First Year Accommodation

One of the biggest decisions for an incoming student is deciding on accommodation. Our aim in this section is to provide you with useful tips that you may not have heard about through the official UCL website!

Our biggest suggestion is to be as close to campus as possible. Getting to your 9am lectures is hard enough as it is – so try and avoid a possible trek. There’s a lot of accommodations; some are right by campus, some can be up to a half an hour walk away. So really do your research on the proximity to campus! This is particularly important if you want to be visiting student pubs and nights out, which are all right next to and around UCL.

Secondly: you probably do not need your own bathroom. While an ensuite sounds appealing, no one we know has ever had an issue sharing the space and students usually have two large bathrooms to share between 6-8 people. Besides, it means that you do not have to deep clean the bathroom as cleaners are sent in to do it! And, all the ensuite bathroom options are much further out from campus, so you’ll likely be placed further away.

If you’ve been doing your research on social media, you’ll find that some accommodations are more social than others. This stereotype (most of the time) tends to be true. If you want to be in a place that has a bigger common room and has parties, take a look at Ramsey, Astor and Schafer.

Second Year Accommodation

UCL student accommodation is typically offered only if you’re in your first year. So, by second year, you’ll have to either commute or find a new flat. All of us have just moved into new accommodations, so we’ve compiled a list of tips for when you have to do so.

1. When should I start looking?

Firstly, you’ll find that a lot of your friends in other universities in London start looking really early. London is the one place that this doesn’t really apply to, and so most people start looking for flats typically in mid- to late-spring.

2. Advice on how to begin looking for a place

One of our best tips is to look along tube lines. With lectures, going out, seeing friends, visiting family, exploring London, being next to a tube line makes your life so much easier. This is especially if you want to travel in on the tube/bus to UCL. So, pick a tube line that goes to somewhere near the campus (eg to Warren Street, Euston Square, King’s Cross etc), and follow it. Find where the tube stops are and search for houses near them!

Personally, we found that tube lines that took us closest to campus were Northern, Victoria, Hammersmith & City, Circle, Piccadilly and Metropolitan.

From our experience, we also found that most people live in or near Camden – so that’s worth looking at too, especially if you want to be surrounded more so by university students

3. How can UCL help?

UCL have a lot of resources on their main website for those who need help searching for housing. They can also help you to check if the property you are looking is legitimate, or whether it is a potential scam. Follow the link to see more: HERE