Arguably the highlight of the university experience, freshers week (or welcome week) is the long awaited start to the first term of the first year. Everybody’s moved out for the most part and this new independence paired with the anticipation of the ‘University experience’ leads to probably the most fun week of the year. For those of us who haven’t decided to move out, freshers week is an incredibly different experience and after what was an anti-climactic freshers week last year for me, I’ve gathered together three main tips that I wish I’d used to make the most out of the experience!
1. Getting In Touch Before Term
Unlike those who live out, you won’t have the opportunity to be thrown into halls with a mix of flatmates who become your group of friends for freshers week. For this reason it would be smart that prior to starting university you get in touch with prospective students. There’s a variety of ways in which this can be done with social media being the main focal point. Find the social media of societies you’re interested in and join their freshers chats. From here you can make plans to meet up, make plans for freshers week and get ahead of the curve in terms of socializing. You could also get in contact with fellow commuters through this and can subsequently, for example, attend freshers fair together.
2. Utilising Societies
Societies provide many events for freshers week however unfortunately these are unknown to most students. I would definitely recommend getting involved with societies during freshers week and keeping up to date with as many of them as you can. From bowling events to campus tours, there is something for everyone and societies are a great way to get to meet people not only for freshers week but for the rest of your university experience in general.
3. Attend Course Events
This is an extremely underutilised aspect of freshers week. Every course will have a meet and greet as well as department wide events and attending these is probably one of the greatest ways to make long term friends and to enjoy freshers as a commuter. These events are well funded and well attended and as a commuter it is likely most of your future friends will emerge from your course as it is the most crucial thing you’d have in common with other students on campus.
