The Student Room Group
School of Oriental and African Studies
London

Looking for accommodation

So - WHERE ARE YOU SOAS STUDENTS LIVING?!!

Ive just firmed SOAS and they sent me the email about accomodation etc.
I've checked out Dinwiddy and for something like over £100 a week....well i just didn't think it was up to any standard where you're paying £400/pm for a pretty bad room and kitchen. (Guys who are at dinwiddy - have you not cleaned the kitchen, like ever?!) Haha, no hard feelings. But I haven't seen any threads about accomm. and I thought it'd be something a lot of prospective undergrads. would be looking into.

My questions are, where is a good place to live?

-I have looked through all the places suggested and my favourite atm is Elizabeth croll house but it's £250p/w and I'm not sure if an average student grant would cover that. Furthermore, say I went for the student college houses like international hall, is their self-catering good? (I've heard some bad things, and i think cooking for yourself is a lot easier and more independent). Plus, I don't know how far, or which student halls are nearest to SOAS, incase any of you guys can recommend ones?

How much should a good, decent room be?

-On average they seem to be over £200p/w. Is this normal? (I'm not from London)

Should I should look for a flat share and not live in a hall?

That's all atm, i'd be happy if any of those are answered by current SOAS students or prospective students.

I'll post more questions if the thread gets busier. Any help is useful, thanks!
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 1
Are there....like, any prospective/existing students? xD
School of Oriental and African Studies
London
Reply 2
I'm not an SOAS student but I do go to uni and live in London so hopefully I'll be of some help :smile:

Is the Dwindiddy accommodation in Central London? If so, £100 a week is pretty good, it's unlikely you'd find anything in Central London for £100 a week. I paid £93 a week in halls for my first year and that was for a small shared-facilities room, and that was pretty far out from Central London. If you decide to go private then £200 a week in Central London is pretty normal, however, an option worth considering is getting somewhere further out, which will be cheaper, you'd have to pay transport costs.
Reply 3
Yeah, I was expecting something like that. Yep, Dwindiddy is around £130p/w and it's about 20 minutes from Russell Square so it's fairly decent in terms of price and what you get for it. :smile: Thanks, I think I will just go for that.
Reply 4
Original post by Tehrane
So - WHERE ARE YOU SOAS STUDENTS LIVING?!!

Ive just firmed SOAS and they sent me the email about accomodation etc.
I've checked out Dwindiddy and for something like over £100 a week....well i just didn't think it was up to any standard where you're paying £400/pm for a pretty bad room and kitchen. (Guys who are at dwindiddy - have you not cleaned the kitchen, like ever?!) Haha, no hard feelings. But I haven't seen any threads about accomm. and I thought it'd be something a lot of prospective undergrads. would be looking into.

My questions are, where is a good place to live?

-I have looked through all the places suggested and my favourite atm is Elizabeth croll house but it's £250p/w and I'm not sure if an average student grant would cover that. Furthermore, say I went for the student college houses like international hall, is their self-catering good? (I've heard some bad things, and i think cooking for yourself is a lot easier and more independent). Plus, I don't know how far, or which student halls are nearest to SOAS, incase any of you guys can recommend ones?

How much should a good, decent room be?

-On average they seem to be over £200p/w. Is this normal? (I'm not from London)

Should I should look for a flat share and not live in a hall?

That's all atm, i'd be happy if any of those are answered by current SOAS students or prospective students.

I'll post more questions if the thread gets busier. Any help is useful, thanks!

Ok, I also firmed SOAS, but haven't got any mail yet :tongue: How long did they take to respond?

Secondly, thanks for the thread, there are hardly any threads about SOAS :s . I, for one, was looking for one.

Lastly, I haven't really had a look at the accommodation they offer. So I can't really give any suggestion. :smile:
Reply 5
No worres aysha. They replied a couple of weeks after I firmed.
They send an email which links you to their landlord people and they have information about every possibe accommodation you can have. You get a reference number and an accommodation reference number which are used when you apply.

Basically, it just takes time to look through all the halls and see what it is you want. I personally am now going to go for Dinwiddy because it is the cheapest, but not the nicest. But you have to consider you will be there for a year and it's up to you to make your room nice - at least you have more money for social activies or making life a bit easier than working to pay your rent.
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by Tehrane
So - WHERE ARE YOU SOAS STUDENTS LIVING?!!

Ive just firmed SOAS and they sent me the email about accomodation etc.
I've checked out Dinwiddy and for something like over £100 a week....well i just didn't think it was up to any standard where you're paying £400/pm for a pretty bad room and kitchen. (Guys who are at dinwiddy - have you not cleaned the kitchen, like ever?!) Haha, no hard feelings. But I haven't seen any threads about accomm. and I thought it'd be something a lot of prospective undergrads. would be looking into.

My questions are, where is a good place to live?

-I have looked through all the places suggested and my favourite atm is Elizabeth croll house but it's £250p/w and I'm not sure if an average student grant would cover that. Furthermore, say I went for the student college houses like international hall, is their self-catering good? (I've heard some bad things, and i think cooking for yourself is a lot easier and more independent). Plus, I don't know how far, or which student halls are nearest to SOAS, incase any of you guys can recommend ones?

How much should a good, decent room be?

-On average they seem to be over £200p/w. Is this normal? (I'm not from London)

Should I should look for a flat share and not live in a hall?

That's all atm, i'd be happy if any of those are answered by current SOAS students or prospective students.

I'll post more questions if the thread gets busier. Any help is useful, thanks!



It is expensive. But that is because you are getting a room in the most expensive place of the most expensive city of the country.

My advice: Get a flatshare in zone 2 or 3. It should be around 120 per week. Then get a 18+ Oyster and use the Tube. In less than 30 minutes it will get you into SOAS.
Original post by JKGB
I'm not an SOAS student but I do go to uni and live in London so hopefully I'll be of some help :smile:

Is the Dwindiddy accommodation in Central London? If so, £100 a week is pretty good, it's unlikely you'd find anything in Central London for £100 a week. I paid £93 a week in halls for my first year and that was for a small shared-facilities room, and that was pretty far out from Central London. If you decide to go private then £200 a week in Central London is pretty normal, however, an option worth considering is getting somewhere further out, which will be cheaper, you'd have to pay transport costs.


Did you into a flatshare with your mates from halls after your first year? :smile:
Reply 8
Original post by SoulfulBoy
Did you into a flatshare with your mates from halls after your first year? :smile:


I'm currently in a flatshare with someone on my course and another person he knows from halls.
Reply 9
Original post by Tehrane
No worres aysha. They replied a couple of weeks after I firmed.
They send an email which links you to their landlord people and they have information about every possibe accommodation you can have. You get a reference number and an accommodation reference number which are used when you apply.

Basically, it just takes time to look through all the halls and see what it is you want. I personally am now going to go for Dinwiddy because it is the cheapest, but not the nicest. But you have to consider you will be there for a year and it's up to you to make your room nice - at least you have more money for social activies or making life a bit easier than working to pay your rent.


I see. I'd check out that particular accommodation too. :smile:
Reply 10
I've just submitted my application to Dinwiddy, I was expecting to have to fill out some kind of suitability questionairre, but insted just tapped in some details. Is the selection criteria random?

Also a bit of a bummer that we don't find out if we've got a place until July (certainly in terms of preparing alternatives!).
Reply 11
Original post by Paul92
I've just submitted my application to Dinwiddy, I was expecting to have to fill out some kind of suitability questionairre, but insted just tapped in some details. Is the selection criteria random?

Also a bit of a bummer that we don't find out if we've got a place until July (certainly in terms of preparing alternatives!).


Yeah, i was expecting that too, but i think its random. Perhaps, we would be asked to give details once an offer has been made.

Original post by Tehrane
No worres aysha. They replied a couple of weeks after I firmed.
They send an email which links you to their landlord people and they have information about every possibe accommodation you can have. You get a reference number and an accommodation reference number which are used when you apply.

Basically, it just takes time to look through all the halls and see what it is you want. I personally am now going to go for Dinwiddy because it is the cheapest, but not the nicest. But you have to consider you will be there for a year and it's up to you to make your room nice - at least you have more money for social activies or making life a bit easier than working to pay your rent.


Dinwiddy is the only accommodation available :confused: . Then there are halls, btw whats your second choice?
Reply 12
Hi i have an unconditional offer from SOAS, and have been looking into accommodation i was wondering what people thought of the UNITE accommodation, and weather or not SOAS students actually go and live in them ?, as i live in london i doubt i will get a place at dinwiddy, is there any other accommodation you recommend
Reply 13
Hey hey,

I also have an unconditionnal offer at SOAS for this fall.. Have you found anything yet ?
Reply 14
From my experience if you live in London you stand no chance of campus accommodation.

Saying that, there are private halls of residents, they are expensive thought you are look at 180 minimum a week and most are already full for september 2012.

The other option is a house share, and most SOAS student move to Mornington Cresetent / Camden area. A house share there, we are looking at around 130 - 160 a week which i think is much more reasonable.

If you have anymore questions please ask :smile:

I am trying to organize a house share around Camden area if anyone is interested message me :smile:
Reply 15
Hiya i'm a post grad with an offer from Paul Robeson. I have made a new thread but I though maybe this might get more response...worth a shot. Is Paul Robeson worth it? I think £140 p/w inc. bills is fairly okay....it's just having to pay a £400 booking fee upfront that really bothers me...I know I get it back at the end of the year but it's a bit cheeky of them! As long as it's clean and not too noisy (i want to be sociable, but it is my masters so i'll need to get work done too!) then i'm not too bothered about whether it's small or whatever. In my first year as an undergrad (at Warwick) I shared 3 showers and one kitchen with 25 people so I doubt it can be any worse than that!
Reply 16
Original post by kyesan
From my experience if you live in London you stand no chance of campus accommodation.

Saying that, there are private halls of residents, they are expensive thought you are look at 180 minimum a week and most are already full for september 2012.

The other option is a house share, and most SOAS student move to Mornington Cresetent / Camden area. A house share there, we are looking at around 130 - 160 a week which i think is much more reasonable.

If you have anymore questions please ask :smile:

I am trying to organize a house share around Camden area if anyone is interested message me :smile:


I would be interested in a house share if I didn't go for Paul Robeson..!
Hi all, I have a conditional offer but got rejected from the first round of offers for Paul Robeson :frown: I'm really scared that I won't have anywhere to live if they don't accept me in the second round of offers.. Help?
Reply 18
Original post by lettucesoap
Hi all, I have a conditional offer but got rejected from the first round of offers for Paul Robeson :frown: I'm really scared that I won't have anywhere to live if they don't accept me in the second round of offers.. Help?


I got rejected from the first round of Dinwiddy and I'm hoping to be successful during the second round. If i don't get in then, there's still just over a month before my course starts, which in my opinion is plenty of time to find an alternative.

Just make sure that you have enough money to cover whatever deposits, rent you need to pay up front because you don't want to be trying sort that out when it comes to a week before moving. :smile:
Reply 19
Hey guys, also gonna be starting a masters at SOAS this year, looking for a flatshare - message me if you have any info :smile: x

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