Top 6 Myths About University

“You HAVE to go out during Fresher’s Week! Everyone will think you’re weird if you don’t!”

You really don’t have to go out during Fresher’s Week. Your housemates might find you a little strange if you hide up in your room the entire week and never speak to them, but I’ve never met anyone who isn’t cool with you not going out or not drinking. (See my post here on not drinking during Fresher’s Week).

You’ll be living off of beans on toast.

No.

I’ve tried living off of various tomato sauce covered things on toast. It takes about two days to get bored of that. And you’ll get bored of it to.

Most people are able to afford something a little more extravagant than that. Even my flat mate who goes out every week can afford curly chips and pizza.

And on that note…

You’ll be living in your overdraft.

Ok, I know a lot of people who are in their overdraft at the moment. I’m edging ever closer to it. But if you budget properly, you can make it to the end of the semester, just about…

“You HAVE to join a society!”

Much like having to go out on Fresher’s Week, this isn’t true. You’ll hear me talk a lot about how amazing extra-curricular is, and I loved it the past however many years, but this year I haven’t been doing much society-wise (so far). If you don’t have time, you don’t have time. Though it is amazing for making friends and will “enhance your CV”, it’s not a necessity.

You’ll be living in squalor.

Ok, I’m a student, so maybe I’m not the best person to judge this, and if my mum came round, she’d probably be disgusted at the state of my room, but it really isn’t that bad. Definitely not as bad as people would like to make you think.

I live in halls, where we have a cleaner that comes a couple of times a week but, between the seven of us, we manage to keep the place relatively clean.

That said, sometimes the night after an amazing night out can look… not that great.

Lecturers are really unhelpful.

I’ve no idea where this one comes from, but a lot of people told me it before I started university and this is not true in the slightest.

My tutor last year, bless him, had to deal with a fair bit from me, from sarcastic emails about meetings rearranged into the past, to emails whilst sent sobbing at midnight. He was really helpful, even writing my referee statement for applying to another university.

This year, I’ve spoken to my lecturers outside of lectures multiple times, even stopping them in the street to grab a question that has absolutely nothing to do with the course. Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky, but lecturers being unhelpful is definitely a myth.

 

 

Feature image created by flickr user John Walker used under Creative Commons

Beer Pong image created by English language Wikipedia user Rethcir used under Creative Commons

Fresher’s Fair image created by flickr user stuarts used under Creative Commons

New Year: Fresh Start

I’m back!

First off, apologises for disappearing over the summer. It has been a very busy summer for me, and even university preparation had to wait until only a couple of weeks before I moved in. But I’m back now. And I’m back at university, which actually means I’ll be able to talk about my current experiences.

You may remember, but I dropped out of university last February, ready to start my new course in September. Well, it’s September, and this evening I will be celebrating my first week at Winchester University (probably with an early night, as I have lectures on Monday). I’m very excited to be back at university. I’m already trying to get myself into a routine, with three planners and journals and weekly diaries. I’m determined to do things properly this year.

So how has fresher’s week been? Fresher’s week for me has been a quiet week of exploring the city and working out where things are. I made the mistake of running out of money last year when my student loan took a few weeks to come through, and I’m better prepared for that this year, with lots of food and money so I don’t end up starving (again). A lot of the week was spent making my work place as motivating as possible, which includes lots of pictures and books. At the moment, I’m quite happy with it, and hopefully I won’t be sick of it come November!

Lectures start tomorrow. I’m quite relieved to have a nice and easy time table, which will leave me with lots of free time (for work!). Last year, there was absolutely no free time. I was required to get up at four in the morning to have any free time at all. That lead to me being incredibly stressed and was probably one of the reasons why I ended up dropping out. Some people can deal with the amount of hours I had to study last year, but I couldn’t. I think I’ll be happier this year. Or I hope I will be happier this year.

 

Not Drinking During Fresher’s Week

Fresher’s week has this big scary reputation for being all about drinking and partying, which doesn’t seem like the most welcoming thing in the world to the large numbers of students who don’t feel comfortable drinking or partying.

I am a student.

I enjoyed fresher’s week.

I do not drink.

Or party.

(I go to bed at half past seven most nights, it’s safe to say I do not party).

Fresher’s week isn’t all about partying and drinking and not remembering anything that happened the night before. There are plenty of opportunities during the fresher’s period to do that. I remember once walking into the flat kitchen and finding a guy I didn’t recognise sleeping on the sofa. Which was very strange considering the fact we didn’t actually have a sofa when I went to bed. And we are on the fourth floor. So it is in no way an exaggeration when people talk about the things that go on during fresher’s period. But there are definitely other things to get up to.

The first night at university, a group of students arranged on the hall’s Facebook page for a “tea party” where we all went to one students flat and drank lots of tea. At first I was surprised to find there were so many students who didn’t want to go out and get drunk, but looking back it seems stupidly improbable that I was the only student in an entire halls complex who wanted to remember the evening. It’s just as improbable that you, the non-drinker, will be the only non-drinker in your halls, and there’s no harm in making a little Facebook post to see who else is up for a cup of tea and a natter.

As well as this, there were plenty of non-drinking things put on by the university, such as games night and a barbeque run by the Christian Union (open to everyone).

At the university I study at (I can’t guarantee other universities) clubs and societies have to hold a certain number of non-drinking socials for ever drinking social, so there’s plenty of opportunities later in the year to go out without being expected to get drunk.

During fresher’s week, I felt no pressure to go out and get drunk, even in a flat of twenty students who had pre-drinks in our kitchen. If you’re not lucky enough to be staying with people as welcoming and accepting as this, it’s usually possible to ask the university to swap rooms with people who feel uncomfortable about where they’re living.

And it is always acceptable to say “no, I don’t want to drink”. Fresher’s is a time to enjoy yourself and, if that doesn’t involve drinking for you, you don’t have to drink.