Glenomena student accommodation

Finbarr O'Toole

I've just been offered a place in UCD's Glenomena on-campus accommodation complex. Does anybody have any experiece of it? I mean the apartments look nice and shiny on the website but what condition are they in these days after a few years wear and tear? Also, I know that a relaxed, quiet environment is best for postgrads but what kind of atmosphere does the place have? I mean, will it be totally dead and force me to flee in the evenings to my mates' gaffs for a bit of craic. Finally, having no concept of the size of the Belfield campus, how far is Glenomena from the Arts block? Will I get absolutely soaked walking over to it in the rain?
Many thanks from this Belfield novice.

princess-sprkle

lived there last year and this coming year.

apartment wise - they're grand. not as shiny as the website but they're grand.

craic wise - its quite enough that you can get some work done, but there always seems like a party or session on somewhere, especially start/end of term and post exams...

its about a 5 min walk to the arts block tops.

Stabshauptmann

This might be helpful.

http://www.ucd.ie/maps/ucdmapengapak_06.pdf

the appartments are nice enough that you'd live there even if not a student. Electricity will be a killer so keep an eye on it and put your radiators and emerssion on timers.

spaceylou

A bunch of my friends lived in Glenamena last year and their apartments were lovely....and it was never that quiet or anything but at the same time it's not total party central either except maybe halloween and the last day of term but sure that's to be expected so it is possible to study, unless you have very noisy housemates....I would recommend it and the girls are all planning on going back there this year so I guess that says something too...

Finbarr O'Toole

Thanks for the feedback. The atmosphere sounds good with the right balance between work and play - but you always err on the side of play...

One other thing, how fast is the wireless internet in Glenamena? I had mates in on-campus accommodation at another college and the wireless access in the apartments was a sick joke. Just about worked but slower than dial-up. Definitely couldn't be described as 'high speed'.

Stabshauptmann

it was fast enough to watch streamed online content without any lag

Blush_01

Houses 9 and 10 are the best. Better rooms, newer and generally better colour scheme too.

I never had a problem with the speed of the ninternets in Glen. Generally, it's a decent place to live, the best res on campus (roebuck has what feel like marginally bigger rooms but has been turned into a dive by all accounts) and if you have decent housemates you'll have a great time.

Stepherunie

Internet in UCD at the moment is a bit dicey. Don't know what's going on, but I know people living in a lot of different buildings in Glen, and indeed working in different building on campus who are finding the connection a bit off of late.

Hopefully this will get sorted out before college starts back as it's normally pretty good here.

Goodluck2me

Yeah Glenomena was really nice when I lived there, Its much better than belgrove or merville.
Its not quite as nice as Roebuck Hall, but for some retarded reason they thought it would be good to put first years in it, so its rapidly deteriorating.

princess-sprkle

Blush_01 wrote: »

Houses 9 and 10 are the best. Better rooms, newer and generally better colour scheme too.

I never had a problem with the speed of the ninternets in Glen. Generally, it's a decent place to live, the best res on campus (roebuck has what feel like marginally bigger rooms but has been turned into a dive by all accounts) and if you have decent housemates you'll have a great time.

are 9 & 10 the postgrad houses? is it just those two?

Pharm07

got a place in glen also. looking forward to living there sounds good and hopefully gets a decent amount of work done to! moving in with 5 unknowns. my flatmates better not be dirty....hate that!

googler

hey guys,
does anyone here know what the difference is between the fees charged for glenomena 1/2 and glenomena 3? i got accepted into glenomena 3 and was wondering why it is €318 more expensive?

thanks

Stepherunie

That's your electricity for the year.

Be happy with it. The cards cause so many rows. One of our housemates this summer refused to pay any until we threatened to report her.

Willum101

got a place in glenomena! house 4 i think. anyone here the same? might find flat my flat mates before moving in lol

Pharm07

how do you know what house you got into? is it by the room number your given?? mine starts with g 3 - -. is that the house number??

googler

yeah g3 is the house nr, the next number is the apartment number and the next number is the room number!

are houses 9 and 10 def postgrad houses because thats where i am, but im an undergrad

Bui

googler wrote: »

are houses 9 and 10 def postgrad houses because thats where i am, but im an undergrad

Houses 9&10 are the year stay options, ie. September though till the end of August (this year everyone has to be out by this Friday). Houses 1-8 are for people who initially put down the college year stay option; when it hits May and people have to move out after exams, there is an option to stay on for the summer if you want and they can re-assign you to a different apartment as they keep some of the houses free for visiting groups and conference guests during the summer months.

Generally Post-grads already know that they are going to be here for the summer so it saves having to move apartments in May and they are put into houses 9&10 straight away where they can stay put. That's not to say it exclusive to post-grads, it's just for people who have chosen the year stay option. Generally there is a good mix in the apartments though, between final years and undergrads, or at least they try to. Also houses 9&10 are only two years old at this stage so are slightly less grubby, with the added bonus of not having to bother with the electricity cards.

Pharm07

good im in glen 3 then. dont have to bother buy the electricity cards. Would it not have made much more sense to do all the house like that instead of the cards?? ucd.....why must you be so unsensible??

Yet again registration is not working. Why can they anticipate the surge in users during exam results, registration, etc and juts make it work?? you'd think they'd learn from pervious years!

princess-sprkle

Pharm07 wrote: »

good im in glen 3 then. dont have to bother buy the electricity cards. Would it not have made much more sense to do all the house like that instead of the cards?? ucd.....why must you be so unsensible??

Yet again registration is not working. Why can they anticipate the surge in users during exam results, registration, etc and juts make it work?? you'd think they'd learn from pervious years!

as far as i know, you'll have the electricity card system in G3.
I was in G5 last year and we had the electricity cards.

Glenomena 3 as far as i know refers to house 9&10, the postgrad year stay ones.

Moi2008

I got house 9, so does that mean i pay for electricity/bills in my fees?

Bui

Moi2008 wrote: »

I got house 9, so does that mean i pay for electricity/bills in my fees?

Your fees for the first semester (i.e. September - January) will have an extra afew hundred included which covers your electricity for the year (hence the higher fees for option 3). If your apartment exceeds or does not meet this amount you will all be charged /refunded accordingly at the end of the year when you get your deposit back.

MissLe

Think I'm in house number 1! Am a postgrad... Will it be postgrads only in the house or could there be undergrads also? Hope there are no smelly wierdos. Sorry I don't mean to discriminate but...

Stabshauptmann

princess-sprkle wrote: »

are 9 & 10 the postgrad houses? is it just those two?

MissLe wrote: »

Think I'm in house number 1! Am a postgrad... Will it be postgrads only in the house or could there be undergrads also? Hope there are no smelly wierdos. Sorry I don't mean to discriminate but...

No. Postrads aren't grouped together per se. In my house we were 4 final year students and 2 post grads.

MissLe

COuld postgrads and first years be mixed?!!

Stabshauptmann

Residences are divided by the students year. Postgrads and first years dont share any residences afaik

FYI: to see what years live where
http://www.ucd.ie/residences/apply.html

spaceylou

It would be very rare that you get post grads and first years mixed, not to say it doesn't happen though but it is possible and even likely to get a mix of years in your apartment and sometimes final year undergrads are in with post-grads - guess they reckon they will all have a fair bit of study to do or something.

Stepherunie

Only time I've heard of it of late is in the Irish House in Merville as you get a mix of everyone in there.

Can't say I've heard of it since the new system came in.

spaceylou

Well a friend of mine was in an apartment in glen last year (she was final year) with a phd student, some master's students and some other final year students.

And in both first and 2nd year she also had a mix of years all in the glen so I think while there might be general guidelines about who gets put with who it is only stuck to about 80% of the time

MuddyDog

I'm in G4.....is this a postgrad only house or a mix of everyone?

Stabshauptmann

MuddyDog wrote: »

I'm in G4.....is this a postgrad only house or a mix of everyone?

This is a very short thread, you've no excuse for not reading the posts. The answer has already been given.

Bui

Now now, some people are not good at grasping the whole read-the-thread concept. One more last time for those who have not got the hang of this just yet:

There are no designated "post-grad" or "undergrad" houses. Post-grads generally tendto choose the full year Option 3 as they have to work the whole year, so they tend to be put stright into houses 9&10 - along with any undergrads who also choose this option.

And before anyone panics, if you are not in houses 9&10 that doesnt mean you're not able to stay the whole year either.

Other than that, everyone is thrown in the houses in a nice big mix. Its all fine and lovely, so just relax and see who you end up with.

Point to take home: the houses are mixed. yay!

googler

hey, i dont mean to make this even more confusing but....

im an undergrad, i did choose the full year option and im in house 10??

Stabshauptmann

googler wrote: »

hey, i dont mean to make this even more confusing but....

im an undergrad, i did choose the full year option and im in house 10??

Im not being sarky, but because of your poor grammer I honestly dont understand what you are asking.

Bui

I'm not too sure I do either.... from what I can gather, you are wondering why you are in House 10 if you chose Option 3 and are an undergrad?

If that's the case (and I really hope it isn't!), maybe try reading my post again, just above yours, the part in bold it's hard to miss..... You choose Option 3, you are likely to be put in House 9 or 10. It's really not that hard!!

Moi2008

Are the houses/apartments for postgrads generally pleasant/friendly/level-headed...would you get chatting to the people in the next apartment or are they pretty empty and quite during the day?

Would the postgrads be mostly be non-bitchy? or do students you live with become competitive among each other? I don't do bitchy and don't feel comfortable around conflict / bitchiness....in your experience?

I like to treat people well and help people, so it generally makes me unwell in the above atmosphere?

I was also wondering where the majority of people would be from originally, who would be staying in the postgrad houses?

princess-sprkle

Moi2008 wrote: »

Are the houses/apartments for postgrads generally pleasant/friendly/level-headed...would you get chatting to the people in the next apartment or are they pretty empty and quite during the day?

Would the postgrads be mostly be non-bitchy? or do students you live with become competitive among each other? I don't do bitchy and don't feel comfortable around conflict / bitchiness....in your experience?

I like to treat people well and help people, so it generally makes me unwell in the above atmosphere?

I was also wondering where the majority of people would be from originally, who would be staying in the postgrad houses?

i don't think there's anyway of knowing really. The atmosphere is quite good though. The houses are usually empty during the day as everyone is in class. Make the effort to get to know a few people on the floor in your first few weeks and it should be fun

Blush_01

Moi2008 wrote: »

Are the houses/apartments for postgrads generally pleasant/friendly/level-headed...would you get chatting to the people in the next apartment or are they pretty empty and quite during the day?

Would the postgrads be mostly be non-bitchy? or do students you live with become competitive among each other? I don't do bitchy and don't feel comfortable around conflict / bitchiness....in your experience?

I like to treat people well and help people, so it generally makes me unwell in the above atmosphere?

I was also wondering where the majority of people would be from originally, who would be staying in the postgrad houses?

If you are living in Glenomena, you will be living with 5 other people. That is as much as anyone here can tell you. If you happen to be living with someone from this board, they may be able to let you know what they are like, but as they won't know until they move in with you, there's little way of them telling you now.

People could be from anywhere. When I lived in Glen there was one guy from Beijing, another from New York, one from Cork and a fourth from Louth. There was also a girl from Laois and I'm from Tipperary. In the building there were people from Asia, Africa, South and North America, Australia, and all over Europe. People of many different educational, ethnic, religious, political and personal backgrounds, both male and female, lived there. They don't do psychometric testing or "personality tests" on future residents in order to place you with the best people in Glenomena for you, because Glen is real-world-lite/ I-can't-believe-it's-not-the-real-world. In the real world you are expected to interact with many different people from many different backgrounds. Glen is the exact same.

Don't stress about it, just go with the flow and have a good time. If anyone starts to get bitchy or competative towards you and you don't like it, walk away. You'll have your own room with its own lock. Why start stressing about this now?

Arctic89

Does anyone here know if its at all possible to get on campus at this stage?Only discovered after the closing date that I was too late to apply. In final year so dont really want to be facing what will be 4 hours of commuting every day.

Bui

Arctic89 wrote: »

Does anyone here know if its at all possible to get on campus at this stage?Only discovered after the closing date that I was too late to apply. In final year so dont really want to be facing what will be 4 hours of commuting every day.

You won't loose anything by applying. You will probably get waiting list at this stage, but its worth while as places pop up in the first few months, what with people dropping out, some foreign students stay one semester etc there are nearly always rooms that come up between September and Christmas. Also some people apply as a fall-back incase they don't find anywhere else and then don't take their room so there are always a few come up in the first few weeks.

Pharm07

anyone movin into to glenomena on wednesday. Was thinking of trying to get there early before the rush and bring a duvet and a few other bits up.

Blush_01

It'll be open late. I moved in at 9 in the evening, and it was perfect, no queue.

It'll be manic during the day, so will checkout, so be sure to pick your times.

Willum101

so everyone looking forward to moving in? just a quick question, is it possible to pick up your key on saturday? as in the 6th?