Network School rooms and accommodation: what to expect

What is confirmed

Network School's model is one price for the things you need to live and work: a room, meals, gym access, 24/7 coworking, wifi and the programme of events. Membership starts at $900/month. That much is certain.

The detail underneath it is still open for the Astana campus. Whether the entry price gets you a shared or a private room, what the higher tiers cost, how big the rooms are and how they're laid out are all unanswered at the time of writing. Anyone quoting room sizes or tier prices for Astana is guessing, and this guide won't join them.

So you know what the bundle contains, and you don't yet know the shape of the room. That's fine for a one-month stay and a poor bet for a six-month commitment.

Questions to ask before you pay

Get these answered in writing during the application process. Arrival is too late.

Room type: shared or private at your price. If shared, how many people, and can you pay to upgrade?

Heating: how the room is heated and whether you control it. Astana runs on district heating, which usually means reliably warm interiors. Warm and adjustable are different things, though, and you'll spend a lot of time inside.

Daylight: which way the room faces and whether it has a real window. Daylight is short in December, and a room with no natural light feels very different in an Astana winter.

Laundry and cleaning: whether they're included, and how often. They have been part of the bundle before, and the current campus hasn't confirmed them.

Cancellation: what happens to your money if your visa is refused or your plans change. There's no refund policy in writing, so this is the most important thing to pin down.

Living in one building

The thing nobody warns you about is the shape of your day. When you sleep, eat, train and work in the same building, the boundaries between those things disappear. For some people that's the whole appeal: no commute, and everything four minutes away. For others, every day starts to feel the same.

The people who handle it well build their own edges. They leave the building every day even without a reason, work somewhere other than their room, and keep one evening a week free of community activity. In a city where going outside is unappealing for months at a time, those edges take deliberate effort.

Think about this before you extend a stay. One month tells you whether the format suits you.

The alternative: renting in Astana

You're in a capital of well over a million people, so the campus isn't your only option. Astana has a normal rental and serviced-apartment market, and some people keep their own place and treat the community as somewhere they visit each day.

Know what you give up. Renting separately usually means paying for accommodation, food and a gym on your own, losing the bundled price and most of the chance meetings that come from living in the building. You also handle your own migration registration.

For a first cohort, take the included room. You learn how the place works from the inside. Renting is a decision for a second or third month, once you know whether you want some distance.