Navigating Fresher's Week Like A Boss

Features

Oscar La-Gambina

19 Sept 2018

It's not just hangovers and course books

Fresher’s Week is total chaos, there’s no downplaying it. There are so many new and different things going on that you just sort of have to ride the wave and hope it calms down eventually. You’ve had your first night out with your new friends, so next on the list is actually settling down in a new city and making the most of Fresher’s Week.

As you’ve probably been told countless times before, the first week of uni is a perfect time to get to know your surroundings and to also get to know yourself: the activities you’re interested in, your work ethic, who on campus could work with you on that business idea. It’s a time of blissful freedom, because after this week the work hits you. Hard. Like Miley Cyrus’ wrecking ball right in the middle of your face. Yes, we are daring enough to include pop culture references from aeons ago.

There are certain ways to navigate the week in order to come out of it feeling like a badman. There’s also a lot of tat to avoid and things to ignore. A guide would be handy. 

Here it is.

Fresher’s Fair



At some point during your first week at university, every single new first year will come together in a field or a hall or a conference centre to be greeted by every single society on offer in what could be a mini Reading Festival, and there are more societies than you think. It’ll range from your standard football, music and expedition societies to zombie apocalypse survival societies (Bristol), curry appreciation soc (Bath) and Quidditch teams (shout out to Brizzlepuffs, Bristol’s finest fake flyers).

Going into Fresher’s Fair, it’s crucial that you don’t get carried away. There are more stalls than a German Christmas market and you don’t want to spend too much time having a laugh with the Pun Society (Sussex) that you’re unable to sign up for the first social with the Extreme Ironing Society (Nottingham). Be careful.

There’s another reason to be wary: emails. Every society will ask for your new exciting university email address when you sign up, and the thing with Fresher’s Fair is at the time you’ll see no reason why you won't enter the competitions held by the Competitive Eating Society (Kent) every Tuesday evening. But no matter how wacky and fun it sounds to sign up for the hell of it, unless you are 100% certain, avoid it for the sake of your inbox. You don’t want to wake up the next morning with 76 emails giving you dates for the first meet up.

Getting To Know The City

Even if you’re at a campus uni, this is relevant. The city is where you’ll really set yourself up for the future. You’ll learn everything to get the grades in the lecture halls, but the city is where you’ll get all the experience, both in a professional manner and just for general life. It's where real people exist doing real jobs with real dreams. Scary stuff, but a crucial that you dip your toes in on occasion.

You won’t be able to explore everything in first year, but we’ve got a guide to some of the things that you’ll want to find before everyone else (if you’re going to Bristol, Manchester, CardiffPortsmouth or Brighton, you’re in luck!). There’s no massive organisation needed, just ask your flatmates to head out with you to explore your new surroundings and boom: new mate, new pub, evenings of fun ahead of you.

However boring and slightly awkward the university organised activities may sound, they are in fact an excellent way to discover the new city too. The talk itself might be total rubbish, but the bus journey on the way down will get you familiar with the city’s transport. Hearing about all the things that they organise in different places which you might have no interest in will still make you aware that those places exist.

Be Nice to your Housemates




This may sound trivial, but some stories that you'll hear soon enough about other flats will amaze you. A first impression is more crucial in Fresher’s Week than your exams are at the end of your degree. It’s the door to getting mates for life, people you can trust and contact in the future if you’re ever in trouble. Don’t be a dick and insult everyone when you arrive just to seem hard - karma will burn you, hard.

We don’t mean make a cup of tea whenever someone walks into the room or buy everyone’s drinks on the first night. Just don’t let the awkwardness of new faces prevent memories being made. It will be an odd atmosphere for the first few weeks as you all settle down, but before you know it it’ll be the Christmas holidays, and on the train home you’ll be reminiscing about first term and those awkward moments will be tiny in comparison to the laughs you’ve had.

Be open too. Don’t hide your feelings and thoughts (within reason, obviously) for fear of being laughed at. There are so many more people in the world like you than you realise, and university is about meeting them and helping each other. Then in the future when you do remember that first conversation in the corridor, it’ll be happy nostalgia instead of regret of not talking more. There's a statistic somewhere on the internet that says a significant proportion of married people met at university. It's that.

Your Course Still Exists

Very quick one this: go to your opening talks.

The opening week is a bit of a no man’s land education-wise, but the first talks are crucial. You’ll meet your new course mates (even if that game where you find fun facts about your neighbour is a piss take), familiarise yourself with the buildings you’ll be going into every day, and most importantly you’ll meet the staff. You don’t want to piss off your personal tutor in the street because you didn’t recognise them from the talks you didn’t go to.

Fresher’s Week is mayhem, and it’s bloody brilliant. Enjoy it.