The problem I had when it came to picking my accommodation is that I only had one accommodation to pick due to where my campus is, however for the main campus there are around seven different accommodations to choose from. I'm fairly sure that those who had a choice of which accommodation they were going to live in had to put them in order of preference, although I'm not sure whether they just had a first and a second choice or if they had to rank each accommodation from first to last. This works on a first come first served basis, so essentially the sooner you choose your accommodation, the more likely you are to get your first choice.
I also know that if you receive an unconditional offer, you are able to choose your accommodation before those who received conditional offers can, meaning that you are also more likely to receive your first choice accommodation if you have an unconditional offer. Therefore I would recommend that you make your choice as soon as the applications for accommodation open to try and ensure you are put into your first choice. I know many people in my year who were late to apply for accommodation and ended up not getting their first choice and were quite disappointed by this, so please learn from their mistake and get your choices in at the first available moment so you don't end up like them. I don't think they necessarily hate the accommodation they ended up being put in (but let's face it, the only thing university accommodation is good for is the social side and absolutely nothing else), but I know they would definitely have preferred to be in their first choice.
Before picking your accommodation, I would definitely recommend that you try and view all of the accommodations that are available to you beforehand. Most often these tours are available during university open days, however if you are applying for this year, chances are you have probably already attended all of your university open days. At this point in time, there may still be some open days for those who are planning on starting university next year, however you can also attend these and use this opportunity to check out your accommodation choices; as well as to have a final look around your chosen university to make sure you have definitely made the right choice (although I am pretty sure you can't change whether or not you go here, unless you choose another university through clearing). If you are unable to do this, or can't look around all of the available accommodation for whatever reason, I'm fairly certain you can ring the accommodation and arrange for you to have a private tour around that accommodation, which I know is something some people in my accommodation decided to do before living there.
I would also recommend that you take the time at some point over the summer to go to the town or city that your university is based in and go and have a look around it, particularly the area that is most near to your university and your accommodation. This will give you the opportunity to get used to the area prior to your arrival in September (or January if you are in the January intake) and get to know where the nearest shops and bars are and how to get to university from your accommodation. This is something that I never did, however I wish I had done this as I can remember when I first started I didn't really know where anything was (and to be honest I still don't) and this meant on my first day of university I had to leave a lot earlier than planned because I knew for definite I would get lost (which I did a bit). This just means that you can put your mind at rest before starting university and can get rid of a lot of anxiety, nerves, and stress.
Before you go to university, you should make a budget, which is particularly important if you are in accommodation. Most of your student finance will go on your rent, which can be paid for using a direct debit so that you don't have to worry about making sure you pay it on time as this will be done for you. How I planned my budget was to plan for the worst possible situation and try to stick to spending as little as possible as best as I could and did an individual budget per term. You tend to get slightly more student finance in your third term (after Easter) and in my case, my rent was £500 less than the previous two terms, however I don't know if this applies to all accommodations or just mine, but I still pretty much stuck to the same budget. I will include a screenshot of my budget below so you have an idea of how much things will cost, however please be aware that I haven't exactly stuck to this and that not everything cost as much as I said, for example, I made a budget of £360 for food, however spent £372 during second term, but didn't spend money in other areas of my budget:
You may also want to know that you don't have to pay council tax when living in accommodation, which I'm pretty sure also applies if you are in a student house. Upon arrival at your accommodation, they will ask you to fill out a form, which is basically just to prove that you are a student and this way you shouldn't be asked to pay council tax. I can't exactly remember what was on that form, but it only takes a few minutes to fill out.
You may also want to pay for a TV license if you are a person who likes to watch a lot of TV. You may be aware that you are covered by your parents' TV license while you are in accommodation, however there are some limitations to this. You are covered by your parents' license as long as you don't watch any live TV, don't watch any programmes on the BBC (including iplayer), and when you are watching a show on catch-up (ITV, channel 4, channel 5 - NOT BBC), you shouldn't be watching it on a device that is plugged in, i.e. if your laptop is charging you can't be watching any TV. You will need a license if you are planning on watching any TV on the BBC (including iplayer) or if you watch shows as they are being broadcast. My flat received a few warnings about not having paid for a TV license, including one that was directly addressed to one of my flatmates, and this resulted in me paying for a license as I would rather have to do that than pay a £1000 fine. Once you leave your accommodation you are able to cancel this payment, however I'm not entirely sure what this process is like as I am still in my accommodation, but I will add a comment below or edit this post once I do just so that all of you are clear on what happens during this process.
If you have any questions about picking your university accommodation that you feel I haven't answered in this post, or have any other questions about university accommodation in general, then please feel free to comment them down below and I will do my best to answer them. Similarly, if you are a university student in accommodation, or have previously been in accommodation, and have any more points to make that I haven't made then also feel free to comment them below.
I hope that you end up picking the right accommodation for you and that this whole process goes as smoothly as possible for you.
Love Beth xx
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