The UCD Fresher’s Survival Guide: Do’s and Don’ts and Other Things You’ll Learn the Hard Way
Welcome to UCD! You have survived the leaving and the CAO, approximately 700 WhatsApp groups, and at least one family member asking you what you’re going to do with your degree. Congratulations, you are now officially a fresher (sorry, no medal included).
For the next few months, you will be told that college is “the best few years of your life ’’, which is a fairly terrifying thing to hear when you haven’t even figured out where your first lecture is, let alone which building it’s in. As a fourth-year student, I feel suitably qualified to tell you that you will be absolutely fine, seriously. It’s not that deep. You will also make some truly questionable decisions along the way; trust me, I would know.
So before you spend €6.50 on a sandwich in Centra and accidentally walk into the wrong building for three consecutive weeks, here are some things you should probably know.
DO: Go to Freshers Week
This sounds obvious, but actually go.
Freshers Week is one of the few times in your university career when you can walk up to a stranger, ask their name, course, accommodation and hometown within 30 seconds, and somehow consider yourselves best friends by lunchtime. Take advantage of this.
Go to events. Talk to people. Stand awkwardly beside someone at a society sign-up and pretend you are deeply interested in fencing or salsa dancing because you don’t know how to end the conversation.
DON’T: Join 23 societies because you were given a free pen.
When Fresher’s Week arrives, it’s easy to get carried away. You sign up for everything, attend nothing, and spend the rest of the semester wondering why you’re still getting emails from the Juggling Society. You will not be attending the Baking Society, Law Society and UCD Surf Club every Tuesday at 6 pm. You are one person; be realistic.
That said, try things for sure. Some of the people you meet in first year will become your closest friends, and some will become people you recognise from across the SU shop and silently nod at for the next four years. Both are perfectly normal outcomes, if you ask me! Personally, I’ve heard the College Tribune is the best non-society club on campus, nudge nudge, wink wink.
DO: Learn the maze of Belfield
You will eventually develop what I can only describe as a sixth sense for navigating UCD. At the beginning, however, you will have absolutely no idea where anything is. Someone will tell you your lecture is in Newman and you will confidently walk towards the Science Building. You will then Google Maps your way across campus despite the fact that you have been here for three weeks. This is normal. The important thing is to leave early. UCD is enormous, and ‘“it’s only a five-minute walk’’ is one of the campus’s greatest lies.
DON’T: Assume you’re the chosen one.
I have spent enough time walking into buildings with the confidence of someone who absolutely knew where they were going, only to realise I had somehow crossed half of Belfield, but that’s a story for another time. There are plenty of maps of the campus around; you’re not a loser if you look at them. And if you get lost so bad you’re on the verge, never think so highly of yourself as to not ask a passerby. Everyone has been there. If you’re lucky, you might happen to fall upon a friendly senior like myself, who will take pity on you and avoid making fun of you until you are out of earshot.
DO: Take advantage of free food
You are now a student. This means you must develop an immediate interest in any event involving free pizza. You don’t need to know what the event is about. You don’t need to know which society is hosting it either. If someone says There’s free food at the event, you go. Your bank account will thank you.
DON’T: Spend €8 on something you could have brought home.
Centra and the SU shop are convenient; don’t get me wrong, I love a roll from Centra or a toastie from the SU shop, but I see them more as a treat. You will soon discover that your student budget has entered its villain era if you aren’t careful. I would know, sadly. Learn where the cheap food is or bring lunch occasionally, and make friends with people who own air fryers.
DO: Go to your lectures. Mostly.
I know, boring, but hear me out. In first year, it is very easy to convince yourself that missing one lecture doesn’t matter. Then you miss another. Then another. Suddenly it is Week 10, and you are looking at a 74-slide PowerPoint called “Introduction to: Something You Have Never Heard Of’’.
You will tell yourself you can catch up over the weekend. You won’t. I say this as someone entering fourth year who personally tested this theory multiple times.
DON’T: Take your classes (or anything) too seriously
On the flip side, do not forget to be a fresher. You only have a year before you actually need to start worrying about that arts degree of yours, internships or how to set up a LinkedIn profile. Take advantage of the ignorance is bliss of first year and go out and enjoy yourself. Go to the Monday night out, get that mind-numbing hangover and make out with that stranger dressed like Captain Underpants during Halloween, even if he keeps interrupting the ‘conversation’ to apologise for his sweaty palms. I digress…be young and dumb. That’s not to say it gets harder from here on out; it does, but I’ll tell you about that next year.
DO: Make friends outside your course!
Your course friends are great. You will need someone to sit beside you in lectures and someone to send the desperate ‘’what did she/he mean by that assignment?’’ text at 11:47 pm. But don’t spend four years speaking exclusively to the same six people. Talk to the person next to you in a lecture, go to a society event alone, say yes to plans even if your first instinct is to go home and watch Netflix. Some of the best friendships happen completely by accident.
DON’T: PANIC
If you don’t find your ‘’people’’immediately, do not panic; I didn’t find mine until 2nd year, completely normal. This is not The Summer I Turned Pretty; you are not required to arrive on Monday and have a friendship group, a soulmate and a designated person to share a €6 bottle of wine from Centra with by Friday. Everyone is pretending to know what they’re doing; eventually you’ll get to a point where you can sit back and watch scared freshers waddling around campus with nostalgia, and that is a good feeling.
DO: Enjoy Yourself
This is definitely the most important one. Your first year is not supposed to be a perfectly curated four- year plan. You are allowed to change your mind about your course, your friends, your societies, style, even your personality! And possibly about your decision to attend a 9 am lecture.
Try everything! There is a reason everyone keeps telling you that college goes by so quickly because, annoyingly, it does. There is no correct way to be a fresher; you might live on campus and go out for nights a week, you might commute home every evening, you might join every society, or you might join none. The most important thing is you will 100% embarrass yourself at some point on or off campus; we have all been there.
By your final year, nobody remembers who did or said what in first year. Well, I remember some things, but I won’t tell… yet.
Welcome to UCD. Try not to lick the Newman toilets.
Suzannah Raben – Arts and Lifestyle Editor