iQ Student Accommodation
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Shoreditch IQ
This Uni accomodation was honestly so awful that it not only ruined my whole uni experience, but got so bad I even had to drop out of my university (City Uni of London). I was 18 and coming to London from York, so I wanted a nice place to stay for my first year. I persuaded my parents to let me stay here, and was so happy when it was confirmed. I'm writing this 3 years after dropping out, so not this isn't an emotional review - I just want to try and save anyone here currently considering this as an option. 1) The building was so hot, it made me physically ill somedays, forcing me to take constant breaks every 30 mins to have a cold shower. I wish I could say I was exaggerating but I'm not. I was on the 10th floor and it was boiling. No aircon in the rooms or anything like that. The window had a safety latch that only allowed you to open it an inch, so it essentially did nothing. It was such a small gap, I couldn't even fit an aircon tube out of it, which I paid £360+ for as it got so unbearable. Reception did nothing, and I was forced to return the aircon back to argos and deal with the heat. 2) The fire alarm would go off CONSTANTLY. I'm not kidding when I say that it would go off at least 4 - 5 times a week, often after 11pm. Usually it lasts 5 mins and I would sit in my bed with a pillow over my ears as it was so loud. One time, it started at 12:45am at night, and they didn't turn it off for a whole 3 hours! I had an exam the next day that I completely failed as I was so tired from the night before. Honestly disgraceful. 3) None of the facilities you see are real. They have such nice pool tables and gaming consoles in the sky lounge, which was such a good idea. What they don't tell you is that the playstations have no internet access, and have no games whatsoever, so essentially useless unless you bring your own games - but even then you can't play online. The pool tables would constantly be "Off Limits" and you weren't allowed to play. You would have to exchange your ID at the desk to get the pool ques and balls, but even then I got told that it's off limits due to people smashing them. 4) The laundry situation was terrible, not much to say apart from charging insane prices. £10 for a basic wash. Simply taking advantage. Most of my "Friends" in the building were having to take it across the street about a 5 min walk to a laundrette who did it all cheaper! 5) Everyone was so anti-social it was honestly miserable. Now this is the only point on this list that isn't the accommodations fault - but it was a huge problem. 99% of people in the building I just never saw. I remember thinking that the building was empty as it took 2 weeks before I even saw anyone on my entire floor! Made me feel so miserable and lonely. Don't get me wrong, the sky lounge was always full of people, but they would always be friends of people in the building, and would only hang out in their own groups. Ontop of this, most were really disrespectful and they would smash TV's - Break the Pool equipment and one time I even got told to "F*** off" by someone trying to throw their own party on the top floor and not letting anyone use it apart from their small group. 5) Last part, the security guard was terrible. Was he a nice person? Sure. But I can safely say that 9 times out of 10, he would be fast asleep and I would awkwardly have to wake him up on the occasion that I needed to ask them something. Overall just terrible. Ruined my experience so badly I didn't even make it past 3 months before dropping out. Shameful company.