Like any American college student, I care about my dorm room. “Dorms” are living accommodations in college: usually small rooms on a long hall of rooms, bathrooms, and showers. There’s a big back-to-school culture in America, and when coming to college, “dorm shopping” is high on the agenda.

As someone who takes great care to maintain her happiness in the midst of college stress, I have always done my best to make my dorm rooms cozy and comfortable. The minute I got my acceptance letter from Oxford, I started searching online to see how my room would be (I know, I’m a nerd). And since I always like to see photos of other people’s dorm rooms, I thought I’d share mine for fellow college students, or incoming Oxford visiting students.

Oxford Dorm Room Tour - Sara Laughed

Here is my room this year, a single (just for me). My room came with a desk, bed, cork board, sink, and dresser. I also had a lovely large window facing the sunlight in the morning! Undecorated, it looked like this:

DSC_0091

And the finished product:

Oxford Dorm Room Tour - Sara Laughed

DSC_0108

Here you can see the careful balance I try to keep between work your butt off (“Never Never Never Give Up”) and take it easy (One-Minute Meditation, and “This Too Shall Pass”).

DSC_0114

Though my room (like my life) continued to stay messy and imperfect over the course of the year, this place really did feel like home for me. I will certainly miss my little corner of Oxford now that I’m back home.

Love, Sara Laughed

Sara Laughed

Hey hey! I'm Sara, an American writer living in the Netherlands and working as a product manager.

  1. Avery Allen says:

    I know I’m probably late to read this but I found your dorm room tour and I absolutely love it! I’m an American (from Texas) and I absolutely love oxford however I’m slightly worried about going to a college in a seperate country? I was wondering if you’d be willing to tell me a little bit about your experience as an American at a British university? Thank you so much!

    1. Sara Laughed says:

      Hi Avery! Thank you so much for commenting! I was there for a year as part of their Visiting Student Programme. I didn’t have any problem making friends or feeling comfortable; it ended up being the best year of my life. I have a series here called “Oxford Diaries” which is where I wrote about my experience over the course of the year; you can read the first one here (http://saralaughed.com/oxford-diaries-1/) and follow the tag to read the others in the series. If you ever have any specific questions about going there or studying in England in general (or just want to say hi), you can always email me at sara@saralaughed.com!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *