Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Higher education

Any advice on Edinburgh accommodation options

17 replies

Anyexcuse · 12/03/2015 07:25

My DD has accepted a place at Edinburgh and is thrilled to be going to her first choice. Now we're looking at the fairly extensive list of accomm options with no clue about any of them. Does anyone have any experience and can advise. She's decided on self catering. Thanks in advance.

OP posts:

Report

Anyexcuse · 13/03/2015 06:29

I suppose it was a long shot to be fair.

OP posts:

SweetFelicityArkwright · 13/03/2015 06:48

My ds is at Edinburgh and loving it. He was in Pollack Halls of residence in his first year, Holland House which was catered but in retrospect I think your dd's choice of self catering is a better one as my ds often didn't eat in anyway.
Pollack halls are about a 15 minute walk to the main University area in Teviot Place and the accommodation seems well maintained, clean etc. My ds had a decent sized room that had a nice out look on to a garden area.
There is lots of other University accommodation in the city though if your dd doesn't fancy Pollack. I know Edinburgh well now, so happy to give advice,if you want, on any specific areas.

Hakluyt · 13/03/2015 06:54

My dd's in West Tollcross and has found it really convenient- 20 minutes or so to George Square and plenty of local shops. Happy to say more if you like.

TallGiraffes · 13/03/2015 07:18

I lived in one of the self catering residences and loved it. My friends who were in pollock spent a fortune on food because they didn't like the food and missed meal times but then didn't have access to a full kitchen. They used to eat at ours a lot!
Edinburgh is an amazing uni, I had a wonderful time.

SweetFelicityArkwright · 13/03/2015 08:58

Sorry, should be Pollock Halls, not Pollack !

My ds now lives in a flat in Tollcross/Lauriston, very close to the Meadows. He loves it there, takes around 10 minutes to walk to Teviot Place/George Square and lots of shops etc close by.
Another area he liked when he was looking for accommodation was around Nicholson Street. It is very handy for the University with a very vibrant feel with lots going on.

cdtaylornats · 13/03/2015 16:25

Why not take an awayday to Edinburgh and have a look around. You can check out transport as well.

Anyexcuse · 13/03/2015 17:18

Thanks for all your help. We will be going to have a look around but I suppose I was really looking for info on particular halls. My DD is quite shy and I'm wondering if certain halls would suit her better than others. It's really starting to feel like it's going to happen! Maybe by then I'll be glad to see the back of her!

OP posts:

Ca55andraMortmain · 13/03/2015 17:28

Hmm...I went to edinburgh ( was in first year 7 years ago though so might have changed!) And we didn't get to choose which self catered halls we were in. You just ticked catered or not on the form and if you were self catering you got a form asking about yourself, hobbies etc so they could try to put similar personalities in the same flat. This might be totally moot but are you sure she gets to choose the exact accommodation?

Anyexcuse · 13/03/2015 17:45

Thanks for all your help. We will be going to have a look around but I suppose I was looking for info on particular halls rather than areas. My DD is quite shy and I wondered if some halls might suit her better than others? It's all starting to feel real now!

OP posts:

Anyexcuse · 13/03/2015 23:27

Oops sorry. Thought my post hadn't worked. Anyway like I said twice - thanks for your thoughts. Any more?

OP posts:

Anyexcuse · 13/03/2015 23:31

Hi Ca55. They get asked for their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices. Not sure if they still get asked about themselves tho I hope so. It's such a lottery really. You spend all your time fretting about results and the personal statement and then waiting for offers. I thought that was it done but we've spent hours poring over websites trying to work out what to put.

OP posts:

Hakluyt · 14/03/2015 10:24

Just to warn you- dd had to put 3 choices and didn't get any of them. The accomodation she was given was quite a long way out of town. She contacted the accomodation office asking if there was anywhere else, and in a couple of days she got a room in a student flat much closer to town. I would ask on here when she gets her offer- that's what I did!

Anyexcuse · 14/03/2015 10:55

Thanks Hakluyt. Maybe I should just relax a bit. No point getting all stressed if the 3 choice system doesn't even work.

OP posts:

Hakluyt · 14/03/2015 11:19

I was so worried about where dd was going to live - I spent ages on Street view! Quite normal!

Edinburgh's a very "walk-y" city. What dd did was mark on the map things she thought were important - where her Department was, the Student Union and in her case, Bedlam, the student theatre. Then she looked at accomodation not too far from all of them. Then she was allocated somewhere a good 45 minutes walk away- uphill! The place she ended up in is only 20 minutes away though, so much better.

Brace yourself for next year though- the flat search thing is a nightmare............

ivorynewbuilds · 17/03/2015 11:02

Not a clue, but you might like to have a look at The Student Room's Edinburgh forum, where you're more likely to find Edinburgh students.

DianeLockhart · 05/04/2015 01:23

Most of the edinburgh self catered accommodation is pretty similar in my experience (from about10 years ago) - usually flats of around 4-6 students, single sex but with the other sex in neighbouring flats on the same floor so easy to mix. There was one set of flats (I think Kincaid court?) which had huge apartments of about 12 people - these often had more mature students and Erasmus and the kitchens tended to get disgusting as you can probably imgaine with that many sharing.

I found the flats all fine - we had weekly cleaners, laundry facilities in the building but may be in basement, flatmates are obviously the luck of the draw but most peoples were relatively clean, fun, normal... Definitely a wise move to swerve the catered IMO as it can be fun to cook and eat as a flat to bond in early days and it's better to have more control of what and when you're eating. No one bothered to trek back to pollock to get their lunch or dinner when they were already out.

Edinburgh is brilliant - best of luck to your dd. I hope she loves it there. What is she studying?

Anyexcuse · 12/04/2015 17:23

Thanks Diane. She's studying politics and is really looking forward to it. She's put her accommodation application in now so we'll just have to wait and see where she ends up. I'm very excited for her but starting to feel my nest emptying and I'm not sure I like it!

OP posts:

Flip

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.