St Andrews accommodation

[Waythroughwoods]

DS has offer for St Andrews conditional on A level results. It’s his top choice and likely to remain so, but he wants to make his firm and insurance decisions after relevant Offer Holders Days. I’m wondering if he will be disadvantaged waiting until April to choose accommodation as I think registering for accomm opens today. Can any mumsnetters shed any light? Much appreciated.

Looking at the Undergraduate Accommodation pages on the university website, although offer holders can apply from today this is just the start of the applicationwindow to be guaranteed a room; the actual offer of accommodation isn't made until their offer becomes Unconditional Firm, which will be after results day for many / most.

Offers for accommodation
Offers of accommodation for entrant undergraduate students will be sent in batches. Applications are processed once you have met any conditions of your offer and it changes to unconditional firm.
Please do not worry if you are waiting for exam results to meet your offer conditions. Provided you have applied before the 30 June and you meet the criteria, you will be offered accommodation.
Offers will be sent from the end of May and continue to be sent out until late August. After your status has been confirmed as unconditional firm it may be 6 weeks before you receive an offer of accommodation.

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/accommodation/undergraduate/apply-undergraduate/

We’re a few years on from this but from what I remember they don’t do any substantial allocations until after A level results meaning waiting till April makes no difference. They guarantee all first years accommodation - just don’t expect the preferences to be taken into account -DS got basically the opposite of what he asked for!

since the town is so small, are all accommodation within walking distances to university buildings?

Mainly, yes. DRH is the furthest out, although still walkable - there's also a bus service or some students cycle. Andrew Melville and Agnes Blackadder are also a 15 minute walk from the town centre. Having said that, not all the uni buildings are in the town centre, some are at North Haugh which is close to Andrew Melville and Agnes Blackadder halls and 15 mins walk from DRH. (That was an answer to lighttherapy)

My YP had an unconditional from St A (Scottish applicant). Offer received in February, accepted immediately, applied for accommodation once open, and was allocated halls in July (St Regulus, in town).

From memory allocations were done once A level results were published so I’d say you’ve got until the deadline to choose

My youngest is at StA’s and got her first choice, catered single room, & was allocated University Hall (great location for STEM). All the halls sound great & she had a ball & made great friends so hopefully your young person will too. Keep us posted…

thanks @Returntoborrowdale
how about second year onwards? Are they all expected to find private accommodation? Is it still a big problem (many posts on mn on this scary issue due to small size of town)

Some second years stay on in uni accommodation- St A has a relatively large percentage of students who do this.

Private accommodation was really tight a few years ago but possibly slightly less so now (reportedly more students than expected in Covid years). Everyone seems to find something- the issue is that it can be expensive and not a great deal of choice. I think there are some new private halls opening next academic year so that will help.

My dc has had a ball there - it's a really special place.

Thanks all for sharing your experiences which are reassuring! I think DS will wait until April now.