Hi
@ic_2004,
It's great to hear that you're considering York! I'm a recent graduate and I actually remember having a very similar conversation with a girl on my interview day about being nervous around the geese.
Everyone has a different experience of course, but from my 3 years at York I didn't find the geese bad at all. I was pretty neutral about them before I came to York, but in a weird way, everyone seems to grow to love them (or have a love/hate relationship with them)! You never know, you may become a fan by the time you've finished your first term!
In general, I've found that if you don't try and approach them or feed them (especially in Spring/Summer when they have their babies) they probably won't cause you any issues. From what I remember, only people that tried to silly with the geese and get too close were the only ones that got hissed at!
There are so many paths around campus and routes to different departments, that if you are unsure about walking past a group of ducks/geese, there will be plenty of ways to avoid them and choose a different path. I really grew in confidence around them and became more comfortable as time went by. You will also probably be walking between lectures with a group of coursemates, so there's always safety in numbers!
When campus is pretty empty, it can sometimes feel like the geese rule the campus, but when everyone is back for the new term, it's a completely different story and they tend to keep themselves a lot more if that makes sense?
I hope this helps ease your worries a little bit, and feel free to ask any more questions
Hazel
Graduate Ambassador