Pollock Halls serves its purpose (and your dinner) well. (Halls Of Residence At The University Of Edinburgh)

Member Name: edindave

Product:	Halls Of Residence At The University Of Edinburgh
Date:	10/06/09 (503 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good rooms, good people, acceptable food, no electricity/ phone bills!

Disadvantages: The sheer number of people can be a little daunting at first.

I stayed in Pollock Halls during my first year - in Lee House to be exact - and found the whole experience to be positive in the main.

The location of the halls was a slight concern to me when I first looked at it on a map - it seemed awfully far to get to the university buildings from the halls. Let me assure you that the maps are deceptive. At the most, the walk from Pollock Halls to George Square takes about 10-15 minutes - if you walk incredibly slowly, perhaps a little longer. The best thing about the location is that it is so close to Arthur's Seat, a large dormant volcano that forms a picturesque setting in the centre of the city, and Holyrood Park, the green area surrounding Arthur's Seat that makes for beautiful, head-clearing walks when the studying gets a little too much.

The rooms are what you might expect of student halls of residence. My room had a bed, a sink, a desk, a telephone and an internet connection point. There was plenty of room for all of my stuff and there was a large cork notice-board in the room so that I could keep important pieces of paper to hand. The internet connection at Pollock Halls is marketed as "Resnet". It is a high speed connection that is fairly reliable and it is all included in the price that you pay for living there. Each corridor has two shower rooms and a bathroom between about 8-9 people. Because everyone's classes tend to start at various times throughout the day, there is never usually a problem with having to wait to use the shower on a morning etc.

A cleaner comes on a daily basis to empty the waste paper bins in the rooms and once a week, they will give your room a quick clean and tidy, provided you have not left books and paper all over the place.

The price can be a sticking point with Pollock Halls. It is rather expensive but it does include the room, food from the attached catering building, a cleaner, the internet connection etc. There is at least one warden in each building; they tend to be older students that have agreed to stay in halls to ensure that any problems are handled quickly and effectively.

The food from the JMC (the catering building) is okay. It is not gourmet dining by any stretch of the imagination but nor is it chips and beans every day. There is a choice every day and there is always a salad bar for those who do not want to choose anything from the hot food counter. The food works on a points system so that everyone is allowed a fair amount of food and it stops people being selfish and cuts down on waste.

The major benefit of Pollock Halls is the ability to mix with students in the same position as you - living away from home for the first time and probably in a city far away from their family. It is a good way to make a lot of friends very quickly and there are organised nights out in the first few weeks which allow people to mix together and get to know one another/ break the ice. It is true that there are "yahs" - public-schooled people with rather loud voices and a lot of self-confidence - but then there are also a lot of non-yahs; they just tend to be a little quieter.

If I were going back to do my degree again, I would definitely choose to stay in Pollock Halls again. I enjoyed my time there and, although I did not necessarily get along with everyone on my corridor, there were enough people with the same sense of humour and interests as me that I did not feel lonely and I made friends fairly quickly. The university tries to put people on the same corridor who show similar interests etc to make such a big upheaval a little less daunting. I am glad I chose Pollock Halls over self-catering halls and have no reservations with recommending the same course of action to others.

Summary: Student halls of residence with catering, cleaning and internet provided.