Going to university in my hometown was the best decision I’ve ever made

The big university choice: Do you stay or go?

Most of us are only too eager to leave our hometowns behind and begin the next chapter. University is a time for us to gain some distance from our loving (translation: overbearing) parents and get some of that well-earned freedom. For most people, this means moving towns, but staying in your hometown to study is one of the best decisions anyone can make.

You still feel nervous on the first day of uni

Super-shy

Walking into your first lecture in first year, you’re just as nervous as anyone else. When attempting to make friends, you’re asked the same typical fresher questions. “Where are you from?” they ask. You simply replied, “here,” which genuinely interested some people. Fresher’s fear gets us all, no matter how close to home you are.

You know the best places to go already

Avoid avoid avoid.

Lots of people will want you to show them around because you apparently already knew the best places in town. Living in Brighton for 21 years definitely has its perks. Avoiding Churchill Square as much as humanely possible is job number one. Student lock in? Forget about it. Oceana, or Pryzm as it’s now known was a kid’s club once upon a time. Best restaurants? Pompoko, Donatello’s, and of course, Nandos. You know all the best shortcuts to avoid those tourists who are clearly lost.

You’re just as independent as anyone else

Being in your hometown, you will have experienced some students question the choices you make, some even going as far to question your independence, saying your a mummy’s girl. But you’ll soon realise that location shouldn’t even matter.

The stereotype for students attending local universities is that they depend more on their parents, always go home at the first opportunity, don’t know how to cook or save money, live at home and generally miss out on all the university experiences of getting wasted every night. It’s just not true. Lots of students have no choice but to work and earn their own money, meaning that family dependence is minimal.

Your hometown has a good uni anyway, so why move?

Students might claim that you’re stupid for not leaving your hometown, but you’re attending one of the best universities in the country… so how is that a bad choice? It’s just logical. Moving out four years ago was just as hard moving further away. So, please tell me again what makes me any less independent than the rest of you?

You’re sucked into student life no matter where you go

People who stay in their hometown aren’t always dashing home every night. We go out 4-5 times a week, like any fresher. Our lovely student loans are wasted on extortionate rent, and most importantly, alcohol.  Making friends was scary, but they’re now your life-long friends. Most people who stay in their hometown see their family probably less than most because they live so close to me, which might sound strange, but it’s true.

You can stay in touch with your mates, and pop home if it all gets too much

Living so close to home is brilliant. You see your home mates more and actually stay in their lives whilst you’re getting one too. Travelling home at a moments notice to do all that washing you’ve been hoarding is the dream, and what parent doesn’t want their child to visit often? We get to see our pets whenever possible (which truth be told was the hardest thing about leaving home).

Puppies> parents.

Your home life and uni life roll into one

Ultimately, uni changes your life in a big way, and you have to start again. It’s as if, all of a sudden, you’re five again and starting school for the first time. You have to lead a sort of double-life. But if you stay near your hometown, university just adds to your life as it already is. It’s great, you don’t have to start all over again, your mates can all meet each other and your family all the time, and you always have twice as many people to invite on nights out.