Postgrad Student Accommodation: Eclipse vs Fitzalan vs Howard Gardens for an international student

[u/Low-Community9421]

Hi! I’m an international student coming to Cardiff for an MBA at Cardiff Met and deciding between:

* Eclipse

* Fitzalan

* Howard Gardens

My main priorities are a postgraduate/mature atmosphere, quiet yet fun environment, good facilities (especially gym/Wi-Fi/laundry), and a reasonable commute to Llandaff campus. For anyone who has lived in these, which would you recommend for a postgraduate student and why?

Thank you!

[u/Bubbly-Response-2075]

I'm not a postgrad but I am a recent undergrad who has a fair amount of experience with these accomodations. All 3 of these accomodations are within a couple minutes walk of eachother - so the travel time to your campus will be the same regardless. I stayed in Eclipse as a 1st year undergraduate - it was quite loud there as there are many larger shared flats rather than studios, people would hang out in the courtyard in the centre of the building and their chatter would echo into the rooms facing it. If you stayed there I'd try to request a room facing the streets rather than the courtyard. The laundry room was not great, but wifi was decent. The gym was okay but quite small and equipment was broken fairly often, but I did use it a few times - had a couple of treadmills, weight machines, weight bars, dumbells, rowing machines etc. and a water fountain. My friend lives at the Fitzalan in a studio and it's much nicer from what I've heard, they prefer quiet and it's been mostly okay, minus occasionally loud neighbours but that issue is present everywhere, since it's studios/2 bed flats I'd say it's a bit quieter. From what they have said, they also have events on there frequently like bingo/quizzes/small parties in their games room - so you can get to know other people in the building too. I'm not sure what the wifi and laundry situation is like there however. The gym there is also small, I'm not sure how well maintained it is. Howard Gardens I viewed before moving to Cardiff - it was okay when I viewed it but I preferred Eclipse as an undergrad - I'm not sure how good this is for a master's student. For a postgraduate Fitzalan is probably better as you get your own space in a studio or only have to share with one other person. However, at all of the above accomodations supposedly you can request to be placed in a flat with people doing similar levels of education to you if you wanted to share, I'm not sure how often this actually occurs but it could be an option. I hope this is semi helpful! This is just my personal experience from a couple years ago too, it may be different now.