The Student Room Group

Has university lived up to your expectations?

Poll

Has your uni experience been all you hoped it would be?

So when you think back to the days of university prospectuses and open days and all your aspirations and dreams of what you thought your university would be like, would you say that it has lived up to what you thought?

I think that mine has in some aspects, as the social side has been quite immense and the campus is such a nice environment to live in. On the other hand, I haven't enjoyed the academic side as much as I originally hoped (law is boring boo :frown: )and sometimes I think I'd prefer to have gone to a place that was a little less challanging, as I'm quite a lazy person and sometimes my course is a little too much like hard work :p:

So yea, what do you guys think, is the university experience as good as you first imagined it to be? :tsr2:

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
I'm loving uni. I expected it to be really hard and I thought I'd struggle with a lot of the academi work but I have been doing quite well so far, so I'm pleased.

Everything is just perfect:biggrin:
Reply 2

Coursewise = yes i love it
Socially = disappointment
Socially its been pretty good to me. I met my current boyfriend who doubles up as a best friend, met loads of interesting characters, improved my confidence, tried different foods, clubs, learnt about other people's cultures.

BUT its also been dull, the academic facilities were worse than I expected, there haven't been as many mature students as I had hoped for, the lecturers have little to no time to speak to students.

On the other hand, I've had so many good opportunities I couldn't hope for anywhere else; set up my own volunteering project (wow, for me, thats a massive achievement) and wrote quite a bit for the student paper - that was great fun. :biggrin:

Overall, loved it. Wanna stay in education forever, changing subjects every so often. I feel a bit artsy again now.... :smile:
course = as good as expected, socially = very dissapointing altho the potential wud have been there if i had met the right people
Heeeeeeeeeeeeell yes.
Social has been awesome, but then it's my friends that make the social so good.
Course isn't too bad but after a bit of whinging it's got better :biggrin:
Reply 6
No!!!

before i went to uni', i though all the lecturers and students there would be friendly, i would get chicks chatting me up, lecturers and student helping me with coursework, loads of students would wanna be friends with me, ask me out to clubs and party

the reality is that none of the above is true to me, you're on your own at university. Lecturers and students take the mick out of you, if you are desperate!
Reply 7
guest1984
No!!!

before i went to uni', i though all the lecturers and students there would be friendly, i would get chicks chatting me up, lecturers and student helping me with coursework, loads of students would wanna be friends with me, ask me out to clubs and party

the reality is that none of the above is true to me, you're on your own at university. Lecturers and students take the mick out of you, if you are desperate!


This is the most insightful post I have read all day. Thank-you, sir. :wink:
Reply 8
mine didn't. So I'm going to Newcastle...which will. Nuff said.
guest1984
i would get chicks chatting me up
Although I think you were expecting something similar to an American high school film I have to admit that at first I did believe I would be getting a shag every night I went out lol.
Reply 10
If you'd asked me last term, I'd have said no. Now, I'd say socially and academically it's more than I'd expected. I'm loving Uni.
Reply 11
Sarky

Coursewise = yes i love it
Socially = disappointment


That's funny, my experience has been the total opposite!:smile:
Reply 12
My course is going fine and my marks are pretty decent considering my total lack of effort (something which has plagued me forever)

However socially, I'm a bit bored. I have a small circle of mates here who all seem to have become really dull in 2nd year. You might assume that I'm the sort of twát that's always pressuring people to go out and such, but I'm not - I'd be more than happy with once, maybe twice, a week. But it seems virtually impossible to get them to do anything and when they do, they just seem to sit around looking miserable and complain about the music being played or some other minor flaw. Either way, it's not exactly fun.

It's also fairly static in that I'm not meeting new people. Rather inconvenient as I'm in one of those 'I want a relationship' modes right now that I get occasionally (something to do with the movements of the moon or something, I imagine) and I've ruled out all my friends on that front. So yes, bugger all.

Meh.
I'm the same as Sarky. Love my course, it's better than I expected, but socially uni has been a total let down. I had more friends at home than I do here, which sucks.
Everytime I thought I'd be involved with people passionate about the subject and willing to do some work.
And everytime I had to find out that the majority had nothing better to do than sleep in seminars and complain about the huge workload :frown:

That's why I am quite glad that I was accepted on a new degree now, which combines normal uni with distance/online learning. Hardly any seminars etc. Yay !!

Oh, and socially, I have always had my friends outside of uni. Most of them anyway :biggrin:
Reply 15
guest1984
No!!!

before i went to uni', i though all the lecturers and students there would be friendly, i would get chicks chatting me up, lecturers and student helping me with coursework, loads of students would wanna be friends with me, ask me out to clubs and party

the reality is that none of the above is true to me, you're on your own at university. Lecturers and students take the mick out of you, if you are desperate!

If you make an effort with people, then they will make an effort with you. Simple. You can't just expect loads of students to automatically want to be friends with you and ask you out to parties and suchlike, you know.
Didn't really have too many expectations as had been to university before I started at Sussex. I have met loads of nice people and the course is going really well - I feel really at home here. :biggrin:
I love my course, but the lecturers and facilities have been a complete let down - ended up buying half of Waterstones in text books and doing most of it at home, spending hours trying to work something out because a tutor isnt available - or cannot help anyway because they dont know themselves.

Socially I realised how 'quiet' I am - not personally, Im outgoing and confident and have loads of amazing friends, and have travelled to Australia and Morocco on my own,etc., - but that I like to do my work, like to have quiet dinners and go to the cinema rather than go out drinking all night every night, that I dont have much stamina for drinking and partying the night before 9am lectures, that I like a clean house and my creature comforts, and that I actually like my family :redface:

So no, uni hasnt lived up to expectations, but I think my expectations were unrealistic and that I hadnt actually thought through what I wanted / what I was like prior to uni :rolleyes:

I learnt a lot about myself, Im in my final year now and never been happier :wink:
Socially it's vile...definate disappointment.

Love the course though.

There isn't as much to do as I thought there would be unless you classify getting ratted every night as entertaining. Here if you're not a virtual alcoholic there's nowt for you to do.
Um. Well, since I've gotten here the uni's had serious security problems every year (mugging, armed robbery, assault, etc. and the topper this year is the strange man that keeps wandering into dorms and girls' dorm rooms to watch while they sleep!), not to mention a persistent hate crime (!) problem. The uni tends to blame the problems on the students rather than making any large changes, which may explain why our campus crime rate is so much higher than other unis in the area (some of which are in far worse neighborhoods). However, the campus is huge and gorgeous and I suppose size requires a bit of a security trade off.

I don't know, I think maybe I shouldn't say anything else because I absolutely loathe this school and am counting the days until I can graduate and go to grad school elsewhere. Unsurprisingly, this makes me pretty negative. :wink: