Emmanuel College

Many a student moving to Brisbane for university will end up at college accommodations. I was one of these. I looked at a lot of the different colleges on campus, and while I am sure all of them would have been more than adequate, I chose Emmanuel.
Emmanuel is co-​ed and the rooms are quite big. The average room has a single bed, large desk, wardrobe and shelves. While co-​ed, they arrange the floors by gender, which is nice when you know you don’t have to share a bathroom with a messy boys. The rooms were cleaned weekly, and your washing also done if you got it in on time. If not, there were always coin run machines available. The dining hall is nice a big and even though the food was never fantastic it still did fill us up.
Emmanuel is one of the prettier colleges, backing onto the Brisbane River and with many smaller red brick buildings, allowing you to form a real community in your floor, hall, and with the college overall.
Now college is pretty much as crazy as all the stories. But it is also a great place for support and friendship. I would never have gotten such a good introduction to Brisbane and UQ if I had just moved into a house. Emmanuel really adopted me and looked after me for my first year. I could go on for ages about all my experiences at Emmanuel but instead I will just urge you to make your own if you decide to go here.

Emmanuel College was my home for the first year and a half of my university days. Moving some 600 km away from my parents to study, a room in a college on the UQ campus was the perfect choice.
Study, however, became something I did on the side, college being my main occupation. Funnily enough, my GPA soared when I left college! But let’s not focus on that aspect. I wouldn’t have had my university experience any other way, as my time at Emmanuel College remains the funnest year and a half of my life to date.
I think anyone who’s stayed in any of the ten colleges on the UQ St Lucia campus would say they had a pretty awesome time. But there are a few reasons I chose Emmanuel. Firstly, it’s co-​ed. I wasn’t interested in going to a women only college. Secondly, I liked the look of the place. Emmanuel is one of the biggest colleges, has river frontage and all of its accommodation is no higher than 3 stories. Thirdly, they offer lots of extra little services that most other colleges don’t. For example, you get three meals a day, every day; you have your room cleaned once a week; and, they do a load of washing for you once a week. Finally, Emmanuel has a strong reputation for being one of the most social and convivial colleges on campus, heavily involved in inter-​college activities. Sports include rowing, rugby, tennis, swimming and hockey; cultural activities include choir, debating and dance; and, there are regular social activities such as balls and parties hosted on the grounds of each college.
Probably the best thing about staying in a college, particularly Emmanuel, is that you make friends there that you’ll have for life (even if you don’t get much study done!)