I have just finished my first term as a Fresher at the University of Exeter, and on my return home there have obviously been a lot of people asking me 'how's uni?'. This question is near impossible to answer honestly yet without boring the person to the point where they wished they'd never asked; my entire life has changed in the last 3 months, and I have no idea how to compress all the experiences I've had, people I've met and emotions I've been through into just a few sentences! As most people have some sort of idea what life at university is like - whether they have been themselves or not - I'm not going to dive in to the typical, sometimes pretty rough details of what we like to call '#studentlife' (a phrase used to highlight either the 'seize the day' student mentality eg. 'I've got a lecture in 10 minutes, but I want to carry on with this Racing Demon tournament...' 'skip it, #studentlife!' or to highlight the quintessential idea of 'rough and ready' university living eg. 'sorry the pasta is pretty much raw, I cooked it in a kettle.' 'oh well, #studentlife.'). Instead, I'm going to focus on the things that have surprised me about this term, in the hopes of enlightening you all on the ins and outs of modern, post-tuition-fee-scandal university living.
1) the intensity of university life. Everything is accelerated and heightened at uni; friendships form more quickly, emotional highs and lows are higher and lower, lecturers and tutors pack as much as possible into every minute of contact time and at any given moment there is ALWAYS some event or gathering which you could be going to (usually 2 or 3)
2) the workload: which in my opinion gets in the way of the university experience! Although I love my course, I'm somewhat ashamed to say I completely underestimated the amount of work expected of a university student. Even though as a humanities undergraduate I average at about 7 contact hours a week (minuscule compared to the 15+ hours of a scientist, which my friends are quick to remind me of) I was used to homework backing up class time at A-Level, whereas at uni lectures and seminars are really only there to guide your private study…or sometimes to show up your lack of it in my case!
3) the student bubble. When my friend came to visit she commented on how campus was like a little village, and it really is. Other than the odd visit to town to replenish my shampoo stocks, or an (increasingly rare) trip to a club in town, I spend all my time on campus, and other than church on a Sunday morning, around students. However I love the fact that all my friends are less than 20 minutes away…makes it much easier to go over and distract them from working and encourage them to go out instead!
4) how close I would become to my friends after such a short time. The first term at uni would be such an amazing sociological study (just a thought if you're a sociology student). A massive shift takes place a few weeks into term, as everyone stops being these hyper excited, always smiley, slightly terrified people who are still feeling wildly out of their comfort zone, breathe a sigh of relief, and start to realise it's actually OK to just be themselves (it would be a hilarious thing to watch if I wasn't one of the subjects!). A month at uni is like a year in realtime in terms of friendships, because you are with the same people ALL the time…so I feel like my best friends - who I've known for only 3 months - are basically at the 3-year stage of friendship already.
In some ways, uni has been exactly what I expected…I have grown up hearing stories of my parents' amazing experiences at university and so had high hopes for my own, and it has been very similar to what I imagined from their stories. But in many ways it's been totally different. I never would have expected that I would feel so settled after just one term, and never truly understood why people raved about it so much.
But now? I can honestly say I'm having the time of my life.
My friend and talented writer Milla has written this amazing post on her blog about our first term at uni…I would wholeheartedly recommend giving it a read! I will also write a post more focused on the insanity of Freshers' Week in the next few days, as it definitely deserves it's own piece!
2) the workload: which in my opinion gets in the way of the university experience! Although I love my course, I'm somewhat ashamed to say I completely underestimated the amount of work expected of a university student. Even though as a humanities undergraduate I average at about 7 contact hours a week (minuscule compared to the 15+ hours of a scientist, which my friends are quick to remind me of) I was used to homework backing up class time at A-Level, whereas at uni lectures and seminars are really only there to guide your private study…or sometimes to show up your lack of it in my case!
3) the student bubble. When my friend came to visit she commented on how campus was like a little village, and it really is. Other than the odd visit to town to replenish my shampoo stocks, or an (increasingly rare) trip to a club in town, I spend all my time on campus, and other than church on a Sunday morning, around students. However I love the fact that all my friends are less than 20 minutes away…makes it much easier to go over and distract them from working and encourage them to go out instead!
4) how close I would become to my friends after such a short time. The first term at uni would be such an amazing sociological study (just a thought if you're a sociology student). A massive shift takes place a few weeks into term, as everyone stops being these hyper excited, always smiley, slightly terrified people who are still feeling wildly out of their comfort zone, breathe a sigh of relief, and start to realise it's actually OK to just be themselves (it would be a hilarious thing to watch if I wasn't one of the subjects!). A month at uni is like a year in realtime in terms of friendships, because you are with the same people ALL the time…so I feel like my best friends - who I've known for only 3 months - are basically at the 3-year stage of friendship already.
In some ways, uni has been exactly what I expected…I have grown up hearing stories of my parents' amazing experiences at university and so had high hopes for my own, and it has been very similar to what I imagined from their stories. But in many ways it's been totally different. I never would have expected that I would feel so settled after just one term, and never truly understood why people raved about it so much.
But now? I can honestly say I'm having the time of my life.
My friend and talented writer Milla has written this amazing post on her blog about our first term at uni…I would wholeheartedly recommend giving it a read! I will also write a post more focused on the insanity of Freshers' Week in the next few days, as it definitely deserves it's own piece!
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