A LARGE PORTION OF UNIVERSITY IS ALL ABOUT MEETING AND SOCIALISING WITH NEW PEOPLE, SO FIRST THINGS FIRST LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF. MY NAME IS CHARLOTTE AND I AM GOING INTO MY FINAL YEAR OF STUDYING COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA. MY FIRST YEAR AT UNIVERSITY WAS A BLAST AND I’M HERE TO SHARE WITH YOU THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY OF LIVING IN A UNILET HOUSE!

Upon receiving my place at Bournemouth University I was saddened to find out that I had not got into my first, second or third choice of halls. Instead the university had sent an email informing me that I was going to be spending my first year living in a unilet house. I had always assumed I would live in halls, so it was hard to try and stay positive but when I found out I was living with 6 other people I felt more optimistic as I had always wanted to live with a lot of housemates.

The university had pre allocated all of our rooms before arrival, the four boys whom I lived with all received the biggest rooms whereas I on the other hand was given a teeny tiny cupboard of a room. Asides from the box room and dingy interior, living in a unilet really does stand you in good stead. From my own personal experiences I would say that unilet living is slightly harder than living in halls due to the fact you really are completely independent and have to grow up and mature rather fast! When your housemates are getting on your nerves you can’t just run across the hall into someone else’s flat, you are more grounded to the house therefore issues must be dealt with.

Now I know that living in a unilet probably wasn’t how you envisioned yourself living in your first year but there are so many positives that come with living in a house. Firstly, there’s no 3am fire alarm wake up calls. You don’t have to worry about loads of people from uni seeing you looking like death after a night out. A lot of unilets are in great locations, mine was just a drunken crawl away from Halo and I was home. This does however mean an earlier start to get into uni on time but it was great living so close to Bournemouth Town Centre. Finally it is what you make it, you could have a terrible time in any type of university accommodation if you choose to but a positive outlook and good intentions to get along with everyone will take you very far and you will meet so many amazing people and have a fantastic university experience.

My favourite part about living in a unilet was living with a bunch of very different but really great people, I even met one of my best friends through living in a unilet house. We were all very social and in freshers’ we were invited to a lot of parties in Halls so we really had the best of both worlds.

If I was a fresher again I would have more house parties! They were great and we had the perfect house for it (just try not to annoy your neighbours!).

By Charlotte Russell

Originally published on Nerve Media

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