The Ups And Downs Of Living With Friends At Uni
During your first year of university you tend to move into student accommodation or halls of residence with flatmates that are randomly assigned.
Everyone’s experience is different, some people become close friends with those that they live with during their first year, whilst others make friends elsewhere.
After finishing your first year, you’re then able to choose who you want to live with, rather than living with strangers as you’ve got to know new people.
It’s important to note though, there are ups and downs of living with friends, and we’re here to spill everything there is to know!
Should You Live With Your Friends At Uni?
Living with your friends at university can be an amazing experience, you may socialise on a daily basis with people you really get on with, save money on your bills and rent, and have a support system to lean on if you need it.
It’s important to note though, everyone’s living situation is different, some people find living with friends to be a great decision, whilst others discover it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
If you’re contemplating whether or not to live with your friends whilst studying, make sure to carry on reading!
Ups and Downs of Living With Friends
It’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into before agreeing to live with your friends at university.
To help you out, we’ve listed some of the ups and downs below.
1. Shared Responsibilities
When living under the same roof with your friends, you’ll be able to split doing the housework, the cleaning, and cooking.
Being able to share responsibilities is great in some cases if everyone pulls their weight and puts effort in.
However, sometimes people don’t, and it can feel awkward to pull your friends up on things.
No matter how close you are with someone, make sure that when living in a shared accommodation whether it’s a flat or apartment, everyone’s doing their fair share of chores and cleaning the communal spaces.
Such as, it’s not up to one person to clean the bathrooms of your student house every week, everyone needs to take it in turns.
If responsibilities aren’t equally shared, arguments can easily start.
To keep the peace, ensure everyone puts the same effort into completing household tasks from the get-go.
A good way you can do this is by putting together a household rota for cleaning the communal areas in your home.
2. Splitting Costs
Living with your friends during your studies means that you’ll sometimes be able to split the costs of rent and bills, such as if you move into a student house together.
This arrangement can be great as you can stretch your student budget further due to sharing the cost of rent, utility bills and other household expenses.
Buying your own bleach, soap, kitchen towels, toilet paper and so on does add up.
So, having people you can split these costs with can save you a fair bit of money each month.
On the other hand though, if someone doesn’t pay their rent or bills on time, or never chips towards household expenses, this can make things tricky for the other tenants.
Money issues can and definitely do arise when living with friends.
It’s important that you don’t put yourself into a strained financial situation due to someone else not paying their fair share.
3. Support System
There’s no denying that student life has its fair share of challenges.
Although, living with your mates means you’ve got a support system to lean on if things get difficult or you need someone to talk to, and vice versa.
It’s nice to know that if you ever need anything, your bestie is only down the hall and you can go and talk to them when you want.
Having a support system like this can really do wonders for your mental health, as you can all help each other through any difficult times that could arise.
If you have a good support network whilst at uni, this can also help to reduce feelings of homesickness.
4. Differences In Lifestyles & Schedules
You may find that you have different lifestyles and schedules to your friends, such as you may be an early riser whilst your housemate is a night owl.
Everyone has different arrangements which work for them, that may not work for other people and this can easily become an issue, even for close friends.
For example, you could move in with one of your friends and find out they’re always up stumbling about in the early hours of the morning, whilst you’re trying to sleep.
Just because you’re compatible as friends with someone, doesn’t mean you’re going to be a great match living together.
Before agreeing to live with someone, make sure to get to know them and ask questions about their ideal living arrangement and schedule.
5. More Study Motivation
Solo study sessions can get tiring and boring sometimes, right? Well, when living with your friends, you’ll have study buddies right at home.
You and your friends can have study sessions in your student home or head to the library together, which can increase your motivation and help you stay focused on the task at hand.
Although, you and your friends may distract each other from completing work from time to time.
It can be tempting to ditch the studying to have a film night together instead!
6. Boundaries Can Be Crossed
Setting boundaries and communicating clearly with your friends whilst sharing a home together is super important.
Firstly, just because you are housemates it doesn’t mean you have to be together 24/7 and you should still spend time with other friends.
You should also establish some rules for using other people’s belongings, some people don’t mind others using their things, whilst others do.
To stop any issues from arising, make sure to ask your friends first if they’re okay with you borrowing anything.
Lastly, setting boundaries with your personal space is crucial, even when living with your friends.
Alone time is important and not everyone is comfortable with people coming in and out of their room when they please.
This is especially true for introverts who need time to recharge by themselves.
7. More Social Interaction
Moving in with your friends at university can be an amazing experience and you may make memories to last a lifetime.
From throwing parties to hosting cooking nights to gaming nights to film marathons, there’s so much fun to be had when living with your friends.
Even doing mundane things and daily errands like your weekly grocery shop or heading to the post office can be fun if you’re doing it with your housemates!
If you’ve never lived with friends before, it can be a whole new ball game, but just remember that your studies do need to take priority over socialising.
8. Potential To Make Or Break A Friendship
Living with your mates can definitely bring you closer and strengthen the bond, but on the other hand, being in close quarters all the time also has the potential to break the friendship too.
When changing the dynamic of your friendship, you may realise you’re not as compatible as you thought.
Be sure to get to know people properly and give it a few months before agreeing to live with them.
You may make tons of friends who you go on nights out with, but just because you have a great time partying with people, it doesn’t mean they’ll make good housemates.
Before considering whether or not to live with your BFF, think about whether you want to take the risk of your friendship changing, maybe for the better, or for the worst.
There’s a variety of ups and downs of living with your friends during your student years, but most of the time, you’ll have a wonderful experience.
Hopefully now you’re better educated on what to expect when moving in with your friends!
If you need help finding the perfect place to live with your friends at uni, we have student accommodation properties in cities across the UK.