As an international student studying at the University of Aberdeen, I have never felt more welcomed in a new place. All of the faculty and students I have met have been helpful and kind, there’s lots of social events for new students, and I feel challenged at a very good level in my courses. Accommodation at Hillhead Student Village is good, there is always a washer and dryer open in the laundry room, although the mattresses are really bad and you can feel the springs when you lay on them. Overall, My experience has been enjoyable to say the least.

Each of my courses include 1 lecture and 1 seminar per week, leaving me with Wednesdays and Fridays with no classes at all. This sounds appealing and in a lot of ways it is nice to have that flexibility; however when it came time to write my essays, it seemed like we could’ve benefited from more class time and lectures over the heavy reading we were assigned instead. The professors are kind and offer valuable feedback on assignments, though the content of the courses feel somehow redundant and difficult to understand at the same time.

I love our uni flat! The buildings are locked so that only your student ID can unlock the door, or for deliveries, you can unlock the door from inside your flat. This makes me feel safe and secure. The kitchen has tons of space, more than you’ll probably even need, and the freezer even has 4 drawers for if you and your flatmates want your own spaces. The appliances are a little old, but they do the job. There’s 2 bathrooms, which is nice in a flat with 5 people. Reception can be a little cranky, but you won’t really need to go to reception much anyhow.

The Duncan rice library and the divinity library are both great and both beautiful libraries. Kings and new kings are also lovely however macrobert and William Guild are just eye sores. The Union is fairly cheap and the food hall is also good. Student bar would be good inside though.

Lots of the psychology units are interesting however a few are a bit too slow paced, where it feels like the same content is being repeated, whilst this is helpful and gives you a thorough understanding some times it is slightly too much. Biological psychology on the other hand is so fast paced and it makes it difficult to keep up with the content. Also, when I signed up to study philosophy, I signed up to study morals, metaphysics, read meditations etc. Not to study logic and argument and be floored with maths. If you have a maths heavy course as part of the required unit then maybe you should make N5 maths a necessity for the course. As a person who does not have their N5 maths it makes the course even more difficult to follow. Other students are also confused by this course and feel like it’s impossible to understand logic.

New Carnegie is hell. I would not recommend it to anyone! My flat mates are nice but for what you pay it’s a joke. Not only is it about an hour away from town, it’s also £168 a week. For that price, I would expect the heaters to stay on whilst I’m at uni, to not have to file a maintenance report every other week, and have things seen to quickly. When I first moved in my door wouldn’t even open and then the lock kept breaking, with people coming up to try and fix it with the same solution. I shouldn’t have to wait for somebody to be free to clean up a puddle of water leaking into my room from a broken boiler and should at the very least have all my sockets working in my kitchen at all times. As well as the faults that come with this flat there is also no access to the promised on-site CO-OP. Only busses every half an hour and even still they don’t turn up half the time. Impossible to get a bus back as they don’t appear on the timetable. The living space is also so stupid. Like please why would you have 2, 2 seater sofas for 5 people?? Like make it make sense. The speed bumps are also killer and my tyres are defiantly on borrowed time. The car park should also have each bit allocated to individual accommodations. Considering I live in new Carnegie, I quite often have to park round the back at the opposite side and have to lug all my shopping up hill to my flat. Hillhead has also locked me into a tenancy which means it is near impossible to leave. I would strongly recommend The Old Fire Station on King St instead. £123 a week for an en suite and it’s only a 10 min walk to Union Street. You get allocated spaces for your car however you do have to pay for a permit but it’s honestly worth it. I am so excited to leave hillhead.