The Warwick Accommodation Thread (+Guide in Post#1)

I'm a heavy drinker. Rootes seems to fulfill my needs but I want an ensuite and not to many people around me all the time. Recommendations?

Hi everyone (sorry I'm new to TSR so don't really know what I'm doing haha)

So I've put my firm as Warwick (I'm doing French and Italian Studies) and I was wondering which accommodation I should go for? I'm quite loud but don't like to go out all the time, I don't want somewhere that's ages away, and I really want an en suite. I was thinking JM maybe?

Thanks for your help

Hi everyone (sorry I'm new to TSR so don't really know what I'm doing haha)

So I've put my firm as Warwick (I'm doing French and Italian Studies) and I was wondering which accommodation I should go for? I'm quite loud but don't like to go out all the time, I don't want somewhere that's ages away, and I really want an en suite. I was thinking JM maybe?

Thanks for your help

Anyone know where I can ask around for a housemate for next year? I signed for a contract in Leam with a friend, but we need an extra person. We've posted in the Warwick SU forums, but there seems to be dozens of people looking for an extra housemate, and then some.

Anyone know where I can ask around for a housemate for next year? I signed for a contract in Leam with a friend, but we need an extra person. We've posted in the Warwick SU forums, but there seems to be dozens of people looking for an extra housemate, and then some.

Keep posting there, and maybe spam the facebook groups of any societies you are in. There are still plenty of people who haven't sorted accommodation out yet, so keep hope

Orrr go the old fashioned way and print off advertisements and stick them up in department buildings.

If you've only just put it up then you wouldn't have loads of replies yet. I've used it myself on two occasions and had 8-11 replies within about one week. This was for a house in Canley, although many of the replies I got suggested that they just wanted any house and weren't so concerned about the location. I've found that, in my experience the forum tends to get most activity around the weekend although people might be more concerned with exams than houses at the moment.

To be honest, it depends much more on the people you're with than the place you live in. I'd say that AV is relatively quiet (at least there isn't much outside noise), but in terms of your kitchen social demographic, it's totally varied. Some corridors in AV are really loud, others are totally silent with lots of non-party-type people. You put a statement about yourself on your application, so if you really want to be in a quiet area, your best chance is to say so when you apply.

To be honest, I'd actually recommend that you don't put down that you're quiet, and see how things turn out. As someone who doesn't drink (when I moved to Warwick this was for personal reasons, but now I'm also on medication that means I can't really drink anyway, so whatever your reason, don't worry about it! ) and suffers social anxiety problems - sometimes to an absolutely crippling extent - I think being around more sociable people has been really, really good for me. I don't think I would communicate with anyone if I wasn't with people more outgoing than myself. I made some great friends when I moved to Warwick, and they all drink and go out a lot, whereas I don't drink and can be very temperamental with regard to going out. (First term I went out quite a bit, second term I didn't really go out at all)

Nobody will try to force you to drink if you don't want to, and if you want some space to yourself, you can always sit in your room. If you (or anyone else on here for that matter!) is worried about being a non drinker and wants to talk about what it's like, feel free to PM me, I know I was really concerned about it before I moved in.

Thanks for your reply! So, your advising me against stating that I'm quiet. Well, I think that's even worse because the Accom. Office may think that I am very sociable and I may end up with flatmates I won't be able to tie with! I think that party animals have a greater time if their flatmates are also party animals and the same goes for the quiet people. Perhaps, you are an exception! But in case a quiet person has outgoing flatmates, what is most likely to happen is that the two parties will first try to approach each other and then there are 2 scenarios:
1) either the quiet person will turn into a party animal
2) or there will be a great gap between the two parties so that the outgoing people won't like to spend time with the quiet one and vice versa!

The reason why I said Bluebell is a good option is that there are only 8 studs per kitchen so if 1 or 2 studs happen to be e.g. quiet, the rest of the group will persist more and will try to befriend them too! However, if there are say 15 people in a kitchen, and 2 of these are quiet, the rest will neglect them as there will be many other alternatives. I think that the greater the number of people in a kitchen, the looser the bonds between these people! You know, 15 or 20 people in a kitchen is too much! At the end, you may realize that you don't even know where some of your 14 flatmates are from.

Another thing for Bluebell is that there are flats and not corridors, so it's difficult for people from different flats to converge(I'm not saying it's impossible though). So, one will try harder to make friends with his flatmates than with people from other flats.

Finally, given that people who apply for Bluebell are most likely to be aware of the above, I think I've greater chances of ending up with the right people. To put it simply, I don't think the typical party animal would pick Bluebell as his first choice.

I'd like to hear back from you. It seems like you know how things are! If you think that what I'm saying is wrong, then go ahead!

Thanks for your reply! So, your advising me against stating that I'm quiet. Well, I think that's even worse because the Accom. Office may think that I am very sociable and I may end up with flatmates I won't be able to tie with! I think that party animals have a greater time if their flatmates are also party animals and the same goes for the quiet people. Perhaps, you are an exception! But in case a quiet person has outgoing flatmates, what is most likely to happen is that the two parties will first try to approach each other and then there are 2 scenarios:
1) either the quiet person will turn into a party animal
2) or there will be a great gap between the two parties so that the outgoing people won't like to spend time with the quiet one and vice versa!

The reason why I said Bluebell is a good option is that there are only 8 studs per kitchen so if 1 or 2 studs happen to be e.g. quiet, the rest of the group will persist more and will try to befriend them too! However, if there are say 15 people in a kitchen, and 2 of these are quiet, the rest will neglect them as there will be many other alternatives. I think that the greater the number of people in a kitchen, the looser the bonds between these people! You know, 15 or 20 people in a kitchen is too much! At the end, you may realize that you don't even know where some of your 14 flatmates are from.

Another thing for Bluebell is that there are flats and not corridors, so it's difficult for people from different flats to converge(I'm not saying it's impossible though). So, one will try harder to make friends with his flatmates than with people from other flats.

Finally, given that people who apply for Bluebell are most likely to be aware of the above, I think I've greater chances of ending up with the right people. To put it simply, I don't think the typical party animal would pick Bluebell as his first choice.

I'd like to hear back from you. It seems like you know how things are! If you think that what I'm saying is wrong, then go ahead!

I'll tell you what roughly happened in a halls with very large kitchens (about 26 people): At the start there was a mixture of very loud/sociable people (~9 people), quieter people (~9 people) and very quiet people (~8 people). Many of the quieter people got to know the loud/sociable people although there were many people who didn't really talk to us much over the whole year.

In addition, some of the really loud/sociable people (~4 people) got involved with other halls/societies and drifted away from the group a bit, as well as people from other corridors moving to our kitchen (~3 people)

So I think, yeah, a mixture of all the scenarios you're describing happened. I will add that since this was Westwood, there were some additional people who were only here temporarily and I haven't included them above.

I see! Well, a good question would probably be how the very quiet people ''made it through"? Did they form their own group and remain detached from the rest? I think it must have been difficult sharing a kitchen with another 18 people whom you barely talk to.

I see! Well, a good question would probably be how the very quiet people ''made it through"? Did they form their own group and remain detached from the rest? I think it must have been difficult sharing a kitchen with another 18 people whom you barely talk to.

Yes and no. I think unfortunately, it does depend quite heavily on the people you're with.

I had 13 flatmates at the beginning of the year (one dropped out, so then there were only 12 in term 2, and another person joined us in term 3 but didn't really get to know us) and we almost all bonded more or less instantly. Within about a week or two, a group of 8 or 9 of us decided that we'd be moving in together next year. (Later became 8 because someone isn't staying at Warwick) I should probably point out that at secondary school level, I had no close friends, so this was totally unprecendented for me. 13 seems like a lot of people, but it's really not bad. We've got one international student who keeps herself to herself, the one person who left so doesn't really count, two further international students who made more friends outside of the flat than inside it, two of us who aren't that social, and the remaining people are really quite outgoing.

I think in a larger group, you're more likely to make friends because there's more of a chance you'll have something in common with someone, but it's swings and roundabouts. Also keep in mind that some international students prefer to bond with other international students rather than their flatmates. (And some home students do this too!) It seems like people in really big groups tend to separate into multiple smaller groups, which may be a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. Smaller flats or corridors are more tightly bonded if they get along, but less likely to actually have things in common. My friend in Bluebell likes her flatmates but just doesn't really seem to have much in common with them, so they aren't close.

Now, all I can go on is my own experiences here, and obviously it's going to vary massively depending on who you talk to, but what I've found is this. This term I've barely left my room (social anxiety and deadlines combo strikes again! ) but when I do, people are always friendly and talkative, which encourages me to come out of my shell a bit. The outgoing people tend to be out of their rooms, whereas I think quieter people tend to stay by themselves a bit more, so if I leave my room there's almost always someone out and about to talk to! Even if it's just to keep up the pretense of being more sociable than I am, I'll have a conversation with them, or go out somewhere for a coffee or a meal or something, or even do something really crazy and spontaneous (e.g. we bought a paddling pool at Tesco last term and filled it up in our common room and went paddling... ). There's no way I'd do that without encouragement, and it's definitely been good for me.

The corridor next to us is made up of mostly quiet and less sociable people, and they don't seem to talk to each other much at all, mostly keeping themselves to themselves. I know that if I was with other quiet people, I'd sit around in my underwear playing video games and never talk to anyone! I guess that really depends on how you feel about socialising, but keep in mind that with other introverted people, you have to be willing to put in more effort. I know that I really struggle with that, but maybe you're okay with it, so it's up to you. My outgoing flatmates seem to find it easy to put up with me and bond with me, but I know that even just summoning up the energy to socialise can be a nightmare from my point of view!

Not many flats or corridors seem to bond with others in my experience. Not really sure why, everyone just tends to sort of stick with the people they're with, or else make friends from their course / societies etc. But Bluebell makes it much more difficult to bond with other kitchens because of the key card system thing (we can just walk into other kitchens and say hi, they get faced with a locked door!), so in that respect you're right.

As for the type of person who puts Bluebell first, I think that just varies. Some people would just rather have a plushy room than care, some people didn't even put it down and were assigned it etc etc. I think it is true to a certain extent that you'll find more quiet people in AV, JM and Bluebell than other residences, but it just depends on how people get assigned. In general I think you find that the outgoing people are at least sort of studious, because the amount of money spent on residence means less money to spend on nights out, but then you're always going to get the people with tonnes of money or those who cut back in other ways to afford more alcohol!

I should probably also make clear that I wasn't suggesting to write that you were really social on your form, just not that you're quiet. There's a big difference. I wrote something along the lines of 'I like to socialise and see people but also like to work hard around exam time' or something to that effect.

At the end of the day, it's really up to you! Hope that sort of helps your decision and doesn't just confuse things, haha! If you have any more questions, or if I said anything you're unsure about, feel free to ask!

You may think that, but where I was living last year I was sharing a flat with five other girls who I HATED. We worked it out.

I think it is so easy to really worry and stress about living environments. As long as you aren't being subject to any kind of bullying and are able to sleep, the rest will sort itself out. Honestly it doesn't matter in the end. And don't forget, if it does all go belly up, you can always apply to move and most probably will end up being moved by the beginning of term 1.

If you don't make friends in your halls, you will make friends elsewhere. You will never be in a situation again where you have access to SO many people all in the same position as you who want to make friends, so as long as you make an effort to get to know people, you will make friends. It will happen.

Agreed! One question: Do people find it easier to make friends with their flatmates or their coursemates? In other words, your best friends are gonna be your coursemates or your flatmates? I'm sure that varies, I'm just asking what's more likely to be the case.