Uni .. What to expect?

hey

im hoping to go to Manchester this year for my first year of uni to study business but i really dont know what to expect .. at all?!
for example, how halls are set out? like showers and kitchens, bedrooms everything
how often you have lectures, the list could go on i just wondered if anyone could give me a rough idea? x

Reply 1

unknownking321

Expect nothing, but know that great things lie ahead for you.

Reply 2

Psyk

Halls have all sorts of different layouts. Some are arranged as flats, so you'd be sharing a kitchen and bathroom with around 4-8 people in your flat. Some are just corridors with individual rooms and kitchens and bathrooms shared between the people in the rooms nearby.

Amount of lectures can be completely different between subjects.

Reply 3

The_Showstopper

I went to Uni for about 3 weeks last summer before i pulled out.

Traditionally, Halls are set up with rooms next to each other, followed usually by a kitchen at the end of the hall (maybe 8 or so rooms to a kitchen). If you're lucky you'll have en-suite facilities, if not you'll have to share a toilet and shower. Again this varies as to how many people are in your flat/hall.

Lectures are usually every day (you may have one day where you're fully booked and another where you just have one lecture all day) and these last between an hour and two hours roughly. Lectures are basically when you listen to the teacher, and take down the notes. Then you also have tutorials, which occur roughly every week or two weeks. You get split into groups of 5 or 10 and then have to discuss what you learned in the lecture. This is also the time when you'll get set group work as opposed to lectures when you'll get your essays.

That's in addition to the social side. Having had a brief snippet last year, it's fair to say you get A LOT of free time in your first year at Uni.

That's basically that, hope you enjoy Manchester, as I've heard it's great!

Reply 4

x.Crystal.x

Don't go with high hopes, because you'll only leave disappointed.

Reply 5

mistermeowingtons

The_Showstopper

Having had a brief snippet last year, it's fair to say you get A LOT of free time in your first year at Uni.

Completely depends on the course. In my first year I didn't have much free time at all, and this year even less so.

Reply 6

chelseab

x.Crystal.x

Don't go with high hopes, because you'll only leave disappointed.

did you not enjoy uni then?

Reply 7

Persipan

x.Crystal.x

Don't go with high hopes, because you'll only leave disappointed.

Whilst I wouldn't put it quite like this, I think it's fair to say that going to uni is like any other major event in your life - it helps to have realistic expectations about it and not just assume everything will be fabulous all the time. I know that might sound a bit glass-half-empty, but if you go assuming you'll make the best friends you've ever had within a day of arriving, party every night, ace every module, meet your future spouse in freshers' week, feed the world and find the answer to world peace, then, well, you may be in for a bit of a let down.

(Some of those things may turn out to be true, of course!)

Reply 8

chelseab

Persipan

haha i suppose in that sense im quite reasonable, i can understand that i will make friends but settling in will take some time. Whatever hand i get dealt when im there i will genuinely try to make the most of it im just really unsure of the ways uni works if it makes sense. I guess from what everyone has been saying and reading other posts im just going to have to wait and see because some people love it and some seem to hate it!

p.s - i'm not so sure ill be finding the answer to world peace lol

Reply 9

miranda7719

what course are you doing? this year i only had 8/9 contact hours a week and not much set work so i did have a lot of free time, not much of this was spent reading like i should have done but i'm doing fine :smile:

my halls have 6 rooms on a corridor (3 boys, 3 girls) with a shower and toilet at one end, no kitchen. i don't get on with the people on my corridor but that's ok because it's really just a room not like a flat. i have other friends so it's fine. i'd agree just don't expect/plan on much and enjoy the experience

Reply 10

OhNO!

Depends what halls you're in, depends what exact course you're doing, whether you're at ManUni or ManMet - you'd probably be better going to the Manchester forum and posting on the relevant topics. These questions are just too vague to be answered usefully, really.

Reply 11

nobbler

There's a bit of info here

realuniversity (dot) uuuq (dot) com/

Reply 12

SaintCaz#5

Hmm. Uni's overrated. Just from my experience. Lack of sleep, tosser room mates, lots of deadlines, and the same meaningless conversation over and over again with people. Urgh. Yeah, I had a bad experience! Halls are good for meeting people, but it does revolve around drinking, most nights of the week, which for me the novelty kind of wore off. There are other things in life, shock horror. But hopefully it will be better this time round. And I'll get more involved with socities and stuff. But this time I wont have such high expectations. For me, it wasnt as good as college, which was much more close knit and friendly. But hey ho, that's University. I knew Id be just a number, but its hard to get used to. Saying that mind, roll on september..

Reply 13

polka_dott

If you get to visit Manchester University you will hopefully get to see some halls and how they are laid out and where everything is - pubs, shops, gyms etc - it's good to visit a place to see what it is like.

Reply 14

x.Crystal.x

chelseab

did you not enjoy uni then?

I do enjoy uni, but i just came with high expectations, and so far those expectations haven't been met. Everyone talk about going to uni as the best experience of your life, and you'll have so much fun all the time. No one talks about the stress lol. Its stressfullllll :woo: