David Russell Apartments (DRA) and Fife Park | Accommodation Overview.

By far the most different of the student halls in St Andrews is the patch of land about 25 minutes walk from the town centre that plays host to the David Russell Apartments and Fife Park. They're different in that they aren't a single building or two buildings sharing a committee. DRAFP is a collection of buildings each with about a dozen flats in them. Each flat has about 5 people in it that share a living/kitchen area between them. It's described by the uni as offering the feel of private renting but with the support of living in halls. DRA and Fife Park share a combined committee that is responsible for about 1200 students, more than any other committee by far. As a result however they also have the largest budget.

The location of DRA and Fife Park is a bit of a sticking point of a lot of students and I've heard it called "D-R-Far away" in the past. It's about 15 minutes from the next closest hall, Andrew Melville and about 25 minutes from the student union, which does lead a lot of people to take the union's night bus (which is free to students) or get taxis (which are not) to and from the union on a Friday night. Most people get over the distance though because they enjoy living at DRA.

The rooms are ensuite and you can be catered or self catered, up to you. If you're catered then you'll eat in the facilities building which has a large dining room. If you're self catered then be prepared to have to trek to Tesco, Morrisons or Aldi (I'd recommend the latter two as their closer and provide a lot more choice). The kitchen/living areas of the flats are also commonly used to host Friday night pres which are always fun, even with only a few people as it quickly feels busy.

Like always, I reached out to the Hall Committee Senior Student, in this case Tom Gardiner to tell me
a little more about DRA and Fife Park [my comments in square brackets]:

"The first building you’ll see upon arriving is the facilities building, which has a canteen (for catered students), a music room, a cinema room and a general purpose function room. It is also the only hall of residence to have a year-round bar, where I have worked for three years. It’s a 20 minute walk into town which has earned the hall the nickname “D-R-far away” from sneering ABH residents [and to be honest myself and other uni hallers] who enjoy falling out of bed into their maths lecture. As someone used to walking for an hour to meet a friend for coffee in their nearest town growing up, this didn’t bother me but I know that the distance does bother the vast majority of DRA residents. Every cloud has a silver lining though, and I found walking to the union from a flat party was a very enjoyable way to spend time with people. You could also just get a bike - the cycle is about 4 minutes [I would also recommend getting a bike in St Andrews because it makes things so much easier].

Almost all of the events run by the DRA committee take place in the bar and many feature free or subsidised alcohol. Even without a free drinks event, the DRA bar is among the cheapest in town. If you aren’t interested in drinking, fear not for most of the executive committee aren’t that big on it either and you can be fairly sure that we’ll run events that we would actually want to go to ourselves. It would be no fun running them otherwise. There has been a weekly pub quiz in DRA every week for some years now, hosted by one of the porters. We are also intending to establish a weekly pool tournament (DRA has a free pool table and table football), a board games night and more.

The social life of DRA is quite different to the other halls, most of whom have several hundred people living in only one or two buildings and who inevitably meet everyone else at mealtimes and the general goings-on of day to day life. Your social life in DRA will be whatever you make of it and you will get out what you put in, especially if you’re self-catered. I’m not going to sugarcoat it and tell you that it’s easy to make friends here. It’s not inherently hard but what I mean is that there is nothing stopping you from making friends, but not much to help you do so either. There’ll be events on at the bar most nights of most weeks, head along to those. Get to know all the people that one of your friends lives with and befriend them too. If you like them make it a habit to hang out there. Above all, try to get on with your flatmates. Don’t make the mistake of never getting to know them. Learning to get on with your flatmates despite your differences is the best thing that you could do for yourself at DRA. Like I said, the hall is what you make of it and life here requires you to take responsibility for your own happiness and wellbeing more than any other hall."

I realise that Tom's comments might be a little more doom and gloom than the comments of some of the other senior students when talking about their halls but I do find that many of my friends that have lived in DRA, met a lot of their friends outside halls, in lectures and societies, whereas I and others in more "traditional" halls tend to have a group of "hall friends". I agree with Tom that it's not too hard to make friends at DRA, and in fact I know a lot of people who's best friends are in their flat or the flat next door, but it's not quite the same as in the other halls.

I know I've sort of finished on a rather dull tone so I'll leave you with some comments from DRA residents from this year:

"Everyone is there so it is like a mini community, distance isn't that bad because there's the night bus and the back path. Rooms are a good size and since flats only have 5 people you get to know them better. Also DRA has a free pool table" 

"The good thing about DRA is the atmosphere, unlike any other halls it’s a group of around twenty buildings very close to one another. Think of an Olympic village with only students. The real challenge is trying to visit every building at least once!"