Reading University

how did you find social life doing a masters? time for one? lol I know it'll vary from course to course but i'd still hope to get involved in a bit of sport/night at the union. living in halls, did the accommodation service put you with other post grads? I have a fear of either ending up with 18 year olds (no offence!) or like 30 year old masters students. do they have a sort of first year post grad welcome week?

I havent applied yet, just waiting for a reference : /

Hi Sir Joe, I has the same gripes as you before I applied for my Masters but in the end it worked well with me. I've never been one to study 9-5 without a break, I'm more the 'last-minute' student that loves to play sport and go out. At first I was worred I couldn't carry these activities in to my Masters year but don't let that worry you, I had no trouble balancing the work and play. I played for the uni squash team and went out quite a lot in my first two semesters, most of the work happenned towards the end of my second and final semester. Some people have misconceptions of the workload of a Masters, it's pretty much like your final year as an undergraduate. I managed to earn myself a distinction too so can't be that hard

Wantage Hall was great because I was put in 'Lawn' (Wantage is divided in to 3 quarters, 'New Court' which were all freshers, 'Old Court' which were a mix of freshers, 2nd years, final years and postgrads and 'Lawn' made up of half freshers and the rest final years and postgrads. The Hall didn't have a postgrad welcome, in fact we were excluded from the freshers dinner because they had no room for us and they used the 'you've done it all before' excuse haha. But my course had a induction and welcome where we were able to meet everyone.

What course are you studying btw?

Hey, so if im 21 year old fresher where do you think they would place me in wantage?

Applying for MSc Food Science. My undergrad is Sports Nutrition at Leeds met so getting an offer would be sweet. Was yours a 12 month course? where'd you live in the summer? Some accommodation are advertised as 50 week but some aren't, i read you can still pay vacation rent for many of them though? I'd be skint doing a masters so would probably opt for the crappier halls such as sibly/martindale/hillside/childs.

Did you find you just had post grads to your flat? lots of them international? Sociable?

yea i'm also the last minute kind of student, but my undergrad degree has been such ********, i'll relish at the chance to go to a better uni and i'll probably swot up as it'll take some budgetting to pay for it

I lived at Wantage Halls but in 'Lawn', which an old victorian house adjacent to the main hall made up of about 7 freshers and 10 postgrads. Out of the whole hall there were only 3 or 4 international students, Wantage has a reputation of mainly accepting students whom went to private school you quite pretentious in that sense, and I guess thats why there weren't many international students! The only international student in 'lawn' believe it or not did Food Science too, he told me the majority of students on your course are international!

lol yea the food biosciences courses are all quite international, would be interesting. Not that i have anything against living with internationals, they just dont strike me as people whod wanna go out getting ********* occasionally, which i'd need to do after a long week of studying all day. so overall you found the experience to still hold some fun to it? ahhh really want to get my application off so i can have some peace of mind, bloody references

I got my application off round about this time of the year too, do it lol! Some of the international students are alright but a lot of them have spent even more that you and I on their Masters so most wouldn't want to get blitzed every weekend. Do what I did and join one or two sports clubs and societies at uni, they have their own social nights and you meet loads of new people anyway. I definately had lots of fun in the 12 months I was there (actually only 9 months for the 3 terms), and I still keep in contact with a lot of my mates there, going back to play squash with them this week actually! Oh, and I met my girlfriend there too, she was a fresher haha. You won't regret going that's for sure if you do decide to go for it!

Hi Sir Joe, I has the same gripes as you before I applied for my Masters but in the end it worked well with me. I've never been one to study 9-5 without a break, I'm more the 'last-minute' student that loves to play sport and go out. At first I was worred I couldn't carry these activities in to my Masters year but don't let that worry you, I had no trouble balancing the work and play. I played for the uni squash team and went out quite a lot in my first two semesters, most of the work happenned towards the end of my second and final semester. Some people have misconceptions of the workload of a Masters, it's pretty much like your final year as an undergraduate. I managed to earn myself a distinction too so can't be that hard

Wantage Hall was great because I was put in 'Lawn' (Wantage is divided in to 3 quarters, 'New Court' which were all freshers, 'Old Court' which were a mix of freshers, 2nd years, final years and postgrads and 'Lawn' made up of half freshers and the rest final years and postgrads. The Hall didn't have a postgrad welcome, in fact we were excluded from the freshers dinner because they had no room for us and they used the 'you've done it all before' excuse haha. But my course had a induction and welcome where we were able to meet everyone.

What course are you studying btw?

nnot sure if you read my post, if im a 21 year old fresher where in wantage do u think they would place me?

Hi! I'm not living here but I'll be doing Freshers Support in Freshers Week so you'll probably see me around! We'll probably be the ones hanging around A and B block when we're not arranging stuff, they've got the reputation as the 'party' blocks!

Oh cool, that'll be good! So are you a JCR Fresher lay rep sort of thing? (We had them in Wantage in my first year, I don't know if they're a uni-wide thing or not)
What would you say are the 'best' rooms/blocks? Any that have particularly nice rooms/toilets/kitchens? On my accommodation form it's got a list of 3 room preferences so I thought I may as well put some down! Oh yeah, and do the rooms have any TV aerials? Or will I have to get one of those receivery aerial things?
Thanks! I'm so excited about actually (hopefully) enjoying where I live!

Does anyone know what st georges is like?

Does anyone know what st georges is like?

i know a girl who lives there and she really loves it, i think she's been lucky with who she's living with. there are a LOT of international students there at the moment, the other day my mum and i managed to find an open door and had a walk round some of the buildings. it was soooo quiet and we only bumped into europeans who came across as quite rude. apparently they're changing the process for this year so there are guaranteed to be more british students. not that it's a problem, i'm sure the majority of internationals are lovely..!