Making the step to move away from your familiar home to live with strangers in a completely new surrounding can be daunting and/or thrilling. However, living in halls is the first step of life at uni…
The accommodation application process requires you to rank your living preferences from first to third choice based on factors such as rent cost, distance to uni and room facilities. Once you have guaranteed your place at Newcastle University, you will be notified which halls you will be living in. I ended up getting my third choice – Central Link Liberty Plaza – but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise! Central Link is one of the newer halls – modern, en suite rooms and less than 10 minutes walk away from main campus and the city centre. Also the Business School is literally next door – ideal for the more sluggish amongst us.
Probably one of the most intimidating parts of starting uni is committing to living with people you don’t know for most of the year. A good way to seek out your flatmates prior to the moving in is by joining a Facebook group for your halls of residence. Then you will be able to recognise a few friendly faces in between the awkward bagsy-ing of your kitchen food cupboard! Living in halls will likely consist of: a flat party, a flat roast dinner, a flat movie night, a discussion about accents, a disagreement, a messy flat, a clean flat (before the flat inspection).
Cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, paying rent. Chores that are now your responsibility on top of studying, socialising and sleeping. Living in halls sets us up for life!