
 
[TW]Fox;16340140 said:
Me to, but this was partly because I drove so if there was something going down I could be there 12 minutes later. You cant do this on the bus - had I not been able to do this I'd have missed out on so many random 'Lets do XYZ!' sessions.
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I took the same approach! I drove the car to my friends when something was happening, it took 10 minutes to get there. I parked the car using my mates visitors permit. We then got the tube to random nights out in London. Obviously if I had bit too much to drink I wouldn't drive home but instead crash at a friends until the next morning where I would drive home.

There are soo many ways to having a good time at Uni. :)
 
InvaderGIR said:
Way to stereotype. There will be loads of people on GD degrees, there always are despite what you seem to think. My course (which has GD as a unit rather than over all degree) has people from all walks of lives, from chavs to quiet nerdy people, and loads of girls too. Not to mention most people want to get into GD (personally I don't see why) so it's one of the more popular courses/subjects.
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That's a fair point, I don't know what the games course is like at Queens but the games course at the university I went to had its fair share of people who liked to party. Yes, there were some people who lived up/down to the stereotype but they definitely weren't in the majority.
 
+1 for living at uni , u get to know people who arnt on your course and have such a laugh , I wish I could go back and do my first year over and over .. it was that much fun
 
Halls for the experience of independence. As someone mentioned, if you spontaenously hit the pub at lunchtime or something life is much easier living close to campus.
 
Id say if you can afford to/believe you'll comfortably be able to get a job/pay off the debt at the end of uni then live in halls. I've lived at home for 1st year and looks like I will be for 2nd year too, if however I get some money saved up I'll be looking into moving out (Will make it easier to join sports clubs, go out drinking etc). Despite this however I've made a lot of friends on my course and been able to go out a lot.
 
[TW]Fox;16340140 said:
Me to, but this was partly because I drove so if there was something going down I could be there 12 minutes later. You cant do this on the bus - had I not been able to do this I'd have missed out on so many random 'Lets do XYZ!' sessions.

The OP cant do this, so he should live at Uni.
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It's also not ideal for people who like to drink. The only person I know who lived at home for uni spent a huge amount of time sleeping on a friends sofa because he wasn't willing to drive home at the end of the night.
 
I'd live down bud. Unless all the drinking spots/ uni are >1hr busride away (I say bus because I don't condone drink driving)

Living at home is cheap (Unless your parents charge rent, as mine do) the only upside of student housing is freedom, it's your first step out into the real world. Usually it'll be closer to your freinds and obviously you'll make freinds with who you're living with.

It's a shock to anyone moving out though, like my mother will occasionally wash my clothes for me if i'm busy with college or work but i'm moving 165 miles away, i'll have to get a larger clothing selection to make up for this :D

But if the uni is close (I don't know ireland that well so I don't know how far that is) i'd live at home just because it's probably cheaper than renting a house or halls. You can still make freinds, go out and get wrecked. But you'll have more money than your freinds.
 
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I stayed at home, mainly because I live 5 minutes away from work and literally 10 minutes along a dual carriageway to uni, so its spot on for location.

My parents are pretty leniant when it comes to going out etc, Ive came in plastered and barfed on the floor before (cream carpet, whoops) and it was laughed off.
 
RANZID said:
+1 for living at uni , u get to know people who arnt on your course and have such a laugh , I wish I could go back and do my first year over and over .. it was that much fun
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I wish I could do my first year over again too. Probably the best year of my life. I'll never forget my parents driving off, and leaving me to start uni. Walking into my flat to live with 5 other people I had never met before. Then going out that night, and many more after and having the most awesome time. SO much fun to be had.
 
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