I’ve finished first year…What’s next?

Moving out of your dorm room after first year can be tough. It feels as if you finally settled in and now you have to leave. Moving on to the next chapter of your life can be overwhelming, but hopefully, these move out tips will help ease a little bit of the stress!

What to do with your stuff:

• If you sign a summer lease just bring it to your new place.
• Find a friend or family in Vic to store it for you.
• Find a storage locker. Do this early as most of them will be full by the end of March. They’re usually around $100 for a month.

How to transport your stuff:

• Get a friend to help drive you.
• Rent a moving truck if you really have to. U-haul is about $20-30 for a cross Vic move.

How to get rid of stuff you don’t want:

• Take it to the campus free store at the bottom of the SUB.
• Give it to friends.
• Sell it on Vic swap and shop on Facebook or other second-hand online things.
• Donate to a second-hand store.
• Make sure you don’t leave stuff you don’t want in your room. You should leave the room the way you found it. When leaving the room for the last time you will clean the room, turn off all the light, unplug everything that needs to be unplugged, and return your keys to the res office.

How to apply for summer courses:

• You will find this on MyPage. It will be similar to applying for your winter session courses. To see if courses are running in the summer, check out the UVic courses of instruction webpage and click on the courses you’re interested in. Go to add or drop classes under registration, in the student services part of MyPage to add classes.

Summer jobs:

• Young Canada Works has some interesting job experiences across Canada.
• Talk to your co-op and career advisor for job advice and to help you polish up your cover letter and resume as well as interviewing skills.
• Don’t be discouraged if you don’t find a summer job right away. Sometimes you have to apply for a whole bunch before you get one and that’s okay!

Housing for next year:

• Check out the Facebook page called UVic off-campus housing.
• Try the second year lottery for residence, however, this is not guaranteed. If you decide to volunteer to become an orientation leader for the following year you can be guaranteed to live in residence as a thanks for your time.
• Also check out places4students.com, rentboard.com and Kijiji.
• Talk to a knowledgeable adult before signing a lease to make sure you are not being scammed.
• It is normal to pay the first and last month’s rent upfront. Some landlords also ask for rent in cash. 
• Check out the city’s bylaws online and see if your potential housing is in violation of any laws.
• Make sure to check out the place before signing the lease.
• Try and meet the people you’ll be living with beforehand if you don’t know them already.
• Stay safe so that you don’t get taken advantage of by landlords.

Happy move-out!