Welcome to Hallam!

Hey there!

By now most of you will be packing up your stuff to get ready to move and start you university journey at Hallam! I imagine a lot of you are feeling nervous and excited for what's to come and I just know you'll love every second of your experience and your time at Hallam!

As a third year student myself, I thought I'd share some bits and pieces of information I wish I'd known before I moved to get yourselves prepared and ready for the move to make your first few weeks as stress-free as possible.

1) Move-in day
By now you've probably got all your essentials bought and packed ready for the big move. For the day I'd recommend making sure you have with you: a roll of toilet paper at home because you might need the loo when you get there, a portable charger (your phone might have died by the time you get there and you'll need your phone for all your accommodation information so a portable charger will help rather than you routing through all the boxes), some sort of portable fan (a prewarning your rooms will be hot, the windows will have been closed during the summer so it'll be very hot when you move in so dress accordingly). One of the first things I recommend doing is if you have an ice cube tray, filling it up and putting it in the freezer for the end of the day when you're tired and dehydrated from carrying boxes. Either that or you could bring some bottles of water and stick them in the fridge as soon as you walk in the door. It's so easy to get stressed with your family/friends because you're tired from heavy lifting and believe me the heat around this time causes many arguments and stress from the move, just try to keep your cool and enjoy the process because once you're all settled in it's all done and dusted. You won't have to do it again until the end of the year :biggrin:

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2) Welcome Week
The Welcome Week events are now available to book onto on the Hallam website. This includes the societies fairs and the freebies fair so make sure you grab your ticket and don't miss out. This could be a great thing to do with your flat to get to know each other. You will also be receiving some timetabled sessions to meet your coursemates and get set up on the university system at some point before you move in. Although these sessions are optional, I'd really recommend going and getting to know your coursemates. Making friends is easy at uni if you put yourself out there and everyone is always really friendly and willing to make friends but you've got to put yourself in the best position to do so. If you go to these sessions, its a great start.

You can find the Welcome Week events bookings here:
https://www.hallamstudentsunion.com/welcome-week/

3) Freshers Week Events
For some of you, Freshers Week will mean going on nights out for the week and getting to know your flat. Don't worry if you don't want to do this, it's not for everyone and there's plenty of other things you can get involved in. My advice for Freshers is to familiarise yourself with the taxi companies in the city, add all of your flatmates numbers to your contacts before you go out and remember your ID/student ID. For student events you will need a student ID but for those of you who haven't got theirs posted yet, they will accept Unidays and Student Beans. Freshers Week is amazing and one of the best things I've ever done and you only get your first freshers week once so make the most of it. There's a couple of Wetherspoons in the city centre if you wanted to go out for predrinks. The nicest I'd say is the Waterworks or the Benjamin Huntsmen which are literally round the corner from each other. Don't worry if you haven't bought a wristband, the individual events tickets are now live so you won't miss out. If you have bought a wristband then PLEASE don't forget to go and collect it. The collection point should be in an email somewhere. Most importantly just have a good time. It's your first away-from-home experience and you've just got to go out and enjoy it.

Lastly, we're here to help you. If you have any questions for the student reps then please feel free to reply to this post with any questions about student life or accommodation, nothing is off limits as we've all lived through the experience. Your uni experience at Hallam will be amazing and I know you'll all love it just as much as I do.

Good luck with the move and we'll see you all around campus!
Lucy - Digital Student Ambassador SHU