Fresher at the University of Sheffield. Ask me anything!

Agreed, university is what you make it. But personally, I don't feel paying 9k a year is worth it when the only conclusion you have is 'it could be worse'

Sheffield wasn't your first choice of uni though was it? Didn't you have serious reservations about going there in the first place?

Like I say, my main soc has moved much more to laser quest, bowling and things like that.

Yep, but heard many good things so decided to go. To be honest, when a university enters clearing for almost every single course offered, that says something about it already.

Where are you staying? I'm starting at Sheffield this autumn and have gone for Endcliffe. I'm not much of a party person and drink only occasionally but I avoided Ran moor thinking it would only encourage me to be more quiet and anti social as work load piled up, whereas Endcliffe would force me to balance a social life as well as study. Are all the societies really just drinking clubs- that sounds disappointing? What sport society are you into that's free from drunkards. Don't really want to come out at the end of my study with few brain cells.

There's parties going on in both places, just more people in Endcliffe so you'll run into more people in general (more noise). You could quite happily hide in your room on both sites - so really it's up to you to make the effort. I think you'll be fine at Endcliffe! There's definitely more going on there if you want to feel involved. Most of your contact will be with your flat mates, and then probably the flats above and below you. We had quite a bit of interaction with some of the flats above. Occasionally round to another block. My course friends were actually split fairly evenly over Ranmoor and Endcliffe. You'll find your way and a group of people wherever

The sport societies obviously have a primary focus on sport but outside of their actual sport training they always seem quite keen to go on bar crawls. Just sport team culture unfortunately.

If you're really into a sport then do join or at least check out the society. I'm not sure what a lot of the other non-sport societies do to be honest. Well, there's SLUGS which is a computer gaming society - they do regular LANs at the union so that's quite cool. Pizza and computer games - what more could you want! Bit of an effort if you have a desktop rather than a laptop though. Don't let me put you off having a look at anything, and if you go to the societies fair then actually speak to the people and ask them what they do for socials - you'll get a better answer there.

My club is table tennis so we attract a lot of Asian and International students who don't drink culturally.

International students are good for doing other things too - and that's something Sheffield has a lot of and great support for.

Half of my flat were really keen on doing film nights every week - all coming together in the living area, watching a film and eating popcorn. We used to go down to a pub that did comedy nights as well.

The give-it-a-go programme is quite good for just spending an afternoon doing something different.

tl;dr - If you make an effort to find other things to do then you'll be fine. Ask the societies people what they do for socials and activities and you'll soon find out which ones you'll fit in with. Going to another university won't avoid this.

I barely drink, and I enjoy(ed) my time. Don't worry about it!

Where are you staying? I'm starting at Sheffield this autumn and have gone for Endcliffe. I'm not much of a party person and drink only occasionally but I avoided Ran moor thinking it would only encourage me to be more quiet and anti social as work load piled up, whereas Endcliffe would force me to balance a social life as well as study. Are all the societies really just drinking clubs- that sounds disappointing? What sport society are you into that's free from drunkards. Don't really want to come out at the end of my study with few brain cells.

Which society is that, may I ask? This thread has made me worry about the fact I don't drink alot (currently, anyway).

Which society is that, may I ask? This thread has made me worry about the fact I don't drink alot (currently, anyway).

There's lots of socs that don't rely heavily on booze to have fun. Despite the rep medics have for working hard, and partying & drinking even harder, I've never felt pressured by anyone to drink if I didn't want to with the medics orchestra (not just for medics!). Chemsoc has their lectures (and a drinks reception and nibbles afterwards, but there is always a non-alcoholic option) and the odd night out. i think it's mainly the sports socs (rugby, football etc) that rely on alcohol, but if say, you joined the chess society or Flying Teapots, you could have a heck of a lot of fun and stay sober. Seriously, have a look at all of the societies, I'd implore you to join chemsoc, but definitely join something else as well (even if it is the tiddlywinks soc)

Have any of you current students done a LAN party with SLUGS? It's something I keep meaning to try.

I've been a bit disappointed with ChemSoc tbh. The lectures are kind of decent although after a long day either in labs or sat in lectures i'm ready to go snooze, or during first year I had language classes Thursday evening when they all were. Plus, I don't think you needed to be a member anyway to go, they're just run by it, right? All the social events were just bar crawls :| I was hoping to do the intermural sport as part of it but the trainings ended up on my lab days. I suppose it's always difficult when you have a full-ish timetable. I wanted to join Badminton last year but their practices were at stupid times as well in the middle of my lectures. Bah!

I'm with you on the SLUGS thing though, I always kept thinking I need to go down there but I just never really did. LET'S MAKE A PACT! One guy I knew went, he seemed to quite enjoy it.

There's lots of socs that don't rely heavily on booze to have fun. Despite the rep medics have for working hard, and partying & drinking even harder, I've never felt pressured by anyone to drink if I didn't want to with the medics orchestra (not just for medics!). Chemsoc has their lectures (and a drinks reception and nibbles afterwards, but there is always a non-alcoholic option) and the odd night out. i think it's mainly the sports socs (rugby, football etc) that rely on alcohol, but if say, you joined the chess society or Flying Teapots, you could have a heck of a lot of fun and stay sober. Seriously, have a look at all of the societies, I'd implore you to join chemsoc, but definitely join something else as well (even if it is the tiddlywinks soc)

There are over 300 different societies and committees at Sheffield, as well as numerous sports teams (here is a list of all the different societies, and here are the sports teams). If you fancy volunteering (a great way to make friends and do some good at the same time), Sheffield Volunteering offer over 200 different programmes for students to get involved with. Many (non-sport) societies also have their own smaller sports teams that play in inter-mural tournaments against other teams from around the university. This means that there is a great choice when it comes to activities at Sheffield, and there's pretty much something to suit everyone's interests.

To address your concerns about alcohol and bar-crawls dominating the society social aspect - as a former student at Sheffield myself, and one who was very involved in activities, I would say that this is not the case at all. For most people involved in societies, the society itself *is* the social aspect - it's about a group of people coming together to share a common interest. When societies do decide to meet outside of their normal meeting/ activity, the things they do tend to be pretty varied - in my society, we used to go for meals after every general meeting, run external training sessions, go to gigs together, go on trips etc., and I know that most other societies do this too. There is the occasional night out, but in my society I think there was only about three of these every academic year, and there were plenty of people who chose not to go along, preferring the other activities we ran. Every society also has a dedicated inclusions officer, many of whom champion non-alcoholic socials to make sure that every aspect of society life is accessible to all of its members. There is even a society, Lemon Fresh, that is entirely dedicated to putting on fun, unusual non-alcoholic activities for students.

If you want to get a good idea of activities at Sheffield, here's a video made by the Students' Union. Also, if you tell me what you're interested in, I might be able to point you in the direction of societies that would be good for you.

mm. the lectures this year are on my long day in labs. I will admit I do hang around beforehand for several mugs of coffee.... (not sorry.) It would be nice is the socials weren't all bar crawls tbh. The Ball was quite good this year. Until blurred lines was played... and a post grad tried to stick his tongue down my throat at poppy tees...
Atleast you didn't have languages 2-5 on a friday, in the tiny little seminar room in jessop.

I wanted to do rowing last year, really didn't fit with my timetable. Doubt it will next year. (Is it wrong I'm already terrified of Meijer's stat. thermodynamics module and WILL be asking my grandparents for the Maczek primer over the summer?)

Bwahaha. I'm having to self-study that statistical baby right now. MY LIFE IS SO FULL OF JOY. Actually at least if i'm self studying it i'm actually paying -some- attention. I think I slept in the majority of Fairclough's thermodynamics lectures and many of Meijer's thermochem ones. I didn't even mean to...and I had plenty of sleep...it's just one of those things I guess I just don't care about

I sat in Fairclough's thermodynamics thinking -WTF IS THIS MAN ON??- And then sat and rewrote Atkins... got 88 for it in the exam. I do NOT know how.
I managed to make all of Meijer's changes of state in semester 1, and stay awake in them (I have to, I'm part of the front row fanclub, AND he's my tutor, so he knows who I am. That, and he would have made a sarky remark if anyone had) Haynes' lectures on the other hand... JFC. And caffeine doesn't help.

I am not jealous that you're having to self teach that baby. Not jealous at all.
Cake seems to be the method a lot of level 3 girls used to get through it last year. There's this particular glazed look that you all seem to have. It looks something like 'I swear down I went to all of his lectures, but nothing makes any sense'

That's definitely a common look. It became a sort of almost daily ritual to go to Interval and get hot chocolates between lectures last year. I got something like 93 on Fairclough's, again no idea. I think i'd looked at one of the big questions the day before. I've not been so lucky in other instances though. I got a mighty 35% or something on Meijer's second year course...I can't even remember the name of it. Some waffle about...uhhh lots of little symbols and the odd matrix? I wasn't a fan of Hippler's course either, I think I got 25 on his. It's a wonder how I passed in some ways. Luckily there's good old kinetics and quantum mechanics to save the day

I'm not sure if someone's asked this already but how was freshers week like? Did the uni put on good events or was it all just a bit awkward? I heard of something calling "Sheffield Parties?" is that mainly for Hallam students and are the events they put on any good? I'm just curious to how the general week was like, I'm pretty nervous because I'm sure that freshers week is going to be the hardest time for me adjusting to being so far away (I'm just 3 hours but I've always lived down South so moving up North seems so major to me) It doesn't help that my birthday is like four days after freshers week starts so I'm most likely going to be spending it with strangers while missing my family (I doubt they would make the journey up twice that week)

My freshers week was kind of terrible, but not due to it being awkward or not having friends, just my flat (me included) were so disorganised that I think we only made it to one of the events put on by the union

I don't really know what Sheffield Parties is, I certainly don't know anyone that goes to their events. I always thought it was just some sort of alliance between the crap clubs of Sheffield e.g. Paris, Crystal, Embrace etc.

Best advice is to just go with the flow with Freshers, see what your flat is doing. People make out like its the best week you'll have at uni, it really isn't. I've had plenty nights out which were better than all of the nights in Freshers combined so don't even worry about it. And I'm sure your flatmates will be more than happy to help celebrate your birthday!