Constable Terrace, Colman House & the whole accommodation drama

I got my unconditional offer early and decided to press on with getting accommodation sorted - trouble was I had no idea about any of the buildings I was signing up for - on the tour we only looked around Nelson court. As the tour only really took in one side of the Campus we didn't even set eyes on Colman house and the new buildings. The best residence I saw (from the outside) was Constable Terrace. As a result I phoned up and was told I had been put in Colman house, I asked if they had anything in Constable Terrace and the accommodations officionado said the computer was running the show and he couldnt change the allocation. So I spent that evening looking on this website and a few others trying to find more info on colman house, my alleged new home. I then discovered a few posts that told me more than the 3 lines of info you get on the UEA website about Colman and included photos of the bathroom, hall, etc,etc an and it looked bloody good for student accommodation - lifts could come in very handy I thought. So I went to bed with the feeling I'd landed on my feet. Then this morning I had an e-mail from the accomm department saying they'd switched me to Constable Terrace. Now I'll look an absolute arse If I say I want Colman after all.
I can't help but feeling that all this needless bloody drama could have been avioded if they had just included more information and more images or even a virtual tour of the accommodation - after all we are signing up for something that costs £80 a week that we have to sleep, shower and whatever else in for a year with only a single aspect photo and three lines information - one line of it relevent - to base our decision on. I can't blame the guys at accommodation for basicly giving me what I asked for but I don't feel I had enough info to go by and make such a big decision. What does everyone else think?

Reply 1

nim99

well to be fair, although you said you barely saw any accomodation when they guided you round,you could have just gone down there again.i did and they were very welcoming and enthusiastic to show me round - theyve got organised tours the whole time.i suppose they can't write a small thesis on each area of the campus as some houses are blatantly more attractive than others - it would lead to an imbalance in people wanting to go one place and not the other.

out of interest what's wrong with nelson court...why does no one like nelson court..i applied there!

Reply 2

Raul777

Well firstly I live three hours away, secondly it states on the website, and if you phone up that you cannot have tours of the accommodation, but as UEA is an open Campus you may come and look round the outside of the building but not inside. So my conclusion was I did not want to drive for three hours to look at a building and try to make a decision on the interior based on the facade. If you got to look round consider yourself lucky. I don't think theres anything really wrong with Nelson court, Its the only building I actually got to tour - I felt it was ok but not as good as some of the other en-suite accommodation available. It was my third choice - But as you said you toured all the potential properties why did you choose Nelson above all others out of interest?

Reply 3

Chicken

I lived in Nelson Court in my first year - Nelson Court and Constable Terrace are both exactly the same on the inside with regards to layout and furnishing - its just the buildings that are different. I loved my room in Nelson Court, they're much bigger than the Colman rooms (mainly because of the way its laid out), you have a much bigger pinboard on the wall and in Nelson/Constable they don't care if you stick posters to the wall, but you can't in Colman (as its newer). I know Colman may look nicer, its only because its 6 years newer than Nelson/Constable, and I still think those are pretty decent rooms for student accomodation!

Reply 4

neversaygoodbye

I lived in Nelson 2 yrs n i got some frds living in Constable.In my opinion,Nelson is more convenient and better than Constable.Althugh the room size in Constable seems bigger than Nelson.but I still got two reason.One is because it is convenient to go to your department(teaching) building,especially in Arts building.Two is if you living in Constable,it is so far away to go to do the lugguge.If you prefer to live in a bigger size room,or u can thinking to live in Pare Unit which share with one ppl.The price is cheaper than Nelson n Constable,but the room size is bigger than both of them.It is also en-suit,the difference is share the WC n kitchen with ur roomate.