Uni Of Leicester Accomodation

I have been asking a lot of questions about Leicester as I want to know if I'm making the right decision by going there!

All but one of my queries have been answered so here it is:

Which is the best hall to live at ? & Is it better to get self-catered or catered accommodation ?

Info about my preferences:

- Closer to the uni the better
- I tend to mess around a lot so the smaller the room the worse it is
- A place where people are sociable but not TOO sociable
- Ensuit room, don't like sharing bathrooms with a floor.

I may sound like a **** for being too picky and demanding but I'm going to live there for 3 years so the more comfortable I feel the better

Thanks !

It's difficult to answer which halls are the best because you only stay in 1 set of halls in your 1st year and then (usually) move into a house in your 2nd year. For your preferences, the closest halls to the university, I believe, is Mary Gee. It's about a 15-20 minute walk to campus. Having said that, from the outside it doesn't look nice at all - that's just my opinion, though. I also heard it's very sociable. Nixon and Opal Court are about 5 mins from campus but they usually accommodate mature/international/postgrad students.

John Foster, where I live, is great. It's the newest site so the rooms are of a pretty high standard and quite big. You have a big desk and lots of floor space. Most/all of it (I can't remember which) is ensuite so I wouldn't worry about sharing bathrooms. It's also quite sociable, but not too sociable. Because it's laid out in blocks (almost like mini tower blocks), you tend to mostly see the people living in the same block as you. Your best mates will be your flatmates and you'll mainly meet other people in the dining hall (if you're catered). Still, everyone invites other people from the other blocks to theirs to just chill, pre-drinks etc. so, in a sense, you can make it as sociable as you want.

Self-catered or catered is entirely up to you. I'm catered so I don't know much about self-catered but if you live in Oadby (John Foster, Beaumont, GMS, Digby), you're about a 10-15 minute walk away from a huge Asda that's open 24/7 which is pretty handy. It's also cheaper than catered accommodation but these costs will be offset buy the food you buy. For catered, you're only provided breakfast and dinner (no lunch) on weekdays and brunch and dinners on weekends. The food's a bit hit and miss - some days it's good and others it's not good. Occasionally, it tastes ****. Breakfast is good though - fry-up everyday, choice of fruit, cereals, yogurts and toast. The menu's on a 3-week rotation which is quite good because there's variety. For me, I chose to get catered accommodation purely because I couldn't be bothered to cook myself 3 meals a day. I don't regret paying for catered accommodation even now - plus I know I'm getting at least 2 'proper' meals a day. If I was in self-catered, I wouldn't bother as much. Hope that helped

Thanks for this! Yeah, I will most likely stick to self catered as I'm not sure how big the meals, at college you only get a small meal e.g. Slice of pizza and beans. + once I go to the gym I like coming home and eating a protein rich meal, so if they don't have that it'll be useless.

I read that John Fosters is pretty "boring", apparently barely anyone speaks to anyone and the JOFO bar is always empty? Is this true?
+ Would you recommend Beaumont>JOFO ? Does Beaumont even look nice? or do most people pick it because its cheap?

Meal portions are decent. You can usually always go up for second and third portions.

Umm... I wouldn't say that's true. The layout of John Foster means it isn't as sociable as, say, Beaumont but you still make friends easily. Me and my flatmates know each other well and we know the opposite flat pretty well, too. Same with the flats above us. You do tend to stick with the people in your flat but I know plenty of people in the other blocks who we chill with, as do my flatmates. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Beaumont looks nice on the outside but I just went on Leicester's website and judging by those pics, JoFo is definitely nicer inside lol. Here's the link if you haven't seen it: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/accommodation/student-accommodation/oadby-student-village/beaumont-and-digby-hall-1/images

Most of the Beaumont blocks are catered. It looks really nice on the outside but is pretty average inside. I chose it mainly for the social side, I wanted to be living with a lot of people in a block, so the flat layout with small number of people in jofo/digby didnt appeal to me.

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Thanks for the help, + so with catered accomodation you can pick up food when ever you want ? As in if u have a late class can u get good after if u haven't eaten already ?

Also why is catered only 30 weeks and self catered 39 ?

I read that John Fosters is pretty "boring", apparently barely anyone speaks to anyone and the JOFO bar is always empty? Is this true?

Also why is catered only 30 weeks and self catered 39 ?

Oh no I mean they serve breakfast and dinner at certain times but, say for dinner you get some food and finish your meal and you can go back up to the servery and get more. Breakfast is 7.30 - 9am and dinner is 5.30 - 7pm on weekdays. Brunch is 12 - 1pm and dinner 5.30 - 6.30 on weekends.

The timings are a bit awkward though. It would've been better if they kept breakfast open till 10am because even if you have no lectures in the morning you still have to be up to get it.

Regarding the length of the contract, I'm not entirely sure why they do that. It's annoying if you're catered. If you're catered (and therefore on a 30 week contract) you have to move all of your stuff out of your room and leave it in the condition it was in when you arrived during the holidays and you also can't stay in your halls during holiday periods. When you return you move everything back in just as you would when you started university. 39 week contract means you only have to move your stuff out at the end of the academic year - during X-mas and Easter breaks you can leave it. You can also stay in your halls during these time periods too. If you're catered, you can always leave some of your stuff with a mate if they're in self-catered accommodation over the holidays and pick it up when you're back. The reason for the 30 week contract is apparently because they need places for people to stay 'during conferences' - I doubt it, but whatever.

Here's some more info: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/accommodation/downloads/Residences%20Living%20Guide%202012.pdf

I believe the catered facilities are hired out to corporate clients over the holiday periods, pretty sure John Foster is as something of a flagship facility, you therefore have to move out over Christmas and Easter. Hence the shorter contract length.

The John Foster bar is a bit dead but the "JoFo is boring" tag seems to be a stereotype given by non-JoFo residents. I don't know anyone who went there who didn't enjoy it. The flats hang out together with other flats in the same block, so unless you're really unlucky you will have plenty of potential mates. Just make sure that you bring a door stop.

That sucks, why would anyone get catered accommodation? Why would anyone want to spend time packing their stuff then putting it back every term

People make it sound like a big task to do each term but it really isn't mate. You will know people in self catered halls who will let you put loads of stuff in their rooms. Packing back up 1/2 hours, isn't really that much hassle.

Catered is just simple, especially when you work to do or revising for exams. No time wasted cooking food, just turn up at the dinner halls and get food with your mates.

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I have been asking a lot of questions about Leicester as I want to know if I'm making the right decision by going there!

All but one of my queries have been answered so here it is:

Which is the best hall to live at ? & Is it better to get self-catered or catered accommodation ?

Info about my preferences:

- Closer to the uni the better
- I tend to mess around a lot so the smaller the room the worse it is
- A place where people are sociable but not TOO sociable
- Ensuit room, don't like sharing bathrooms with a floor.

I may sound like a **** for being too picky and demanding but I'm going to live there for 3 years so the more comfortable I feel the better

Thanks !