Ultimate St Andrews Accommodation Thread

OP

Mini Guides to Residences

Agnes Blackadder Hall (previously New Hall)

Albany Park

Andrew Melville Hall

David Russell Appartments

Fife Park

Fife Park Appartments

John Burnet Hall

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 2

OP

Mini Guides to Residences (cont.)

McIntosh

St Regulus

St Salvators

University Hall

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3

do5

John Burnet Hall

John Burnet is divided into two parts, main hall and annex. This guide will cover both.
ROOMS
In the main hall, it is quite typical for first years and JYA/JSAs to share a room and all bathrooms are shared. The main building is divided into a male wing and a girls wing. The girls wing is made up of two attached buildings, Kilmalie and Fairways.
Because the main hall is a marriage of different buildings of different eras and styles, each room is unique in shape and size. Quality of room really is hit and miss, my room was particularly big with full bay windows an excellent view of the golf course and beach [photos available if requested], whilst others are a touch more cramped with little more to look at than the car park.

The annex meanwhile is somewhat different. Each room is the exact same size and dimension as those nearby and being purpose built for students, are rather small in comparison to the main hall. The building has two floors and windows will either face the car park or front lawn.

Each student regardless of building has their own bed, bedside table, desk, desk chair, wardrobe, a few book shelves, desk lamp and phone. Wired internet access is in each room, and wi-fi is available in front hall and the library.

FACILITIES
In main hall each room comes with a washbasin and mirror while toilets and showers are shared. Sharing facilities isn’t really much of a problem, they’re cleaned every day and there are usually 3 to a shower, I’ve never had to wait to use one. In addition, there are number of pantries scattered around the building complete with toasters, fridges, microwaves and kettles. There are only 2 cookers across the entire building, which I have to say is pretty poor, although management tells me that this will be improved next year.

The annex meanwhile is en-suite and 8 cookers across ~50 people with much nicer kitchens and dining facilities. Kitchens come equipped with toasters, ovens, microwaves, kettles, fridge, freezer and lockers for keeping food “safe”. In each kitchen there is also a rather standard dining table and chairs.

LOCATION
The hall is probably the best located (closely contested with McIntosh) in town, equidistant between the town and science faculties it should please most. We are just around the corner from North Haugh (second home to science students), so the walk will take just over 5 minutes to both departments. Meanwhile a trip to Tescos in the centre of town is around 10 minutes. The arts buildings on the other side of town are slightly further taking around 15 minutes. The sports centre is probably the furthest walk I make and that’s the same with 15 minutes in the other direction, to anyone unhappy with the trek, I am amused with the irony of being too lazy to walk to the gym.

FOOD
Writing a review of this year’s food would be quite futile because in September a new catering company will be doing an overhaul of the menu, so pretty much everything will change. I will update this in October once I get a feel for the new system.

It is impossible to finish the food section without first mentioning Donald:
Donald the head chef is something of a legend in John Burnet, according to rumour, he started here when he was 16 and 30 years later, is still here providing some great chat. The man is always in the know of any gossip that happens to be floating around hall and nothing (nothing!) slips past him.

ATMOSPHERE
With only 150 students, our hall is the smallest in the university, and we find that this makes us a close-knit bunch. Front hall is often the site of drinking and socialising regardless of the day of the week. I would say that almost everyone in hall knows each other by name bar a few who never leave their room or come to meals and because of that everyone becomes friends faster. Gossip spreads fast, and those who make particular buffoons of themselves on the weekend are publically congratulated at dinner every Monday

West Lounge is home to some kind of event, whether its a film night, party or simply a beer pong tourney nearly every week. Your committee will be making huge moves to cater for your needs, so if you have any ideas for events, get in touch.

Our hall is very serious about its many traditions, and we feel it is this aspect that makes John Burnet unique. There are too many to list now, but if you’re interested, here is our traditions website.

MISC

Our Library is quite nice for its size, desk space for about 25 people and 6 desktop computers is usually more than enough, except perhaps for a Sunday evening when essays are due in the next morning. A printer is available as well as access to our rather modest collection of books across various faculties.
To anyone interested, a locked bike shed is provided and the key to this can be obtained from the manager’s office when you arrive.

I feel like this is everything, but for more information see our facebook and website.
If you'd like to ask any questions post here or more confidentially, you can private message me.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 4

Renting Privately.
I basically don't have that much knowledge of renting privately because I managed to get my flat quite easily but I will say what I know.
Renting privately can turn out more expensive or cheaper than halls, depending on where you look. The centre of town is around £500 per person per month excluding bills (although there will be the odd cheap place in the centre.) The further out you go, the cheaper it gets but you'll struggle to find much below £250 per person per month. Choose a realistic budget. Remember you still have to pay bills on top of your rent in most cases. Being out in the badlands is not the end of the world. St Andrews is a small place and even being on the outskirts of town is still only about 25 minutes from town!

Getting a house/flat in St Andrews is difficult and you need to be prepared. There are various estate agents around town. The most popular are Premier Lets, Eve Brown, MDDC, Bradune and Co, Pagan Osbourne and Inchdairnie but there are others. You need to check their websites/go in and ask around January time and make a list of when their lists of properties are coming out. You need to be prepared. Get up early on the day the list is released and go queue. You'll need references (a character reference and one from halls. You'll need to sign up to a list to get this from the warden and it might take a while to complete so get it organised early) and sometimes a few other things (check with the estate agents before the list is released). Once you get the list, go and see the flat and apply straight away.

After that, you may be interviewed. They'll ask things like how you met your flatmates and what your hobbies are etc. Be prepared as you want to give a good impression because it is very competitive. After that you'll either get rejected or accepted. Apply to as many flats as you can and a wide range of them. Not just the cheap ones in the town centre because they are the most competitive. Go a little bit further out just so you don't end up having nothing.

A few other ways to get a flat is to make friends with 4th years who are leaving or anyone else who is moving out as they can then tell their landlord about you and you'll get a flat.
Or try uni managed accomodation. Though please be aware that these houses are really really competitive and are choosen by random ballot so it is purely down to luck. and you can't apply back to halls if you apply to one of these. Applying back to halls is a good idea just incase you don't get a flat. You can always turn down the offer.

This guide has some really great advice in regards to private accomodation. Please read it!
http://www.yourunion.net/studentvoice/content/7757/accommodation/how_to_rent_201011/

Reply 5

OP

Original post by Oh-WOW

Renting Privately.
I basically don't have that much knowledge of renting privately because I managed to get my flat quite easily but I will say what I know.
Renting privately can turn out more expensive or cheaper than halls, depending on where you look. The centre of town is around £500 per person per month excluding bills (although there will be the odd cheap place in the centre.) The further out you go, the cheaper it gets but you'll struggle to find much below £250 per person per month. Choose a realistic budget. Remember you still have to pay bills on top of your rent in most cases. Being out in the badlands is not the end of the world. St Andrews is a small place and even being on the outskirts of town is still only about 25 minutes from town!

Getting a house/flat in St Andrews is difficult and you need to be prepared. There are various estate agents around town. The most popular are Premier Lets, Eve Brown, MDDC, Bradune and Co, Pagan Osbourne and Inchdairnie but there are others. You need to check their websites/go in and ask around January time and make a list of when their lists of properties are coming out. You need to be prepared. Get up early on the day the list is released and go queue. You'll need references (a character reference and one from halls. You'll need to sign up to a list to get this from the warden and it might take a while to complete so get it organised early) and sometimes a few other things (check with the estate agents before the list is released). Once you get the list, go and see the flat and apply straight away.

After that, you may be interviewed. They'll ask things like how you met your flatmates and what your hobbies are etc. Be prepared as you want to give a good impression because it is very competitive. After that you'll either get rejected or accepted. Apply to as many flats as you can and a wide range of them. Not just the cheap ones in the town centre because they are the most competitive. Go a little bit further out just so you don't end up having nothing.

A few other ways to get a flat is to make friends with 4th years who are leaving or anyone else who is moving out as they can then tell their landlord about you and you'll get a flat.
Or try uni managed accomodation. Though please be aware that these houses are really really competitive and are choosen by random ballot so it is purely down to luck. and you can't apply back to halls if you apply to one of these. Applying back to halls is a good idea just incase you don't get a flat. You can always turn down the offer.

This guide has some really great advice in regards to private accomodation. Please read it!
http://www.yourunion.net/studentvoice/content/7757/accommodation/how_to_rent_201011/

Perfect, thank you :smile:

Added to the opening post.

Reply 6

Now for my Uni hall guide.
Uni hall is a lovely place to live and I loved my year there.
It's a bit further out of town than the other 'old' halls but it's right beside the North Haugh so great for science students and it's really not that bad for arts students! I managed for a whole year. It's about 10-15 minutes walk to town.

Edit: One thing that Uni Hall is in a great place for is the sports centre. It's literally right beside it. Which is handy for sporty types and non sporty types as lots of exams are held there.
We also have tennis courts etc in the uni hall garden which uni hallers can use :smile:

Uni hall has a lovely atmosphere. There are about 300 people so it's small enough to get to know most people and for everyone to be quite close but not too small. You get to meet people from all over the world studing all sorts of things. This year there were about 80 returners, I think so there is a nice mix of freshers and returners.

The hall is set out into three parts.
Lumsden, which is the newest part, has 4 floors. A,B,C and D. A is mixed, B is boys, C is girls, D is mixed. Each floor has a kitchen, a utility room, 8 bathrooms and 40-45 rooms arranged in a T shape. The rooms are all pretty much identical and are almost all single rooms (there are one or two shared ensuite rooms on each floor). The rooms are a decent size. I had 2 people sleep comfortably on my floor and you could probaly get three at a push. The rooms have like a little porch area with coat hooks and were your bins are (this is hard to describe), a wardrobe and shelves, a desk, a noticeboard, a sink, towel rail above your radiator, bed (which is kind of built into a little alcove in the wall, again hard to describe), bookcase, two little sets of drawers and a lamp. There is loads of storage room. I had alot of stuff in my little room. Although they aren't the prettiest of rooms, it's nice to have a modern radiator that works (the rooms are quite warm, which was great during the snow) and windows that are easy to open. My friend in an older room had to stand on a chest of drawers to open her windows. The bathrooms are really nice. They are like little individual rooms with a shower, toilet and sink. The showers are really nice, warm and powerful. There are also a few toilet and shower cubicles at both ends of the T. The kitchens are quite modern with 2 fridge freezers, 2 ovens, 2 kettles, a toaster, 2 microwaves and a sink. Theres not much space in them and they can get a bit crazy at weekends. Theres also nowhere to eat at weekends and we tended to sit in the corridor or our rooms to eat. Which is a bit annoying. Lumsden also has the dining room (which is an attempt at being hogwarts but in a modern way...) which just has the servery and lots of big long tables which fit 14 people. mealtimes are really sociable and a great day to make friends at the start of the year. Theres also a computer room with a printer which is handy for late night essay printing. The foyer, janitors office and music practice room (with a piano) are also in the lumsden building. Lumsden isn't the prettiest building in the world but it is lots of fun!

Old wing is an older building and is connected to Lumsden through a corridor. There are less rooms in Old wing about 30-40 on each floor. B floor is boys and C floor is girls. There are one or two rooms on A floor and they are usually for boys. The rooms are all really different and some of them have lovley old feautures like fireplaces, wooden floors and old furniture, while others are pretty plain. The single rooms are a bit bigger than Lumsden rooms but most of the freshers in old wing, share rooms. There is a kitchen on each floor which are alot bigger than the Lumsden ones and have a table and chairs. but there is only one cooker, which can be annoying. The bathrooms aren't as nice as they are more like shower cubicles and toilet cubicles, rather than individual bathrooms but they are fine and perfectly useable. In Old wing there is also the tv room, the party room, the games room with a table tennis table, science library and arts library, Old wing dining room (which is basically just a pretty old room with chairs and a grand piano, which you can play if you want. Theres also old wing common room which is just another big room with another piano. Thats where most of the events will be. There are loads of events in Uni hall over the year, with the highlight being all the vodka bars which happen like 4 times a semester. You basically get lots of free vodka (with a variety of mixers, or non alcoholic drinks for non drinkers) and theres music etc. usually with a silly costume theme. always lots of fun. there was also christmas cabaret, Mr Uni hall and a few other things held there throughout the year.

Finally, theres Wardlaw, which I admit, I don't know very much about. It's a very pretty castle that isn't connected to the other parts of the hall. It's an all girls building with about 50 rooms, most of which are shared. The rooms are similar to old wing in that they are a mixed bag and some have some lovely old furniture and fireplaces etc. Some even have a lovely view of the sea. The bathrooms are like individual rooms like Lumsden. I've never been in a Wardlaw kitchen so I'm not sure what they are like. Theres a nice common room/tv room in Wardlaw. that's about all I know about wardlaw.

A quick note about the food. The food last year wasn't bad but at the end of the year they brought in a new catering company. I'm not sure if it's staying or not this year. The food with them wasn't great. At breakfast there was a points system which meant you could only take so much of the hot food. there was also cereal, fruit juice, bread, fruit and yoghurt. At lunch, there was a meat meal and veggie meal, accompanying side (usually potatoes), soup, bread, pudding, a salad bar, sandwich bar, baked potatoes (theres lots of potatoes. they're even mentioned in the hall song), fruit juice and fruit. Dinner was similar. There is always something to eat but some nights weren't that great. There was a lot of curry, mexican food, chips etc and not alot of vegetables. If they go back to the old menu then theres 2 meat options and a veggie option and it's a bit more varied. Theres always plenty to eat but some days are better then others...

I loved my year at uni hall and will really miss it. It's a really friendly and lovely place, with a great atmosphere. If you get a place there, enjoy it!

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 7

OP

Original post by Oh-WOW

At and baked potatoes.

Thanks!
Think you may have accidentally deleted something in the above part?

Original post by do5

Reserving this for my review of John Burnet, bare with me.

Are you doing a mini guide for JBH? Let me know if/when you do so I can put it in the opening post :smile:

Reply 8

Original post by Ecosse_14

Thanks!
Think you may have accidentally deleted something in the above part

Thank goodness you proof read that. :smile:

Reply 9

OP

Original post by Oh-WOW

Thank goodness you proof read that. :smile:

Yeah, I also had to correct countless grammatical errors whilst putting it in the opening post :wink:

Reply 10

Original post by Ecosse_14

Yeah, I also had to correct countless grammatical errors whilst putting it in the opening post :wink:

I did tell you that you'd have to do that!
I spent ages doing it. I was far to lazy to fix the grammar as well.
Sure that's what forum assistants are for! Might as well make you do some work :P

Reply 11

Yeliel

Post-graduate accomodation 2011-2012
IT appeares that quite a few of the post-graduate residencies don't have photos on the Uni's web-site. Can someone advise which is better in terms of size of the room and in-room and residence facilities: Dean Court, Eden Court or David Russel??? Would appreciate the advice, otherwise it's impossible to apply for accomodation. Thanks!!!

Reply 12

OP

Original post by do5

x

Thank you

Added to the OP, if you update your post, please let me know.

Reply 13

soph_ss12

Hi, I have a conditional offer so am aware that if I meet my grades I won't hear what accommodation I've got until August but I have a few queries about the application process. I've applied for single standard, [excluding Andrew Melville] and was wondering if it is therefore most likley that I will be in Uni Hall as this has the most single rooms, or whether there's just as much chance that I will be single/shared in somewhere like Reg's/Sallies/McIntosh?? I don't mind either way - what are people's experiences?
Thanks :smile:

Reply 14

Original post by soph_ss12

Hi, I have a conditional offer so am aware that if I meet my grades I won't hear what accommodation I've got until August but I have a few queries about the application process. I've applied for single standard, [excluding Andrew Melville] and was wondering if it is therefore most likley that I will be in Uni Hall as this has the most single rooms, or whether there's just as much chance that I will be single/shared in somewhere like Reg's/Sallies/McIntosh?? I don't mind either way - what are people's experiences?
Thanks :smile:

You'll probaly be in Uni hall as most of the single rooms in the other old halls are given to returning students (returners don't share, unless they request to do so) and those who ask for single rooms, usually get them. but Uni hall is a great place to live. :smile:

Reply 15

soph_ss12

Original post by Oh-WOW

You'll probaly be in Uni hall as most of the single rooms in the other old halls are given to returning students (returners don't share, unless they request to do so) and those who ask for single rooms, usually get them. but Uni hall is a great place to live. :smile:

Okay cool, thanks :smile:

Reply 16

amillar2210

Hi there,

I have an unconditional offer and accepted my place back in February. I also made my application for accommodation back then and had my application confirmed.

Can anyone tell me when I should hear back, considering I am a Scottish student not living within commuting distance and with an unconditional offer?

Thanks :smile:

Reply 17

Washington_Capital

I know someone that called and they said the first batch will be notified on June 20th. But you could possibly be notified anytime up to september. You will probably find out late June or early July since you are unconditional.

Reply 18

OP