Thread for accommodation questions for 09/10 entry - READ & POST HERE FIRST :o)

I wanted to ask roughly how much I will have to pay for self-catered accommodation and is it necessary to pay all the money in advance. I mean can I pay for first term and than before second term is on to pay for it too??? thanks a lot in advance

Ok maybe a really dumb question, but Edinburgh is my insurance and it says on their site you can apply for accomodation if ur going in sept 09 (which i am if i dont get in my firm ) after 16th Feb do i still need to do this or because its my insurance there is a different route i take?

If you want accommodation in the event of you coming to Edinburgh you're best to do it as soon as possible after the 16th Feb (via the normal route). Accommodation services say that they guarantee you accommodation if you have applied by the 16th August, but I wouldn't leave it that long.

Okay, just a couple of questions.

If I put down self-catered, is there any chance I would get catered accommodation?

Also: Are international students housed together, or are they mixed in with home students? I know some universities do house all of the international students together, but I wasn't sure if Edinburgh did this.

Just to add on from what NH said - I highly doubt you'd end up somewhere with just internationals if you applied for anywhere in the central area (ie: not the 1 or 2 places which are at KB, as apparently they have a fair number of internationals as everyone else knows not to apply to live outwith the city centre) the most I knew of where a flat of 5 girls, where 2 were Scottish then 1 was an American doing her full degree here, then the other 2 were exchange students from Canada and Hong Kong. As you're not exchange you'll be placed like all of the home students, but there isn't an international house just for exchange students either.

Ok I like Darroch court and Fraser court. They look quite modern and nice and i like the fact i share with some people so you can make instant friends. I was slightly put off by residences that only have a small number of people like David Horn House which only has 33 single rooms as i think it will be harder to make friends with a small group than a bigger more mixed group? If im wrong please say, what are your thoughts Oxymoronic and artorscience? btw Im applying for a science so im thinking most of my lectures and stuff will be in Kings buildings.

Hi i got an uncondictional at edinburgh for engineering so i ll be studing at kings building i was hoping to get self accomodation but not sure which to choose as kings building is quite far out does anyone know what would be the best to go for? is it easy enough to get from the likes of sciennes to kings?

I was slightly put off by residences that only have a small number of people like David Horn House which only has 33 single rooms as i think it will be harder to make friends with a small group than a bigger more mixed group?

Sciennes is a bit crap to be honest... not for the location - there is a free bus running from KB to George Square which runs pretty much straight past KB so you're fine, but the rooms are fairly small and its not as nice as some of the others. In first year a lot of your lectures will probs be in the central area rather than KB anyway. You can also walk to KB in about 20-30 mins too, or cycle. Neither of which I've ever done because I have only been to KB once to go to the library!

I would agree with Oxymoronic. Making friends in your accommodation is dependant on all sorts of different things, how many people there are and therefore the likelyhood that you share an interest with any is one. But more important is the activities that are organised by your accommodation to help everyone get to know each other (usually there are bbqs and the odd club night, but this is something you can't know until you get there because it's all about who gets the job of RA, which noone can say), and most importantly, making friends in accommodations is down to how much you get out of your flat/room and talk to other people in the building. And what it boils down to is that some people are lucky and are living with or next door to their future best friend, others struggle to find friends in their accommodation and rely on societies/courses/work/volunteer activities to make friends.

I lived in Sciennes (i.e. huge number of students) and didn't really know anyone in the rest of the buildings/other buildings in Sciennes. Me and my flatmates made friends with the flat two floors up from us and occasionally spoke to a couple of the guys from the flat next door (they did the knocking on doors with chocolates trick, but about 2 months in, so we knew their names/recognised them around the university).