Amara Nwosu's essay

When I got my admission letter to UMass Boston, I was thrilled — and then, almost immediately, terrified. I was moving from Lagos to a city I had only ever seen in movies, and everyone kept telling me the same thing: the hardest part isn’t the visa, it’s finding somewhere to live.

They were right to warn me. For weeks I scrolled through random listings, joined three different WhatsApp groups, and messaged strangers who either never replied or asked me to wire a deposit before I’d even seen a photo. As an international student, 7,000 kilometres away with no U.S. credit history and no one to vouch for me, it felt impossible.

Then a friend told me about Dwll

Another Nigerian student in my program sent me a link and said, just try it, it’s different. I’m so glad I did. The first thing I noticed was that every room was tied to a real, verified place near campus — not a blurry photo and a promise. I could filter by how far it was from the UMass Boston shuttle, by budget in actual dollars, and by whether the housemates were students too.

For the first time in the whole process, I felt like I was looking at the truth instead of guessing.

How easy it actually was

Here is what surprised me most — it took an afternoon, not a month:

• I set my budget and drew a circle around campus. Dwll showed me exactly what fit.
• I saved four rooms I liked and compared them side by side.
• I messaged the housemates directly through the app — real people, who actually answered.
• Within two days I had a video walkthrough of a room in Dorchester, a ten-minute ride from class.

No wiring money to strangers. No pretending I understood a lease I’d never seen. Everything — the room, the roommates, the agreement — was right there, clear and in one place.

What it meant to me

I moved in a week before orientation. My housemates — two from Ghana, one from Boston — helped me carry my bags up the stairs and showed me which bus to take for groceries. That room stopped being a listing and became home.

Coming to study abroad is a huge leap, especially when you’re African and doing it alone for the first time. Dwll took the one thing I was most scared of and made it the easiest part of the whole journey. If you’re reading this from a bedroom in Accra or Nairobi or Lagos, wondering how you’ll ever sort out housing before you land — trust me, start here. It’s genuinely that simple.