Imagine this: You’ve just moved into your first year accommodation, maybe you’re away from home for the first time, you’re still getting to know your housemates and everyone else. Then someone asks you a question you didn’t know you were dreading: ‘So, do you know where you’re going to live next year?’
As you go through the first term, particularly in the later weeks, it will seem as though this subject is the only thing that people have the capacity to discuss. Maybe you’re someone who’ll get a jump on things, but if you’re not, don’t worry.
…it will seem as though this subject is the only thing that people have the capacity to discuss.
For me it got to Christmas of my first year, and I still hadn’t secured a place to live. The anxiety it caused was slightly terrifying, I have to say. People around me were signing contracts and, in the brief minutes before lectures, talking to me about their houses: whether they had bills included, or not; who they were living with; how they were planning to get to campus; and, most stressfully, asking about my housing situation. My response usually went something along the lines of: ‘I’m still looking’ – and internal screaming.
My response usually went something along the lines of: ‘I’m still looking’ – and internal screaming.
However, things worked out because I found a decent place to live, and the person that I lived with is one of my closest friends. Now, I wouldn’t advise you to wait as long as I did to find a place for second year. Waiting this long did have a few downsides e.g. my second year place definitely wasn’t the best place that we could have lived in, and we might have found better had we started looking sooner. On the other hand, it wasn’t the end of the world.
My advice going into the first term would be to think things over in the first weeks, in particular the people with whom you may want to live. If you get a reading week, it could be a good time to look and book any viewings. Of course you may not get it right the first time, but try to balance beginning early and waiting: don’t wait too long to start looking and thinking, but don’t necessarily rush into anything. Good Luck.
