I’m Nia, an MSc International Management & Marketing student, and my blog today is going to be about how I chose my accommodation as a postgraduate student. When I was back home, in America, the most popular choices for accommodation was to live in the student dorm rooms or to get an apartment off-campus. When I attended my undergrad in New Orleans, the only real option for me for the first few years was to live on campus. It saved me the trouble, or pressure to go out and actively make friends because I had girls on my hall and I would be sharing a room with someone. As it turns out, my assigned roommate never showed up, but that still worked in my favour because I still had several people on my hall to make friends with. Another upside to living on campus was the easy accessibility to food and I was literally a five-minute walk away from any class that I had on campus. During my last semester at the university I moved into an apartment with one of my good friends. It was a nice experience, but it came with challenges. I was now further away from school, which meant that I had to get up earlier to commute, I didn’t see my friends as frequently, I didn’t have easy access to food anymore, and if I wanted to use the resources at the library on campus then I had to stay extra late on campus to get work done.
Because I was accustomed to living in an apartment, when I made my choice to attend the University at Sheffield, my instant thought when it came to what kind of place I was going to live in, was to get an apartment. While the student housing is nice and would have been a good entrance for me to make friends, getting an apartment was more in line with my budget. I started my initial search for apartments in Sheffield, from America, before handing over the reins of finding my accommodation to a friend of mine who already lived in Sheffield. When he presented the places to me, the options he showed me were all houses, which I had never considered before. Needless to say, I fell in love with one house near one of the big student areas in Sheffield, called Ecclesall Road. The house was perfect for me. It was nearly equidistant from the city centre and the Management School, where most of my courses where located. As a plus, there was a gym located on my street – no more excuses to skip it!
I share this experience to say that sometimes you have to be willing to accept an option that had never previously occurred to you. When my friend came forward with only houses as options, I was not ecstatic at first. The thought of living with 6 other people did not appeal to me at all. I was afraid that we would not get along and that their living habits would be so different from my own. As it turns out, I couldn’t be happier with my housemates. We all get along great for the most part and I can call them all friends. Living in a house turned out to be the better option for me in the end because I was lonely when I first arrived and having a house with so many people in it allowed me to meet people and make friends. The house also allowed me to stay within my budget and be situated in a prime location to make memories!