Campus Rooms

OK let's all move on.

patzer117

ok, taking up Myth's does anyone know what happens with waiting lists, when they are published, how people are picked etc.?

ilovemybrick

james80000 wrote: »

in fact i did get rooms. grow up

Nah.
I think what you did write is a rant. so i stand by my position.

Also the waiting lists are dealt with on a case by case basis. So when a room comes up that matches the criteria of the people on the waiting list the room is offered. but it won't be done at all until the end of july at least.

irishpacker

Change of topic :eek:

Does anyone know what the story is with the pearse street accomidation in houses 49 and 50 (the ones actually facing onto pearse street)? Has it been renovated to modern standard like botany bay? I've heard off a few people that the rooms are very small and the heating is abismal! Also, It's right above the day care centre! Looks like no lie-ins for me then!

ilovemybrick

ilovemybrick wrote: »

Nah.
I think what you did write is a rant. so i stand by my position.

Drop it. Last warning.

xeduCat

irishpacker wrote: »

Has it been renovated to modern standard like botany bay?

Depends on how you define modern

They were built (47-48/51-52) and converted for residential use (49-50) in the 1990s and haven't been 'renovated' since other than superficial stuff, although they were done to a relatively modern standard.

I've heard off a few people that the rooms are very small

They are on the small side, yeah, if you take into account that there are no living rooms/lounges (and the kitchens are really only for food prep and not for eating). For example, a Pearse St. bedroom is bigger than (most) Botany Bay bedrooms, but the Botany Bay rooms have a separate living room whereas Pearse doesn't. On the other hand, there are some good design tricks (large roll-out drawers under the bed, a really long desk, etc) that makes them easier to live in. If you're not a tidy person, you'll find it tough, but if you're organised, there is loads of storage space to tidy things into.

and the heating is abismal!

It's some bizarre storage heating system. If you can figure out how to work it, the room will warm up and stay warm for as long as you need it. And the shower is on a separate system so the hot water is always there, I think.

Also, It's right above the day care centre! Looks like no lie-ins for me then!

Not a huge problem for 49/50 - all bedrooms either face onto Pearse St itself (though this brings traffic noise) or onto the courtyard/Health Centre door, which means you don't overlook the 'play area'. There is some foot traffic as children arrive for the centre but it's not a huge noise for some of the higher rooms due to the layout of the stairs/platform - remember that all rooms in the Pearse complex are at at least first floor relative to the outdoor ground.

The west-facing rooms in Houses 48, now, face the play area for the creche, which is particularly noisy at about 11am...

irishpacker

xeduCat wrote: »

They are on the small side, yeah, if you take into account that there are no living rooms/lounges (and the kitchens are really only for food prep and not for eating).

No living area??? Are you having a laugh? How does that work? Where are you meant to chillax and eat your dinner?

Also thanks for the info!

xeduCat

irishpacker wrote: »

No living area??? Are you having a laugh?

No, I'm for real - I lived there three times (three different buildings!)

How does that work? Where are you meant to chillax and eat your dinner?

It varies. You eat your dinner on the above-mentioned long desk (at the start, I was organised in that I had one end of the desk for computer/work and the other end for food/drink - but that didn't last long) - though as the kitchens in Pearse are a little on the basic side*, you may find yourself using the Buttery (or takeaway food, or offcampus restaurants) quite a lot.

As for your chillaxing, varies according to taste - there is something resembling an armchair (not very squishy though) in your room, and some people bring in TVs, audio systems, beanbags, games consoles, that sort of thing (but again this will go in your own bedroom as there is no shared space other than the kitchen) - others just spend as little time as possible in the room and take up a corner of a GMB conversation room, or a desk in the library, or a stool at a bar!

* Ah, the kitchens. OK so the ones in 47-48-51-52 (kitchen between four residents) are different to those in 49-50 (around seven, I think), though the main difference is that there is more of the same equipment in 49-50 (i.e two fridges not one). But the basic configuration is a fridge (with icebox, no freezer), a "microwave/conventional oven/grill" 3-in-1, a sink unit and a couple of counter-top rings (with in some cases the fridge cunningly hidden underneath it), and a few (small) storage presses. There isn't really much in the way of food-prep space, and nowhere to sit, so - although it's possible to do complicated things - residents tend to use it for preparing breakfast, snacks, ready meals etc rather than major cooking. (Though I did have a vegetarian neighbour who seemed to be able to cook full, complex meals every day). In case people are interested in the other areas, GMB kitchens/lounges (1 per 4 or 5 in House 30, 1 (larger) per 7 in House 28) have a full oven (though I'm not sure if there's a College-supplied microwave) and counter space and a table/"couch", Goldsmith Hall is broadly similar though the numbers do vary a bit more, as do the sizes, Botany Bay is a private kitchen/lounge for the residents of a "set" (apartment, essentially - 2/3 people) which is probably closest to what you'd expect an open plan kitching/living/dining area in a modern apartment, Front Square is similar although again the numbers are all over the place. New Square and Rubrics are (in all cases I think) gas kitchens rather than electric, some have very big fridges and most have tables, though in many cases the tables are more like coffee tables than dinner tables, and there's - in most cases - no couch/chairs in the shared kitchens in New Square.

j1smithy

Back in the day when I was a student, I knew of one guy who had been evicted from trinity hall for a serious offence (believe he was almost kicked out of college for it) got campus for final year. Others i knew had been living in trinity halls for two years then got campus for final year. Moreover anecdotially it would seem an awful amount of Dublin people get places on campus, which is totally ridiculous. I knew one girl who lives next to Booterstown DART station who got a room, who had no involvement with societies. It would seem the allocation is almost random, and that they dont read even the adresses of the applicants, let alone that daft personal essay.

By right, no one who lives within an easy commuting distance should be entitled to be considered for rooms. The current system is very unfair.

irishpacker

xeduCat wrote: »

No, I'm for real - I lived there three times (three different buildings!)

I'm actaully in shock over this :eek: ... no living area, and no kitchen table? What the hell am I paying nearly 5000euro for then? A mattress? I'm struggling to imagine a kitchen without an eating area... do people brings tables from home? (Never thought that would be an issue but there it is!)

There can't be as good an atmosphere in the flat without a lounge area, do people just hide in their rooms? Or is it common practice to leave room doors open and wander around using other peoples TV's in their rooms?

xeduCat

irishpacker wrote: »

I'm struggling to imagine a kitchen without an eating area... do people brings tables from home? (Never thought that would be an issue but there it is!)

Gosh no, the kitchens are about the size of your average toilet - there is barely enough room for two people to stand and have a chat in it, and I don't think you'd even get the table through the door of the kitchen, let alone use it. It's really designed for preparing light snacks and little else.

There can't be as good an atmosphere in the flat without a lounge area, do people just hide in their rooms?

To some extent, yeah. I do think (based on mere observation and not any special knowledge of the system) that there tends to be a lot more second-time-residents (Scholars etc) and Sophister students in Pearse as - as you identify - it's not really set up for meeting new people. But if you look at it another way - the applicant is getting a private single room (that happens to have a kitchen down the hall), and not a room in a flat (Trinity Hall is more like that, where - although they put strangers together - it's much more like the idea of having a group of people living in a flat; similarly, Botany Bay is very much that, it's a door to a flat that contains 2 or 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen/lounge). So rather than a shared flat that happens to have lockable bedrooms, it's more like a group of private one-person flats that happen to have shared kitchens.

Some people do still tend to get on with neighbours and hang out with them, I tended to talk to them in the kitchen at times or occasionally borrow something/ask for help/etc but otherwise just got on with my own thing. When I was doing final year that was probably a good thing. I think I'm in the minority that actually quite liked living in the Pearse rooms - I appreciated the privacy and the big desk - but the recently redesigned or built rooms have taken a different approach, which does seem to indicate (and I do recall discussing this during SU days at some meeting) that there is a deliberate decision to include common space in new developments (in the interests of mental health, good neighbourly habits, etc!)

Or is it common practice to leave room doors open and wander around using other peoples TV's in their rooms?

Never ever saw that happening in Pearse to be honest, whether by me or any of my neighbours. The doors are all electronic-key-locked as each room is en-suite and self-contained. Others might have, though - the idea wouldn't appeal to me so perhaps other boardsies who lived in the Pearse empire might comment on that
.

irishpacker

Well I have to say this all sounds rather depressing! I was hoping for the full campus experience and instead it sounds like I'll be living in a hotel where I occasionally meet people in the corridors!

You are right when you say the pearse rooms are suited to final year and post grads though. I'm SS and the priority in final year is study above all else, I'm sure I will appreciate the privacy and easy access to the library during the year. When I applied they were the benefits I had in mind, the social side was a second. The freshman years are for mingling with new people and having wild parties, Senior year is all about the books (boring but true!). This is reflected in the fact that all my roomates are all final year or post grads (going by their Student numbers 05 and 06) I'm sure I would be quite pissed off if I had to live with drunken 1st years!

But still, I'm quite annoyed about the lack of a common area... It's nice to have somewhere that isn't where you work or sleep, where you can escape if you get me.

So where do the Pearse heads hang out of a rainy Monday afternoon when there is nothing to do? GMB isn't really ideal. I've seen enough of the buttery and would rather not have to pay for my meals, cooking for myself is prefered... There must be some hidden gem somewhere that only campus heads know about???

xeduCat

Maybe the rooms of a society or club you're involved in? Some societies have quite cool rooms including endless cups of tea. Or have a spot in the library where you work, keeping the room for non-work (depends on your subject and how much you like the library, I suppose!).

There's always the Pav or a similar establishment for the consumption of alcoholic beverages if that floats your boat.

As for cooking, maybe you might have friends on campus that have better kitchens (Botany Bay in particular) - bribe them by offering to sometimes cook for them too if they let you steal their space!

Don't just judge it on what I'm saying though - I'm pretty sure there are other Boards users who might give a different version to me...

irishpacker

Cheers mate, appreciate all the info. I'm actually a Club Captain so I'm expecting a fair bit of club business traffic comming through my room anyways, but it looks like the party is cancelled.... unless we see how many people can fit in the kitchen... and then try and beat that record on a bi-monthly basis!

Time Magazine

I never had as much fun as I had in my room on campus. Although it was small, it was known to fit fifteen people for parties. There was no TV, no microwave, no stereo, a dodgy oven, shaky wireless, no electric guitars (though I brought my acoustic in around Christmas time) and forty-eight steps to ascend every night.*

I passed the hours of final year, you know, studying. Come nine or ten o'clock a friend or two might pop over for a chat or a can of Bavaria or watch a DVD on my laptop. If I didn't go home at the weekend, I'd nearly always have people over.

I got my music hit from my laptop, wireless headphones and (eventually) iPod speakers. That's all I needed. I studied a good bit but tried to confine the studying to the library so that I wouldn't associate my room with study. It worked a treat. Despite not having much entertainment I was only bored very rarely.

As for secret places on campus, I must recommend a few things.
1. Hijack the Museum Building roof
2. Interfere with the Joly Memorial Trophy
3. Lead an expedition down the tunnels
4. Leave a big blue penis in an attic (eh, don't ask.)
5. Get the mod of the TCD forum kicked out of your party by security
6. Find free wine from the 1937 Postgrad Reading Room
7. Break into the archive in the 1937; steal a JavaScript book.
8. Take a late-night photo with the dinosaurs in the Museum Building
9. Picnic in the Chief Steward's Garden of Mystery
10. Find the access to the railings opposite Doyle's. Nearly get arrested.
11. Throw paper planes at people on College Green, preferably while wearing a crown
12. Sit on Bill Lecky's lap
13. Sneak girls onto campus
14. Dine with the Junior Dean(s)
15. Attend as many receptions/Balls with or without an invite as is humanly possible
16. Gain access to the security hut in the Arts Block late at night
17. Call security's bluff. Get caught out. Be called a disgrace by the Head of Security for "putting lives at risk"
18. Familiarise yourself with the access points via Westland Row
19. Climb through your friend's window and hide in his wardrobe until he returns
21. "Decorate" the roof of the Catex Building
22. Climb the Campanile as best you can
23. Locate the sources of free toilet paper
24. Place several water-cooler bubble-tanks onto nearby ceiling beams. Make it appear extra-terrestrial by removing evidence of ladders etc.
25. Manage to do all this without getting into real trouble

*Difficult when you're drunk. Although helpful on the night of the <snip>. I got smashed that night, really drank way too much. So drunk that I remember bashing into the wall while climbing the stairs and really hurting my shoulder. When I woke up naked in my bed the morning. I had an "Oh crap" moment. Then I felt the pain in my shoulder. I was thankful I remembered walking up the stairs alone

xeduCat

That is a much better answer than mine. And I think the max I ever had in a Pearse room was about 15, though that was for the very sexy and bacchanalean purpose of folding election leaflets :-O

irishpacker

Antithetic wrote: »

3. Lead an expedition down the tunnels

9. Picnic in the Chief Steward's Garden of Mystery

11. Throw paper planes at people on College Green, preferably while wearing a crown

19. Climb through your friend's window and hide in his wardrobe until he returns

Four things I simply must do!

Also, the fact you took the time to count all 48 steps means it must be a hell of a chore when you're pissed!

Antithetic

Antithetic wrote: »

Stuff

Um, and number 20 is?

Ron DMC

Myth wrote: »

Um, and number 20 is?

Classified. But I'm sure you've done it.

shay_562

Um, and number 20 is?

Find the MathSoc room and learn to count. (Sadly, Antithetic never bothered with this one...)

Awayindahils

shay_562 wrote: »

Find the MathSoc room and learn to count. (Sadly, Antithetic never bothered with this one...)

Catty.

Time Magazine

Myth wrote: »

Um, and number 20 is?

Damnit I had an actual number 20 and all but I must have deleted it by accident. Or maybe a Ninja edit by the mod it subtly makes fun of >_>.

20. Climb through bushes looking for beer on the afternoon of the <snip>.

ApeXaviour

Antithetic wrote: »

5. Get the mod of the TCD forum kicked out of your party by security

I can't believe I was the only one who was kicked out. I'm such a cheeky shite

ElleH

Antithetic wrote: »

3. Lead an expedition down the tunnels

What tunels?

ElleH

ElleH wrote: »

What tunels?

New square tunnels. I'd say more but I just couldn't get myself to go over the wires when I went down there.

ShoulderChip

there are loads of underground tunnels in college.

Myth

Myth wrote: »

New square tunnels. I'd say more but I just couldn't get myself to go over the wires when I went down there.

Under is the new over

Ron DMC

Myth wrote: »

New square tunnels. I'd say more but I just couldn't get myself to go over the wires when I went down there.

That makes you a wuss. All the cool kids can do it.

Ronny Mitchell

Ronny Mitchell wrote: »

That makes you a wuss.

It sure does.

Tricity Bendix

Ronny Mitchell wrote: »

That makes you a wuss. All the cool kids can do it.

Total plusone-age.

Myth, I'm docking you man-points.

MrRobert87

Where are the entrances to the tunnels?

ElleH

They are not secret tunnels anymore. Please do not give away the entrance then... rather find out for myself. :rolleyes: At night time... uhuuuuuuuuuuh!