Stirling Uni from a 2nd years viewpoint (University of Stirling in general)

Member Name: fudgeukraine

Product:	University of Stirling in general
Date:	22/08/04 (3232 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great times will be had, Easy-ish work, it beats working for a living!

Disadvantages: Jocks/Bufters who screw about, Stirling is full of Neds, costs you money!

Hi there, thought some of you would like to read my opinion of Stirling Uni from someone who has just finished their first year there:

Accomodation

There are many halls on campus, and first years go into either AKD, Murray, Geddes, or ASH. I was in Murray and it's like all the others except from AKD and the East side of ASH. AKD is a 37 week let, meaning you stay over xmas, and the east side of ash is en suite. Halls are a great place to live in. I was in Murray last year and had a ball. All halls are portered, meaning there's someone at the door. They'll help you with problems, let you in at night, etc. They're a great laugh - Murray Hall's Captain Ian was a legend! Halls are arranged as rooms on a corridor with a kitchen, shower room, bathroom, and toilets. You get approx 15-18 people to a kitchen, shower, bath, toilets, etc. Now don't worry!!! I was mortified when I heard about this but you don't have to worry - it was a great laugh. You'll end up being so friendly with almost everyone there, and have a great laugh - remember everyone's in the same boat. Each kitchen has 1 oven, a sink, and 1 fridge, which looks HUGE, but once you open it, you've got a smallish lockable compartment, which does hold a surprising amount of stuff. Luckily, there'll always be some unlocked compartments which you can use to store your precious beer! Chances are someone will bring a toaster, Stereo, Microwave etc, if not - just club together - it'll only be £2ish from everyone to buy one! You'll need to bring pots/pans cutlery, etc, but just go to IKEA before you go and get things. There's cupboards to store things in, otherwise use your room.

Rooms

When you arrive, you'll get a set of keys, and once you open your room, I can guarantee that you'll see it and immediately wish you hadn't! Don't despair. You get about a 4m by 2m room, it'll have a desk, drawers, sink, wardrobe,
bed, and overhead compartment, and possibly shelving running alongside a wall. As rooms go, it's basic but it'll do the job. Believe me you won't be staying in your room much, just using it for sleeping! Murray Hall and most of Geddes has Internet connections in the room, which is great for when it's essay time etc, otherwise I believe that all the halls have the internet on the ground floor. The halls all have a social space, which has a TV Room, possibly a computer room, pool and table tennis tables, seats and tables, and lots of vending machines. They do the job, and most people will congregate here after a night out - good banter!

Other things about halls - there's a fire alarm test every wed which means the siren sounds for about 20 seconds between half 10 and 11, you don't need to get up for this, You get a cleaner who's empty your bin and sometimes hoover 3 times a week. You also get fire drills often - you'll get at least 1 on the first week (I got a disciplinary for sleeping in for the drill!) Overall, halls are great for first years, enabling you to make friends and have some great times. Plus it's great if your bored at night, just knock on someone?s door and ask if they fancy a pint.


Freshers & Drinking

You'll arrive on the Saturday, and instantly be frightened. You won't know anyone, you won't know what to do, and you'll just be stuck in your room with boxes. Well, the Union will have ents (that's short for entertainments) on. It varies what they've got on - it'll be cheap nights though mainly. For the first couple of days, most people will either just stay in the kitchen drinking, or go out every night. Your options are:

The Union - the Union is located in the atrium in a part called the Robbins - just along from the shop. This consists of a nightclub and '4' bars - Glow is the nightclub, and the bars are - 'studio', 'long bar
9; 'cocktail bar' and the bar in Glow.

Glow - the nightclub, it'll start off by opening 7 odd nights a week, but I can assure you it'll end up only being open wed and sat for the Sports union nights. These are great fun - always packed, £3 on wed and £4 on sat for entry. Drinks vary, but Carling is £1.30 and Vodka/Gin is 60p (90p with a mixer), other drinks are normal prices. Overall, the club is good, though it's only busy these two nights; it's just like any other club though

Studio - the bar upstairs, does food during the day and drinks at night. It?s classy but pricey (for a uni) - only real promo's are the £5 pitchers of Carling (4 pints) and wine/occasional bottle offers. On a Sunday it's got a pub quiz (I won it 5 times and came runner up a few times - try and beat us!) Tuesday it's got Karaoke, and it may have other ents on different nights.

Long Bar - Open most nights, this is the cheapest bar and always has promos' on - the Legendary 'Billy the Squid' is on a Monday and hopefully will still be on - Every Single Drink is £1 - Brilliant! (can't beat a £1 Stella or Diesel) other nights it'll have some pints for £1 etc, good for a few drinks when you haven't got as much cash for Studio though most times you can buy the drinks at long bar, then go up to studio.

Cocktail bar - exactly as it says on the tin, has cocktails, though only open on the Sports Union nights of Wed/Sat. It's alright - Jolly Ranchers are especially good!

Gannochy - this bar is located beside the sports centre. It does great food cheap, and had a decend bar. It's a sports bar, so it'll get VERY BUSY on big nights ? i.e. Rangers/Celtic/Scotland games, though it has a great atmosphere on these nights - get there VERY early if you want a seat on these nights (i.e. for the Rangers - man u game, I went at half 5 to get a table in time for a 7:45 KO, and still didn't get a s
eat!) Also, has a rock night on a Friday - only went a couple of times - £1 entry, £1 Strongbow and 90p Jack Daniels. Good if you like loud rock music, otherwise, stick to Glow/Long bar instead.

A point about the Union bars - overall their great, but unfortunately they always close the bar 30 minutes before proper closing time. Closing times are, 12pm all days, except, Gannochy - fri 1am, Studio - either 1/2am fri and sat, Glow - wed 1am, sat - 2am.

Other Stirling Bars

Away from the campus, you've got quite a range. Just outside the uni, there's the Med/the Beat. A bar and Nightclub. It's an alright place, and no doubt you'll at some point end up there when you want to continue drinking after the union has shut! The club is pretty classy, but pricey, though they always seem to have promo's on, like £1.50 beers, and get yourself a beat card, to give you discounted entry. This place is open pretty much 7 days a week, till 2 sun - thur, and 3 fri sat. Though sometimes they have a 3am closing on a wed with free entry.

In town, there's 2 main clubs - Enigma and Fubar. They'll both be vying for your custom. Enigma is open most nights, though it's busiest on a Monday (£3/£2 entry and £1 most drinks - great when combined with Billy the Squid, open till 2) and Thursday which is the general student night (same as Monday) Fubar is a big club and always heaving! it's about the same cost wise as enigma, it's just a question of which most of your group prefers. I generally prefer Enigma on Monday, and went equally to Enigma/Fubar on Thursdays. Couldn't tell you about the weekends in town, as most people from uni go home, or stick to the union. Beat. Weekends in town are more suited to the locals! Bars in town vary, but are generally like any other town - an O'neills, other local pubs, a sports bar ect, pricing is generally equal everywhere.

The Uni Itself

Phew, after all this t
alk of drinking, it'll be a drag to talk to you about what your meant to be there for! The uni is on a campus, with Halls and a Medical centre on one side of a loch, and the academic buildings, union, and shops etc, on the other side. There's a main Atrium on the academic building side. This contains the union, shops (currently, post office & newsagent, susa shop - Staplers, paper etc, bookshop, Bank of Scotland, a 'supermarket' (selling out of date food!!!) a fast food place, a chaplaincy, Haldanes (the catering place) as well as the library and MacRobert centre (Cinema, theatre etc) it also links onto the Teaching buildings, lecture theatres etc. On the other side of the campus, you've got the sports centre - An Olympic sized swimming pool, Gym, tennis courts, squash courts, athletics track, football pitches, multicourts, etc. For a 'small fee' of £72.50 you get an academic year?s membership to these. Giving you access to most of them for free and a small fee for others. Quite good overall, considering that if you were elsewhere you couldn't get the facilities to these for such a small price.

You'll have to normally do 3 units in each semester. You?ll have to do certain ones depending on your degree, and you should be able to take a third different one. You'll meet your adviser in the first week and you'll sort it out then. You'll then have to go to the departments where they'll tell you when your lectures are, and to sign up for tutorials. Lectures will only be about a couple a weeks, and these are generally optional. Most notes for these can be found online and printed out to save you having to go or to save you writing notes. Lectures are easy enough to follow - turn up, fall asleep, or listen and take a bit in! Tutorials will be compulsory almost for all subjects. These are when you go to a 'classroom' with about 10 others, and a 'teacher' and talk/write about the subject. They're
pretty easy and not really challenging, depending on your subject. When signing up for your tutorial, try and pick one at a decent time - you don't want one on a Monday or Friday morning (or in general - any morning) when you think you might be out the night before! It's normally a case of 'miss 3 and your out' though some subjects may be lenient, I missed about 7 Cinema tutorials last semester but it was never raised, the topic of me being kicked out of the subject, but don't try to push your luck. You'll be given a reading list for your subject and a list of books to buy, you don't really have to buy these or indeed read these books, as if you bought every book, you'd have no money left. I bought 2 books for business at a total of £75, but only opened one of these once! You'll be given assignments for classes to do, these will generally be essays, though it may be a report, etc. You'll be given an amount of time to do these, though like everyone else, you'll prob end up doing it the night before! Depending on the subject, these assignments will go some way towards your final grade.

Exams take place at the end of each semester, - December and May. Most subjects give you an exam though a lucky few subjects have no exam. These are basically exactly the same as your Highers/A-Levels/SAT's ect. All your classes will end about half a month before the exam period to give you 'revision' time. So you can't complain you don't have time to revise (unfortunately!) though at least it's all free time.

Free Time/Stirling

When you aren?t studying/in classes/drinking! Then you've got free time, and luckily there's a good range of things to do. The Uni has a golf course, putting green, computer labs, a cinema and theatre for you to go to. You can get into town by the Buses, there's about one every 5 mins daily and about 1 every 10/15 mins other times, one way ticket is 75p an
d it takes about 10 mins into town. Stirling has got a bowling alley, Cinema, a shopping centre with all the usual high-street shops. 3 big supermarkets - Tescos in the centre, Sainsbury's about a 10 min walk away, and a Safeways (beside a shopping estate) about a 25 min walk - better for those with cars. There's also a couple of snooker/pool clubs that are quite good. Rileys is £5 for a years student membership, with table time about £2 per person between 10 and 5pm. There's also Spencers club which is home to Stephen Hendry and Marco Fu, don't know about prices, but I think I'll try there when my Rileys run out. Further a field, there's Glasgow/Edinburgh only an hours train ride away if that takes your fancy.

Well I?ve ran out of things to write about, but feel free to leave a comment and I?ll try and answer it. I hope this reviews been helpful to you and helps you in your decision to go to Stirling, the website www.susaonline.org.uk is also pretty useful for any questions. You should have a ball here and I hope you'll buy me a pint in Studio!

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