fahye | call for $0.02

I'd like some advice.

Here's the situation: I'm currently tossing up my living options for next year, provided I'm accepted into Sydney med. On the one hand there's sharing an apartment with

_leareth, and on the other is the option of living on campus in a residential college - probably Women's College, as their postgrad rooms looked really nice. Finance isn't an issue; I think basic costs will be about the same whether I'm on campus or off, and I'll probably get a weekend job for pocket money.

Obviously, sharing an apartment would be great in terms of privacy and independence and fun and borrowing Leareth's clothes :D, but the downside is pretty much all the extra time it adds - living in college would involve no commute and no need to do my own cooking, which might be very handy when I'm adjusting to life in Sydney and the heavy study workload. I'm also down for the Central Clinical School, which is on campus and very close to the colleges. The colleges obviously wouldn't be as quiet as a private apartment, but the postgrad wing at Women's is actually quite separate and the girl I chatted to yesterday said that it's a perfectly good study environment.

At college there's the possibility of employment as an academic tutor, but that's shaky depending on undergrad needs - I might want to look for a retail job or something off campus.

Of course, I still don't know where the apartment would be or if I'll even be offered a place at college (there aren't many postgrad rooms available) but...what do you guys think about it? Any good or bad experiences to share, or things I might not have considered? At the moment I'm not sure which way I'm leaning.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This is completely unhelpful but I suggest doing whatever "feels" right.

Hello, have you met me? *rueful grin* I need to be able to rationalise my decision, and I'm not so good at listening to my gut.

Well, there's a certain degree of rational thinking involved in intuition (yes, there is, I'm not crazy!). Pick which one you feel is better then rationalize it, that's what I do.

If it was me, I would pick sharehousing with a friend over everything but living with a partner, so my opinion is skewed. The perks for staying on campus sound pretty amazing.

At the end of the day, you don't know until you try it. Every college is different, and every college is different at any given time. I know that's totally unhelpful, but I think at the end of the day, if you have that capability of moving out if you don't like it, definitely give college a semester.

I, personally, love living at college, but our set up is a little different than UofSydney. If there are things you can live with(out) in order to have the unbelievable convenience of being on campus, then, yeah, do it. And this might not be true for everywhere, but UQs postgrad res was full of med students, which I imagine would be an awesome environment to, you know, study medicine in.

Well, I think that I have to commit to either option for at least a year - postgrad college contracts are for the entire academic year, and obviously

_leareth will need to know if she should find someone else to rent with.

What sort of arrangement do you have at the moment? Shared kitchen/bathroom/living area with separate bedrooms? And non-catered, right? The one I'm looking at has a kitchenette/bathroom shared between two people.

Holy jeebus, that's an awesome setup! I would totally go without a lounge room in order to only share bathroom and kitchenette with one person! Ours is kitchen/lounge/bathroom between 8, and right now I really hate it. On the other hand, we can leave whenever we want with 4 weeks notice, but it's from semester to semester, generally speaking.

Yeah, no lounge, but I guess there's always the college common room for that. And...bathroom between eight? *awed* That must take some very tight scheduling.

Weirdly, there have only been a handful of times where even 2 people wanted the shower at the same time. We all keep fairly different schedules, I guess.

I cannot -- cannot -- speak highly enough of living in an enclave of women, at a women's college.

I spent four years doing so. Everything is right there, up to and including people who are doing what you're doing. It's a kind of academic community that's extremely low on bullshit (I'm mentally comparing my time at my college to the course I took over the summer at another local university), and there's a degree of connectedness to what's happening on campus that there isn't when you're off-campus.

I'd go for it in a heartbeat, if I were you.

the girl I chatted to yesterday said that it's a perfectly good study environment.

Given this, I think time is going to be the most important factor in your quality of life. When I lived further away from the university, I really noticed those extra half hours here and there adding up -- I say go for on campus accommodation.

I lived on campus in the dorms during undergrad and then lived/now live off-campus during grad school. So, three things:

One, there is a distinct time factor that goes with the commute and the cooking and all the rest that might not be where you want to spend time in your first year, during the adjustment phase.

Two, in terms of developing on-campus community, it's a lot harder to do when you're living off campus.

Three, the privacy/personal space is much more customizable off campus.

I would start out on campus for the first year at least. Get to know the people, the system, the resources for study space and lab time and the like, and get used to the place.

Then shift off campus later. :)

Update: apparently uncle has no intention of renting out the third bedroom, so it's just going to be myself and his family in it. Additionally, it's not set that my family will buy a Sydney property since we don't know what my brother will be doing after Stanford or if even I want to stay permanently in Sydney (Melbourne, Canada, UK, somewhere international are ideas after a few years working in Sydney), so there's a very real possibility that I will either just live at my uncle's place, or, if it doesn't work out (apparently he and his wife and child will be there one week out of every four and I'll probably like more independence/privacy) I'd look to rent a place myself. Obviously I'd be far more willing to rent an apartment if I had someone to rent with since 2br apartments are plentiful and it's cheaper to share than rent a 1br.

If renting is the way the cards fall by the time 2007 ends, I'm perfectly happy to look at renting a place that's convenient to both USyd and the CBD -- ie, the suburbs that are great location to rent but not necessarily to buy investment property (Glebe, Camperdown, Ultimo, etc.) That would mean short commuting time and convenience for both of us. Also I'm perfectly happy to do most of the cooking in exchange for dishes :P

Any idea of the price range that any 2br apartments you'd be looking at would fall into, in terms of weekly rent?

I'd be looking at maximum $500 at the extreme; I'd expect more $400-450 per week. Ideally I'd look for a place with an ensuite bathroom and a separate bathroom for the other bedroom, which means I would pay the larger half of the rent for ensuite (eg, I pay $225 a week; other person pays $210 or whatever).

I always vote for whichever option has less of a commute.

How long would your commute be if you were off campus? I don't know... there is a lot to be said for a little more privacy, but I lived on campus my whole undergrad and never had a problem getting quiet time, etc. Postgrad we didn't really have on-campus accomodation, so it was a moot point. I spent all my time with my coursemates anyway, but the subject was very dependent on teamwork.

I would echo what many others have said... give on-campus a try, maybe? It seems like once you've moved off it's very hard to go back, for one reason or another. I don't know if the reason is because it's 'better,' though.

In utterly OT things: Also, I was reminded about our R-L slowtime... do you want to finish it up and unlock? The other parts of the aftermath will probably be posted in the next day or two, but we don't have to keep to that schedule. :]

Eep! Yes, all right. Is there anything else that needs to happen in the thread before we wrap up?

Hmm. Did you want him to find out what sort of weapon C had? But otherwise... nothing that I can remember - I think we just wanted L to know what went on and R to check in and were curious about what sort of relationship they'd have. Which is strangely amicable? On the surface, at least...

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