University of Leeds Accomodation 2011

Sorry for a stupid question, but how do you decide who gets their first choice? Is it simply randomly picking people or do you base it around their preferences?

Not a stupid question at all. Basically, we assign 8 attributes to every room; 4 mandatory and 4 discretionary. Of all the people who have picked a particular residence, the computer system then tries to find the best match for those attributes. We will reassess the attributes throughout the allocation process to make sure we've got it right (so, for example, if we find that we have lots of space still at Lupton but there are still people who want Lupton and we see that they all want single sex, we would reassign a flat to be single sex)
Hope that makes sense - it is quite complicated.

Last year, the places that had more people applying than there were places available were, in order:
North Hill Court (mainly because it's only small)
Henry Price
James Baillie Park
Devonshire
Ellerslie
Opal 3
Leodis

The places that had more places available than people applying were, in order (the residence with the most places compared to the people first):
The Tannery
Small Residences
Bod self-catered
Lupton
Bod catered

Everywhere else had more or less the right number of people applying.

BUT, that can change from year to year (applications received so far this year suggest that James Baillie is the most popular) and also there may be quirks that mean that someone doesn't get their preferred place even if it's a "break even" place (for example, if loads more girls than boys applied to a particular residence, we probably wouldn't put them all there because we would want to try and keep the residence balanced in line with the gender mix of students at the uni)

Probably too long a response - sorry

Not a stupid question at all. Basically, we assign 8 attributes to every room; 4 mandatory and 4 discretionary. Of all the people who have picked a particular residence, the computer system then tries to find the best match for those attributes. We will reassess the attributes throughout the allocation process to make sure we've got it right (so, for example, if we find that we have lots of space still at Lupton but there are still people who want Lupton and we see that they all want single sex, we would reassign a flat to be single sex)
Hope that makes sense - it is quite complicated.

Does the time of application matter? (If done by the end of April) and what are the chances of getting into Leodis?

Mee! It looks awesome

Every application that we get before July 1 stands an equal chance of getting their preference.
Leodis is one of the oversubscribed ones but not as oversubscribed as e.g. Henry Price. So your chances are reasonable but there will definitely be some people who want Leodis who can't get it.

How about Clarence dock?

i agree! and the prices seem reasonable. I'm going to have a look at it on the accomodation viewing day. you looking forward to starting?

Clarence is more a "break-even" - pretty much everyone who put that down as their preference last year got it. Of course, we don't know what numbers will be like this year and also, there is always going to be a small number of people with specific requirements who we can't fit in there.

X

You going to the accommodation open day dmz?

are you? What accommodation are you looking at?

Yeah, it should be a good day out

I'm taking a look at Clearance Dock/Lupton/Oxley/Devonshire.

You?

I'm slightly worried about the people I'll end up with (sociable or not and gender) cos i realised my course is going to have quite a lot of male! lol.
I'm looking at leodis, Clarence dock, James bailie, Maybe devonshire.

Why? Erm don't take this the wrong way but are you a girl/boy??

Clarence Dock is my first choice so I'm hoping the accommodation day will just confirm that, do you have to travel far? It's a 5 hour trip for me -_-

It's still both undergrad and postgrad and will be a mix of people from the different institutions. We only had a 2 year deal with them and that's now ended - nothing dodgy about it.
You can book with them direct - the only thing I would say is that, particularly if you only have a conditional offer, make sure you check the cancellation conditions. The new Leeds arena is being built next door but Opal assured us that the noise wouldn't be a problem.

That's pretty much how I felt! I feel like Leeds is a suitable distance from home (2 hours enough so the parents won't want to visit often ) the new facilities such as the gym and pool are fantastic as well as the amazing student union. Plus, the guys who gave the lecture on my course seemed so enthusiastic about it and were amazingly funny, unlike the complete sleep-inducers at other universities

Anyone definitely going to the open day?