when I lived in stoke I actually lived in stoke just down the road from the spode china factory.
ummm.... top ten tips on living in halls at Stafford.
1, don't mess about with BB guns. having a replica gun that was a bb gun in our kitchen nearly cost me my place in halls in the first year, (which I found a bit silly at the time but can kind of see the point). cause the cleaners find these things when they come to empty the bins or do room inspections and such.
2, if you find someone moving out of a disabled room, move into it, I had a disabled room, (cause someone was happening to move out of it), they are massive. the disabled rooms are twice the size of the ordinary rooms, (if you imagine them without the shower room in them). and then they have another room of the same size as a bathroom, (if you're in a ground floor flat in halls then make friends with the guy in the disabled room so that you can borrow the bath that he has!
3, you can break into disabled rooms with a knife, (as the door opens outwards). this actually applies to pretty much all the flat doors as well on the ground floor since they open outwards to let wheel chair users get out easier, so once you get into the stair well you can get into a lot of rooms nefariously
4, the laundry in the uni may seem expensive, but it's more expensive in town, (and still cheaper to take laundry back to your parents).
5, the network is insecure, mostly. it's difficult to get free printing, but if you use your own laptop then you can do it as it doesn't have the printer credit software on it.
6, the lounge? I'm assuming you mean the SU bar, (or attached club) that was called sleepers when I was there, to get in at night you need to go around the front, there is a door on the side that the car park/way out is you have to walk round the building a bit it's kind of near where the windows on the canteen are.
7, you'll notice a lot of helicopters going overhead, that's cause there is an airbase near, (this is only a rumour that I'd heard when I was there from another student) but the uni is built on airbase land, and they don't let the TV licensing authorities come around with their scanning van, so most people don't bother with a TV license, (that said if they did come around the usual ploy is to have the paper work ready and filled out and just tell them that you were about to post it in the morning, see here's my filled out paperwork and cheque all ready to be posted).
8, The Octogon is always busy, but there will always be a free machine somewhere. in freshers week it's more busy, so if you want to use a PC then you can usually find one in the library cause most people don't find that building till later in the term.
9, The Uni offers MSDNAA (Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance).
this is a scheme where uni's partner with MS to provide software for students, and they have software that you can loan, copy and keep forever (for personal/non-profit use). you'll need to ask in the library about this. (this software includes stuff like windows OS's/windows server OS's server software (SQL etc) as well as applications such as office or visual studio.
10, sign up for everything that you can in freshers week. you get a lot of free stuff this way, when I was there you could give your name as interested in a Barclays bank and you'd get a free popcorn maker. (without actually signing up, just for showing interest).
and one last thing, you only have to pass the first year. first year studies are like a testing year, you have to pass with at least 40% in each module, but this doesn't count towards your final grade.
course weightings are something like 30% year 2 70% year 3.
ummm.... top ten tips on living in halls at Stafford.
1, don't mess about with BB guns. having a replica gun that was a bb gun in our kitchen nearly cost me my place in halls in the first year, (which I found a bit silly at the time but can kind of see the point). cause the cleaners find these things when they come to empty the bins or do room inspections and such.
2, if you find someone moving out of a disabled room, move into it, I had a disabled room, (cause someone was happening to move out of it), they are massive. the disabled rooms are twice the size of the ordinary rooms, (if you imagine them without the shower room in them). and then they have another room of the same size as a bathroom, (if you're in a ground floor flat in halls then make friends with the guy in the disabled room so that you can borrow the bath that he has!
3, you can break into disabled rooms with a knife, (as the door opens outwards). this actually applies to pretty much all the flat doors as well on the ground floor since they open outwards to let wheel chair users get out easier, so once you get into the stair well you can get into a lot of rooms nefariously
4, the laundry in the uni may seem expensive, but it's more expensive in town, (and still cheaper to take laundry back to your parents).
5, the network is insecure, mostly. it's difficult to get free printing, but if you use your own laptop then you can do it as it doesn't have the printer credit software on it.
6, the lounge? I'm assuming you mean the SU bar, (or attached club) that was called sleepers when I was there, to get in at night you need to go around the front, there is a door on the side that the car park/way out is you have to walk round the building a bit it's kind of near where the windows on the canteen are.
7, you'll notice a lot of helicopters going overhead, that's cause there is an airbase near, (this is only a rumour that I'd heard when I was there from another student) but the uni is built on airbase land, and they don't let the TV licensing authorities come around with their scanning van, so most people don't bother with a TV license, (that said if they did come around the usual ploy is to have the paper work ready and filled out and just tell them that you were about to post it in the morning, see here's my filled out paperwork and cheque all ready to be posted).
8, The Octogon is always busy, but there will always be a free machine somewhere. in freshers week it's more busy, so if you want to use a PC then you can usually find one in the library cause most people don't find that building till later in the term.
9, The Uni offers MSDNAA (Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance).
this is a scheme where uni's partner with MS to provide software for students, and they have software that you can loan, copy and keep forever (for personal/non-profit use). you'll need to ask in the library about this. (this software includes stuff like windows OS's/windows server OS's server software (SQL etc) as well as applications such as office or visual studio.
10, sign up for everything that you can in freshers week. you get a lot of free stuff this way, when I was there you could give your name as interested in a Barclays bank and you'd get a free popcorn maker. (without actually signing up, just for showing interest).
and one last thing, you only have to pass the first year. first year studies are like a testing year, you have to pass with at least 40% in each module, but this doesn't count towards your final grade.
course weightings are something like 30% year 2 70% year 3.