Hello hello,

I have been a student in Delft for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from 2020 until 2025. In this blog, I share useful tips and information that I have received upon arriving in Delft or have collected myself over the past five years.
If you are starting or have recently started studying in Delft, read on; you might find some of these tips useful. If you do, feel free to share it with a friend or colleague.

Practical stuff:

Supermarkets and stores:

• Albert Heijn, Jumbo: better quality, more variety, and more pricey
• Lidl, Aldi: more affordable (without always sacrificing quality, e.g., Lidl offers some of the best vegetables and fruits – they actually have some taste – which is not very common in the Netherlands).
• Action: descent and cheap, everyday stuff.
• Decathlon: affordable athletic equipment.

Biking: Welcome to the country where you can find traffic while biking. Options: rent or buy.

• Rent: Probably through Swapfiets. Benefits: free repairs/care-free. Drawbacks: long-term expensive.
• Buy: Through local stores, Facebook Marketplace, or Marktplaats (if you are lucky, you might find some pretty good deals on these two; I suggest you take a look). Benefits: generally long-term cheaper. Drawbacks: repairs are your responsibility; it may be a hassle to find a good, affordable one.
• Other tips: Buy a waterproof jacket and potentially pants (It’s the Netherlands, sooner or later you are gonna need them, and it’s better to pay 20 bucks to buy them than potentially ending up soaked and cold in a winter exam) (decent place to buy from: Decathlon).

Housing:

• University housing portal: a great choice for your first year of studies. Great affordable options. The easiest way to find a place to stay. Priority-based, so I suggest you pay asap.
• Be-Home: I personally found a place for 3.5 years through this agent’s office. If you decide to check it out, I suggest you visit their offices physically and have a conversation with them, as it increases your chances of being prioritized if something comes up soon. Feel free to look up other agents as well.
• www.room.nl: Mostly priority-based rooms and studios. It took me four years of registration time to get a chance to book a room through this portal. It was a great room, though, so consider registering (asap) if you are considering staying in the Netherlands for a while. Additionally, it also has direct offers from time to time, so you might find a place sooner if you are lucky.
• Check out TU Delft’s suggestions on this link.

Estimations of common costs:

• Housing: €400-950 in general.
• Groceries: €40-€ 80 per week.
• Trains: €30-60 (if you don’t need public transport daily).
• Going out: Beers €3.5-7. Coffee: €3-6. Brunch: €13-25.

Studying tips:

Places with monitors on campus include: glass room in the library (if you like silence), CS offices, or silent room on the top floor of Echo, third floor in EWI (if you don’t mind the old(er) building vibes of EWI), probably plenty more, but these were my usual picks.

Alternative studying places: Sick of the house and the campus? Then it might be worth it to check out these coffee places that are “studying friendly”: Coffee company in the center (taking a quick break in the center square of Delft never ceases to amaze me), or … Anne&Max next to the train station (they even had 1+1 drink for TU Delft last year, which was ridicilusly great), and if your pocket can handle it (or you are desperate or you really need that extra push in the last month of your thesis for example) consider https://vakwerkhuis.com.

CS specific: use the opportunities the university offers for internships, e.g. in the bachelor’s you can do the Software Project with a company, and in the master’s you can do your whole thesis in collaboration with a company, and get some work experience and a bit of money while studying (because why not). That’s work experience you can get without sacrificing your summer, or overworking yourself throughout the year, so I believe it’s a very good opportunity.

Student benefits/allowances:

Rent benefit: Do you live in a studio and your rent is not too high? You may be eligible for a rent benefit. Essentially, get a part of your rent paid back to you from the government (how freaking great is that). Useful links: 1, 2.

Student finance: Are you an EU student and working while studying? You might be eligible for student finance (eligibility link), a monthly compensation to help you with your studies. In short, you need to be working on average 32 hours per month. Pro tip: Call them while making your application to ensure you provide the right documents and avoid additional delays, as these applications can take some time. Note: internships can sometimes be enough as well.

Traveling: NS subscriptions: NS (the main train company) offers several monthly subscriptions that are a good deal. For example, you can currently pay $ 2.30 to receive a 40% discount on weekends, or $ 37 to have unlimited travel on weekends (unlimited travel feels good and care-free sometimes). There are some good deals, so I encourage you to check it out.

Activities

X: TU Delft’s gym: awesome for easily accessible exercise, activities, football tournaments, and socializing.

BJJ Delft: That was freaking great for me. An amazing team spirit, facilitated by great and approachable coaches, a fun and active problem-solving activity, an effective break from studying (you can’t think about the pending assignment while somebody is trying to submit it to you), and that is sometimes like medicine – the break part. You can also check it out for a few days for free.

Bouldering gym: Two options (1, 2). An afternoon of bouldering with friends from university can be quite fun, easy to do, even when you don’t know each other that well yet, and not too pricey, so I say give it a shot.

Other activities include bowling, paintball (available in Delft), running clubs, and more.

Well-being:

Psychological suggestion (self-care / mental health / maintaining sanity, just kidding): Add stuff you enjoy and are good for you in your schedule (e.g., working out, dancing, board games). Waiting for homework and to-dos to finish in order to have a break will not always happen, and you can’t count on it. If you do, it will not be sustainable for you. So find something you enjoy, e.g., for me it was Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (at BJJ Delft – school I freaking loved), and add it to your schedule. Agree that I will be going there x times a week. Such that even when things get hard, you are able to take the edge off, have a break, and well… enjoy your time being there. Think about what you need to be well, and take care of yourself by making space for it in your schedule. Have a sustainable and relatively healthy schedule.

Heads-up: The following two suggestions come from a man who grew up on an island in the beautiful and warm Mediterranean Sea. So there are likely to resonate with people of similar backgrounds.

Breaking the winter: The weather in the Netherlands isn’t great. So, I found it useful myself to add some additional trips in the winter period (e.g., apart from Christmas, the February break) to travel to a country with relatively better weather. That personally helped me recharge my batteries and go back to the Netherlands with more energy and focus.

Finding warmth in people (that you might not find in the place itself): build your community. Find people with whom you feel comfortable and like yourself. Build your warmth. You and I, and most of us, need that. So even when bad days come, you are able to take a break, share your struggle, and reliese tension.

So: even if the weather, or the culture does not fit that well with your likings or your character, I believe having a fun regular activity, to blow off some steam and have fun, people who’s company you enjoy and appreciate, and take an additional quick trip here there, I believe you can through your studies in an enjoyable and pleasent way, do what your are there to do which is probably your studies, but also have fun and make the most out of it. Hope this helps :).

Closing remarks

That’s it! I am curious to know which part appeared most useful to you? And if you were to add any advice to this list, what would it be? Let me know in the comments.

Have a good one!!