Coast to Coast: What to expect when moving from Vancouver to Halifax for 1L

Since 1L isn’t intimidating enough, why not add a cross-country move to the mix? Although the first year class represents students from every province, an unexpectedly high proportion hail from British Columbia, including me, a Vancouverite!

Beyond the hours of endless driving through identical wheat fields in the Prairies, the move involved a number of unexpected challenges, starting with securing housing in Halifax. Rental rates skyrocketed in 2022 while student housing availability reduced significantly,¹ making it almost as competitive and expensive as in the Lower Mainland. Anecdotally, Facebook Marketplace is the most popular resource for private housing. Several students found their roommates at Weldon Welcome Days, so the trek to the East Coast in March may be worth more than just the party! However, don’t stress if you don’t secure housing immediately – lots of options become available closer to the end of the school year. I joked with my friends that I would be #homelessinHalifax for weeks before I secured my apartment, but I promise you won’t have to seriously contemplate living in your car.

Another consideration: free parking in Halifax is virtually non-existent, which can be a shock for those of us coming from the suburbs. Paid parking can be pretty steep – the streets surrounding the university charge $30 per day. You may also be surprised to learn that household critters like mice and cockroaches enjoy Halifax almost as much as the students do. The law library’s (un)official mascot, Sopinka represents the mice that frequent the bookstacks. If you secure housing in an older apartment building or detached house, you’re more likely to have these little unwelcome housemates.

The point of this article is not to suggest that Halifax isn’t a lovely place to live, but to prepare incoming West Coasters to appreciate the many ways in which Halifax is reminiscent of and diametrically opposed to the West Coast. 

Point Pleasant Park, evocative of Stanley Park and the Sea Wall, is one of my favourite places in the city. The ocean smells a little different here, but the salty sting is enough to make me feel at home. If you want somewhere a bit closer, the public library on Spring Garden Road is only a 20-minute walk from the university and the coastline is visible from the top floor café. With floor-to-ceiling windows and the ocean stretching out for miles, you feel like you’re on top of the world! In the fall, the Public Gardens are also a major highlight. Finally, it actually rains less here. Haligonians might think I’m crazy for saying that, but it’s true and will be a major positive for prospective students. By finding pieces of Vancouver in Halifax, I found it easier to survive the sometimes overwhelming (but always rewarding) task of learning to navigate this new world. 

1 Brian Flood, Gaith Saqqa & Daniel Fung, Canadian Student Housing Overview 2023 (Canada: Cushman & Wakefield, 2023), online: < canadian-student-housing-overview_23.pdf>.