Lizzy
Royce
Thinking about your accommodation for second year can be quite intimidating. I didn’t feel as though I had a group of people that I felt I knew well enough to make the decision to move in with them. Moving into a house felt like a big step, and I wasn’t too sure I wanted to deal with landlords, separate insurance or utility bills. Plus, I really enjoyed my time in halls and wanted to have that same student experience again.
The location of halls was obviously very convenient, being just five minutes away from lectures and only 10 minutes from the library. It helped motivate me to work and by staying in a catered hall, I really liked being fed every day! I’m also someone who likes to meet lots of new people, so the big community feel of a hall worked really well for me.
The application process to reapply for halls was very simple – you use the same portal as when choosing halls in first year, outlining your preferences of hall and room and add the student IDs of anyone you’d like to live with. One of my friends also wanted to live in halls again, so we decided to live together.
She was questioning whether to do a placement and knew that it would be easier to be released from a halls contract than one in town, so decided halls was the best option. We applied to the same hall we were living in for first year because we felt settled there and knew priority was given to returning students.
Now we’re in second year and we’re very happy with our decision, we’re well fed and looked after too by the catering staff and warden team! It was definitely the right decision for me.
You know yourself what’s best for you and what will make you happy!