Arrival day for Freshers

I'm bringing my daughter to Furness on Sunday 29th, travelling up from Kent on the Saturday (300+ miles, 5, 6, 7 hours.....) and we are coming back on the Sunday.

I was just wondering about parking reasonably close to carry the mountain of stuff, how manic it is normally on the moving in day, if it is something I should start getting stressed about now, or if it is no real problem?

I think the Freshers are starting on the 28th & 29th. Is that the same date as the other years start, or do they start another time (later?). Do all years move in that weekend?

I guess we will be able to start moving her stuff in early(ish) on Sunday morning, so if there is a rush, we may be able to miss the worst (ever the optimist).

Anyone been through the day freshers start, and got any comments, hints or tips on how to get through it best? Is parking OK or none available on the day? Any good places to park, or is it just a free for all, grab any space you can, even if it is a long trek to the room? Or is it all no hassle?

Oh, another question - we will be staying at the Premier Inn on the Saturday evening. It would be nice to go into town and grab a meal. Any recommendations? We have a broad range of tastes - indian, chinese, italian, fish, vegetarian, anything really. As a preprandial, it would be good to know any bars that do cheap cocktails for students on Saturday night too!

Hi I'm hoping i can answer some of your questions for you. Im a third year fylde student which is right next door to Furness so we had a similar scenario on moving in day. There's a lot of parking on the perimeter road surrounding Furness and fylde (who won't be moving in on the same day so that relieves parking spaces a bit)
There may also be some parking space within Furness college specifically but i imagine those spaces would fill up first. Parking can get very hectic but there'll always be fresher reps on hand to help you carry any luggage on up to the accommodation
Second and third year students who are living on campus will more than likely be moving in on the same day but i think that they are allowed a little more flexibility as lectures dont actually start for a week after the freshers move in
I would suggesting driving straight round the perimeter road to Furness college and parking as close to the orange painted buildings as possible.. You will have to walk down to the jcr common room to collect your keys but this would be the best parking for the proximity to Furness accommodation

In terms of restaurants, there are plenty of Italians ranging from bella Italian, to more home style Italians like Marcos. In terms of 'pub grub' there are two wether spoons and a Yates in town. There is also a really nice Spanish tapas restaurant in the heart of town, near to the cinema called 1725 another suggestions would be the Indian restaurant called sultans, a little way up the high street (very nice and also offer a cheaper takeaway option on campus for students)
In terms of cocktails, while i wouldn't call these very cheap options, both mint and dalton rooms do offers on very nice cocktails most nights plus there's always spoons if all else fails :P

Hope this helps a little bit. Any more questions feel free to ask

Superb answer - many, many thanks.

I'm fairly happy about carrying the stuff - my eldest daughter went to York (War of the Roses all l over again!), so we have some experience with the shifting student stuff after long car journeys, and we also have a small trolley (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Folding-Platform-Trolley-Barrow-OT1008/dp/B004LYJPQ6). I'm guessing there is a small lift for getting heavy stuff to the upper floors (the lifts are normally almost big enough but not quite!).

I think my wife will want to have a shopping trip to get some food to go in the cupboards etc. I know there is a little Spar on site somewhere, but I imagine that is pretty small (is that the only shop?). Do you have any recommendations for the best/easiest supermarkets to go to by car to get a reasonable car load of supplies?

Second and third year students who are living on campus will more than likely be moving in on the same day.....

Thanks both for your comments. With your helpful advice, it seems like it should be OK.

On reflection, I guess that there shouldn't be too many 2nd/3rd years moving in on campus, as most of them rent out in town, don't they? I did notice this:-


My daughter's room is a superior en-suite which does look really nice and the 40 week let is really good as we live so far away (so don't have to empty the room at Christmas & Easter) and is also pretty good value.

To slightly hijack my own thread, I was wondering what the scope was for 2nd/3rd years having a room on campus? Is this possible? Or are the 2/3rd year rooms kept for foreign students etc? How do you go about getting a room on campus for 2/3rd year? Don't you have to arrange renting a house in town with friends really early (eg November/December), so miss the chance of applying for a room on campus, as that has to be really late? Is it best to just forget that idea and rent a house in town with mates for 2nd year?

I'm bringing my daughter to Furness on Sunday 29th, travelling up from Kent on the Saturday (300+ miles, 5, 6, 7 hours.....) and we are coming back on the Sunday.

I was just wondering about parking reasonably close to carry the mountain of stuff, how manic it is normally on the moving in day, if it is something I should start getting stressed about now, or if it is no real problem?

I think the Freshers are starting on the 28th & 29th. Is that the same date as the other years start, or do they start another time (later?). Do all years move in that weekend?

I guess we will be able to start moving her stuff in early(ish) on Sunday morning, so if there is a rush, we may be able to miss the worst (ever the optimist).

Anyone been through the day freshers start, and got any comments, hints or tips on how to get through it best? Is parking OK or none available on the day? Any good places to park, or is it just a free for all, grab any space you can, even if it is a long trek to the room? Or is it all no hassle?

Oh, another question - we will be staying at the Premier Inn on the Saturday evening. It would be nice to go into town and grab a meal. Any recommendations? We have a broad range of tastes - indian, chinese, italian, fish, vegetarian, anything really. As a preprandial, it would be good to know any bars that do cheap cocktails for students on Saturday night too!

Hi there,

If previous years are anything to go by, parking is free on campus on moving in weekend - there's loads of spaces around the place. It will be fairly busy but people arrive at different times throughout the day so you should be able to find a space near the accommodation. There'll be a load of older students helping out, making sure you find the accommodation OK.

The earlier you get there the better in my opinion, people will be travelling up from all over the country so I'd expect most to arrive between about 11am and 4pm. I think getting settled in early is easier as you can say hello to new housemates as they arrive, rather than turn up to a full flat. Unfortunately for me in my first year I left the house far too late so was the last of my flat to arrive, even though I only lived about an hour away.
Moving in weekend mostly applies to first years - most other students live in town so we move in whenever our leases start. There are some older students living on campus, but they're in a minority.
Different colleges move in on different days to prevent there being too much chaos as thousands of people descent on Lancaster, it's also to help with administration when officially registering.

The premier inn is quite close to the Water Witch which has good food at a reasonable price. From the premier inn, walk south along the A6 back towards the university. After about 300-400 yards you'll cross the canal. Immediately after you cross the canal take a right down to the tow path and follow that for about 200 yards and the pub is there. There's a big sign directing people where to go from the road so you can't miss it.

For bars, there's Revs very close to the Water Witch. It might be busy as the Saturday night is the first moving in night. Bentleys isn't too far away, near the town hall (the one with the clock on it) and, in my opinion, is one of the nicer bars in Lancaster.

Thanks very much for that. Free parking will be a big help - I was wondering about trailing round the campus trying to buy a day parking ticket.

I hope we can move in fairly early on Sunday - we will be travelling up the day before, and my wife and I need to travel back on the Sunday and need to be ready for work the next day, so we will need to set off fairly promptly. So that should work fairly well for my daughter too.

I was interested to see you as a Physics BSc. My subject was Physics all those years ago, and my daughter is doing the 4 year Natural Sciences MSci with a Bio leaning. Did you not fancy the fourth year of the MSci?

Until about March this year I was doing MPhys, but I decided to graduate with a BSc this year instead on the basis that I wasn't interested in the majority of the modules I'd have to do in fourth year. I decided to study MSc Volcanology and Geological Hazards (also at Lancaster) this year. It's a bit of a chance of discipline, but a couple of other physics students have made the transition before and did well in it.

That sounds like a great course - I'm very jealous. My wife did Geography for her degree, and I'm sure she would love the course too! I still love physics - but there is a bit of a thing that it leads you to research, atomic power or making bombs. Have good time with your new course, and best of luck

I'm really looking forward to it - especially the field trip to Mt Etna!
Physics is a great subject and there's a whole ton of careers that I could do and be interested in, hopefully I'll find something that bridges the gap where I can use my physics skills in a volcanology setting.

Thanks!

Best of luck to your daughter, too. If she decides to do any physics modules then she'll be automatically a member of the physics society (which I'm currently president of), but you said she was leaning towards biology so I figure that's somewhat unlikely.

I'm afraid I tried my best - all three of my daughters got A* in physics (indeed all the sciences) at GCSE, and not one took physics on to AS level or even showed any interest in it (they all took Chemistry AS and two out of the three took Biology A2)

That said, the stuff that is done in Chemistry now, I studied as Physics when I did it, and Biology is more and more like Chemistry - much less liquid, dissection, classification, essays, waffle and hand waving. They are all coming to the dark side!

I was wondering - when you changed the Masters element of your course, did you manage to maintain access to the 4th year student loan for fees and maintenance? Or are you having to fund it yourself? (My eldest daughter is studying History at York, and she is having to fund her Masters entirely herself - the government has withdrawn from funding postgrad Humanities).

There is so much great stuff in science nowadays, and my daughter wanted to keep her learning broad, without selecting a particular subject - so I suggested the 'Natural Sciences' courses. They allow for broad based scientific learning and a wide range of choices as the course progresses. I just thought if there was scope for such significant shifting of topic even at the Masters stage (obviously still within the science arena, and showing sufficient interest and aptitude), while maintaining access to the student loan, that is a pretty major element of flexibility that is available. Is that how it worked, or was it not as flexible as it sounds?

Hi, I know most of your questions have probably been answered already but i thought i'd still reply with my thoughts, just in case they help you in anyway!

Firstly parking is pretty good, no matter which college you go to theres always plenty of space close by, obviously the earlier you arrive, the better!I would say its actually not that manic in my opinion and i moved in on a day where it was pouring it down with rain too! Since everyone is separated into colleges it makes everything a lot easier from picking up your keys, someone will show you to your building and usually your room and then let you get on with moving in.. so in my opinion nothing really to stress about!

Freshers, Grad, all years.. pretty much everyone will move in on that weekend, but again its split between colleges, thus a little less hectic than you'd think.

I've been there on the moving in weekend, as a student myself going into third year now, i think only hints/tips i could think of is, normally you'll go to the porters lodge or bar which ever you've been told by your college so try not to park too far out, as you can always move closer to your building when you know which one you'll be helping your daughter to move into. Also, although you'll probably know this, i would advise comfortable clothes and good footwear, as you never know you could end up being on the top floor, which is a lot of boxes etc to lug up flights of stairs.
Also, i would say when packing just try to divide your stuff up into like kitchen, bathroom and personal stuff, to make it easier and much quicker when unpacking.
An important one i would say is the inventory list that will be given to you, it makes it much easier to do this before you start unpacking, and will defiantly save you loosing your deposit is there was already marks etc on the wall.
As i said before parking is widely available as they'll only be 3/4 colleges moving in on the sunday and for many years as been free on the moving in weekend.

I can't remember the name properly i think it could be called blue moon or something along those line, which is a really nice thai restaurant.

Finally it is possible to get accommodation during second year on campus as long as you apply in good time, however many second years tend to choose to live in town within flats or houses as it sometimes works out cheaper. And as for third year, campus accommodation is made priority for third years as well as some other groups. As for how you go about applying for these your daughter will be notified of talks being held for each college explaining when and how to apply for the following years accommodation. I'd say you have a good chance of getting accommodation whether it be campus or off campus, and not to worry about that until the university sends out the emails/information for the talks which will normally be November/December.

Hope I was off some help and good luck with moving in!