Hello
@Rolls_Reus_0wner,
My name is Charlotte and I'm a second year Biological Sciences with Biomedicine student.
I'd be happy to answer any questions about Lancaster and give you some information to help you to make your decision!
The collegesLancaster is one of few unis will a college system! It's not a strict as other unis (you'll have lectures with people from all colleges and lectures from staff associated with all colleges) but it's essentially who you live with in first year. When you arrive in welcome week your college JCR (basically a school council - elected students) plan and run all the events for your college so as well as meeting coursemates, you'll spend a lot of time with the other people who live around you and will be doing a variety of different courses. We also have college sports teams as well and college competitions (whether it's bar sports, quizzes or football). You'll have a freshers rep who is someone in your college and will help you out and take you around and also let you in on the stereotypes of the colleges (e.g. why Pendle is obviously the best)
The location and townLancaster is in the north-west, near to Preston but it's on the main train line so you can get to Manchester (less than an hour), Blackpool (less than an hour), Windemere in the lake District (an hour - we took advantage of this in the hot summer post exams), Edinburgh and Glasgow (2 hours) and London (2.5 hours) - just to name a few! The campus is out of the town and surrounded by fields but if you get the bus it's about 15 minutes into town and there's shops and bars and clubs and pubs and everything you need really. I really liked how it was a campus because it made it a lot less initimdating getting around and finding your way. Williamson park is also amazing - the view of the lake district is stunning.
The facilitiesPersonally I
love the 24/7 library (there's even a tree in the middle) and tonnes of different types of study space across campus - whether you prefer it quiet or chatty. There's obviously tonnes of printers and charging points and books (of course). There's also the gym which is just done the hill and prices start from £38 per turn. There's a pool, gym equipment and a climbing wall.
ExtracurricularWe also have tonnes of societies and every year we compete against York in the largest inter-college event in Europe (honestly - bigger than the boat race). It's like a mini-olympics where we compete against them in every sport possible (I believe there was a Pokemon tournament last year). It was definitely one of my highlights of first year as it was so sunny and everyone was out on campus watching tennis or rugby or something and there were food vendors and a bar outside so it felt like a festival almost! There's also opportunities to get a part time job for the uni or the town as well as volunteering, internships etc.
Night lifeI know it's not everyone's cup of tea but if you're interested, there's 9 bars on campus (most unis tend to have 1 - yet another advantage of the college system). There's also a students union club in town (amongst others) - but this one is student only and there's a free bus to and from it which is so useful in freshers week when you're finding your feet/absolutely tired and have no money for a cab. The bars on campus aren't just for drinking, they'll host events like pub quizzes or a 'take me out' event, and some of them serve food as well! We also have a spoons.
I'd really recommend coming to visit if you can, but if not you can ask me any questions! I also have a youtube channel where I document student life at Lancaster so feel free to check it out youtube.com/charlottemulcahy
Charlotte