What is quiet accommodation like?

[Lunificent]

I’ve just discovered that at many universities you can opt for quiet accommodation. I was pleased to see this as my daughter may struggle with the noise and social expectations in a typical student flat or hall.
When I told her there was the possibility of accommodation like this she said she wouldn’t opt for it as the other students would likely be ‘weird’.
So wondering if any of your children have opted for it and what it was like.

Are you able to say which uni as it can differ. Is it just quiet or is it female only or alcohol free (or all three). My DD opted for quiet as she likes her sleep, works a part time job with early starts and has a full on course. It suited her but it wasn't single sex or alcohol free just not one of the party halls. Flatmates weren't weird. At my nieces uni, quiet is alcohol free and single sex. Mixture of those whose religion bans alcohol, those who really need to/want to study a lot (mainly international students) and a few who would find party halls too hard going. I think it can depend on the makeup of the actual flats. Someone joined DNs flat mid way thru as quiet was too quiet for her (and a wee bit weird).

@ClerkMaxwell thanks for useful info. No uni yet: I’m looking ahead to the future

Good that you are thinking in advance. Hopefully open days and offer days will give you a better insight with the accomodation tours and speaking to current students.

Yes my daughter has decided on this option for Edinburgh uni, starting in just under 4 weeks and we haven’t even been notified about where she’ll live yet! She doesn’t really drink and likes loads of sleep. We live in a very quiet place so she thought It’d be a good idea. But she wouldn’t like to be in single sex accommodation. There was no info about what this means at Edinburgh. Didn’t realise it’s different at different unis. Waiting anxiously to see what’s been allocated…

DD is at Edinburgh and I think she just picked options that were smaller, in quieter locations, without a party reputation. Not even sure she even requested quiet. It is all a bit relative as lively for Edinburgh would probably be a bit sedate by my DSes Glasgow University standards. Hope your DD gets what she wants. Plus although the don't advertise they do allow switching (in normal years).

At my uni the offer was party/normal/quiet. I went for normal, being quite a sociable person, who went to gatherings and gigs at home, drank etc. I was from a very rural area though. However most of my flatmates were at what I'd say was the party end, and used to big cities. Also mostly arts students who don't have 9 am lectures and 9-5 lectures/labs every day. In other words, they could sleep in after getting home at 4am and having parties in their rooms. I couldn't...

I wondered if the difference was going from countryside to city, and expectations were perhaps different. I looked longingly at the quieter flats, they were single sex, IIRC, and the people in them were perfectly normal, nice, and friendly.

If your DC likes their sleep, struggles with noise, wants to really study hard, or is in a full-on course, then I'd go for quieter. They can still socialise via societies, clubs, rest of halls of residence etc but they've a quiet place to come back to.

It’s also worth looking at the allocation process, DD put quiet living at a first come first serve but her college took ages so her offer was late. She got her 9th choice (last and nothing left to choose) in accommodation nicknamed party central and clearing block.

@Boulshired that’s part of the problem. Edinburgh is completely opaque about how & when they allocate apart from saying theirs is not a first come first serve system. No one answers the phone when I try to ring and I’m afraid of exactly what you describe. I’m so sorry she got her 9th choice!! That’s awful. How did your daughter cope with a party central room?

Largely it means that they put you with other people who have opted for the same, so it’s quite self-regulating in terms of it naturally brings together people who are less likely to be throwing huge flat parties for all abs sundry.

As others have said, tends to attract a range of people, from those who don’t drink (for whatever reason), more studious types, those with work commitments or on programmes with a lot of placements.

In many cases students think they are living in university owned accommodation but in fact it is owned by private providers and only managed by the universities

Sorry wrong thread

DS's uni didn't have specific quiet accommodation but they allocated rooms based on questions about things like what time you go to bed and grouped people with similar preferences, which worked well, at least it did for him.

user1471428785 someone on Facebook got allocated a en-suite plus room in a smaller block they couldn’t afford. So we took the financial hit and got that for her.

DD opted, and has been allocated quiet. They are all in the same block, and have been chatting away on WhatsApp. They seem a nice normal bunch. We will see when she gets there. DD is "normal", although not a party girl, and a bit socially anxious. She does all the normal things socially, but after a full on day, gets to the point where she needs space and quiet, that's why she opted for quiet.

@BigWoollyJumpers that’s exactly like my daughter. I hope she gets the same.
@Boulshired glad she got a room that was suitable in the end.

"Quiet" is code for those who don't want a partying/social flat, i.e. no riotous all night parties. They usually still have the normal mix of students who like doing "normal" things, even drinking alcohol and going to nightclubs, but it's less "intense".

My son chose a "quiet" flat at Uni and worried the same about whether it's going to be full of "dorks" who go to bed at 9pm etc., but he needn't have worried. They all still went out for meals, drinks, days out, etc., just didn't bring parties back to the flat and didn't have "open doors" for everyone else in the building to wander in.

He says that the "normal" flats were across his courtyard, and there'd always be at least one "open house party" every night, sometimes several at weekends, and he was so glad he opted to chose the "quiet" block as he couldn't have coped with all the noise, disruption and random people walking around his flat when there was booze on offer (and drugs apparently).

My DD was in a quiet one this year. Normal flatmates, male and female. They have parties, play loud music, get drunk, probably smoke weed. They do the same things as others, but on a smaller scale. So no riotous parties full of gatecrashers, no random people in their kitchen eating their food and no chaos. It suits her perfectly. She is horrified by what happens in some of the louder accomodation blocks!

My son chose a quiet corridor in Bristol and then changed how he was in the first week as did others on it and it did not remain that quiet which I think is wrong and bad of those teenagers (including my teenagers) who were noisy.

@Xenia I think that's fine. They should change as they leave home. But they haven't headed to uni for a wild time from the outset. In my day every corridor in halls was a mix of all. We all learnt to respect each other

My nephew (studying sciences) applied for this at his halls, he ended up being put with a 8 drama students who were lovely but partied all the time and were a long way from quiet.

Back when I was a mature postgrad my office was beng redecorated so I opted to spend 2 weeks in a "quiet" hall. It was run by Catholic nuns, female only, alcohol free and no visitors in the rooms after 10pm. The students were a mixture of non drinking cultures and those who wished to study without noise. There were a lot of international students. Personal radios and tvs were allowed but could not be audible outside the room. If you wanted to stay our after 11pm you had to apply for a late pass. It worked very well for me.

My masters supervisor arranged me accomodation in a religious college run by nuns. I suspect he did it for a joke as I was a lively girl. I managed two weeks having got locked out on my first weekend and having to climb in a window in my clubbing gear. The nuns were lovely though.