Oscar Denvir is a fourth-year business and law student in UCD, and he knows that burning the candle at both ends is something to avoid. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be nights out. There\u2019s going to be chances to meet people \u2013 definitely go to them. But at the same time, don\u2019t shoot yourself in the foot by not showing up to lectures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d recommend people to go to lectures even if they\u2019re hungover. It\u2019s very easy for people to become anonymous. So, from a social perspective, even if you\u2019re not going to learn anything, just showing your face can make a difference\u201d.<\/p>\n
Getting a part-time job while at college may be very normal, but Denvir says to make sure the job gives students the flexibility to fully enjoy and embrace the college experience also.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe part-time job I had at the time [in first year] was very restrictive. I had to be in work four evenings a week. And I\u2019d be working 6pm-10pm. It shot me a bit in the foot with regards to a social life. You\u2019d have to say no, or it\u2019d be a big hullabaloo trying to get a shift moved.<\/p>\n
\u201cFind a job that you can balance with a college schedule. If you can get something that you can just tip away with for two big shifts in the weekend or something like that, that\u2019s what I recommend people do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denvir didn\u2019t know anyone in his course when he started, and this can be \u201ca bit intimidating\u201d, he says. \u201cInitially it can seem a bit hard to break barriers or break into circles, but it doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be in your own course. Everyone\u2019s lovely in the course. You do get to know them because, at the end of the day, you\u2019re going through the same thing for four years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clubs and societies are key to settling in to college life, Denvir says. \u201cYou need to force yourself to go to at least one club, or show up to at least one event. It\u2019s something that I didn\u2019t do. I wish that I\u2019d gone into more clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the opportunity to join clubs and societies lasts beyond Freshers\u2019 Week, he says, though he cautions that some societies wrap up their activities early in the academic year. Societies are generally very welcoming and keep students up to speed on events, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with the Gaelic team, if people are interested in sports or the hurling team, there\u2019s third and fourth teams there, that are just purely for socialising.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Denvir is a fourth-year business and law student in UCD, and he knows that burning the candle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,14331,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,12550,15,16,5,12551,1420,12548,7,8],"class_list":["post-661895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cao","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-leaving-certificate","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-second-level","tag-students","tag-third-level","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}