The 'I'm Coming to Exeter' Thread

oooh exciting! i cant wait to come now! do they not have many coxes with experience? and arrogant rowers are just normal rowers haha they can get over themselves later! nice one with the body doublesand henley! shame theyve left haha! how many teams do you have?

Haha just remember there's more to uni than rowing...!

We have coxes with experience, but one, I believe, is leaving, and she's our best. So we have some space plus I'm sure you know coxes are ALWAYS in demand.

We have teams I guess, but it's not quite in the same way as most sports, we all know each other fairly well (although I know everyone better because I'm a cox and therefore am not really IN a team, we all get together for socials ) so the teams change quite a lot. Provisionally, though, we have 1st & 2nd teams for Senior Men, Senior Women, Novice Men and Novice Women, then usually a few 4s here and there. The Senior Women prefer 4s to 8s, though, so we don't normally have their 8 in any races, but their 4s are pretty damn good

ah that is good! do you get any rowing tours or trips abroad? i know a few unis do that but i have no idea about any sports tours at exeter!

Indeedy we do. I went to France, about an hour outside Bordeaux, for a week-long training camp in Easter. Not so good for revision (or mental health after being cooped up with some fairly narcissistic boys) but fun... at times. woke up at 6 am every morning, but it's rowing...

Sports tours happen, yup: they cost money obviously, and they vary from the cool - ski trips! - to the slightly boring and routine - trips to local cities to play matches. You'll find out more when you come, the sports teams have loads to offer, from kit, socials, alcohol deals at bars, to trips abroad and posh dinners at which you can wear pretty dresses and eat expensive food

That all sounds really good (I'm interested in rowing too). Clearly it will cost money, but how much are we talking about to 'join the club', plus kit, plus anything else?

Also, you mentioned about there being another opportunity to join societies in Jan, are you not able to join in the time between September and January then? For instance, a month after freshers week, your friend keeps raving about (enter really cool soc. here) and you want to join - are you stuck in limbo until January?


I dont think I quite explained that very well! Hopefully you get what I mean!!

Hi, I'll be joining you all at Exeter in the fall!
I have a question - when can we move in? When will the accommodation be ready? Exactly at welcome week or a bit before that? Or does it depend on each of the halls?

I really need to do my accommodation so I can get it out of the way before the proper start of my exams. I was first considering self-catered but seeing as so many of exeter uni students actually go catered and apparently the food is quite good I was then very looking forward to putting catered as my three choices. However, I am just worried about Holland Hall.... I want to go ensuite so I'm going to put Pennsylvannia Court, Birks Grange and then Holland... I've heard really bad things on the student forum that it's so snobbish and if you don't play rugby or an extremely sporty person you shouldn't be there. I'm relatively sporty, tennis and swimming really, but not one of those 'rugby boys'. I'm just worried about that. Or am I just getting worried about nothing? Also, when you book for accommodation for Pennsylvannia Court, can you actually say you want Pennsylvannia Court or do you just have to put exeter halls accommodation ensuite?

My pleasure

I'm in College House, it's on St Luke's Campus, but I study on Streatham. I don't think you'll be put here, it's very unlikely as they'll only put you here if there is a major mess-up with the accommodation. Which there was with me and a few others!

I can tell you about most accommodation on/near Streatham, you'll probably have heard of the big ones - Holland Hall, Pennsylvania Court, Birks Grange - but actually, they're all pretty nice, I'd recommend just being content with one or two expensive choices and leaving the other choices as quieter ones, like the Exeter Halls (Hope, Lopez, those ones) or further away ones (James Owen Court - which is in the centre of town! Shopping!) because honestly, I'd rather have my 3rd choice than choose 3 popular choices and get none of them... Because that's what happened to me

Vis-a-vis staying on top of things - many, many people will tell you that 'first year doesn't count' and that you only need to get 40% to pass. While this is true, bear in mind that future employers may - and that's not necessarily a certainty - want to see your first year results. Despite this, many people, myself included, have not tried their hardest this year. It's hard to say whether letting yourself get used to it slowly in the first year and not burning out too soon is better than just getting on top of things ASAP, but I will say DON'T LET YOURSELF GET OVERLY STRESSED. It happened to me in the 2nd term and it really does ruin things

So, to stay on top of things - get organised. Get folders. Get dividers. Take the work in little, manageable chunks - don't hole yourself up in your room all day and night, it's not necessary. But you will find that if you do a bit every day, say an hour to three hours, life will just be SO much easier. You will love yourself come exam time.

But yeah, also don't go out drinking every night - tempting, but not necessarily what you're paying thousands of pounds for! Not to sound like boring, but just remember that you are paying for this, and as well as being a life experience, it's also to get a degree and career

Good luck!

P.S. If you - or anyone - has any other questions I'm happy to try and answer them

First off, don't worry - people here are genuinely lovely, and your friends don't have to be from halls, either - join societies, do a sport, whatever you want to do, and you will always find lovely people

Trust me, I am NOT a sporty person. I hate sport, I hate running, I don't have a six pack, etc., but I love it here, and my friends are lovely

Secondly, I wouldn't recommend putting all three of those down, because trust me, everyone else has the same idea. Just in case, I'd maybe recommend finding a third choice that is overlooked a little more - Hope or Lopes Hall are both lovely, Point Exe is a bit further away but still nice, just have a little browse, I promise you won't regret it!

And thirdly - I think you say Exeter Halls ensuite, but I think the accommodation application is fairly self-explanatory, so don't worry too much.

Lastly, don't fret about Exeter. It has a reputation, which is based on fact in places - yeah, there are people here who are in their own little world of horses and mansions - but you don't have to be their friend. The majority of students here will be just like you - how many people fret about the reputation, and then come here anyway? Those are the people you will meet!

I hope you love it here if you do come, and if you do meet anyone like that, just remember that you will be several personal developmental stages above them :P

Good luck!


EDIT: by the way - it's not called Welcome Week anymore, they just renamed it Freshers' Week! So now you can call it something normal like the rest of the unis in the UK...

I chose pennsylvania no 1, then birks grang catered then birks grange self catered. I put self catered just in case they try and put me in a shared room :P What do you think RosyAurora? Thanks for your help btw. Do you normally get your first choice?

Thanks for that Rosy Aurora, it was really helpful!
Well, we don’t have much money so I’m headed for the cheapest accommodation that isn’t a janitor’s closet

not gonna lie, i haven't seen anyone on here that's firmed for animal behaviour starting to worry that i'm the only one! any of you guys know anyone?
also does anyone know when we get the accommodation offers back?