Whats Aberdeen Like (City Life, Atmosphere etc.)?!?

[Hamzah1992]

Hey!
This is the second thread i've started concering Aberdeen Med School, but i'm curious about what aberdeen is like as a city.
It far up north so this i'm interested to know what goes on around there?
Whats the weather like for starters? Entertainment? City Life? Lights? Rural or Urban?

Feel free to post!

Peace Out.

[Frank E]

Hey!
This is the second thread i've started concering Aberdeen Med School, but i'm curious about what aberdeen is like as a city.
It far up north so this i'm interested to know what goes on around there?
Whats the weather like for starters? Entertainment? City Life? Lights? Rural or Urban?

Feel free to post!

Peace Out.

Weather - Bring a snazzy coat and live a little.

Entertainment - Depends what you do. Plenty cinemas, shopping (a new shopping centre & 10 screen (bit like the one at J10) opened 29 Oct) plenty sports particularly around the uni, too many bars and drunks, clubs lack the diversity of music like down south, there's the beach the 1st week of July. There isn't a central swimming pool, the city council seem to have forgotten the regular Council tax paying residents of Aberdeen in favour of it's itinerant student population and subscribers to car culture. With two Universities in the city of 200,000 there's a lot young people around during term so it should be easy enough for anyone to carve out a social niche.

City life - It's not a large city and a lot of (new) money around from the oil and gas.

Lights -The lights are OK I suppose, odd question. Down on the street they are mainly affixed on standards along arterial, capillary and peripheral routes but on the high street and busy pedestrian areas floodlights are affixed on the sides of the buildings to reduce the number of street furniture obstacles to the unimpeded flow of pedestrian traffic. The lighting in the city is currently in the process of being migrated from low pressure Sodium (SOX), which give an orange illumination with poor colour rendering IIRC Ra in 0s) to high pressure sodium SON-T lamps with a higher colour temperature and better colour rendering. The replacement of the lighting standards and luminaires is being done as the existing standards reach the end of their useful life (1).

The construction of the Matthew Hay building, where all of the teaching will be done makes use of design features which enhance environmental sustainability of the building (2). In fact the designers picked up a ream excellence award for the environmental design which doesn’t compromise the building usability (3) Therefore the building makes use of natural lighting, solar gain, cooling and water resources as much as possible.

Unfortunately I missed the invitation to the public opening lectures as my e-mail was down for a month so I haven't seen much of the completed building. From what I have seen from the public areas and the outside of the building, the general lighting in lab and lecture and corridor areas is by means of high frequency fluorescent luminaires with appropriate lighting controls (dimming, occupancy detection, photovoltaic cells) for the intended usage of the respective spaces. High frequency lighting reduces stroboscopic effect c.f 50Hz lighting and therefore the incidences of eyestrain and headaches. The stroboscopic effects of baseband lighting can be particularly apparent and problematic when using rotating machinery such as drills in orthopaedic, dental and neuro surgery or if using visual display equipment such as heart or real time imaging monitors. I expect the lamps are of the low energy type with reduced mercury content thus providing high efficacy with reduced environmental impact.

The task lighting in the simulated clinical areas I expect would be high frequency, high colour temperature and high colour rendering index (Ra approaching 100) lighting to simulate we perceive as the gold standard of colour recognition - daylight.

Well you did ask! ;-)

Rural/Urban - Aberdeen isn't a massive conurbation like B'ham, Manchester etc but it has everything in a traversable distance. The countryside is easily accessible for hill climbing skiing, rambling, scubadiving, kayaking and other outdoor pursuits.
:-)

(1) ttp://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/Roads/ns_roa/roa_Street_Lighting.asp

(2) Latest News
(3) Faber Maunsell picks up two prizes at 2008 BREEAM Awards

[Eilidh McIntyre]

I think Aberdeen is a place people tend to love or hate. I love it because it is big enough that there is lots going on but small enough that i feel at home here. But i come from a pretty small place and i do know lots of people (who don't live here) who don't like it. I think it is very personal. Come and see it when you apply/come for an interview and see how you feel about it.

I love it here!

[JD scrubs]

Hi there

I am a first year up here in Aberdeen and am thoroughly enjoying it. I came from Glasgow and remember worrying if Aberdeen would not have as much going on as Glasgow did. However I can assure you that it in fact does! The only difference is that you have to look for things (clubs/comedy festivals etc) as opposed to Glasgow where they are all in your face as you walk out any building as they are all over the place!

Hope I helped

JD

[sara7000]

This may sound stupid but is Suttie centre the Mathew Hay building? :O

[acas13]

This may sound stupid but is Suttie centre the Mathew Hay building? :O

No... the Suttie Centre is an entriely new building, its really good

[sara7000]

ok im confused now lol the mathew hay building was the old one? suttie centre is the new "state of the art one"? is the suttie cntre where all the teaching takes place now?

[Kensei]

This may sound stupid but is Suttie centre the Mathew Hay building? :O

No... the Suttie Centre is an entriely new building, its really good

Oh, gawd...

*deep breath in* :P

@Sara7000 - no, that's not a stupid question. Back in 2008/09, we (at that time - 1st year medics) were confused as well when they announced that name of the building will be changed to Suttie Centre. Still, some of the medics prefer to call it Matthew Hay Bld, just becuase Matthew Hay's got a nicer 'ring' to it (personal opinion, naturally)

To sum it up: it IS an entirely new building, but the name was changed before the project was completed. Not all of the teaching takes place there, but anatomy facilities are all on 3rd floor and clinical teaching only takes place in Matthew Hay/Suttie Centre now. Some of the 1st year lectures are be held in Auditorium, and some in Polwarth (main med school building) lecture theatre. U might also occasionally be asked to go to Zoology building on King's campus.

[sara7000]

lol thnx kensei btw I have an interview in a week or so and have some questions on aberdeen, would u be willing to answer them? although u porobably have 100 TIMES by now on this forum lol thnx

[Kensei]

Sure sara7000, go for it. U can PM me if u prefer that mode of communication.