How's your college life?

[Headache]

I want to try writing a college-based BXG game. That will be a nice change from all the high school stuff I've seen. Problem is, I've never been to college so I don't know anything about college.

I know there's a lot of college people in Lemmasoft. Why don't you guys share some of your experiences in college? Can you tell me how college life is like? Is it similar to high school? Is it compulsory to live in dorm rooms in college?

[SusanTheCat]

My experience:
about 60% live in dorms, 30% have apartments, 10% are "townies" (They live with their parents and grew up there.)

Differences from High School:
can have large blocks of time between classes -- you don't always go from one class right to the other
Professors aren't as likely to check attendance -- especially classes with 150+ students!
You have kids living alone for the first time and act like imbeciles.
The campus is larger, several buildings
Cliques are larger, but more inclusive. Art students, engineering students, science students

That's off the top of my head

Susan

[MaiMai]

I'm a commuter, so I haven't had experience living in dorms yet (the dormitories at my school are kinda small anyways lol).

If you're lucky with your schedule you can choose classes where you have long breaks in between (I had a two hour break between my classes). Basically though, you'll have certain classes on certain days. It's not like high school where it's periods 1-6 everyday for the whole year. I just finished signing up for new classes this semester so my schedule's different again

Buying textbooks is a pain. They're expensive and it doesn't help that you're already a poor college student. But there is an option of renting them or you look for used copies online to buy.

I think I should put it out right away and say college is NOTHING like high school, at least for me. Sure, you go to classes, make friends, complain about homework-- but I think what makes college different is that you don't have authority figures breathing down your neck. You're given a lot of leisure time to allow you to do your work and what not. Depending on the college, there's a campus police to make sure people stay safe, but even then you're pretty much free to go about on your merry way on campus. Professors won't care if you skip class since you're the one paying for your education and it's your grade going down the toilet.

You also have to do a lot of walking

I'll add more stuff if I feel like it.

[musical74]

I think MaiMai's pretty much covered the salient points...but here's one more

Everything at the college is overpriced. If you go to a college drugstore, deoderant costs 3.50. If you go to the convience store down the street, the exact same thing for 2.99. Textbooks are horridly expensive, and a lot of college students have loans to help with classes - but once they are done they have $30,000 (or more) in debt just from college related things. Also, a lot of college students have a staple diet of wondrous things like Top Ramen (READ: very cheap things) because that's all they can afford.

[IonicMomo]

BUSY! (I just had to respond to this topic when I saw it.) The biggest thing I can think of off the top of my head is that there is always something going on on campus--class, parties, homework, guest lectures, conventions, movies, concerts, cultural events, clubs, athletics, and, if you're lucky...sleep.

Not only do you have more choice in classes than you did in high school, but you have more specific paths of study called "majors," which will usually become your degree by the time you graduate. (This is generally true in the US, anyway.) For example, my major is political science, so about a third to half of my courses are political science. The rest can go towards a second major, or they can be electives.

Most colleges will require a certain number of major courses (depending on the major--some are more demanding than others). They will also require a certain number of "general education" courses, which usually includes minimum requirements in math, science, English, social science, foreign language, and sometimes computer classes.

If you live on campus (which I do), your social life will often consist of some of the people on your floor and some of the people in your classes. You are most likely to meet and befriend people if they live in the same dorm (if you live on campus) or if you have class or clubs with them. Of course, you are most likely to hookup with people you meet at parties...

Also, unless you are one of the lucky few who has a ton of scholarships, or if your parents are footing the bill for your schooling, college students are POOR, yet they tend to spend all kinds of money they don't have anyway. But the biggest excuse I hear when people can't do something, it's because they're either busy or broke.

But I reiterate this is simply an American point of view. I imagine the system might be entirely different in other countries.

[Sapphi]

Let's see.
At the present I attend a community college, which is much different from your traditional dorms-and-big-campus setting, so it might not be what you're looking for, but...
I don't live in a dorm, I drive to classes every day and come back when they're done. There are no entrance exams or anything like that. Anyone can take classes at my college if they provide proof of a GED or high school graduation date (I know this because I work as an office assistant there). Because we have open enrollment, there are people from all walks of life and lots of ages at the place, so it is a bit less of the "everyone's young and sexy" idea of college that most people have.

At least at the college I attend (I don't know about others), there is quite a bit of choice on what schedule you would like. Lots of our classes can be taken over the internet as well, and that really helps with being able to work when you can and not when your schedule demands. This is probably so that people can hold a job while still working at their degree, and it helps. Because of this as well, there seem to be less immature, party-going people at my school, because it's not a pie-in-the-sky, live-in-a-dorm escape from responsibility.

I'm an art student, so I mostly talk to other art students. From what I can tell from my art classes, art students tend to socialize a lot more as a group while they're in class than other students, but it could be due to the intimacy of the setting. There are definitely cliques at my college, but as Susan said, they are much more generalized. However, you don't often see a group of art students conversing with nursing students, for this reason.

And... I must add this. Speaking as one of the only (female) anime fans in the two high schools I attended prior to this, it was somewhat of an adjustment process when I got to college. It went from "Oh, you like anime too? What are you into?" to "Oh... another anime fan, huh?", and to "I can't let myself get mixed up with these people anymore!!!" It probably has something to do with being in an art-centric field of study, but there are WEIRD people in college, at least the one I attend. ^_^;

[Fawn]

I'm in the same boat as Sapphi Community college. However, a thing I've noticed about college in general is that you don't really have those long-term friends you have in highschool. You meet lots of people and have all kinds of friendships, you don't stick to that one group of kids you've known since 7th grade. So a major element in your game should be making new friends.

And... I must add this. Speaking as one of the only (female) anime fans in the two high schools I attended prior to this, it was somewhat of an adjustment process when I got to college. It went from "Oh, you like anime too? What are you into?" to "Oh... another anime fan, huh?", and to "I can't let myself get mixed up with these people anymore!!!" It probably has something to do with being in an art-centric field of study, but there are WEIRD people in college, at least the one I attend. ^_^;

Exactly... Well, strange people tend to go to community colleges anyways, since it's more accepting (universities are very stingy). But yeah, the anime fans I've run into there were actually pretty embarassing, I didn't really want to talk to them because they were just... strange. One was like a 12 year old stuck in a 20 year old's body and started stalking my deviantart, another was unbearable to talk to because she'd only complain about all her "problems" and how her family was "horrible", when they obviously spoiled her with gifts (she had a bazillion anime keychains, 3-4 of those expensive anime print bags, the list goes on) and wouldn't stop talking about the "great" vampire novel she was writing.

[Auro-Cyanide]

I just graduated from uni. I think that is the same as college...? We don't have colleges really in Australia, not like America anyway.

From what I know:

-Uni is going to be way bigger than any high school. There are people everywhere!
-The food sucks.
-Most Australian kids do not live near the uni unless they are from the country. Most of the living quarters, both those that belong to the uni and those that are just nearby, are taken up by foreign students, which there are a lot of.
-To get into uni you have to take a set of exams and get a certain ranking to get in. The uni I went to you had to be in the top 15% of the state, which is pretty normal. Though sometimes I question this.
-It is expensive, especially if you are a foriegn student. I have my fee on a governement loan which I don't have to pay back until I am yearning over $32,000. The debt is around $15,000 for three years.
-The campus is huge, weird and pretty. It has some really nice outdoor places so you can go and lie on the grass when it is sunny.
-You only have between 6 and 9 classes a week. However you spend a hell of a lot more time on homework.
-Referencing is the biggest pain in the world.
-Say hello to pulling all nighters. Coffee becomes your best friend.
-You will always whine about homework. I love design but it didn't stop me from complaining about it.
-All the faculties seem to be against each other. We were always hating on the architect students because they got more funding and took up all the room.
-You get a lot of freedom. No one cares if you pass or fail, it is your own skin that is on the line. You have a fair bit of slack with some things too.
-Tutors and Lectures like to be called by their first name. Boy does that take getting used to.
-The will treat you like an adult, which is quite nice but also a bit freaky.

If I think of anything else I will add it on, but this is kind of my experience from uni.

[Samu-kun]

I think it will depend largely on in which country this university is located. Post-secondary education systems differs greatly from country to country. But I assume that you're asking about universities in the United States?

I go to a big public university, so there's A LOT of different buildings. (100+) Some of them are big lecture halls that house auditoriums where professors can give lectures to classes that have over 100 people in them, some are regular high school-like buildings with class rooms, others have large computer labs (these labs range from regular computer labs you see at libraries to incredibly fast computers linked to dedicated internet lines that you give download and upload speeds of up to 10 megs per second - but you need special access to get to these labs), and other buildings have chemical labs, art rooms, and some are even attached to barns that house animals for veterinary classes. Also, there are four gymnasiums, which are always busy. It takes about an hour to walk from one side of campus to the other, but luckily, there's a bus practically every 3 minutes, so you can get to your classes on time.

However, you'll probably only use about 10 of these buildings in your entire life, because you only need to go into buildings that house classes relevant to your major. Also, there's generally a big rec building somewhere in the middle of campus that houses the cafeteria and various other services like entertainment rooms, copy rooms, and mail service, that everyone generally visits at least once a day.

The library is also one of the most popular places on campus. Most people will study there or just talk with friends. The library might also have a cafe inside of it.

There are generally two types of classes - lecture halls with over a 100 people in it, or regular classes with classroom sizes of about 20-40. Even though officially, the number of people enrolled in these classes is bigger, we generally see smaller classroom sizes in practice because a lot of people skip class. Also, nobody likes lecture hall classes and generally avoids it unless it's required for your major. (I know that I certainly do)

In terms of grades, generally there's one or two mid terms, a final, and maybe a final paper for most classes. Your grades will probably be a composite of what you've got on those. It differs a lot for classes though. Foreign language classes will always include an oral examination and I've had other classes where you had to deliver a report to the class. The class was so big that I had to use a microphone for everyone to hear.

[Deji]

I had a similar experience than Auro in my university/superior ed. institute years, I think.
Now, this made me remember a lot of things! x3 (also good for my own story set in university) It probably won't be very helpful to you if you're looking to make a story set in the States, since I'm from a foreign country, but this was so fun to remember and to write, I'll just leave it here anyway ^^;
(sorry if anything sounds awkward, my first language is not English >>;)

Warning, super long wall of text!

- There are two kinds of universities here: Public and Private. In the Public ones, you can apply to a state loan or a state scholarship to pay for your program , and you need to get a certain score on the national test you take after graduating high school and there is a limited number of seats available, so you apply to them with your score and wait patiently for the list of accepted people to be published and hope you got in. The Private ones are sometimes more expensive than public ones and sometimes cheaper; you can only apply to bank loans and they only ask of you to get an acceptable score on the national test. Even more, if you get a good score, Private universities will give you a discount or a full scholarship (to lure people from going to the more prestigious Public universities).

- When you enter university here, you finally stop wearing the boring school uniform and start dressing in whatever way you want! There is an invisible wall between the underage uniform-wearing school students and the adult and cool university students that dress however they like every day like adult and free people does, so they normally don't mix at all.

- In my country there are no living quarters/dorms whatsoever in universities; people normally just go to a university in their area and live with their parents until they graduate and/or get a job good enough to rent their own place. The least of the students actually come from other cities and they rent a room (single or shared) at a student pension/inn (normally very crappy). If you're lucky, you may find a room for rent on an apartments that a group of students are renting.

- Universities here are normally just as big as a school or even smaller, because they're separated into different campuses/faculties located in different parts of the city. Usually, faculties of the same university that are located in different parts of the city are rivals, and there may be things like festivals with them competing against each other. Some universities have big campuses with lots of buildings and faculties inside, but they're the least.

- In the beginning of each year, the older students welcome new ones with parties and other activities. Sometimes they humiliate them and throw eggs and flour and other smelly stuff to them, cut/bleach their hair (only to males, though) as an initiation, and have a big party afterwards and they pick a queen and a king of the campus/university. It's quite fun C:

- For food, there's usually sort of a vending kiosk (not a full cafeteria) where they sell snacks, hot dogs and sandwiches. Sometimes they have simple lame pizzas there too. Usually in the nearby areas to campus there are many small food places where they have arcade games, sell pretty much the same food than the kiosk, though cheaper or better, and some of them also sell cheap beer. Some people just bring food from home in tapper-ware and/or thermos.

- You have theoretical classes (lectures I think you call them?) and practical classes / lab / workshops, depending on the career. You may have as low as 4 classes or as much as 12 a week. Usually the lab / practical / workshops class is either led or assisted by a student of a higher year. They're usually either paid in cash or in credits (so they have to take less classes to graduate).

- Aside the obligatory courses on your program (they're set from the point you start studying, you can't just decide which courses you'll take), you have to take a set number of 'elective' courses to graduate. Depending on the university and program you're in, they may be related to what you're studying (when I was studying illustration, there were classes about art history, traditional art techniques, etc), miscellaneous (learning a foreign language, yoga sessions, etc) or sports (wall-climbing, archery, volleyball, chess, karate, tae kwon do, etc); if you're on a university with different campuses/schools, you may choose to take elective courses from outside your own.

- Depending on your program, normally classes last one semester. 'Core' classes usually last for he whole program, and they're like, idk "Scriptwriting I" the first semester, then "II" the second one and "III" the third one. Problem is, classes are either given during the first OR the second semester, so if you fail a first semester class, you have to wait until first semester of the next year to take it again. If there's a lot of people failing a course, the administration may consider to make available the course again during the other semester (second semester if it is a first semester course, or the pother way around), so students won't fall behind so much.

- Some teachers are very *very* strict about entering the classroom when the class starts and they will lock the door for nobody to enter, and you just will have to find some place to spend that time. Some are very lax and will let you enter the classroom at any point as long as you don't make noise and interrupt them. The first class in the morning usually starts getting populated between 9 and 10, even if it starts at 8 or 8:30, and everybody is sleepy (or they go to the back and actually sleep on the desk). The classes after lunch tend to be skipped if they're not very important. And if you have classes in the evening, and even worst, on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings, expect them to be very empty. You usually need a % of attendance to pass a course, though (75% I think is the norm).

- Nobody cares about you failing courses or not (except, maybe, your parents that will have to pay extra for the courses...). It's up to you how you do in the courses you're taking. It's actually rare to see somebody that hasn't failed at least one course since they started until they graduated. Most people take at least one extra year to graduate than the actual length of the program because of one or more courses they failed at some point.

- Since books are expensive, universities here normally don't ask you to buy them.They either ask you to copy a chapter or some pages from the book on the library, or they give the class one photocopy of the chapters you need to read, or the exercises you need to do and then everybody heads to the local copy center to get a copy. Some campuses even have a copy center with all the notes and chapters ready for every class, and you just say "I need guide #2 from class XX please!" (sometimes you have to yell on top of the other students trying to get their guide for their courses). In the same fashion, it's good to befriend a student with a neat handwriting, so you can photocopy their notes to study

- At some point, you'll have no idea of what it means to sleep. You'll check with your classmates "I slept 3 hours today!", "I slept two!", "Oh yeah? I didn't sleep at all! *drinks coffee like there's no tomorrow*". Sometimes, the administration will lend you (usually a group of students, not just one) a classroom during the weekend or at night to study or build a project on exams periods. Sometimes people pull all-nighters at the library. It's normal to see people with sleeping bags in the corners of empty classrooms, or quiet corners in the library during those periods.

- Most people tend to find a 'spot' somewhere in campus where they usually have lunch, hang out before or after class, sleep or wait in 'window' times (when you have class, then you have an empty period, and then another class) - everybody hates window times Dx. Longer ones are god for going outside campus to do window shopping (or actual shopping if you have spare money), study or just to go drink or eat something. It's good to have a window right after or right before lunch!.

- Big campuses with lots of green areas are where people go to drink, smoke weed and sometimes have sex behind the bushes when nobody is around. Depends on the kind of university - and the kind of people that goes to that university, usually depending on how hard is to get in and how expensive it is - how much of that you actually get to see normally in campus, though.

- Students are as poor as they were on high school, only some of them get part-time jobs and they use the money to pay for their studies. They always have some money for a beer, though!

- Unlike some people mentioned before, over here it is in University where you make the friends you'll have for the rest of your life. Unlike in high school, most of your classmates will have very similar interests and goals than you, and you'll spend a lot of time together in class, window times, having lunch, studying, pulling all-nighters, drinking and partying. Chances are, after you graduate you'll have chances to work together with your friends, or help them or have them help you find a job.

[PyTom]

However, you'll probably only use about 10 of these buildings in your entire life, because you only need to go into buildings that house classes relevant to your major.

While this is true, I think one of the best things to do during downtime at a college or university is to just go for a walk through buildings you have no reason to be in. There's all sorts of interesting posters and things on the walls. Even if you only understand half of what's going on - that's a lot of interesting things there, and so you might learn something.

I remember one time I was walking through the basement of one of the Engineering building, and met two students who were creating a Battlebot - not something you see every day.

Back to the original topic, one of the big differences between high school and college is that in the former, the teachers tend to be educators first and foremost, with degrees in things like education. In the latter, the professors tend to be experts in their field of study - without any formal training in education. Teaching also isn't a big part of a professor's role, at least at a research university.

[papillon]

Some American universities require all students to live on-campus. Universities vary a LOT.

Private US universities tend to each have their own weird set of traditions, and some are weirder than others. For example, Brown had something called the "Naked Donut Run". Reed has Paideia and the Renn Fayre (which doesn't actually have anything to do with a renfaire). My best friend from high school went to CalTech, which is the setting that the movie Real Genius was based on, and her stories sound ALMOST as bizarre as that movie! Or there's the whole MIT Prank Club thing... Bizarre clubs and secret rituals abound, and lore is dutifully passed down to incoming freshmen. Duke's traditions were tamer, at least the ones I encountered, but there's still stuff about touching bits of statues for luck, or the "unofficial graduation requirements", or the rumors of the secret tunnels... (Well, the tunnels definitely exist. How to get INTO them, that's where the rumors come from.)

.... actually, I should say that most of Duke's weird traditions have to do with sports, which is why I had nothing to do with them. K-ville, in particular, stands out. It has its own Wikipedia entry.

You might want to pick an individual school to use as your basis (changing details of course) and do research into it. A lot of what people are describing so far in this thread sounds NOTHING like what I know. I suspect that a lot of this cultural stuff is only going to occur if you're living on campus and thus spending more time in the company of your classmates.

[Sakura02]

I'm in my 5th year of college XD all of it I spent in dorms. In case you're wondering why 5, I already have a degree and now I'm studying for another one. But, some key things I notice in college, or at least in my college, it differs depending on what kind of campus. My thoughts are kinda scattered on this. sry XD this comes from my own experience with some general observations.

1. Living in the dorms, you run into ALOT of people. So everyone knows each other and it's pretty friendly.

2. You're closer to the on campus activities and stuff. My most memorable was a club that had a smores night.

3. 8/10 dorms ARE A MESS, I've had a friend who left a sandwich under her bed -__-;; if you're lucky you'll get a clean roomate.

4. Dorms = roomate drama. Some of the drama I've witnessed includes

- Friends being kicked out for bringing in alcohol (I lived on a dry campus)
- Someone doesn't clean the bathroom and all hell breaks lose (they do dorm inspections to make sure its clean, if you don't pass you could be fined -_- or in alot of trouble)
- Your friends briging over their boyfriend/girlfriend whatever, and doing things they arne't suppose to be doing while you're trying to sleep or do homework
- Something being stolen *_*;
- Someone loses their key
- Your roomate is on Skype while you're trying to get some sleep.
- Someone leave dirty underwear in the bathroom


In terms of work and studying

- 7/10 college students slack off and do their work at the last minute
- You almost always have to pull all nighters because college work is soo demanding. i say this because as a freshman I went to bed a 10pm now I go to bed at 3am.
- Class times differ and may not always be in the morning, I myself for example don't have classes till 3pm, YAY which means sleeping-in w00t.


I'm not much of a party person but the whole hype about college life is parties, and even if you live off campus someone is always throwing a party off campus with alcohol and stuff. But some of the college club sponsored parties are fun. Me, I went to a Red-Neck prom party, and that was my first date with my current boyfriend >_>;..weird. But anyways Halloween parties and seasonal events are fun.

At the college I'm at now they have this humans vs zombies event where nearly the whole school participates and after 6pm if you're a human you try and protect yourself from the 'zombies' and if you're a zombie you go out trying to tag out people. It was fun though I missed it. I just witnessed lots of students running aroung with nerf guns trying not to get caught.


Other random stuff

- College students live on junk food. My favorites include: instant ramen, mac n cheese, pizza, P&J sandwiches. We don't have time for real food so it's a lot of grab and go stuff.

In college you will always know that one person who is the ultimate slacker and barely gets by grade wise.

- Club are an important part if you want the full college experience. There is a club for pretty much anything and they are responsible for sponsoring events related to them, community work and promoting other things.
Just some random things that come to mind when i think of college based on what i've seen/ but as I said colleges differ.
I've personally been in
- Art club (big surprise)
- Anime club (big surprise again! XD)
- Bible Study
- Gay Straight Alliance (there is always a controversy with these kinds of clubs)
- Game Developers Network
- Spanish Club

and that's it *_* My thoughts were all over the place but maybe I was helpful??

[LVUER]

That Humans vs Zombie event sounds like fun ^_^ I never have that kind of event in my college (all events here are so official, so no playing around). And what's with the anime and game developer network. I would love to join those clubs.

[Showsni]

Hm, let's see, experiences of college... Though, in Britain they're always universities. A college is a subdivision of some universities; for instance, I went to Oxford University, which is a collegiate university. So it's split up into lots of different colleges which are like self contained campuses, I guess. I went to University College (somewhat confusingly named?).

So, Oxford University has a lot of different colleges and also faculties for eqach subject. Rather than doing one major and a bunch of minor subject like in America, in Britain you do one subject adn that's it, pretty much (though some consist of a few related things). So, I did maths. That was 100% maths for four years. The teaching system was split into lectures, classes and tutorials. The subject was split into several subdivions (say, Algebraic Geometry or Analytic Topology). We'd have something like three or four of these a term. In the first year everyone would do the same thing, but later on you'd get choices to make in order to specialise what you wanted to learn. Lectures were organised every week in each subject. They'd be held for everyone in the entire university doing maths; so, for the first year when everyone was doing the same thing, you'd see everyone doing maths in the whole university gathering in one big lecture hall. They lasted an hour each; usually there'd be several in a row. For the first two years they were held in the Natural History Museum, because the Maths Institute wasn't big enough to house all the students. Each lecturer would provide a problem sheet after each lecture that needed to be taken away and fcompleted in our own time. Usually you'd have to make notes during the lecture; these notes would provide the basis of your revision material when it came to exam time. Some lecturers provided printed out notes, though. For the first two years, classes and tutorials were organised by the college. (So, lectures are a bug faculty wide thing for the whole university; classes and tutes are for just the people doing maths at your college.) The maths tutors in college would split up the subjects amongst themselves and teach us in the college. Classes involved everyone who was doing maths in the college (about ten or so people). They have the tutor go through the problem sheet given out in the lectures, calling on people to come up and go through their solutions. Tutorials are more intimate affairs - jsut two students and one tutor going through the problem sheet. Sometimes if your tute partner was away/ill/whatever you'd end up on your own with the tutor - better hope you'd done the work... In the later years, as you became more specialised in the branches of maths you were learning, classes became a more faculty organised thing. So you'd have to find out which college to go to, and end up in a class that would be a random group from the (smaller sized) lectures. Tutorials would be kind of replaced by these classes, but you could still visit your college professors for help if necessary. After two terms of this, you'd have the exams in the final term.

Now, for living matters... In the first two years, everyone lived on site in the college. (That was how my college did it, other ones may vary). University College has a pretty good postition on Oxford's High Street, though it's not the most central. You'd generally be able to walk to lectures (at the Natural History Museum) or into town ehnever you wanted, though. And Ahmed's kebab van parked right outside at night time. The college itself had pretty good facilities. First year rooms weren't the best, though, since you got assigned the not very good rooms after the second years had taken all the best ones. Room generally contained a bed, desk, wardrobe and sink. Bathrooms were communal, with one to every few rooms. There weren't any kitchens available, but the college cooked all the meals. These were served from the cafeteria and eaten in the great hall (with all the painintgs of famous people and coat of amrs and stuff around...) The food was generally okay. That was "Informal Hall," anyway. Usually something like fish pie or lasagne that could be served to a lot of people. There was also a variety of sandwiches, crisps, yoghurts, desserts, fruit, etc, etc. The money was charged to a card that you could get topped up by taking money into the office. Breakfast was pretty good, hash browns, bacon, eggs... Now, there's also "Formal Hall." This you had to sign up to. It was a pretty posh meal, after informal hall was finished. Someone would read the grace out in Latin, and you had to dress up in your suit and gown ideally. Then waiters would serve the food (roast pheasant, anyone?) It wasn't all that expensive really, either.

The colelge also had a bunch of amenities on site. There's the college bar, which was a pub with table football, pool, darts and so on, and usually the location for the bops. (A bop is a party, usually with a theme - so, toga party, or come dressed as a London Underground station, or whatever). Then there's the JCR, or Junior Common Room, a nice room with sofas, a TV, DVD selection, drinks machine and a few compiters, designed to let people socialise. We had a great afternoon tea thing here, where tea would be served (2p a cup) and cakes (5p). So, after lectures in the morning, people would come back for lunch, then gather in the JCR to watch Countdown and have tea whilst doing the crosswords (free newspapers provided). There's also a computer room, and a chapel on site.

In the second year, there was a ballot for rooms, so you got to choose where to live in the main college site. You could also choose to get a room mate at this stage. I did pretty well in the ballot, so I got a massive room on the ground floor. It had two bedrooms and a main living area (I had a room mate here).

In the third and fourth years, we lived off site instead of at the main college. In a way this was less convenient... You could choose here to either rent a house with a few people, or live in the college's annexe (which was quite a distance down the road - better get a bus pass.) You could still come in to the main college site for meals and so on if you wanted, but it was harder to manage. Now they had kitchens provided, so people would generally prepare their own food. (I'm kind of lazy when it comes to cooking, so I'd often just buy a ready meal...) A ballot was taken first here to decide the order of picking the rooms in the annexe (like in the second year), so you could again try and pick to be with your friends.

Now, for clubs and so on... In the first week, there's a big event called the Fresher's Fair. This is where all teh university clubs set up stalls in one place, and you can wander round and pick which ones to join. I ended up joining the Magic the Gathering club (though, that wasn't technically a university based one...) after trying a few different things out. Hm, probably my studies lost out to it a bit...

Oh, and yeah, forget sleeping much. I don't even drink coffee ever, but I was pulling all nighters all over the place. But I never missed a lecture! I did, however, fall asleep in lectures a fair amount... (Well, not seriously asleep. Just drifting into random semi dreams before jerking awake and quickly catching up with notes). It's worse when you nearly fall alseep in tutorials, though, as it's just you and the tutor...