September 7, 2015, by Sunita Tailor
The Trials and Tribulations of Welcome week… What to expect!
This blog post was written by third year English and Philosophy student, Rishi Davda from the School of English.
Welcome to my blog! My name is Rishi and I have just finished my second year as a joint honours student studying English and Philosophy. This blog is a short guide relating to some of the challenges that you may face during your first week at the University of Nottingham. Having been a peer mentor and guided first years through the Week One Process, as well as experiencing it for myself, I believe I can provide you with a few helpful tips to make your first week of uni as stress-free and enjoyable as possible. I hope they help:
Getting around on campus
TIP 1: Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Everyone has faced the overwhelming campus for the first time and people are usually more than willing to point you in the right direction.
The idiom of all being in the same boat is never more applicable than during a First Year first week at university. Thousands of new students descend on the glorious University Park Campus all guided by a campus map, (which is not always very helpful!) On my second day of uni, I was struggling to find the room for the English Department introduction. After aimlessly wondering around and repeatedly rotating the campus map, I plucked up the courage to ask someone for help and within 2 minutes was sitting in the correct lecture theatre awkwardly introducing myself to the other newbies.
Asking Questions
TIP 2: Once you’ve been allocated a peer mentor, get in touch with them and pick their brains about the academic and not-so-academic parts of University life.
In the first few days of Welcome week you will meet your allocated peer mentor (you will have already heard from them during your amazingly long summer holiday.) So for those of you who have questions either before or after you enter the great city of Nottingham, please ask your peer mentor and they will be able to guide you through the process, as they were going through the exact same thing not so long ago. Before I got to Nottingham, I was confused by how the whole student meal card system worked, but my mentor explained the setup to me via email and eased my concerns.
Settling into Halls
TIP 3: Its okay to start small in Week One. Go and talk to your next-door neighbour, the tall guy who lives opposite you or the girl three doors down. REMEMBER: Everyone else has just arrived too, feel free to be the one to make the first move!
Halls can be a peculiar phenomenon for freshers. On my first day, there were 400 new people moving into my halls and this in itself is daunting. I know people always tell you to go and make friends and you are thinking to yourself ‘IT IS NOT THAT EASY!’ I remember standing by my door just before going to dinner for the first time and seeing others doing exactly the same, all of us waiting for someone to instigate a conversation.
[Featured image from:
http://paulcarrollphoto.com/2013/08/23/nottingham-university-portland-building/]
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