How are you settling in at university? The Times would like to hear from you

How are you finding the transition from home to uni life:

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Are you feeling settled?

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Are you under pressure from work?

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Is this too much pressure?

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have you made friends?

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If you are unhappy will you or have you told your parents?

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have you talked to anyone at uni about this or sought help from the counselling service?

Glynis, a freelancer working with The Times newspaper is putting together
a feature on how students are coping with the transistion to university and who they turn to for support.

Please could you get in touch with her on before the end of Friday 3rd Dec:

email: [email protected]

tel: 07952 724 299

Thank you, she's really nice and anything you tell her will be confidential and she can use an alternative name in her piece if you prefer.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1

love_junkie298

Why would anyone want to publicise being unhappy at uni, and have everyone they know reading it/talking about them?

Reply 2

theronkinator

I was thinking that aswell.

Reply 3

Teaddict

Why would anyone go on Jeremy Kyle?

Reply 4

Prince Rhyus

They don't give out your real identities without your consent. They will give you a different identity if needs be.

Reply 5

Glynisk

Hi

I just want to make clear that anything which is told to me can be anonymous. I don't need to know who you are.

•

I can name change if you wish and also change your uni., though I am am hoping to be able to quote some Cambridge students as the feature in on the back of the recent suicides- 3 at Cambridge this term.

There is no way I would include anyone's full name and university!

I am still looking for a few more responses from 1st years who have found settling in difficult - whether you are very unhappy or just not finding it as great as you hoped.

I'd need all comments by Sunday evening.
Thanks!

Reply 6

hollyhollywood92

I'm finding that it's actually way harder than I had expected. Everyone told me that first year was easy, and I had the idea that uni students didn't turn up to lectures, or they just slept during the lectures. So I thought, well i'm definietly going to turn up to lectures and i'm going to listen and take notes, so i'll be fine. But that's not true. Anyone at my uni who doesn't turn up is taken off the class list. I had also been told that the first year doesn't matter, you can just do nothing in the first year and it won't matter, but I have coursework to do! And lots of it as well. I thought that especially in the first term, i'd have time to concentrate on settling in and making friends, but I was bombarded with work pretty much as soon as I arrived. I was doing research on Medieval Theatre in freshers week! I find it hard to juggle all this work with socialising. I had planned to get a part-time job, but there's no way I could fit it in.

Reply 7

Glynisk

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my request.

I have included as many experiences as I can.

I may still have room for a couple more if you fulfil these criteria:

You are at a Russell group or other "top 20" uni
You are in your first year
You have found it very hard for any reason.

I would like to know which uni you are at, but we can name change and course change so you are not identified, if you wish.

If you can help, please email me.

meanwhile, I know that some of you who responded have already set up support for yourselves.

If not, please consider:

Talking to someone- friends or family
using your university counselling service
calling Nightline
calling Papyrus helpline
seeing your GP

Thanks everyone.

Reply 8

Miss.

Original post by love_junkie298

Why would anyone want to publicise being unhappy at uni, and have everyone they know reading it/talking about them?

I agree, because people can make disadvantage out of you.
I think you should take this thread off.

Reply 9

Glynisk

Miss- please read my posts which say that you can be anonymous.
Also, why should you assume that people will make fun of you? (if they were to know who you were.) You may find that they want to offer to help. Finding something hard and being unhappy is nothing to be ashamed of. This is one thing which the feature is trying to show.

Reply 10

sarah.123

I realise it is a couple of days after the deadline but i'm experiencing much of what other people have done. I'm not ashamed of the situation I'm in because I am happy on the whole and never struggle socially or academically, although I wouldn't want my name broadcasting all over the shop. I am at man uni so feel very fortunate to be there but my mum is unwell, my grandparents both have cancer, and I have consequently turned to my boyfriend for support and rely on him a lot so I return home pretty much every weekend because I find it difficult to be away. I don't know if I'm being impatient in expecting to settle in faster than I have done as I've trasnferred accommodation already as I was placed in a hall with many, many exchange students who did not want to socialise. The new hall is a great improvement and I have made some good friends but I feel uninspired and feel that moving closer to home or my firm friends would allow me to reach my full potential. I did take a gap year and thought this would have made me more ready for university. Whilst this has made me more focused, I have an intense workload which is manageable but feel moving would be a much better option.

Like hollyhollywood92, I dont have time for a part time job either.

Thanks x