i was at sheffield hallam doing sport science but i dropped out because i just felt like it wasnt right for me, but I then applied for geography at uni of sheffield and have received an unconditional offer so will deffo be back in sheffield this september! I cant wait to start fresh at UoS as i already made friends with uni of sheff students whilst i was at sheffield hallam and continue to visit them every so often, also like going back to sheff once in a while as its such a lovely city with friendly northerners, green spaces and nice city centre. i stayed in westhill hall (hallam uni only students) which was right next to devonshire green and division street (i dunno if you know about the diff areas in sheffield, but division street has lots of vintage, second hand clothing stores, bars and restaurants). in terms of safety, i always felt really safe even at night walking alone from the clubs (as my uni of sheff lived in different accom sometimes i had to do this) but not once did i walk home alone in the dark feeling unsafe. such a large portion of the city is students that you are with people of similar age who arent creeps or anything and are just there for a good time as well. there were times where there would be homeless men/ guys on drugs who would go around begging for money but they were never agressive, shouted or got up in your face or anything like that as long as you ignore them theyre absolutely fine. deffo safer than london, i could walk alone even. at night or down alleyways and was not stressed or worried about my safety! in terms of diversity though im not gonna lie it was no where near as diverse as london. id say its like 80% white people pretty much (the rest where international students from places like korea, japan, china). there where deffo other people but in terms of muslim ppl, i dont really remember seeing very many if im being genuinely honest, but i imagine if you join a society catered to muslim students youll meet more people who are also muslim.
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even tho i was at sheff hallam i always felt welcomed by the uni of sheffield students and they were so lovely and UoS always had social events going on during the day like guest speakers, drawing classes, shows. the city also has quite a few high streets as well with your basic everyday shops centred in the same area. The Moor Market is a market selling fresh meat,veg,fruit, cultural wear, random stuff etc for REALLY cheap!!!) then theres lots of other restaurants/shops you need (iceland, sainsburys, sports direct, jd, nandos, poundland etc) all centered outside the market with no cars along that area so lots of space to walk. then if you walk like 5 minutes you come to peace gardens which has little stalls with people selling their own small business products, the water fountain and sheffield city hall which looks amazing its so pretty! then behind peace gardens 15 minutes from there is the train station which occasionally got busy during football matches but i think that was like one time it actually got busy, but not even busy, as a londoner whos seen the rush hour, it would deffo not be considered busy here lol. and another 5 minute walk from peace gardens and there is another two highstreets connected to each other with lots of shops and restaurants including lush, paperchase, h&m, greggs, kfc, mcdonalds, boots etc. (no cars or anything so lots of space to walk freely like at moor market) then theres lots of quirky, smaller roads with smaller, lesser known shops and restaurants dotted around the city centre.
the forge is really close to aldi so if you want to do a cheap shop then its really handy, around that area theres quite a few asian restaurants, shops etc as well, i think in terms of students at the forge it is mainly sheffield hallam students not uni of sheffield, as sheffield hallam advertise the forge as one of their own accommodation buildings so you might not really get many UoS students, but just letting you know incase you werent aware