{"id":956918,"date":"2026-05-13T11:24:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T11:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/956918\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:24:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T11:24:24","slug":"from-societies-to-skins-what-i-learnt-in-first-year-at-bristol-uni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/956918\/","title":{"rendered":"From societies to Skins: What I learnt in first year at Bristol Uni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advice from a no longer silly little fresher <\/p>\n

With first year ending, it\u2019s time to reflect on the year that has passed in an ode to the meekly fresher I was in September and retrospectively calm her anxieties, enlightening her on Bristol life. Here\u2019s my guide to your first year at university, as someone who has just done it (and is definitely still learning too!)<\/p>\n

Friends<\/p>\n

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In the lead up to university, I was told by people around me that \u2018you shouldn\u2019t stress to much about finding your best friends straight away and it takes time to find your true friends\u2019. As someone who didn\u2019t have many friends at secondary school, I believed this and went into September with low friendship expectations. Whilst I will say this is partially true, as you will meet some great friends as your time naturally progresses throughout university, do not discredit those friends you make on the first day. I am so blessed to say that I found my two best friends within the four walls of our accommodation! So my main piece of advice is keep an open mind: you won\u2019t get on with everyone (and that people pleaser within you will have to go away), you will make the greatest friends of your life at university.<\/p>\n

Societies<\/p>\n

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Remember in school constantly hearing how important extra-curriculars are to make you a \u201cwell-rounded\u201d individual? Okay sure, this could be true \u2013 but societies at uni are much more than that: the perfect way to meet people like you! They are the pinnacle of university life when it comes to meeting people outside of your accommodation and your course. So please, don\u2019t skip freshers fair where you\u2019ll find out all about them and if you have any interests- go out there and do it! You\u2019re bound to find friends along the way.<\/p>\n

Your course<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s very important not to compare yourself to those around you when at university. Your relationship with your course is going to be different from those around you, and this is nothing to be anxious about: everyone has their own opportunities- it\u2019s about what you do with it. Take my housemates for example, they won\u2019t mind me saying that they haven\u2019t had the best relationships with their courses, with one of them swapping courses next year, whilst I have loved mine since the beginning. Your academic progress and course are just a fragment of your life at university, and it\u2019s important to remember that not everyone is going to love (or hate) their course in the same way you do!<\/p>\n

Accommodation<\/p>\n

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As expected, living with other 18-year-olds, fresh out of their home bubble, can be awful. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019ve had my horror stories whilst staying in university accommodation, but I would now say (in a reflective state, that forgets how disgusted I was at the time) that you should not dwell on the bad stuff. Living in accommodation with a bunch of people all living by themselves for the first time is the most fun way to meet new people (or even, if you\u2019re like me- your best friends). So don\u2019t spend too much time being annoyed about the state of your kitchen, and don\u2019t take the good stuff for granted because it\u2019ll be over before you know it.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t listen to people who say you need to get a second year house in October. Not only is this just completely untrue, it forces you into hasty decisions that you may regret later. Whilst it is important to get looking for good and cheap houses for your second year, you do not have to find it immediately, with many coming up after Christmas!<\/p>\n

The \u2018rah\u2019<\/p>\n

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Bristol itself is obviously known for its \u2018influx\u2019 of posher students (we\u2019ve all seen Overheard\u2019s Instagram). Whilst it is true that there are many \u2018rah\u2019 girlies out there, with skinny scarfs and sports societies, this side of Bristol should be embraced. The TikToks may not be lying, but it does make your university experience different from everyone else\u2019s in its own quirky, satirical way. At the end of the day, if you don\u2019t want to embrace the \u2018rah\u2019 you really don\u2019t have to (it really isn\u2019t as big as people think it is), find the joy in the North Village bubble the \u2018rah\u2019 mostly resides in (which in itself is a whole other world to a city centre girly like me) and remember that we\u2019re all here as freshers for the same thing, to have a stress-free drunken first year.<\/p>\n

Skins<\/p>\n

The amount of times I heard the phrase \u2018this is\/isn\u2019t like Skins\u2019 during freshers week was appalling. TikTok likes to spin a stereotypical web that Bristol\u2019s drug culture is huge at the university, which needs to be debunked. Don\u2019t get me wrong, if you know the right people you can have your Skin\u2019s experience- but what is vital to that is knowing the right people. If you don\u2019t want to surround yourself with drugs- don\u2019t! It\u2019s as simple as that, the culture here is no worse than any other major city, it is shows like Skins that shine a light on Bristol as a city, making it stand out a little more than others.<\/p>\n

Clubs<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s very clear that whilst your parents may wish your hours spent at university will be on academic endeavours, the biggest and best part of first year is the social life you\u2019ll have. From students going out once a week, to every day, it\u2019s safe to say the clubs in Bristol profit a lot from silly freshers outings. It really depends what you\u2019re looking for club wise, whilst some have their favourite nights in Lakota or the Triangle others find themselves in underground events at The Crown (I find myself at OMG on a Friday almost every week). Clubbing is the best way to dance with your friends, meet new people and have a laugh whilst being (unavoidably) blackout drunk.<\/p>\n

With that, there\u2019s all my advice and opinions as a girl who\u2019s no longer just a silly little fresher. To those about to enter this life, enjoy it and do not take a single moment for granted because it goes by so quickly! And to those who have just done it, like me, lets enjoy this pre-summer with drinking and clubbing like a little fresher for the final time- because sh*t gets very real next year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Advice from a no longer silly little fresher With first year ending, it\u2019s time to reflect on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-956918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116567020447000013","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}