Home Sweet Home

Unlike India or US, in UK colleges do not take that active role in helping you with accommodation or food. Moreover, letting privately is expensive. So, I will just summarize my experience of finally being able to find a place to live in Oxford.

The most reasonable option is to try and get an accommodation from your college, if they have any (you will need to check and research that). Additionally, if you are looking for college accommodation, you will need to indicate it pretty early. I missed this and applied only after I had been accepted by the college. Needless to say, it was pretty late.

Alternatively, as soon as you get accepted, you can also start looking into University Accommodation and apply. I did not know about it until a current student told me and missed this as well. Again, earlier you are, the better it is.

If all else fails and you need to hire privately, you can pursue the following channels:

1. Contact current students who are hiring privately. Perhaps something can be worked out between the two of you so as when they leave you get the place
2. Regularly follow your batch's online forums (SBS internal, Google Groups, Facebook)
3. The college welcome site has a list of letting agents. Somehow, lettings in Oxford are as expensive as London, and most of the letting agents, in general, offer a not-so-good service. I found "Scott Fraser" and "John D Wood" useful.

If you do not have a base in England, you may find it harder to get the right privately let property. I would not advise coming and looking for a place while studying. Additionally, you may need a guarantor if your spouse is not working.

I used the following resources to locate my current home:

Prime Locations
Find a Property
Rightmove
Oxford Times
Daily Info
Gumtree

Hope this helps.

Worth

A small poem that I once wrote to inspire myself :D

Life is short, it is going by
Fears and prejudices will make it a lie
Hard work and loneliness may often hurt
But keep kicking your feet in the dirt

Without an aim life is a broken star
Without an aim you will not go far
Life is not a desert, it is an ocean
So get rid of every silly notion
And feel the plenty that you get
For the worst may not have come yet

Wipe your tears and your sweat
With every sunrise and sunset
To work hard and to grow
To move forward and to know
Is the best gift that one can get
Is the blessing that I covet

Past is a shadow and a dream
And as glorious as it may seem
Work for now with the goal in sight
Let valor be your guiding light
Use your time on this earth
Life is short, make it worth

Update

The loan is finally through and, as of now, I have paid my fees :). The time for action is slipping closer day by day, and I am looking forward to it. The next important mission on hand is netting an accommodation in Oxford. Once I am able to get it, I will definitely take out some time to blog the whole nine yards as well.

My Loan Story Till Now

About my loan journey, I tried exploring loan options in the UK due to a markedly lower rate of interest here. Unfortunately, there are not many options here. As far as I know. only Natwest offers an MBA loan, and that too if you have been in the UK for at least 3 years (even 2.5 years,as in my case, does not qualify). Additionally, the repayment term must end within the time period of your visa. This may not be a big problem for EU citizens, but for me it meant that I would have to repay the loan within 2 years at most, a ridiculous option at best.

I think Oxford is one of the few top-tier schools with no loan arrangements, and I have no idea why. I also think that MBA students from top-tier institutes pose a much lower risk than all students in general, but the UK Banking establishment does not seem to be in any mood to give as they perhaps bracket MBA graduates from top B-Schools with the rest (this article further explains why I say that). They, however, do have "Graduate Loans", loans that you can take after you pass out from the college and get a job. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

I finally managed to get a loan from back home (India) and it is going almost fine. Almost fine as at the last moment the central bank decided to raise base interest rates. This not only pushed up the interest rate that I would pay but also increased the amount of margin money required to secure the loan. Which brings home another lesson: don't wait till the last moment to transfer the money. I think a 4-week gap will allow me to recover from this delay gracefully, though a lesser gap could have been potentially suicidal. So, here I am waiting for the loan to actually come through: fingers crossed!