There are endless opportunities for socialising while you’re at Uni. Once you’ve either been through or cleverly avoided your ‘initiation’ into student life (see examples below) follow our tips to make friends and interest people.
Student rituals – The horror and the shame
Each year the press is awash with stories of students ending up in A&E after drunken initiation shenanigans gone wrong. These tend to vary from the relatively tame – a gaggle of handcuffed revellers doing shots off their partners stomachs - to the downright atrocious, many will have seen the video of the students walking around with plastic bags over their heads whilst a man in Nazi uniform shouts orders at them (it’s worth noting that the reports of more risqué initiations tend to come from outside of London. Perhaps there are better things to do in the city.)
The idea behind them is to encourage team bonding, particularly amongst sports teams, and despite the obvious dangers and certain Universities trying to ban these activities students are often quite happy to take part.
Fear not, you’re not going to be bundled into a sack and forced to eat lizards if you don’t want to. If you don’t feel comfortable doing something, just say no. At the end of the day you’ll be the one preserving your dignity while your classmates are projectile vomiting all over the West End. The rituals described below are purely for your amusement; you decide whether they’re hilarious, or just plain stupid.
- A certain rugby team’s initiation consists of an outing to the pub, where after a few pints the team captain yells “fill your boots!” The team members do just that. Let’s hope it wasn’t a chilly evening.
- At one university students have to eat a 15 course meal, one of which consists of a pint of water with a goldfish swimming inside. If the unsuspecting fish is regurgitated alive the participant is exempt from two of the courses.
- I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here-style cuisine is common. Pig's snouts with wasabi sauce, raw leeks, whole uncooked squids and whole chilies have all been consumed by hundreds of inebriated freshers.
- One university’s rowing team do a three legged pub crawl. The pairs have to have one person of each sex and must change tops at some point in the evening. They are not allowed to part throughout (even for toilet breaks).
- Cross dressing pub crawls are popular, and there’ll almost always be some sort of drinking rule, i.e. a shot in each pub, two units per pub, or alternating spirits and Alco pops. Yards of beer are also a favourite. \n\nThrow great parties
You’ve got through the first few weeks, and realise that going out every night is fast depleting your student loan. If you have the space and laidback neighbours you could try hosting your own party. Get everyone to bring a bottle and you’ve got a cheap evening sorted.
1. First of all consider how big a party you want this to be, and whether it’s realistic for you to host it. If you don’t have a big enough place, are worried about the place getting trashed, or simply live too far out to get enough people to turn up, you might want to consider hiring somewhere. Some venues are free and don’t even require a minimum bar spend. Check Time Out’s article for great party venues.
2. Make sure you’ve cleared it with the neighbours; you don’t want irate people banging on your door at midnight yelling to keep the music down. If they’re of a similar age group you might want to consider inviting them.
3. Be original. Think of a theme and a dress code to go with it, perhaps a certain decade or a movie? Everyone is mad about the 80’s at the moment, so think of something more far-fetched, like the Roaring 20’s. If the purpose is meeting new people, you could ask everyone to bring a random person i.e. a friend from outside university.
4. Thanks to facebook invites can spread far and wide, but be careful if you don’t want things to get out of hand by making the event ‘closed’ or ‘secret’. If you live in halls and want to encourage people to stop by leave your door open.
5. Get a playlist ready on your computer or leave the CD’s you intend to play out so the music-playing is seamless.
6. Put away anything breakable and be prepared for things to get at least a little messy; if you live at home and your parents are away you might want to cover up sofas with throws, encourage people to smoke outside or ensure there are plenty of ashtrays. The same goes if you live in rented accommodation; you don’t want to have to foot the bill for any damage!
\n\nSocieties and clubs
Universities often have a wide range of societies, from sports to debating, and there is bound to be something of interest. Here are some of the more fascinating ones:
- University of Westminster offers a cake appreciation group, a rock music society, and a free radicals society.
- Brunel has a sci-fi group, and a circus skills society.
- LSE has a group devoted to making and tasting hummus, and a group for keen swing dancers.
- Kings College has a club for Gilbert & Sullivan fans and a group for geeks, which they say is ‘to facilitate networking for students with fringe interests colloquially referred to as geeks’.
This is a tiny cross-section of what’s available, so check with your Uni. If nothing appeals you can of course start your own, which could be a great way to meet new people. Hopefully this section will have given you some ideas!
