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Merton College, Oxford
From The Student RoomTSR Wiki > University > Choosing a University > University Guides > Oxford > Merton College, Oxford
LocationMerton College is situated just off the High Street, spanning most of the south side of Merton Street. The college backs onto Dead Man's Walk (along the North side of Christ Church Meadows), and has a back gate on Rose Lane. AccommodationAccommodation is one of Merton's strongest selling points. College heavily subsidises the cost of accommodation, meaning we have some of the lowest rents in the University, roughly £800 / term. All First years are housed on the main college site, either in Rose Lane, or in Merton Street. Rooms are randomly allocated. Second year is in Holywell as decided by a ballot which just happened this last weekend for us (87/89 for me ). You can choose to go in a group or as an individual with most opting for a group of varying sizes. For 3rd year the ballot is reversed so if you come bottom second year (like me) you should hopefully get a palace in the third year in college to make up for it, though you can choose to stay in Holywell. As to the actual second year rooms I think they are relatively standard although they do have a fair variety. The major thing appears to be that two of the houses do not have kitchens and so if your unlucky you end up in one of those houses. Graduate housing is also in Holywell Street but unlike 2nd year undergrads who live in tiny shoeboxes in run-down, crooked buildings most graduates are put up in a recently purpose built (1995) accomodation block. Most rooms are quite large, all are en-suite and quite a lot are sets. Less lucky graduates live in houses on Manor Road 2 minutes walk from Holywell (next to the Social Sciences building) where accomodation is still of a high standard but rooms are somewhat smaller and it is quite easy to feel excluded from the goings on at Holywell. All first years are guaranteed accomodation in either Holywell or Manor Road (80:20 split I'd say). In subsequent years graduates needing housing enter a room ballot where lower years get priority over higher years. The way it generally pans out is that all second year graduates who desire accommodation receive it along with a good handful of third-years. The prospects for higher years are usually bleak though by that stage several graduates have chosen to live out anyway. Social SpacesLibrary and ComputingNo drinks in the library and computer rooms, not even water - though many of the librarians will let you have water with one of those sports bottle top things - it's just subject to who's on the desk. WelfareAtmosphereFacilitiesFor a relatively small college the music society is very good. We have a college orchestra open to everyone that rehearses each Saturday, a non-auditioning choir, I think also an auditioning choir, and then there are opportunities to set up other groups if you want to. The music society gets money from the JCR each term which pays for hiring music and buying food for rehearsals etc. We have a concert each term where orchestra, choir, and a few individuals perform things, and we also have smaller weekly recitals where you can play anything. The disadvantage of being a small college is that our orchestra is quite small, and this year we possibly have more flutes than strings. But we get some people from other colleges too, and we always manage to persuade enough people to play in the concert. In some ways it's really beneficial, because it means everything's quite informal and it's very easy to get involved. University wide there are a lot of orchestras and groups. There are auditions at the start of Michaelmas for the university orchestras which are quite competitive, generally post-grade 8. You do one audition in front of a panel and get assessed for all the orchestras at once. You can usually play in any college orchestra, especially if your instrument is in demand. Student-eye view | 
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