2nd year's rooms!

We've just had our room ballot for our 2nd year room in college, and I was wondering where/in what rooms current 1st years will be next year? have you all chosen yet? Are you living out, or whereabouts in the ballot are you?

I was picked out 81st of 121, meaning I'll get to choose 40th (the first picked out get last choice). So I should be able to get a nice room. Even at the bottom you choose before the 1st years get theirs.

Not quite sure how to decide though, it may involve trapesing around many peoples rooms having a look. I know I want a room with a window facing inwards (I get ill being here with a window onto the High - so much pollution), a double bed, that isn't too far from hall, the porters lodge or logic lane, where we unload our stuff. Then it's just as large as possible, preferably with a seperate study room. There aren't many like that though :redface:

So where are we all living next year? Anyone stuck out in Summertown or living out in Cowley/Abingdon Road/Jericho? Anyone got the best room in college?

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Reply 1

Elles

we're not all 1st years on here, you know.. :rolleyes:

anyway, I was ~80s omething for our 2nd year ballot, so got a set in a fancy newly refurbished building (fab kitchen & most rooms are ensuite, so no shower queues), but opposite college rather than in walls.

therefore for my 3rd year room I was ~30th. & there was some odd choosing & people opting to live out, so I got the last proper room in New Buildings :biggrin:

not a set, but pretty big & period fireplaces apparently, fab location - view of deer park, decent kitchens in the building etc. & lots of my friends also living there..

..including the lucky girl who was actually top, so has what's evidently been considered "the best room in college" for the past 5 years at least now - reportedly includes a dining table & walk in wardrobe.. I know where the parties will be..! :p:

Reply 2

Hoofbeat

I'm 27th to chose my room, but our 2nd year accomodation is the worse. All the other years choose before us (1st year's are automatically allocated all the "college" rooms surrounding the quads etc) so we have what's left of the Mitre and Turl Street rooms. Being high up (out of about 80), I should get a reasonable room, but no ensuite this year or nice window seat looking out onto the croquet quad for me :frown:

I can't believe you're hoping for a double bed Will! I don't think ANY of our rooms have such luxuries! It's also not fair that the girl who this year had 4rooms (yes 4!!! a long hallway, huge bathroom, lounge/study and bedroom is 2nd in the room ballot). Oh well, Simon is 26th in the ballot, so we're hoping to get 2rooms next to each other and then one of my other m8s is 21st, so at least some of us will be able to live near each other.

Reply 3

RxB

Our ballot is odd - there's a "reserves list", and if you're on it, then you get allocated a room after A-level results, since they don't know how many first years (and therefore rooms in the college site) there are. So the first 73 people on the ballot in the 2nd year get to choose, and the rest get allocated. The top few allocated rooms are really nice.

I have come 72nd, and so got to choose from about 5 rooms remaining. My room is absolutely miniature (it's described on our housing guide as "pokey"). I'm not stuck in Summertown, though - it's in Jericho, just past St. Anne's, so the area's quite cool. And my house has a garden!

Reply 4

magicalsausage

Do any of your colleges allocate rooms based on exam results - or at least give people with firsts early choice?

Reply 5

RxB

yeah, we do.

Reply 6

Little Kitten

Drogue

I know I want a room with... a double bed

Double bed? Double bed!?! You bastards! *goes off and seethes quietly in a corner*

Reply 7

ThePants999

Not an icicle's hope in hell of getting a double bed - what are you on!? This is in-college student accommodation we're talking here! Even if there are a couple of rooms that have one, you won't get one as a first year choosing 40th.

I came top of our ballot last year - and ignored all Lincoln's nicest rooms in favour of the building site on Museum Road. And I don't regret it at all - being with mates beats having a few extra square feet any day.

Reply 8

Drogue

Elles

we're not all 1st years on here, you know.. :rolleyes:

Our 3rd years don't have a ballot, I forget other colleges do!

Little Kitten

Double bed? Double bed!?! You bastards! *goes off and seethes quietly in a corner*

Hehe. Double bed's aren't that rare here, it's when you see the rooms with 2 floors you start to get jealous. Or the ensuites that have huge sitting rooms as well. Or the room I had for the first 4 or 5 hours, which has a huge mahogony bookcase, 2 large comfy chairs, a huge desk, fridge, etc. We may not be Christ Church, but we have some of the best accomedation in the university.

ThePants999

Um... Chris, at least 20 or 30 of our rooms have double beds. Some first years have them, and they get whatever's left after the 2nd years choose. Having a double bed isn't that hard.

In Univ, 3rd years live out and first years get whatever's left, so 2nd years get the best rooms. Hence I'm choosing 40th (actually, 34th, since some people have dropped out) out of the entire college. I'm pretty sure over 34 rooms have double beds, I know of at least 10 and I've only been into a few rooms.

Reply 9

ThePants999

Having loads of rooms with double beds would be why 3rd years are forced to live out I guess :rolleyes:

Now there's a policy that makes no sense - force the finalists who could most benefit from a central location and receive a reduced loan out into the private accommodation market.

Reply 10

Drogue

Actually, I disagree completely. First years are load, new and want to get involved in things. Second years are load, don't have exams, and have the time and inclination to run things. Third years are finalists, and as such work hard and want to do well, usually not taking as much time to do extra curricular things.

The first two seem to naturally go together. Put first years and finalists in the same place and the first years will be loud and annoy the 2nd years.

However, if like Univ, you put first and second years in college, and give the third years finalists accommodation where they can study without being annoyed by the younger and less exam-minded, you don't get that problem. Univ is run by second years - the JCR, all college societies, etc. Third years are generally too busy working to run for things. Indeed, I know Trinity does the same, where first and second years live in college, and third years live in other college accommodation.

Moreover, on the finance note, with Univ prices, private accomedation is usually cheaper. I pay £400 a month for my room, which is a little more than most private accommodation.

The finalists could most benefit from peace and quiet and their own space, rather than sharing it with first and/or second years. We don't have the space to have a first year quad, second year quad and third year quad, like Christ Church or Magdalen might, which means either have the third year rooms in and around first and second year ones, or have them living seperately and off site.

Reply 11

RxB

Hang on, do your finalists live out in that they don't live physically in college, or in that they've got to go into the private accomodation market?

I'd follow your argument if it were the former, but not if it were the latter.

Reply 12

Drogue

The former, if they want to.

Reply 13

i-need-cake

Sorry to interupt
Quick question, what happens to visiting students entering 2nd year? Do we get the 'pokey' left over rooms?

Reply 14

Willa

what like an exchange student? No you would get the fancy guest conference rooms I would imagine (at least at our college that's what happens)

Reply 15

Drogue

I didn't think visiting students stayed for two year :redface:

I'm guessing either you'd go in the ballot of the same thing as your first year. International first years at Univ get the best rooms, and in the second year they go in the ballot.

Reply 16

RxB

Perhaps you meant JYA students sitting the 2nd year?

Ours are dotted around the place - there's Stanford House for those from, umm, Stanford, but others are in all different college accomodation.

Reply 17

Clodagh

Why are there so many ppl from Stanford here? Corpus gets a regular intake of them...is there an exchange thing and do they send some Oxford peeps over there? (USA- Yes please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I hope they're interviewed hehe cos it would seem an easy way to do time at Oxford!You can spot them anywhere, usually wearing massive hoodys with STANFORD on them :tongue:

Reply 18

zoraster

I believe it's harder for Oxonians to do an exchange than it is for us Americans to exchange over because we're all in college (university) for 4 years, and it's become a major expectation of US schools to offer junior year abroad options (my university sends about 65% of its students abroad for at least a semester).

Almost all of our classes are finished at the end of a semester as well so we do our exams and such at the end of each semester which makes it really easy to just pick up and go somewhere else for a term without missing a beat. I get the impression that you can't do that very easily at Oxford.

My hope is that there's no seperate housing for visiting students at LMH so we're with the general population of the college rather than somewhat isolated, but it's not like it matters a whole lot!

Oh, and at least for me, I wasn't ever interviewed. I had to submit a lot of writing and references, but I never had the interview experience.