Queen Mary

What can I say about QM?
It’s wonderful. Especially if you get to live on campus.
I get to wake up with 5 minutes to spare before a lecture, we have a cockney cleaner who comes every weekday, theres a shop 2 minutes down the road and a laundrette round the corner.
Oh. And I live in Maynard. So the smoking areas right behind the house.
The campus smoking ban, perhaps the only downside to QM, but I have been promised smoking areas ARE coming.
Student Union are fantastic, Drapers, if a little skanky and known for drunken rugby players, is as decent as an SU gets, and there are endless societies for your little souls to enjoy and express themselves.
OUR ARTS DEPARTMENT IS GREAT. We get taught by living and working practitioners with a real insight into the industry, all researching and working on books; yes, we are taught by the people who WRITE the theory books we study.
So all in all a wonderful place to be, big up QM!

The Great Hall is a really cool venue for a music festival! We came here for the JaJaJa festival and witnessed some truly magical moments on this stage (BYRTA!). It has a really cool atmosphere, the stage is beautiful and the acoustics were good.
I took away a star for the state of the toilets and difficulty finding the venue.

I spent 3 years at this uni and it was probably the best 3 years of my life. I got my degree, met my best friend, and I basically lived THE life. But of course mile end has it’s drawbacks. We weren’t based in zone 1, but we had a campus. Every memory of Drapers and the New Globe (rip) brings a smile to my face.
The halls were great. Well, I lived at Richard Fielden, so maybe I was a bit spoiled. Living in the area can be a bit sketchy, but I suppose you can look at it as though it had «character».
As for education, I studied law so our faculty was top notch.
Ahh, Queen Mary… You made me who I am today.

I studied abroad here in the fall of 2009, and all in all I think it was a good fit.
For American students thinking of studying abroad here:
Pros:
–the dorms are fantastic — you have your own large single room with an attached bathroom, and you share a kitchen area with seven other people
–the students (both international and UK-​based) are very friendly
–you’re right by two Tube stations (Mile End and Stepney Green) which have you in the heart of London in about 20 minutes
–unlike many London colleges, this is a self-​contained campus, meaning that your classes are just a 5-​minute walk from your dorm
–the classes heavily populated with international students are not particularly demanding, which is ideal if you want to spend a lot of time traveling (like moi!). I highly recommend the History of Architecture class (basically a series of field trips).
–you have a week-​long «reading week» (aka time to go backpacking through Italy)
Cons:
–you’re about a 15-​minute walk from the nearest large grocery store, Sainsburys
–the library at this campus is more like a common area than a study zone, with a very poor (but growing) book selection and people talking loudly everywhere
–professors in the more «intense» courses are not particularly receptive to the thought of you missing a day of class to spend a long weekend in, say, Barcelona or Florence, so keep this as secret as possible.
Overall, this is a great option if you’re thinking of studying abroad in London, and I’d highly recommend it!

I studied abroad at Queen Mary in 98 – 99 for my final year of undergrad (damn I’m old). I was focusing on Literature at the time (finishing my courses) and absolutely loved the Lit program here. Great professors. I recall taking a great British Jewish Literature class with Bryan Cheyette (not sure if he still teaches here) which was excellent. Another great class that stood out was a Post-​Colonial Caribbean literature class but I do not recall the professor’s name. I thought they had an excellent Lit program overall.

My University is awesome, and that is the brutal truth and the important difference between you, the reader, and me, the student. You are blissfully unaware of what we get, here at QMUL. The student village is awesome, with rooms for over a thousand first years available. I live in the largest building of them all, 450 people all present and loving a bit of uni life.
There is a convenience store just a one minute walk from my building, selling almost all of the groceries you could desire. There is a laundry room with about 16 washers and driers, and to sort your washing out (a once a week occurance) will only cost you £2.50. I strongly feel that when I move out of this place in my second year that I will be using this laundry room still! The student union, a five minute walk across campus, provides both a large and well furnished gym and a bar that turns into a club for certain nights of the week (Well, most nights of the week) so it’s awesome.
The academia of this university can’t be doubted. An excellent school of knowledge, complete with a massive library that opens until midnight on weeknights makes the learning experience awesome. The lecturers are accessible and helpful in almost all cases and the labs and seminar rooms are top of the range. An excellent place to come.

Having recently graduated from Queen Mary I have, over the course of the last three years, had the opportunity to experience first hand the atmosphere, academic standard and social opportunity this insitution offers. Situated in the increasingly trendy area of Mile End, with great transport links to the city, students of this university have the opportunity to live within the last genuine working class area of central London before it is swallowed up in the unstoppable tide of gentrification.
I love this area of the city; there is a buzz in the air everywhere you go, development is everywhere you look and down every street you will find an array of different cultures all contributing something unique to this cosmoplitan sprawl. Mile End and the surrounding areas offer their own range of shops, restaurants, pubs, bars, clubs, parks, markets, cinemas, galleries, theatres and much else besides. Some areas can be a little intimidating but I feel the media plays an overly-​large part in stressing the dangers rather than the positives. Chances are, so long as you’re sensible, you’re not likely to run into much trouble.
Queen Mary campus itself is located a stones throw away from Mile End and Stepney Green tube stations. During the last few years it has undergone a rather dramatic facelift with the completion of work on new buildings such as the curve, remodelling of the student union and the student village and continuing works on a new humanities building. These new features are demonstrative of the increasing popularity of this consistently improving university.
Aside from the forementioned students union which houses Drapers Bar, Queen Mary offers several coffee/​cafateria style bars and restaurants, laundry services, excellent library facilities, on campus accomodation (a rarity for London university’s), sports facilities including a new state of the art gym, and several shops. Anything not available on campus can be found within a short walk.
Socially there is a wealth of clubs and societies available for you to join from Hockey to Croquet, History to Football and Climbing. Most revolve around drinkin games of one sort or another and can be a great way to branch out, meet new people and secure that elusive criminal conviction. Just down the road one can find the über-​trendy areas of Brick Lane and Shoreditch and after a short walk to the tube, the rest of London’s vibrant social scene is at your disposal.

Okay, so I’m a little bias having spent the last three years of my life here — but it doesn’t get any better than an insider giving you all the details!
Whilst the area is dreadful [Mile End] and is on a rapid decline in terms of cleanliness, safety and general hygiene — the University itself could not by any cleaner, safer and accommodating.
The campus is lovely — with new refurbishments of the Student Union, a new state-​of-​the-​art Gym, Drapers bar, Physics building and a wealth of cafes including a large, comfortable Costa — as well as a Starbucks inside The Curve [a popular dining area].
The student accommodation is affordable, clean and best of all — right on campus! First years get priority over on-​campus accommodation but surrounding areas [Mile End, Bow, Whitechapel] offer a number of housing establishments designed specifically for students.
The English and Law departments are known as being particularly successful at QMUL and being a student of Literature myself, I can say I have received a fantastic exposure to the field with great modules on offer and a good standard of teaching.