First term, first year of uni: my experience

Last week I completed my first term of my first year of university. I've decided to share a little bit about my experience with my classes, social life and commuter life, along with maybe some other things.

Commuting: Ok so when I applied to go to my college last year I was convinced there was a public bus from my hometown to my college town (there isn't), so I pay about €35 a week for a private bus which only goes from my town twice in the morning (8:15 and 10:15) and from my college twice in the evening (3:05 and 6:05). I'm very lucky that I only live half an hour away from the college because I'd hate to have to get up earlier, get home later or pay more for the bus. Another thing with my commute is that the bus just about gets me in for my lectures if I have them at 9 or 11, but I usually have to leg it to get to the other side of the campus. And of course these times are quite restricting on having a social life based on nightlife. 

Classes: So I'm in an arts/humanities degree doing Irish, music and double German and there's quite a big difference in these classes. My Irish class is the largest with almost 200 people and we're in this huge big study hall. Because the class is so big we don't have an opportunity to ask questions in class, but we can ask questions in our tutorial or email the lecturer. We have two grammar classes a week and starting next term we'll have a class on scéalta dúchais (native stories). Those are my core hours but I also have the tutorial, which is a two hour period in a class with about nineteen people. The tutorials align with what we're doing in class and we get graded on attendance and tasks we do in and in preparation for them. Music is a slightly smaller class with maybe just over 100 people in it, so we do have an opportunity to ask questions in the lecture. Our core hours consist of two hours of "Introduction to Music Studies" which is where we analyse music, both in a societal context and (obvs) a musical one and then an hour of a theory class. We also have a mandatory ensemble that we've to take part in (graded on attendance) and you also meet a performance tutor who gives you lessons on your instrument. We also have an hour tutorial where we discuss readings and get graded for attendance. Finally, German is my smallest class. In total, there's about 60 on the course but we're broken up into different classes. I'd say there's about 15 in my class, but it's rare that we have full numbers, consistently there's usually like 11. I love that German is such a small class because we get to interact with our lecturer a lot and it's very helpful for language learning. I've also got an hour long attendance graded aural class a week and I take a language and culture module that ties in some academic skills. I've not really had any very serious tasks or assignments for my classes yet (apart from the language and cultures module) so that's been nice while I've been settling in. I'm sure each college is different but, that's my experience with those subjects in my college thus far.

Social life: Obviously, social life is considered a huge part of college life, but commuting kind of puts a dampner on things. I'd definitely recommend to anyone who is a commuter to find clubs and societies that do "commuter friendly" events. You might not be able to go to all of them if they overlap with your classes but I'm sure you can find something. For me, the best society so far in terms of "commuter friendliness" has been the Irish society because they do their "Tae agus Plé" (tea and a chat) in the morning when I usually have free time between my classes. The German society would be good if the Kaffee Klatsch-es didn't overlap with my classes. Basically, anything that won't really involve outside of school hours (think drama, musical or games societies) will be commuter friendly. Also, making friends at first is quite hard, particularly in an arts degree because you mightn't have friends that overlap from your classes. I found the first few weeks quite lonely, but once you get settled in you will have more time to make friends. Always make sure to get some sort of contact details and ask people after (or before) classes if they have a free hour for a coffee or some food and a chat. Making friends is a slow process but it will happen eventually. I can't really comment on nightlife because I've been out once (damn the commute) but my student's union has a good venue for nightlife and cheap drink so... don't knock your student's union.

Other tips: CHECKING YOUR EMAILS IS SUCH A PAIN IN THE ASS AT FIRST BUT I PROMISE YOU'LL GET USED TO IT. Try to get involved in your college somehow. I know being a member of a students union isn't for everyone, but even go for a small role like class rep. For me, I signed up to be a student ambassador with my college's School of Modern Languages, Literature and Culture through German, which gives me a chance to interact with the lecturers in my department and do jobs like open days (I also get paid for the work I do for them which is a nice bonus :-]). GO TO YOUR CLASSES. There's no amount of money you could pay me to miss a class unless I was absolutely dying. Trust me, a day will come when you need that time off. Do your work. Email your lecturers if you have a question. Make your lecturers notes fancier if it makes you more inclined to learn. Internet Archive will  have your textbook on it, even if it may be an older edition. If you need to save money or a pain in the back, the online edition will do you fine (also your lecturer will probably project it onto the board if you're using it in class). Use your college's facilities (I had never been a gym before in my life but you can bet your ass I'm using my college's free gym). Lastly, I'd just say take it easy. There's nothing worth losing your mind stressing over and I'm sure nothing that can't be fixed.

I'll probably edit the blog if I think of more stuff, but feel free to leave questions if you have any and hopefully I can answer them :D