Edinburgh Uni accommodation - any to avoid?

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DD is choosing her Edinburgh Uni accommodation. She is not a party animal so somewhere quiet but not isolated. It seems difficult to judge between places. Does anyone have any advice? Particular where to avoid!

Chancellors Court

That's the one!

I am pretty sure the rules on firming have changed because Edin gives out many offers super late, so would be too unfair for the many, many who wait until April, May for offers. Still have a younger dc here waiting for one, their older sibling heard March 22 a few years back.

Still on the website about allocating in date order.

I was reading another university (Glasgow I think but may be wrong) was allowing accommodation applications before they made offers because it was considered unfair on those who got a late offer.

The website is unnecessarily confusing, but this is the bit to bear in mind

"We’re one of a few universities who DON’T allocate on a first come, first served basis. "

Though actually many other unis also don't allocate that way.

Dd1 is in South Clerk Street and happy with it although it’s a busy road so not the quietest.

Further down the page it says

"That being said, once you ARE Unconditional Firm (UF), we do look at applications in date order; so for example, someone who applied in March but became UF in August, will be allocated before someone who applied in July and became UF in August. We are aware that students become Unconditional at various points throughout the year - so we try to make our allocation process as fair as possible for all students."

So thinking that timing still considered

There would have to be some way of ordering applications. If not random, date is the easiest method to avoid accusations of unfairness. Though DD thought there was some apportioning of spaces between those receiving conditional and unconditional offers such that if 20% of offers were unconditional then 20% of rooms across all accommodation would be allocated to them.

DH got Beaverbank - the furthest away but right next to a Lidl and Tesco, really good bus links - it is a newish set of buildings and was very clean and nice - he has been happy there this year.

DS not DH

DD has only just received an offer from Edinburgh and will be going to the offer day on 23 April before she decides where she wants to firm and insure. If I understand it correctly this does seem to suggest those who get earlier offers are more likely to get first choices of accommodation, which seems a bit unfair.

Thanks for this thread. My DD is likely to accept Edinburgh’s unconditional offer, which she has had for a while now but she was planning to wait until the offer holder day next month before choosing halls. Seems like it might be better not to wait…

My understanding is the key wording is APPLIED so it's when your application went in, not when you firmed and there's nothing anyone can do about that now. But I also really wouldn't worry, there's plenty of first year accommodation available and it's unusual for someone not to get roughly what they wanted.

Applied for accommodation not for to the university, otherwise all the medics and vets would get priority. You can’t apply for accommodation until you firm. Different offer dates does introduce unfairness (though accommodation only opens in March) but waiting on an offers holders day is down to you.

Thank you for the clarification

Unfortunately DD didn't get to original open day so offer day is pretty essential in our case. I know some people haven't even received offers yet. But yep, nothing else we can do but hope for the best re accommodation if she chooses Edinburgh.

As I said there’s a lot of accommodation and I personally haven’t heard of anyone being allocated a duffer, so please don’t worry too much

DD was booked to go to offer holders days but decided not to bother in the end. I can see if you haven’t had a chance to visit before it would be necessary. Edinburgh does seem to have quite a lot of accommodation. When you apply you have to put five choices and these are not treated as any particular order so you don’t narrow down your preference that much anyway (and still likely to be allocated somewhere else).

I have, but a ‘duffer’ tends to be due to flatmates not the accommodation itself and that is pretty much a lottery.

DD was told that accommodation is reserved for students from their specific exam cohorts.

For example, many Scottish students will be unconditional from the start. Then there are IB students, Scottish students waiting exam results, and finally A-level students with relatively late results.

A-level students are not disadvantaged over those applying with Highers obtained in fifth year.

Saying that, DD didn't get any of her choices, and the one they did give her was more expensive than all the others. However, once she was assured that we would pay her accommodation, she was fine, and really enjoyed living there. The rest of her time at Edinburgh was living with girls who were flatmates in her first year. She even shared with one when they both moved to London.

She was in the very centrally located Riego - a 10 minute walk to George Square and really handy for the city.

Indeed, there’s zilch you can do if that happens

DS2 didn't like Salisbury, he found it too quiet and didn't make any friends, all his room mates barely came out of their rooms. He got a room in Kincaid and loved it, it was noisier and more run down but he made a big group of friends he still meets up with in 3rd year.

My daughter has an unconditional (Scotland) and is currently deciding between Glasgow and Edinburgh. I’m worried she will list her 5 choices then be allocated something out of our price range. Does anyone know what would happen in that case!

Take it or leave it.

The form asks if they can’t give you one of your choices what your priority would be, then offers price, location or bathroom as options. So hopefully by ticking price you should get a cheaper option. I don’t think the cheaper options are more popular though - at my DS uni it was the more expensive en-suite accommodation that was in highest demand.