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Student in the Laboratory, Lancaster University
Lancaster University
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What do you wish people had told you about Lancaster before you started?

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Reply 40
Original post by bownessie
Bring a good coat- like people say: it is rainy and cold. My girlfriend's parents got me a thick coat for christmas and since being back I realised how a lot of the reason I wasn't that happy the first term was how cold I was. Also, Lancaster is a great place, but, like some others, I do sometimes find myself without a lot to do. To compensate for that a lot of the people I know go out drinking, which is fine, but I'm not particularly interested in that every night.


The solution to not having a lot to do is to join some societies - it won't be long before there are not enough hours in the day!
I recommend making the most of the opportunities a campus uni offers - you will never again get the chance to do things so cheaply and conveniently. You only realise this when you have graduated and suddenly can't afford to go anywhere or do anything!
Learn a language or instrument, take up a sport or religion!
Student in the Laboratory, Lancaster University
Lancaster University
Lancaster
Visit website
Reply 41
Original post by Keegan
TBH I didn't know where Lancaster was when I applied. When I found out it was near the coast I was shocked haha.

I wish someone told me about the weather. It's actually traumatic in winter and leaves you unwilling to do anything and can actually have quite an effect on your health, mentally and physically because you never seen sun and it's just wind and rain battering you constantly. It's awful. In summer though, I love hanging around on campus. I've been to very few places in the country that can outdo the atmosphere of Lancaster in summer. It's actually a really beautiful city during the sunshine weather so I really enjoy it at the end/beginning of the year. It does more than make up for the November - March weather.

When I lived on campus I wish people told me to go into town a little bit more during the day. You really get lost inside the bubble that is like Lancaster University campus. Besides, there's a lot of interesting stuff to do in town. Now when I leave campus, I always go window shopping with my friends, and I've been to the museums around the city too and I'm going on a ghost tour around the castle in January, so there's always a lot to do.


Let's pray "global warming" sorts that out.
.... I am from Lancaster - Born and raised and a lot of the stuff you lot are saying is complete twaddle. Yes in winter it sometimes rains and is occasionally a tad windy but it really is nowhere near as bad as you lot are making it out to be. Unless you have previously lived in Texas all your life, then it's really no different to the rest of Englands weather.

The summers are (in my opinion) far too hot, for the past few years temperatures during the summer have been consistently in the 20's and very sunny.

The students at Lancaster tend to be either very bitchy or very foreign, who all shop at Sainsburys and have very little common sense. The Lancaster campus is also a very drab and depressing place.

The shops on offer are somewhat limited and the busses are both overcrowded and very expensive, but the rail links are very good.

Don't to into Morecambe though, It's a run down dump with nothing to do and even fewer shops than in Lancaster. Unless of course you like looking at empty retail units, in which case there are lots on offer.

.... P.S. Don't buy food from Starvin Marvins, there is seamen in the mayonnaise.
Reply 43
Use the ASDA or Tesco online service and share with your flatmates so you don't have to trek into town and back with shopping.

You can park on the gravel areas near engineering and security won't clamp your car - although they may leave annoying warnings.

Mini-fridges are very useful and you will not get caught with them and punished.

Ensuite bathrooms flood, a bathmat is a good idea.
Is the campus really that 60's-y and depressing? I heard they were modernizing it quite a lot, is that so?

Also, to any Lancastrian there...does it really rain THAT much? And at what time does night fall in winter usually?
Speaking as a Lancastrian (county, not city), the rain is just a little bit heavier than, say, London, but lighter than Glasgow. It's hardly monsoon land. I noticed when I spent a year in the south that people are just a bit softer about the weather and rain in particular. It's no big deal though.
Original post by sevendaughters
Speaking as a Lancastrian (county, not city), the rain is just a little bit heavier than, say, London, but lighter than Glasgow. It's hardly monsoon land. I noticed when I spent a year in the south that people are just a bit softer about the weather and rain in particular. It's no big deal though.


Well, I come from South America, so I think it'll be hard to adapt at first lol
Original post by FrozenCharlotte
Well, I come from South America, so I think it'll be hard to adapt at first lol


Well, S. America is different all over, isn't it? Pretty cold in Patagonia and the Andes, etc. Britain has about 200 days of rain a year, probably 215/220 in Lancaster, but the summers get up to 30 degrees celsius. There are holiday beauty spots nearby (Silverdale, Bowland) so it's not intolerable but yeah, you will have to adjust.
Reply 48
Original post by FrozenCharlotte
Is the campus really that 60's-y and depressing? I heard they were modernizing it quite a lot, is that so?

Also, to any Lancastrian there...does it really rain THAT much? And at what time does night fall in winter usually?


As early as about 3:30pm on the shortest day, but right now it's light until soon before 6pm.
(edited 12 years ago)
Bear in mind that the shortest days are all during the Christmas break, if you go home you won't even experience them.
Thanks, good sirs :tongue:
Is it really THAT cold and rainy

rain and wind are my enemy
Original post by Not Guilty
Is it really THAT cold and rainy

rain and wind are my enemy


Lived in Lancashire all my lfie and I've never even thought it was that bad. People fom other parts of the world are just soft :wink:
Reply 53
I don't come from lancaster but i live close (preston) and i have had many years to get used to rain, wind, and so on! It isn't that bad and i cant imagine its very much different about 40 mins down the road!! To be fair we do get a lot of rain usually and very cold winters! But the way some people are talking on here u would think that u needed a raft to get between lectures and on a wednesday everybody jumps on a ferry to head to the Carlton.
Original post by Naldred
the way some people are talking on here u would think that u needed a raft to get between lectures and on a wednesday everybody jumps on a ferry to head to the Carlton.


LOL. Well, that, or we will have to devolve into amphibians :biggrin: Or maybe grow gills and webbed feet :hmmmm2: Nah, just kidding. I don't mind the rain. Nothing some water-proof equipment can't solve. Though I do have a question seeing that Lancaster is very bicycle-friendly (but maybe if you live in Preston someone else might have to answer this)...does it get tricky cycling with the rain and wind battering?
Original post by FrozenCharlotte
LOL. Well, that, or we will have to devolve into amphibians :biggrin: Or maybe grow gills and webbed feet :hmmmm2: Nah, just kidding. I don't mind the rain. Nothing some water-proof equipment can't solve. Though I do have a question seeing that Lancaster is very bicycle-friendly (but maybe if you live in Preston someone else might have to answer this)...does it get tricky cycling with the rain and wind battering?


Also surely we would have to evolve, not devolve into amphibians?

No it's not paticularly hard biking in any conditions other than ice.
Reply 56
Original post by FrozenCharlotte
Is the campus really that 60's-y and depressing? I heard they were modernizing it quite a lot, is that so?


No at first I thought. Coming from down south where a lot of buildings aren't old. Most of the buildings have been/going through renovations. There are lots of new shiny building as well.
Original post by TheBlueNowhere
Also surely we would have to evolve, not devolve into amphibians?


Well, amphibians are a previous life-form to humans?

And thanks for the reply on biking :smile:
Reply 58
I have also applied and am super curious about the place.

I care about global standings in a globalized era, and is Lancaster well regarded?
Reply 59
It is ranked #131 by THES.

# 153 by QS.

Both 2011/12 rankings.

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