Transition at UCL - Student Blogs
Matt - Before Coming to UCL
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What are you most looking forward to about university? A change, new place, new people. Being independent and grown up. Being able to act like the adult I feel I now am. Making new friends. Studying a subject I really enjoy. The opportunity to begin new things and maybe redefine myself as a person. New challenges and new successes. Diversity. Activity. Culture. All that London has to offer. Theatre. The chance for a new start and a clean break. What are your main concerns about starting university? That I won’t enjoy it. That I won’t make good friends. That I’ll feel isolated and alone. That I won’t cope with living in a more independent manner. That I’ll feel out of place as a result of my background. That I won’t get on well with the public school people and the international students. That I’ll feel swamped by the size and concrete nature of being in the middle of a massive city. That I’ll find the work too hard or wont enjoy it. That I won’t be able to manage my finances well. All those things that you never need to think about when you live with your parents. That people will be hostile/less friendly than I’m used to in the north. That I’ll miss opportunities. That I made the wrong decision and should have gone elsewhere. What do you expect will be the biggest challenge in adjusting to university life? Learning to live in a new place. After 16 years of living in the same house in the same small town 258 miles north of London, adjusting to living independently in a massive and diverse city with total strangers will be an experience to say the least! |
First Month at UCL
Freshers Week was, to be frank, not all it's cracked up to be. You meet lots of new and friendly people and go out every night and get a bit/very drunk, but can easily find yourself with either a small group of friends but no knowledge of anyone else in the hall, or dozens of friendly faces but no real friends. Fear not however, it gets better. Once you find that group of friends university life becomes a bit more like it should be: fun! London has seemed very manageable so far. For its size you set foot in remarkably little of it to begin with, and even for a Northern country lad I was almost impressed by the sheer enormity of Regent's Park, at one point I couldn't even hear the traffic! The academic side is a little daunting at first, but a big improvement on the apathy of school life!
Second Month
A recent weekend at home has made me realise just how much I have changed in the past 6 weeks. Being in an entirely new situation means you come to know yourself a lot better, as well as becoming a lot more confident. Life still has its ups and downs, but I feel very settled, and generally happy with life at UCL.
The first few weeks were harder than I expected, as you are potentially making friends for life, finding the right group can be difficult. The course is very demanding, Im now writing 4000 word essays every two weeks, with what feels like very little teaching! Adjusting to 9 hours teaching a week and the density of indepedent study required is still a challenge, however success in my first proper essay has encouraged me (although it took up an entire weekend as the deadline neared!).
I feel that Ive taken to London life fairly well, the independence suits me, and even though I dont take advantage of by any means everything on offer, I really like living in such a vibrant city, just exploring by foot with a group of friends makes for a great day out.
Third Month
Life is going well at UCL these days. The longer I have been here the easier it is to slip into the dullness of routine, however university life is still very varied and exciting compared to home. I think I have got the balance between work and socialising about right. I feel that the balance is sometimes uneven as how much work I do depends on whether I have an essay and whether I have read any of the books in advance. But most of this is out of my control.
I socialise for at least an hour or so every night, and never spend all night in my room working. Sometimes it feels like the work is looming over my head when I am out with friends, but I always seem to get it done. I am not involved with many societies, but I don't really see this as an issue as I did a lot of extra-curricular stuff at school whereas now I spend much more time with my friends. I am beginning to feel like I want Christmas to come so I can have a break, but I know that having been at home for a week or so I'll be keen to get back.
Fourth Month
Christmas was great. If there's one thing that university does it makes you appreciate your family a lot more, all the more so because you're not living with them anymore. And obviously it was great to see my friends again, although it was a little strange as everyone now has other lives. It was especially strange talking to my friends who are doing gap years, for whom very little had changed.
However it is also very nice to be back in London. Home life doesn't quite have the same dynamic element as life in halls. Once again slipping into the monotony of normality has been an issue, and it seems to have taken us a couple of weeks to really get going and get back into life as it was before Christmas. I have also been struck by what I can only assume is a second bout of Freshers flu.
Weve started to consider housing for next year now that its January. After a few incredibly tentative conversations and suggestions we have thankfully agreed that my friends in hall and I want to share a house next year. A huge weight off my chest. However the serious house-hunting is really only just beginning.
Fifth Month
February has been another good month. Perhaps the highlight has been really getting settled into Church life, although this took a lot longer than I expected and would have liked. Although I don't regret spending much of the first term looking for a Church I really liked, it would have been a lot easier I feel if I'd had a Christian community to rely on a little earlier on, and I imagine that lots of people will be moving on in the summer so it will be very different in the autumn.
I have also found myself socialising a lot more with my friends on my course, which is great as it means I'm not entirely dependent on my hall friends, although this is where my most intimate friendships lie.
It has taken a lot longer to get to know my course friends, probably as we see comparatively little of each other. I do feel like I'm really beginning to consolidate my relationships with certain people though.
Housing for next year is a fairly large concern at the moment. It feels like we've been sitting on ideas for a long time without really doing anything. However I've been (fairly) reliably informed that May/June is the best time to look, and I don't know anyone who has their housing sorted yet, so here's hoping...
Page last modified on 21 nov 06 17:14 by Ian C Bartlett
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