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First day of college.....anyone terrified? *Account of first day*
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It's 15 years now since I started freshers week in UL. Time flies
When I was in college I was like a new born (alcoholic one at least)
Slept when I was tired, ate when I was hungry, and drank when I could afford it. Occasionally I actually went in to college, but after I while I learned how to pass exams, but never how to study. Sadly the 2 are not necessarily the same thing.0 -
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College is gonna be brilliant for you guys, loadsa people in the same boat, I spent long enough there to be able to give you three big bits of advice,
Go into college when your meant to be there, your better off in the long run, academically obviously, but also, cos your meeting people, your hearing about things , your keeping in the click. Seriously, you just never know who's going to sit down beside you in your next lecture.
Get involved in everything you can, everything, after college you aint gonna have the life you have now, and after college ,no it doesnt get better just cos you have a job, job comes with lots of other things. anyway, get involved
finally, do party like hell, its as important as anything else :P but keep the balance, jez, I shound just like everyone else sounded to me when I was starting college, wonder why !
Excellent advise. I really mean this: GET INVOLVED IN AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! Make sure you go to the Clubs & Socs day, sign up for anything that might even interest you. Also, don't be afraid to get involved with the SU. I've had some savage nights out at Class Rep 'Training' and get togethers (plus the college pay for it
) - You'll also meet people that you'd normally never meet (since you're meeting someone from another course) and chances are you'll get to know their friends too - it's nice being able to walk through college and be able to say 'hi' with a smile to loads of people. On a serious note, it'll also stand on your CV, so if you do join a Club & Soc aswell as SU, make sure you get on the committee as it'll stand to you in the future 0 -
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Well the first day of college is done and i have to say my general opinion of it is an overall "meh".
The people in my group were nice and all but weren't overly friendly. A lot of the time the group was walking around in complete silence and conversation was like pulling blood from a stone at times. I mean I'm usually the shy one in these situations and i was trying to make all the effort. But it could have been worse, i mean at least i wasn't excluded or anything. I guess you just get lucky with what group you're put into.
Another thing is that all the parties seem to be happening in the student accomodation. They have an advantage because they've been staying there for the last few nights and have been going out, getting pissed and getting to know each other. So i already feel like I'm behind.
I agree with the person up there who was saying to get involved in everything. I'm going into day 2 of orientation tomorrow and I'm going to join every goddamn club i have even the slighest interest in and then some.
I have no regrets about today, i tried my best, put on a brave face and was friendly to everyone. I just hope i meet some friendly people who i have stuff in common with and start doing all the fun college stuff. But these things take time i guess.
Anyhoo I'm gonna go out to the student bar tonight and meet new people using the best ice breaker i know of.....alcohol. 0 -
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MmmmmCheese wrote: »Well the first day of college is done and i have to say my general opinion of it is an overall "meh".
The people in my group were nice and all but weren't overly friendly. A lot of the time the group was walking around in complete silence and conversation was like pulling blood from a stone at times. I mean I'm usually the shy one in these situations and i was trying to make all the effort. But it could have been worse, i mean at least i wasn't excluded or anything. I guess you just get lucky with what group you're put into.
Another thing is that all the parties seem to be happening in the student accomodation. They have an advantage because they've been staying there for the last few nights and have been going out, getting pissed and getting to know each other. So i already feel like I'm behind.
I agree with the person up there who was saying to get involved in everything. I'm going into day 2 of orientation tomorrow and I'm going to join every goddamn club i have even the slighest interest in and then some.
I have no regrets about today, i tried my best, put on a brave face and was friendly to everyone. I just hope i meet some friendly people who i have stuff in common with and start doing all the fun college stuff. But these things take time i guess.
Anyhoo I'm gonna go out to the student bar tonight and meet new people using the best ice breaker i know of.....alcohol.
Alcohol and taking ze bull by ze 'orns. You have to take the initiative otherwise you'll get left behind. Doesn't matter if you think cliques/groups are already formed. Get the hell in there and best of luck. Filthy student.0 -
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ChocolateSauce wrote: »On my first day I met three of my best friends. The first day was one to remember...
This worries me. I'm already behind. 0 -
MmmmmCheese wrote: »This worries me. I'm already behind.
Well they didn't become by best friends until later! Just be as friendly as possible and don't wait to be spoken to, bring the conversation to them.0 -
MmmmmCheese wrote: »This worries me. I'm already behind.
Guaranteed you'll feel differently after your night out tonight, get out there, nothing like a good session to break the ice and make you feel involved in something. In fact why are you on boards at all? GO GET DRUNK!!!.:D0 -
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My advice would be talk to as many people as possible. Socialise, socialise, socialise. Try and get to know as many people as possible. Start conversations with people. Ask people how they are getting on, ask for hints, tips, advice. Pretty much any basic question can be used to get a conversation started. Do this as much as possible.
A very good place to start is to try getting to know people in your course/class. Long-term you are most likely going to spend a decent chunk of time with these people over the next three/four years. However do be wary if you don't get along with someone, don't be rude and do remember to keep it polite, as you don't want to get into cliques and all that nonsense.
Really really really try and avoid random hookups with people in your class, especially if it's a small class as you don't want to end up having the awkward with them and their group of friends for the next x number of years.
At the moment you have carte blanche in terms of randomly talking to people, so take advantage of that.
Even if it's only saying hello to people/getting to know someone's name it can be very handy in terms of hooking up with cute people of the opposite gender down the line
Right now it's a golden age in terms of having the opportunity to just approach random hotties and engage them in a low-risk introductary conversation. There is literally no better time to engage someone in conversation. As time passes starting a conversation with a random individual will require more in the way of an opening gambit.
If people turn out to be tossers/people you just don't get along with, you can just forget about them and hang out with some of the other cool people you've met as a result of randomly chatting with people.
Also while it might be easier to hang around with your friends from school, this will just leave you in your comfort zone and longer-term you will lose you by not mixing with people, as there is inevitably an element of drift from school friends to college friends.
I'm not saying dump all your school friends but do make an effort to chat to other people.
If you are consistently hanging around solely with friends from school, you will just end up looking like someone unable to leave the safety blanket of school behind.
If you're living at home you will be at a disadvantage in terms of getting the most out of college/university life in terms of socialising. While there may be advantages in terms of cost/standard of living, a huge part of college/university life takes place out of business hours, especially on the socialising front, even if it's only hanging out.
If you're only in college from 9 to 6, you're not going to get as much out of the experience as someone who is there 24/7. One tip for dealing with this is to be friendly with people who are living on campus/away from home.;)
The ideal here is someone who is either on campus or within short walking distance from campus.:D
I'm not suggesting you specifically target these people, but it is something to keep in mind. There will invariably be nights when it could be massively advantageous to be able crash on a sofa as opposed to treking home.
Also on the clubs/societes front a lot of the time you don't need to actually sign up to attend some of the events, at least initially. Even if you have only the remotest interest in a club society you and a group of friends can potter along and see what the club/society is like. You are in college/university now and it's a time of your life when you have a certain licence to try new things. Take advantage of this. Say yes as often as possible. Once case scenario is you turn up to something which is crap, and you just skidaddle after 5 mins to the student bar.
For the first few months your priority should probably be socialising.
However don't forget to attend lectures. It's different from school and you are expected to be a more responsible. In most cases people won't care if you don't turn up to lectures, but you will have to make up for this later to an extent by photocopying notes/doing reading of stuff covered in lectures.Try to strike a reasonable balance on the whole attending lectures front. While early morning lectures can be a pain in the hole, you'll be amazed at just how much you can pick up simply by being in a lecture room, even if you are hungover/tired. If possible try to keep Fridays as free as possible and try to avoid too many early morning lectures. Also if possible try and get your lectures as close together as possible. Three lecutures in a row from 2pm to 5pm is a lot easier to deal with than a lecture at 10am 1pm and 4pm. A lot easier to deal with these chunks of lectures than stand-alone lectures. If you are going to miss lectures, you're better off avoiding these stand-alone ones as opposed to chunks of ones. Chances are if you make the first 2pm lecture in a block of three lectures from 2pm to 5pm , you will most likely end up at the 2nd and 3rd lecture in the chunk.
Do make an effort to attend tutorials - you don't have to be as rigouorous as with lectures but they are pretty handy. Getting friendly with postgrads who take tutorials can be very handy as they tend to be a lot younger than professors in general and so can be a lot more approachable/ ammenable/ friendly and can be good sources of advice/hints/tips. Also in some subjects tutors might have an input in marking assignments so if they know you this might be helpful;). Also if you are having problems with a subject it can be a lot easier to approach a tutorial advisor than a professor. Do however remember that the people doing tutorials do tend to be postgrad types and as such in most cases tend to have a genuine interest in the subject, so taking the piss out of it/not taking it seriously is something that they tend not to like.
Also while stuff like weekly assignments worth a certain percentage of a course can be a nuisance at times, they can be a godsend come exam-time. If 30% of a course is up for grabs through continuous assigment/coursework, it can be really help with getting a pass in certain subjects. Trying to get a pass mark in a subject if you have completed no assigments and are only being marked out of 70% is far harder than if you have something like 15% already in the bag.
Also these weekly assignments tend to be very good practice in terms of what is likely to feature in exams especially as regards the type of questions being asked. Also as the assignments tend to be related to what is covered in that weeks lecture. completing the assignments will actually incorporate study of the subject. For some courses if you go to the lectures regularly and complete the assignments along with a smattering of tutorials you are most likely going to be covered in terms of actually needing to do any additional studying during the year. Come exam time you are going to be ar a much stronger position as you're not going to be facing a mountain of stuff you've necer seen before. There's also the bonus that these weekly assignments generally arent that difficult compared to exams as a way to pick up marks, as you tend to get a certain basic mark for completing them anyway reasonably;).
In some courses it can be very handy to get to know departmental secretaries/the actual people who have an overall responsibility for the whole course/degree. A lot of the time professors in a degree are only interested in their own subject/class and may have no real interest in how things are going overall for the students.
I heard a story where one company approached a university about taking on a number of students from one specific course and the departmental secretary had a big input in deciding on who was recommened for this. This departmental secretary was the person responsible for all of the bureacratic paperwork of the course and as most of the assignments for the course were handed in through their office, had supposedly the best knowledge of the character of various people in the course after four years.
Depending on the nature/size of the degree, it might be no harm to get to know/cultivate some of the professors. In some cases it can be an advantage if the professor knows you (if you are an ever-present at lectures who is involved/active in lectures in a small course, you can be sure the professor will know you and this can possibly be an advantage down the line -looking for references/advice/help/leeway on getting extensions/if you want ot get a podtgrad in that apartment/help with summer placements). However if you are one of the masses in a large 200+ lecture you're probably better off maintaining a pretty low profile as the professor is more than likely going to be classifying you as one of the faceless masses, which can be an advantage if you regularly don't turn up for lectures;). Also it's easier to get notes from larger lectures than from smaller lectures.
So in other words in lectures with small numbers at reasonable times e.g. Tuesday afternoons be high profile. At other times in big lectures you're better off with a low profile. In most case you only 2/3 professors to get a references, so keep on these cultivated professors good sides.
Anyway started off with just the random thoughts but got carried away with all my thoughts from my experiences in academe.
Most importantly have a blast.0 -
MementoMori wrote: »My advice would be talk to as many people as possible. Socialise, socialise, socialise. Try and get to know as many people as possible. Start conversations with people. Ask people how they are getting on, ask for hints, tips, advice. Pretty much any basic question can be used to get a conversation started. Do this as much as possible.
A very good place to start is to try getting to know people in your course/class. Long-term you are most likely going to spend a decent chunk of time with these people over the next three/four years. However do be wary if you don't get along with someone, don't be rude and do remember to keep it polite, as you don't want to get into cliques and all that nonsense.
Really really really try and avoid random hookups with people in your class, especially if it's a small class as you don't want to end up having the awkward with them and their group of friends for the next x number of years.
At the moment you have carte blanche in terms of randomly talking to people, so take advantage of that.
Even if it's only saying hello to people/getting to know someone's name it can be very handy in terms of hooking up with cute people of the opposite gender down the line
Right now it's a golden age in terms of having the opportunity to just approach random hotties and engage them in a low-risk introductary conversation. There is literally no better time to engage someone in conversation. As time passes starting a conversation with a random individual will require more in the way of an opening gambit.
If people turn out to be tossers/people you just don't get along with, you can just forget about them and hang out with some of the other cool people you've met as a result of randomly chatting with people.
Also while it might be easier to hang around with your friends from school, this will just leave you in your comfort zone and longer-term you will lose you by not mixing with people, as there is inevitably an element of drift from school friends to college friends.
I'm not saying dump all your school friends but do make an effort to chat to other people.
If you are consistently hanging around solely with friends from school, you will just end up looking like someone unable to leave the safety blanket of school behind.
If you're living at home you will be at a disadvantage in terms of getting the most out of college/university life in terms of socialising. While there may be advantages in terms of cost/standard of living, a huge part of college/university life takes place out of business hours, especially on the socialising front, even if it's only hanging out.
If you're only in college from 9 to 6, you're not going to get as much out of the experience as someone who is there 24/7. One tip for dealing with this is to be friendly with people who are living on campus/away from home.;)
The ideal here is someone who is either on campus or within short walking distance from campus.:D
I'm not suggesting you specifically target these people, but it is something to keep in mind. There will invariably be nights when it could be massively advantageous to be able crash on a sofa as opposed to treking home.
Also on the clubs/societes front a lot of the time you don't need to actually sign up to attend some of the events, at least initially. Even if you have only the remotest interest in a club society you and a group of friends can potter along and see what the club/society is like. You are in college/university now and it's a time of your life when you have a certain licence to try new things. Take advantage of this. Say yes as often as possible. Once case scenario is you turn up to something which is crap, and you just skidaddle after 5 mins to the student bar.
For the first few months your priority should probably be socialising.
However don't forget to attend lectures. It's different from school and you are expected to be a more responsible. In most cases people won't care if you don't turn up to lectures, but you will have to make up for this later to an extent by photocopying notes/doing reading of stuff covered in lectures.Try to strike a reasonable balance on the whole attending lectures front. While early morning lectures can be a pain in the hole, you'll be amazed at just how much you can pick up simply by being in a lecture room, even if you are hungover/tired. If possible try to keep Fridays as free as possible and try to avoid too many early morning lectures. Also if possible try and get your lectures as close together as possible. Three lecutures in a row from 2pm to 5pm is a lot easier to deal with than a lecture at 10am 1pm and 4pm. A lot easier to deal with these chunks of lectures than stand-alone lectures. If you are going to miss lectures, you're better off avoiding these stand-alone ones as opposed to chunks of ones. Chances are if you make the first 2pm lecture in a block of three lectures from 2pm to 5pm , you will most likely end up at the 2nd and 3rd lecture in the chunk.
Do make an effort to attend tutorials - you don't have to be as rigouorous as with lectures but they are pretty handy. Getting friendly with postgrads who take tutorials can be very handy as they tend to be a lot younger than professors in general and so can be a lot more approachable/ ammenable/ friendly and can be good sources of advice/hints/tips. Also in some subjects tutors might have an input in marking assignments so if they know you this might be helpful;). Also if you are having problems with a subject it can be a lot easier to approach a tutorial advisor than a professor. Do however remember that the people doing tutorials do tend to be postgrad types and as such in most cases tend to have a genuine interest in the subject, so taking the piss out of it/not taking it seriously is something that they tend not to like.
Also while stuff like weekly assignments worth a certain percentage of a course can be a nuisance at times, they can be a godsend come exam-time. If 30% of a course is up for grabs through continuous assigment/coursework, it can be really help with getting a pass in certain subjects. Trying to get a pass mark in a subject if you have completed no assigments and are only being marked out of 70% is far harder than if you have something like 15% already in the bag.
Also these weekly assignments tend to be very good practice in terms of what is likely to feature in exams especially as regards the type of questions being asked. Also as the assignments tend to be related to what is covered in that weeks lecture. completing the assignments will actually incorporate study of the subject. For some courses if you go to the lectures regularly and complete the assignments along with a smattering of tutorials you are most likely going to be covered in terms of actually needing to do any additional studying during the year. Come exam time you are going to be ar a much stronger position as you're not going to be facing a mountain of stuff you've necer seen before. There's also the bonus that these weekly assignments generally arent that difficult compared to exams as a way to pick up marks, as you tend to get a certain basic mark for completing them anyway reasonably;).
In some courses it can be very handy to get to know departmental secretaries/the actual people who have an overall responsibility for the whole course/degree. A lot of the time professors in a degree are only interested in their own subject/class and may have no real interest in how things are going overall for the students.
I heard a story where one company approached a university about taking on a number of students from one specific course and the departmental secretary had a big input in deciding on who was recommened for this. This departmental secretary was the person responsible for all of the bureacratic paperwork of the course and as most of the assignments for the course were handed in through their office, had supposedly the best knowledge of the character of various people in the course after four years.
Depending on the nature/size of the degree, it might be no harm to get to know/cultivate some of the professors. In some cases it can be an advantage if the professor knows you (if you are an ever-present at lectures who is involved/active in lectures in a small course, you can be sure the professor will know you and this can possibly be an advantage down the line -looking for references/advice/help/leeway on getting extensions/if you want ot get a podtgrad in that apartment/help with summer placements). However if you are one of the masses in a large 200+ lecture you're probably better off maintaining a pretty low profile as the professor is more than likely going to be classifying you as one of the faceless masses, which can be an advantage if you regularly don't turn up for lectures;). Also it's easier to get notes from larger lectures than from smaller lectures.
So in other words in lectures with small numbers at reasonable times e.g. Tuesday afternoons be high profile. At other times in big lectures you're better off with a low profile. In most case you only 2/3 professors to get a references, so keep on these cultivated professors good sides.
Anyway started off with just the random thoughts but got carried away with all my thoughts from my experiences in academe.
Most importantly have a blast.
Holy ****, that is a long post:eek:
Back on topic. I remember my first day. It went something like this.
Lecturer: "Look to your left, now look to your right. It's likely the
people sitting beside you won't be here next year"
He wasn't lying either:pac:0 -
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MmmmmCheese wrote: »I have no doubt that i will, its just meeting people for the first time and having to make new friends can be daunting.
Just get pissed beforehand.0 -
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