Until coming to uni myself, I’d never really seen any student bedrooms except in films. There were the wood-panelled rooms in films like Brideshead Revisited, or else the bright and modern sorority rooms in American college films. In Oxford in particular, there are lots of different kinds of accommodation that students can live in. I’ve been at Oxford a long time, and have had many student bedrooms, both owned by my college and not. Some of them were big, and some of them were small, but over the course of the year I lived in them, each one became ‘home’.
The kinds of rooms that colleges can offer their students varies from college to college, but there are lots of things that that almost all college rooms will have:
a single bed - sometimes bedding is provided
bookshelves
a desk and chair (often with a desk-lamp)
a wardrobe and other storage space
you might have a bedside table or small coffee table, with other chairs
a pin-board for notices and decorating with pictures - you might not be allowed to stick things up on the walls
you might even have a sink and mirror in your room!
Some of the rooms are just single rooms, but other colleges have other types of rooms. You might get an ensuite bathroom. A ‘single set’, is a bedroom that also has a living or study room attached, so that you can have a different space for sleep and work. A ‘double set’ is a space with two separate bedrooms and a shared living area (which might have two desks in it, for example). I lived in one of these in my first year and loved it: I got on really well with the person I was with, and we had a gorgeous set of rooms.
The prices of rooms can vary from college to college: some colleges charge a single flat rate regardless of the room size; other colleges charge students more for rooms with an ensuite. College accommodation might also give you access to other facilities - a college gym, and shared kitchen and laundry facilities. Check out individual college websites to see what kind of accommodation they have for students - it might help you pick a college to apply to!
Ellen
@_ellenbrewster