Strange problem to have, but dd1 is now holding 2 offers, both with the same very high grade requirements. She has instantly taken a dislike to the second Uni (Edinburgh) on the basis of their accommodation. She can’t have spent much time researching it online, since she only just got the second offer, and we have seen in person the first place on an offer holder’s day including the very acceptable first year accommodation, but not yet the second since she only just got the offer more than 2 months after the interview.

So being a diligent parent I went googling myself, followed the Ed Accom Facebook page- it is full of posts, current and dating back years, of bitterly complaining students! Expensive, unfinished, constant intrusion by workmen and simultaneously unfixed lifts etc. She hates Facebook so I doubt has looked at that, but anyone would run a mile. Also there isn’t any positive or other content whatsoever being posted by the service, so obviously they aren’t much cop at running a social media presence, which isn’t encouraging evidence of competence either.

I hope she won’t make her decision, if indeed there is a decision to make, based on this factor alone, but wondered if anyone on here has had recent experience of accommodation in Edinburgh for students? We don’t have to use their service, maybe we can organise something decent privately? Having seen the lovely accommodation at two other Uni’s, this is a real disappointment. I will try to impress on her that they probably only showed off the best stuff and she is just as likely to get assigned something much less desirable once she has accepted wherever she goes. What a scam Uni seems these days.

Hi

DS is at Edinburgh, I do not recognise at all the comments you have made re accommodation.
When he applied we sat down and went through every hall on the accommodation list and listed pros and cons, mainly looking at distance from the main buildings where he would be having lectures and the size of the bed. He is 6’5 and quite a lot have double beds so we rejected any which didn’t.
I seem to remember you apply for five and then once you have your place confirmed you get given a place. He did not get his first choice but is in halls about a 20 min walk from the centre in Fountainbridge which is a perfect area for students. Filled with bars, cheap restaurants, arts cinema, book shops and he is incredibly happy there. It is not very glam , five bedrooms, a kitchen/sitting room and a couple of bathrooms per flat and rather basic furniture, but it is cheap .( compared to DD in St Andrews) .
When we arrived on the first day there were lots of second years to help find rooms and masses of events planned by the hall for the first few days. Eg a trip to Ikea and various walking tours to help them orientate to the area.
His girlfriend is in a very modern hall the other side of the city opposite the Scottish Parliament. I have seen photos of her ensuite room and it looks lovely.she again is very pleased with where she lives.
Perhaps the Facebook pages etc are a bit like Trip Advisor and only people with gripes bother to comment and those who are happy say nothing.
If you want any other info please do not hesitate to pm me and I can ask my son.

They have both just organised private accommodation for next year and that appeared very easy with a lot of choice .

Edinburgh was DDs insurance and she was told that accommodation was a bit hit and miss if she ended up having to go there, with a strong possibility of having to share a room with bunk beds. That certainly concentrated her mind to ensure she made her offer for St As.

Thank you very much marigold. It helps a lot for me to be able to say with more confidence that we shall go and find out the facts and that not everyone is unhappy! And after all it’s only 30 weeks out of a lifetime, during which she will presumably be preoccupied with more important things than the glamorous decor of the kitchen etc.

According to some of the reviews on here for two or three of the halls, smuggling in a cat might be useful, however

https://www.studentcrowd.com/best-halls-l1002555-s1008230-university_of_edinburgh-edinburgh

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

We saw one of the bunk rooms in a year when they had 'over offered'. It was awful, literally a bunk put where a single bed should be with a single wardrobe to share plus another desk (so virtually no space on the floor).

Somewhere I looked at online (may have been UEA after DD and I had been on a campus tour, but I'm not sure) is actually offering 'bunk rooms' as an 'economical' permanent option. Another university (Kent? Surrey?) has 'upstairs / downstairs' units, where the access to the upstairs bedroom area is through the downstairs one. Not sure whether I would find that more or less annoying than the 'twin' rooms at UEA which have a dividing wall, but one person gets the desks and the other gets the wardrobes and basin

Sharing bathrooms generally I have no issue with on my offspring's behalf, but 'twin' accommodation, in my eyes, has much more potential for problems.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

This sounds slightly bizzare.

At Cambridge they have pairs of rooms with a shower room in-between which I thought was odd enough.

There has always been a range of options to suit budget but sharing a single room for this purpose seems extreme. I can't imagine any of my DCs having coped with such a lack of personal space. I shared a large room at Uni and that was difficult enough. To go for months with the only time you could could guarantee privacy being in the (not very pleasant toilets) took some getting used to.

Here I was thinking only USA students were expected to share rooms.

Though telling dd1 tales of how there were two or three sets of bunk beds crammed in the dorm rooms when I went to University of Iowa (6 people) and festooned with belongings it looked like a 3rd world women’s prison - that made her go a bit quiet. I refused to live there and got rubbish accommodation privately but at least had my own tiny bedroom, sharing stinky bathroom and kitchen for undergrad and postgrad years.