Me and 3 other freinds are thinking of either getting a house or going into self-catered flats for our first yr at uni.

does anyone know anything about which of the uni owned flats are good and which are not?
The thing is, i dont really want to have ppl nicking my food or making the kitchen a mess. any suggestions on how to avoid this?

hmmm basically i just want a little bit of advice from someone who knows from expererience (preferably a student).

cheers

Ian

I am not too sure about Sheffield Uni accommodation, but as an ex student I definately recommend a year in halls to get the full student experience, and to get to know people. Bear in mind though that some people find halls too busy and distracting

My halls experience was quite a good one although we did have occassional pixie issue (food going missing in the night), there was not really any major problems.

You do have to be fairly tollerant when living in shared housing whether it be halls or private renting as what you perceive as been messy maybe another persons relevatively tidy!

If you already have a group of friends which you know you can live with then getting a house rather than going into halls may be a good idea. Although bear in mind that friendships can sometimes be strained by living together especially if one of your best mates is very messy / noisy etc.

The best thing I can advise is that you go and look around a selection of places within your price range and see what is on offer out there and which you think you will suit you best.

hey,

Will u be at sheffield uni? I'm a student there at the mo, and lived in self catering flats in first year (I'm going into my fourth and final year next year - sob!). I lived in Crescent flats which is right on the sort of "campus" of shef uni accommodation. All the flats and halls are in a really nice area, really leafy and green but with loads of students so loads of friends to be made.

Some flats are better than others. All of them are adequate, i may be slightly biased but i think Crescent Flats is probably the best bet purely for size of flats. None of them are more than 6 bedroom (most are five) which I'd say is the maximum u wanna live with. The kitchen's are all quite nice, plenty of storage space, decent equipment. A cleaner comes round once a week so you get looked after but at the same time your living on your own.

Word of warning: the beds in halls and flats are generally really small width wise, but it's fine, only a problem if you have a bf/gf staying (like i did a lot of the time).

it's down to who you live with for ppl stealing food etc but I didn't know anyone who had a problem with it. And the uni's really good at putting like minded ppl together.

Hope that helps a bit, let me know if you want any more info.
Jo

ps, if you decide on halls then it's got to be Ranmoor! best hall hands down!

When I was at uni I lived in halls my first year and found that the people who had lived in them had a much wider circle of friends than those that just went into houses.

Live in halls your first year it's not the nicest place in the world by a long shot and you will meet some absolute ****s but long term it's better IMO.

Im an sheffield hallam, and was at broomgrove hall for my first year....hates it! Met some nice peoples, but in general most people wanted to :
a) thief all food left in fridges
b) set fire to toasters etc because its funny... :S
c) set fire alarm off nearly every day
d) throw tv's, plates, balls out of windows at people, or onto the nursery thats next door....
Not reeeally my kind of people, you may be different though:P

Im sure a lot of other halls are very nice though, or I'd suggest looking at your uni's accommodation booklety thing, and getting them to take you on a tour of some places, see what you really like :)
Good luck!