Bel Aghedo has completed her first year of a law degree at University of GalwayBel Aghedo: 'I learned a lot about myself, that I could be really independent … and that I have a lot more skills than I thought.' Fri Aug 21 2026 - 05:31 • 3 MIN READBel Aghedo says moving away from home for college was difficult, not only because she missed her mother, but also because accommodation proved a real challenge.“Finding accommodation outside of Dublin was really hard for me,” she says. “My mum is an immigrant. We don’t really have connections in Ireland … We didn’t know about all the Facebook groups students have and stuff like that, so we were late to the game.”In fact, accessing accommodation was such a challenge that Aghedo couldn’t start college properly until just before Halloween. That made it more difficult to settle in, as she missed “freshers week and orientation. It was really hard to like catch up, not just on the school work but also making friends at university.”With first-hand understanding of these challenges, the law student says her first tip for would-be students goes right back to filling out the CAO form. She recommends students consider their options carefully. “If I could go back, I’d probably do an arts degree, because you can try three different subjects before you pick what you want to do.”Choosing a college closer to home so you can continue living at home is also something Aghedo highly recommends, particularly during a rent crisis. Landlords, she says, “don’t rent to you for four years. They rent to you on a one-year basis … A lot of students would like to do Erasmus in third year, or work placement in third year. And you couldn’t do that because if you leave, they’ll rent to someone else and you won’t have it anymore.”She’s encountered other issues around renting. “I was offered one. It was €600 a month, but they’d only let you stay five days a week, and you’d have to pack up all of your stuff so they could rent it as an Airbnb at the weekend.”For those who have already made their choice and are now about to start college, Aghedo says there’s no need to centre college social life solely around what you’re studying. Many of her fellow law students joined variations of law societies. But Aghedo says college is the time to try new things and even branch out of your comfort zone. “You could try dance club, or surfing. Galway is right on the coast so you could try all these different water sports.“I feel like every college has an afro society. They were really cool, and all really nice. My course isn’t all that diverse, so it was cool to be around people that look like me and talk like me. As a whole, societies are just fun. They always have events. They always have free food – which is always a plus.”Living away from home while going to college involves learning how to budget for things such as “rent, groceries, and public transport”, Aghedo says. To save money, Aghedo went home every second weekend. “I’d take stuff [certain foods] from home, just to save money”, she says, along with washing her clothes while at home.Bel Aghedo Finding a part-time job that works around Aghedo’s college and travel commitments has proven difficult, but there are other ways that students can earn money, she says. “I study law and every field has essay competitions and public speaking, and they usually have cash prizes. So I won a few of them, and that was cash for me.“A lot of people think when you go to university that everything just clicks, and life suddenly gets better. I think you don’t find yourself at university, you kind of create yourself at university. Every conversation, even the challenge of getting accommodation, I learned a lot about myself, that I could be really independent … and that I have a lot more skills than I thought.”Despite the challenges of finding somewhere to live, Aghedo says she is “really glad that I moved out for college, even though I did miss my mum a lot. It made me this whole other person, and I didn’t want to just stay in Dublin because it’s familiar.”All the same, the difficulties have meant she’s considering leaving her course.IN THIS SECTION