Do you feel pressure to ‘fit in’ at university?

I’m currently writing a feature on social isolation at university and would really appreciate some opinions from current students.

In first year I felt pressure to join in with the heavy drinking culture in order to fit in and make friends, and so I started going out way more than I usually would at home. Do you think there is a pressure to drink? And if you choose not to go out/drink... do you feel isolated?

Do you feel homesick? I’m lucky to live around 30 miles away from home. Some are less fortunate and may live up to 200 miles away from family. How do you deal with this?

Are there mental support / help groups you can go to at your university to seek help? I know mosf universities do offer this, however, waiting lists and call backs are not always monitored.

I think that more should be done to normalise depression and low mood symptoms in young people / students. Do you think it is still a taboo subject? and students feel it is not a subject to discuss among friends?

Thank you so much for any opinions / experience shared. The subject of mental health is extremely important and interesting to me particularly in young people. Any comments in my feature will only be shared with my lecturers.

Reply 1

username4499734

Personally, I haven’t had any pressure to fit in. But I also live at home so I don’t if it’s any different living it halls. There are support groups at uni too, never had to use them yet

Reply 2

Noodlzzz

For me, the only pressure I faced at undergrad was academic (both pressure from myself and university) where you had to work your ass off to 'fit in' with rest of the high achieving private school kids!

Reply 3

dankadank

Im a non-drinker and I feel that pressure. I feel like the only way you can make friends is to go crazy on a night out and I'm not all about that. I have not made any friends ever since i started late September, and my parent's seem quite concerned even though they're not pro drinking. Societies are paid and the ones that aren't paid are not that appealing to me. This leaves me basically as a shut in. How the hell do I make friends without drinking or paying? It's like everyone in my course knew each other before they even met, like what am I supposed to do lfmao?