Best Halls

[106430]

Which clayton halls are the best and worst in your opinion and why?
Applying for 2019 soon and not sure what order to put my preferences!
Thanks 

[em.bg]

Also wondering the same thing if anyone can help!
I saw Deaking and Farrer at open day and out of the 2 I preferred Farrer but would like more insight especially re.bathrooms/kitchens as weren't very nice in the halls I saw, especially Deakin.

[Professor Polonsky]

I've never lived on halls, and it hasn't come up in conversation in a few years now, so info might be pretty outdated, but here goes.

In general the 'older' halls in what they call now the 'Residential Village' (Deakin, Farrer, Howitt, Richo, Roberts) do have fairly dated facilities, but a fairly strong social side. Obviously they do differ a bit, both in terms of amenities/facilities and culture. The newer halls ('Clayton Urban Community') are much nicer, but the social side might vary.

The halls aren't cheap (though not prohibitively expensive either, *looks at Melbourne*), and I'm pretty sure that you could save close to $100 a week by going into a sharehouse not far from campus. In general, people go to halls to meet people, but a lot do move out after first year.

Personally, I would lean towards living on campus, but really ask around as much as you can - I don't think there's anyone active here who's lived on campus.

[K888]

I live on campus at the Monash Peninsula accommodation and have friends living on campus in the urban community at Clayton - feel free to ask questions if you have them and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability!

Professor Polonsky pretty much hit the nail on the head here:
- the residential village has older buildings and a strong social side - ideal if you want to party and stuff and get to know heaps of people
- urban community is self-contained, newer buildings and less social - if you want to make friends but don't really want to party, this is probably a good bet for you

It's also cheaper to live off campus, but it's just a question of whether you want to save money, have convenience, or whatever else. Some people are more than happy to trade a bit of extra money for the convenience of living so close to classes and living in a bit more of a protected community, and some prefer to have a bit more independence and want to strike out on their own.

IMO living on campus for first year is a great way to make friends and makes it easier to adjust to uni because you don't have to worry about commuting and such. Maybe you should contact Monash Residential Services to enquire about specific halls? They can probably give you some good insight to the different halls.

[Bell9565]

I'm also wondering what res halls would be best suited.
I'm hoping to study medicine next year (if not biomedince) so as I've been told I will be needing to study a little however, I do want a social life and don't mind if i get to party a couple/few nights a week. I'm deciding between Farrer Hall, Howitt Hall, Richardson Hall and Roberts Hall so if anyone has any descriptions of what the culture at each of them is like let me know!

[106430]

Thanks everyone for your help so far, it's really appreciated!

I won't be able to live in the new urban community because they have 47 week contracts and I will be going home for holidays (I live in QLD) and don't want to pay for extra weeks if I won't be living there.
I also don't know anyone in Mebourne or anyone who's planning to go to Monash so I'm pretty confident I would be living on campus if I get it.

Would still appreciate any more info anyone has, and I'm sure the others would too