Rivalry is dead, live in intercollegiate halls

When you receive an intercollegiate hall for your UCL accommodation offer, it can be disappointing. You’re not going to one of the “mainstream” halls of residences, so you think you might be missing out on the classic UCL lifestyle.

You’ve heard stories of Cold Play meeting at Ramsay, of the yellow walls at Astor and the parties at Schafer, and you’ve been allocated a room with the weirdos from LSE and King’s. But all is not lost.

‘Different’ is always good

Spending your first year at a “non-mainstream” accommodation (big ups Woodland House), isn’t a bad thing. It’s an interesting experience in itself. While not living at a strictly UCL residence might seem a bit different to what you were expecting university life to be, it offers a unique variety to your daily life.

You meet more people

Intercollegiate halls house students from other universities, obviously. Some people seem to mind this, but it’s great to meet people from different unis, with different talents – especially several innovative minds from the likes of Central St. Martin or University of Arts London. It’s a bit clichéd I know to say “the more people you meet from more places, the broader your horizons expand”, but it provides a nice array of variety, as well as allowing you to promote your own university.

Your manage your life better

The distance from UCL is a bit of a hindrance and can be quite pricey, but it actually helps a lot with your time management, and compels you to try different ways of getting to university. A morning stroll to university only takes around 30 minutes and can be a very refreshing experience. It sets you apart from university a bit and allows you to manage your life not just around university but also separates your studies from the fun stuff.

But it’s not all just ‘uni’ life

There’s just a more of an open feel to it all. You can selectively choose when you wants to get stuck into the whole UCL carousel of activities, but being a bit further away in a less esoterically campus place can help when you just need a bit of quiet time away from it all.

Intercollegiate halls spice up your life in countless different ways, and you meet so many more interesting people than you otherwise would. I’m personally glad I ended up where I did, despite my disappointment to begin with.