Freshers expirences

I'm going to university in October 2012 to York to study Computer Science.

I just wanted to find out peoples experiences of going to uni for the first time in the first couple of weeks or freshers.

Reply 1

username952441

How did you make most of your friend or meet them when you went to uni

Reply 2

roh

One of the best weeks of my life. Recited my subject and hometown about once every 5 mins. Met loads of people, some are now my closest friends others I haven't talked to since. Drank substantial quantities of very cheap alcohol. Explored a new home city for the first time. First real taste of independence.

Reply 3

k3ro

Lol, I bet you're excited. I remember this time last year I was bricking it. Congrats on your uni place! For me it went something like this:

- Packed car (stuff overflowing everywhere) and left around 11am
- Arrived ~2pm-ish
- Horrid task of transferring everything from car to 9th floor (and the lifts were really busy so took forever...)
- Left everything in a heap on my floor, kicked parent out after about ten minutes ( :tongue:

)
- Only one other flatmate had arrived so introduced myself
- Was about 4pm and had nothing to do so ended up unpacking and finding the local shops (they were close to my building)
- Spent ages talking to new flatmate in kitchen
- At 7pm went down to the 'welcome party'
- Was awkward as hell (as expected)
- Same conversation with everyone: name? studying? a-levels? where from?
- Stuck with a few people, got recruited to go to a pub
- Group that went to the pub then moved on to a club
- GET PHONE NUMBERS FROM PEOPLE OR YOU'LL NEVER KEEP IN CONTACT WITH THEM
- Over the next few days met up regularly with people I'd met and everyone began to form friendship groups
- Eventually got less awkward
- They're the best friends I ever made and I'm moving in with them in July :biggrin:

Protips: get people's numbers, add them on facebook, DON'T STAY IN YOUR ROOM, go to as many welcome events as possible. If you meet someone/some people you'd like to be proper friends with then don't be afraid to text them and ask them to go someplace with you (i.e. a welcome event). During freshers week people are pretty much up for anything and most are in the same boat as you with not knowing anyone.

Have a good time :biggrin:

Reply 4

username952441

Yeah i can't wait!
I'm pretty much up for anything and will most likely end up going to the campus bar once ive arrived to meet people :L
How often do people go out in uni?
Thanks for the tips! :smile:

Reply 5

jelly1000

mine consisted of going to the uni club every night most with my flatmates, and during the day sleeping, going to registration events and talking to flatmates in the kitchen.

Reply 6

jelly1000

Original post by ross94

at my uni we went out every night in freshers and then 3 nights a week after that

Reply 7

Marlo Stanfield

Freshers can seem a bit daunting I guess but it flies by, and I guarantee you'll find it awesome. Talk to everyone, try to remember people's name, get their numbers, go out most nights, and generally make the effort. You will meet a lot of people that you might not necessarily like at first but from these people you'll wade through to find a group of actual friends. Well, actually this applies to the first few weeks, even months perhaps. Most of the friends I've actually got now I didn't actually meet during Freshers, well not properly anyway, the majority probably not at all.

PROTIP: Get happily drunk but not so drunk you're sick in the club/in the taxi/in the flat. Generally not a good impression to leave on people.

Seriously, the worst thing to do is to stay in your flat. Even if you're a really shy person, you have to go out and talk to people. Don't think that if you weren't cool before, you can't be cool at uni. Talk to people, say hi, smile, ask them about themselves, ask what they're doing later. Good luck!

Reply 8

username952441

Thanks for the tips!

Im generally a friendly person and will make the effort, but in 6th form people are either in groups already or really bitchy and its hard to talk to people like that, i assume no one is like this in uni?

Reply 9

Marlo Stanfield

Original post by ross94

Oh yeah sure, really nobody is like that at all for the first few weeks because even people who are self-obsessed and standoffish are forced not to be just because they have to make friends too. Honestly, throughout your campus, in halls, and in lectures everyone will be open to talking to one another. Probably only one of the few times in life where you can get away with just chatting to people when you've never interacted with them before.

Reply 10

Cll_ws

I moved in pretty early and it was actually 2 days before any of my flatmates moved in. But I was so nervous, I knew the day my first flatmate was moving in so I was prepared (if you can count drunk as prepared)
I knew they were coming so I drank as I felt i'd be less nervous, looking back on it now it was like when a person has an an extremely bad idea in a movie and you know that everything will definitely go wrong, but at the time it seemed a great idea.
So they ended up arriving, I went and knocked their door and introduced myself (i'd only had 4 cans at this point so I was functioning), then we had a drink together in the kitchen and spoke for a while (5th & 6th can)
Then she mentioned that she knew some people from home who were living in a flat downstairs, so we went to see them, after going to buy some drink.
I brought a box of 10 cans and we went to this flat, where they suggested playing a drinking game, I remember playing that for a while and then it's just blank. I can't quite remember how many of those cans I got through, but I woke up the next morning in my bed. One of the people i'd just met that night took me to my room.
Embarrassing right? on my first night. I highly recommend you don't drink (too much) for courage, haha.

That's one of only a handful of nights in my life that I genuinely don't remember a thing. It's not really a regular occurrence for me.

Reply 11

Tilly87

Once I'd got settled in my room me and the girl next door to me had some biscuits and knocked on everyone's door in our block and got chatting that way. Then after dinner we went to the bar and got chatting to more people from our halls. At the start you tend to gravitate towards those who live nearest to you, then as the week progresses you begin hanging around with the people who you have more in common with and end up becoming your friends. I met my friends from halls this way anyway. Then by the time lectures start you become friends with people on your course - hardly anyone does my current course, so we all had a meet up in the bar and now we're quite a close group. Don't worry you'll have a great time.

Reply 12

Swanbow

I have experienced freshers week two times, for unfortunate reasons, and so I have a bit of knowledge on it. The first night in my experience is always a bit of a disappointment. You expect to be like American Pie but in reality it's like a really sad and realistic version of the Inbetweeners. My first time I started drinking from the moment I arrived and as a result once getting through a crate I experienced a crash in the early evening getting extremely tired, but I just switched drinks and managed to stay awake. I remember awkwardly dancing in the student union and smoking outside making friends. Even if you don't smoke, go outside as you'll meet loads of people and you'll actually be able to hear each other speak. Also I have vague memories of a flatmate pulling out a fire alarm and nearly being kicked from university. So don't go drinking too much, it can make you very stupid and in my case tired, have a nap if necessary.

The main hurdle is awkwardness. It's hard enough making conversation with people you don't really speak to at school so it's even harder to make friends with complete strangers. Best advice is to be yourself, don't go pretending to be something your not. Don't pretend to be into heavy metal because you met a hot chick with an Iron Maiden top for example. Stick with your flatmates for the first night but be sure to branch out and make a wide range of friends, speak to everyone in freshers but remember you won't speak to most again in your life. People will ask you where you are from and what you are studying dozens of times, just rehearse it and ask more substantial questions if you want to get the conversation going.

A bit boring but remember to go shopping and get food, preferably quick and easy to make as you'll have a hangover. Money is also an issue, I have known people who have almost wasted their student loan during freshers, so go out and enjoy yourself but withdraw money before and keep the card at home if cash is an issue. Aside from that keep safe, and that's most advice I can be bothered writing at present, hope this has helped someone! :smile:

Reply 13

jelly1000

Original post by ross94

From my experience at uni, there were some people who were like right I've met my flat, got my friends thats it I don't need to be friendly to anyone else. The majority of people are nice, although at my uni they still generally stick with their flatmates.

Reply 14

Ivanka

I managed to talk to a lot of people during Freshers' Week the majority of whom I've never talked to again and I also spent aaaages in queues :biggrin:

I didn't go clubbing at all, I think, but I really don't think I missed anything.

Reply 15

lozzyhickers

At first I found it hard to make friends at uni, as I don't like going to clubs, and I don't drink, and I honestly don't think I made many friends during freshers for that reason.

I did however make a few good friends on here, and now we're really close! So I urge you meet some of the members on here during freshers, it's also alot less awkward!
I also live in a studio apartment, but if you're living in a flat, make the effort to go around all the rooms, maybe take some sweets or choc with you too :smile:

Go to all the course related info sessions, this not only helped with my course, but enabled me to meet others on my course BEFORE all the hard work started.
For those of you that don't drink, there's usually events going on that don't nvolve any drinking so you'll meet others who also aren't into it =) A few examples that we had included a roller disco, ghost walk around the city, film nights, trips bowling or to the indoor soft play centre.