By Leyth Hammoud, BEng Electronic & Information Engineering, Department of Informatics
It’s the first day and you’re scrambling your way through second and third years with better things to do, all trying to squeeze through a single revolving door. Your first day on an entirely new campus can be daunting and the great maze known as the Strand doesn’t take it easy, even on a fresher.
Strand is like a museum, but you get used to the royalty like Reggie the Regent by the great hall and the historical displays along the corridors. Guy’s and Waterloo campus are more modern so you can easily change the scenery.
A lot of your classes will be very difficult to find but somebody always knows. Thankfully there are people walking around with ‘Ask Me!’ badges so they can always guide you. But seriously, my lab was in room -2.41 and when I asked at reception, they didn’t know there even was a level -2. You may get lost a few times, but lecturers understand this and on the plus side, you may even learn shortcuts to your classes.
Freshers week, the godsend of ice breakers. You will meet more people than you will remember and then some you won’t forget. You will probably spend a lot more than you planned, but this is all part of the learning curve. Prepare for some memories and see how long you last in the endless chain of parties. The freshers fair is also a great place to meet people and of course, sign up to more societies than you have time for. Through trying them out you filter out your favourite and it all begins there.
It’s crazy to think my first year’s pretty much over and it makes you realise how busy you are throughout the year.
A big thing at university is time management, especially knowing what to be spending time on. In all honesty I could have spent a fair amount of time on studying earlier instead of other things because it sets you up for the best possible mindset and preparation state for exams.
My last piece of advice is to speak to anyone and everyone. I was quite shy at first, but no harm can ever come. You only learn more about yourself and others through this. If it went down that bad you could easily never see that person again!
Leave a Reply