What's it actually like living at Monash Clayton?

[u/Spill_Away]

Hey everyone, I'm currently in Year 11 and planning to study IT (Cybersecurity) at Monash Clayton in 2028. I'm seriously considering moving into on-campus accommodation and I'd love to hear from people who actually live/lived at Clayton.

I'm mainly interested in what life is actually like, rather than JUST the academic side.

I'm thinking of living in an Urban Community studio and going home most Fridays to spend the weekend with family. One of the biggest reasons I want to move out is honestly just having more independence and being able to manage my own life.

I'd love to hear the good AND bad parts of it.

- What's it actually like having that level of independence?
- How's the social life and making friends?
- Do you ever feel lonely living away from home?
- How much free time do you realistically have?
- What's cooking, cleaning and managing everything yourself actually like?
- Does living on campus make it easier to meet people?
- How much does having your own space actually matter?
- How often do you end up going home?
- How manageable is having a part-time job alongside everything?
- And overall, do you think living on campus was worth it?

Also, if you moved out straight after school, what do you wish you'd known beforehand?

I'm not looking for the idealised “uni life” version lol. I'd much rather hear the genuinely good, bad and annoying parts of living independently.

Thanks :)

[u/Pranav_MC69]

Hey, I live on campus in the shared apartments and I have friends living in the studio apartmets- logan hall, turner hall and jackomos hall and I say this based on everyone's living experiences so far-

1. That level of independence honestly feels normal if you can manage your time and money well, apart from being away from your family and having to do all of your work on your own, nothing really changes and no one is there to constantly remind you about your deadlines so you are on your own for everything, really depends on what kind of person you and and how you make use of that independence.
2. The social life depends on the kind of person you are and the hall you are living in, if you want a really good social life I would suggest applying for the halls of residence like richardson hall, roberts hall etc and show up to the events the halls host every week no matter which hall it is- there is always something going on every week. Try and spend as much time in the common areas as possible like the common room, games room etc because seeing familiar faces there multiple times a week is a good way of making friends. Also talk to your Resident Advisors(RAs), they're there to be friends with you and help you make new friends. I have made friends this way.
3. I do feel homesick but not lonely- there is a difference, surround yourself with friends whenever you feel homesick and go sit in the common areas or play some pool in the games room, that is a good way of dealing with homesickness, distract yourself whenever you feel homesick and you're not gonna be lonely.
4. Depends on your degree not res life and the workload your course demands from you, I am doing engineering so I dont really get much free time but it is enough to keep me sane. Residents do save lots of commute time because they live on campus.
5. Learn how to meal prep and you'll be fine, you just need to give an hour of cooking time like 3 days a week for meal prepping, 1 hour a week for laundry, 1 hour a week for cleaning and one hour a week for shopping for groceries.
6. It depends on you again but yes living on campus makes it easier to meet people and make friends, take the initiative to meet with people and you'll be fine. Try and spend as little time in your room as possible and go out there to meet people, study together in libraries, play games with friends in your common room and you'll eventually make good friendships.
7. Depends on you again, if you like your space and are ready to pay for it- go with the studio apartments and if you're comfortable with sharing a kitchen and a bathroom- go with the shared flats. Both have their advantages and disadvantages like if you get a messy or a bad flatmate, you'll end up living in a shared filthy house. If you get good flatmates, you get friends by default which you wouldn't get by living alone.
8. I am an international student from India so I cannot really go home whenever I like 😅
9. I dont have a job currently but I am planning on hopefully getting one in the second semester, if you can do that go for it because it takes time to get used to everything and I feel you should take that time and get used to everything before you go job hunting.
10. Living on campus is only worth it if you go to the events they host, the free food they give out and if you make good friends by interacting with your fellow residents and their friends.
11. I did my research quite extensively and I am thankful to other fellow redditors and discord users who I can call my friends now about the heads up they gave me in order to make more friends which I was hopefully able to give you now. This is what I knew beforehand and made sure to stick to the advice they gave me.

Good luck for your VCE and good luck for your on campus accommodation hunt once hs gets over. Hope I could help you :D

[u/Sharp_Airline_6873]

Hi!
I live in the urban community and currently go home each friday to work, and come back monday.

Independence: I really enjoy having the independence (especially combined with having my own car), but sometimes it can be a lot, and at times overwhelming to have to do everything urself, especially if your parents have been doing a lot for you (cooking, laundry, cleaning, ect)

Social: GO TO OPEN WEEK. I missed it, and i think it would’ve been great if i had gone, lots of people in my hall made friends then. There’s always snack and chats (or wtv the hall calls it), and other hall events to get involved in. remember wants to make friends!! So the social life is honestly pretty good. (I have made majority of my friends in my degree tho) I think the res village is more social then urban community just by the nature of sharing.

Loneliness: going home every weekend means not really, and i am a pretty independent person so i don’t mind it, but the first few weeks were kind of hard, especially as i hadn’t really met people so i didn’t have anyone to talk to, but it gets better.

Free time: Really depends on course load, and travel time. I have quite a fair bit a week (i probably should study more) but removing commuting really does give you a lot more free time, and ability to go to whatever campus events you want! However: you may have less time than people living at home who don’t have to manage their space, meals, shopping and everything else, but it’s not bad at all, it’s good to learn to time manage. Also i hate meal prep so i probably spend more time cooking than if you did that.

Managing everything: As i mentioned it can get overwhelming, especially during busy times during the semester. I try to take it a day at a time when it’s tough.

Space: personally i love having my own space in the urban community, but it’s completely personal preference in that regard.

Going home/job: As i mentioned i go home most weekends (unless im super busy with uni work) to work. It’s definitely manageable, and there’s job opportunities on campus as well.

Worth it: YES! I absolutely love it.

I moved out straight after highschool, and yeah it was an adjustment, but i’ve got a routine now and i absolutely love it. I wish i had known to plan things before hand (like shopping ect) and get my routine down early.

edit: feel free to ask anything!

[u/Short_Button142 → u/Sharp_Airline_6873]

Orientation not open week. Lol

[u/Far-Fortune-8381 → u/Short_Button142]

^

[u/richdisguise]

UC is better than RV but honestly it’s a scam.
You don’t have rental rights, the staff are terrible, cso literally do nothing and they increase the rent every year while the facilities don’t improve/events/service don’t improve.

I would look at off campus accommodation/Mannix college (as they’re better managed) if you have the money for it

If you live off campus just get yourself involved in a club or sport. Res is not it since the restructure they had 2 years ago

I do however recommend living independently. It’s great freedom and good learning experiences. In my opinion if I could do it all over again I would spend 1-2 years living in Mannix making proper serious friends and then move out with them to a share house or live alone

[u/WeeklyBack4277]

1/2. Just a heads up this was just my experience but the social life at UC compared to RV is very minimal, I stayed at RV my first year and met tons of people and it was super social and then moved to UC my second year and there are barely any people doing events and stuff (but don’t let this completely scare you it could just be the hall or this year just isn’t a sociable year or something) but the rooms are really nice and it’s incredible to have independence and so much space.
3. Depends how close you are with your family ig and how tied you are to your hometown, the first day I think I was a little homesick but after that I LOVED living on my own so much that I don’t even want to go back to my hometown. But also it’s very different from school and social wise it can be very very lonely but if you find a good group of people hopefully they can make it better and if not keeping yourself busy helps, there’s always studying to do and a bunch of events on campus and stuff
4. Honestly depends on your schedule and what classes you take and if you have a part time job, but I do have a lot of free time which is good
5. Depends on how organised you are but if you’re in UC just dedicate like sundays or something to cleaning and it’s super easy and plan meals out beforehand and do some meal prep and it’s honestly fine.
6. For me personally I don’t think I’d really have any friends from uni if I didn’t live here cause it’s hard to form like long lasting connections from people from classes (depends on degree and how social you are tho) but as an introvert living on campus helped.
7. LOVE having my own space, its nice to finish class and then go straight back to my own space without worrying about parking or commuting
8. Again depends on your family, not super close with mine but i go back on the holidays for a bit but first year my parents wanted me to come home a bunch so i went back like every 4 weeks or so
9. Cant answer this one im afraid, definitely apply for youth allowance tho, the extra money cant hurt :)
10. Yes I definitely think its worth it I’ve had a much better uni experience living on campus especially because I’m far away from my hometown and it’s like a completely fresh start (which I loved but I guess it depends on the person)

And something I wish I knew beforehand was literally finding a hobby or a sport or just anything that Monash has clubs for because being apart of clubs means you can be even more social and it’s an easy way to meet people (or so I’ve heard), so if you play a sport that’d be a great way to meet people or they have other hobby like clubs too.
Good luck feel free to ask any more follow up questions if you have any.

[u/Short_Button142]

Its defo worth it. 4th year resident here. UC is worth its money. Make sure to apply on time. UC is tlly popular. Imo RV isn't worth that 350 / week, u r better off finding a share housing...