Finding a New Home: Moving from Montreal to Toronto for University

When I first decided to apply to universities outside of my hometown, I was very excited to have some new experiences and meet plenty of new people. But, I was also incredibly nervous about finding housing, making friends, maintaining a strong connection to my friends and family back home, and getting to know a new city. Luckily, over my four years in university I’ve been able to slowly figure it all out. Here are some tips resources that I have found incredibly useful:

In my first year, I lived in Pitman Hall, one of three residence buildings on campus. I value my personal space, so I chose a single room, but I had friends in 2-bedroom and 4-bedroom apartment style rooms that really loved their residence experience. I was able to meet people on my floor and throughout the rest of the building through orientation events and mutual friends over the course of the first couple of weeks. Residence is also a great place to find future roommates if you choose to live off-campus for second year! Off-campus housing can be a little tricky to find, but the Housing & Residence Life Office has plenty of resources to help you out, such as tools to determine your living costs and what sort of documents you need to prepare for rental applications. I personally found my first apartment through PadMapper and my second on condos.ca (external link, opens in new window) , where you get assigned a realtor that can help you for free.

As I mentioned before, I made a lot of my friends in residence within the first few weeks of orientation. I still talk to these friends all the time, but I’ve managed to find other ways to meet new people as well. The easiest way is to meet people in your program. Most programs have mandatory courses specific to their cohort each year, so it’s easy to make friends through group assignments. My program, Professional Communication (ProCom), is also lucky enough to have its own space, the ProCom Practicum Centre, in which people in all years of the program can go to study or hang out in between classes. Many programs across the university have similar lounge spaces within their own departmental buildings. Finally, I’ve made some of my best friends through joining student groups. I joined REC (external link, opens in new window) , the university’s entertainment conference, in my second year and have stayed on ever since. I even still keep in touch with many friends from the group who have since graduated.

It can be extremely difficult to maintain constant communication with family and friends that you don’t see every day once you get settled in. In my first year, I took a full course load and worked a part-time retail job, meaning I had little free time. However, it’s important to prioritize keeping in touch with loved ones. Instead of texting, I made sure to schedule phone calls or FaceTime chats with friends and family when we were both free. While it may feel formal, it teaches you great time management skills and allows for better conversation rather than rushed hellos and goodbyes. But, when phone calls don’t feel sufficient enough, there are always visits home to look forward to. My hometown of Montreal is only a train ride away, and I always check for the cheapest Via Rail (external link, opens in new window)  fares on Tuesdays.

I personally find that the best way to get to know a new city is through food, so I’ve explored  restaurants of all kinds. There are some great blogs and social media pages that showcase the Toronto food scene, such as TasteToronto (external link, opens in new window)  and @to_finest (external link, opens in new window) . Otherwise, I’ve grown to love Toronto by walking a lot! During the first lockdown, I lived in the Annex, a neighbourhood near Bloor and Bathurst. I could walk to most other nearby neighbourhoods in under thirty minutes and got to see what other areas of Toronto had to offer. I ended up compiling lists of shops and restaurants I wanted to visit once they opened back up again, and since then I’ve actually gone back to check out more than half of them.