A 'Fresher Perspective' blog: shifting down a gear

Date: 23/02/10

Posted by: Bill

i thought it was a fresher perspective not Sophies life.

Date: 24/02/10

Posted by: Kate

I'd just like to say that I'm a uni student, and I drink maybe once or twice a month not a week, I've nothing against the odd drink, but I don't buy the people who say 'you don't have a choice really, it's a party', and I also don't agree with Sophie that it's an age thing, although I do think it's a maturity thing. I still go out, and have good nights and a lot of fun at Uni, I'm not 'missing out', if anything I'm missing out on looking like an antisocial idiot and throwing up, when did students get to the stage where we thought that actually ejecting vomit is 'part' of a night out? In my opinion, being a 'student' is used as an excuse my many to act in a totally antisocial and childish way, without any regard for other human beings, and unless we each make a choice to cut down and let sense rule us rather than behaving like animals who just do what seems most fun at the time, the stereotypical portrayal of teenagers as idiotic louts will continue to exist. I want people to think of teenagers as idealistic young people trying to change things, rather than as scary or stupid people. I think one of the most important things we can do to change perceptions is remove binge drinking from the equation. Anybody else agree? :-)

Date: 24/02/10

Posted by: Sophie

To Kate, I completely agree that binge drinking should be taken out of the occasion. However, going out once or twice a week also shouldn't be frowned upon if thats we (students) enjoy. I work very hard at both University and work resulting in craving for my weekend. Because I am required to write about my drinking weekly it often sounds like all I do is go out. But I assure you I wake up, work hard then treat myself. If you have read my archives you would know that In the last few weeks I went through a hefty break up which is probably why my drinking has been a lot more. coping.. enjoying... being single. ? I agree that there are some lager louts out there. I come from essex I see them regularly, however I do think people seem to tar everyone with the same brush and assume teenagers are terrible. Most of us are lovely :)

Date: 25/02/10

Posted by: Jake

I go to The University of Leeds, and personally, I drink 2 or 3 times a week. I do not understand the conservative approach of 'attempting to change the image of teenagers to people who are trying to change things' because each generation COMPLETELY changes things, regardless of whether they drink alot or not. To be honest, the one point in our lives were we are able to go out and drink heavily, whilst recovering the quickest and not having responsibilities is now, so i respect the students that go out every single night and get destroyed, regardless of your anti drinking approach. The stereotype of idiotic louts has been around for years and to be quite frank 'Kate', i think you're classing teenagers in that category already...

Date: 25/02/10

Posted by: Erin

I agree with Sophie on this one. Although people perceive us students as lazy binge drinkers, we do also work quite a lot. I have masses of work to do on a weekly basis, so those few nights I get to go out, I go for it and have a good time. I also don't know anyone who thinks being sick is part of a night out... maybe this is just where you are from??

Date: 25/02/10

Posted by: Meghan

This seems pretty fake. I go out once a week with my society after our meeting, and although there's a few of them who knock it back week after week, the majority of us have one or two and basically just continue the conversation from before. Yes, it's a maturity thing; but it's also who you choose to hang around with. Being a first year, I got caught up in the fresher's week nonsense and went out almost every night. Then I decided that that wasn't why I'd studied for so long and so hard to get to university, and distanced myself from the girls who I'd met during that first week. It was difficult to make friends after that, as I got a reputation of sorts as being "unfun" and a "prude" and eventually I got into a couple of arguments with one of the girls in my flat who I'd happily went and got smashed with that one week. I'm doing quite well at uni now, and where is she? Drinking heavily every week and doing "recreational" drugs. It's your own decision.

Date: 25/02/10

Posted by: Matt

Im a student as well, not afraid to admit that i conform to the view that we go out all the time, i go out maybe 3 times a week unless its a special occasion in which case its probably more, i think that its all a bit of fun and if you can take care of yourself and your friends when you've been drinking then its fine. but obviously there are some people who cant take care of themselves or others, they are the reason why everyones scared of alcohol.

Date: 25/02/10

Posted by: Charles

Chill out guys it's only a drink... at least she's not stuffing her face with pills and grass

Date: 25/02/10

Posted by: Sophie

Part of being at university is to be happy too. I believe that I have found a good balance of study and socialising. To continue studying without a break and not seeing my friends would lead to depression. If the main way i get to see them is in the pub, then so be it. Meghan: "I'm doing quite well at uni now, and where is she? Drinking heavily every week and doing "recreational" drugs. It's your own decision." Some student I guess do go to university to have a laugh. We only have one life and before we know it we are slaves to society. By being a student you have 3 years of freedom before you join the slow moving train of real life. Some of the students who are out every night are just making the most of this fact. I think british people have been big drinkers for many years. I remember from my english lessons back at school, people would watch shakespeare at the globe completely off their face and have sex in the audience. (dont quote me on that i havent checked my facts)

Date: 25/02/10

Posted by: chris

to be honest, i dont think alcohol is a particularly dangerous thing at uni. everybody goes out at least once a week and gets smashed, its hard not to when theres £1 drink deals everywhere.. i surely would've thought the obscene amount of ecstacy that i see getting taken at uni by a large majority would be more worrying.

Date: 26/02/10

Posted by: Megan

I agree there are worse things out there than alcohol but I think people are too quick to assume drinking really heavily is ok because it's legal. I had simiar problems as Meghan with making friends after freshers week after I ditched people that were doing drugs. Un-fortunately I became depressed and as this was left un-diagnosed I was drinking a lot more in order to feel more confident with the groups of people I was with and ended up getting a worse mental illness. Yes is it a choice but just look out for your mates if they are struggling with a few different aspects of uni at the same time as I had a psychotic episode after a hockey tour which is basically a drinking holiday. Alcohol was a trigger for me and to this day I have to watch how much I drink as it really affects me and I get dissapointed when I can't go out and get drunk like other people my age but that's the way it is.

Date: 26/02/10

Posted by: Sarah

Im a student, first year. I dont like to go out and party with the rest of what seems like the Uni population. I would prefer to spend a night in with some friends playing some stupid games, like Uno or Cluedo, and maybe a few people would have a beer, or a cider. I choose not to drink, and not all students want to go out and get drunk! My housemates are split down the middle, 2 would prefer to stay in, 2 would prefer to go out. It just depends on the person. I also think its a maturity thing rather than age, as 3/4 of us in the house are 20 and the other is 19.

Date: 26/02/10

Posted by: Matt

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz who gives

Date: 26/02/10

Posted by: Lau

Students are basically just middle class people pretending to be poor, they spend all their loan on alcohol and complain they are skint and take their washing home for Mummy and Daddy to do at the wkends. It's an excuse for another three years of dossing about for them. In fact, Sophie's 'slow moving train of real life' comment has just proved this. It's a bit pathetic that the majority of students basically live for the weekend and think they wont be having fun or wont be happy anymore when they start working for a living (or hit reality some may say). I bet when students go out and they see homeless people drunk and drugged up on the streets they turn their noses up but dont realise they are the same, just living in some crappy accomodation with someone always ready to bail them out- again, usually Mummy and Daddy!

Date: 26/02/10

Posted by: Jon Party Animal

To Kate, "when did students get to the stage where we thought that actually ejecting vomit is 'part' of a night out?" I just find that there is little else to do with my vomit. If you have any ideas, please let me know. That said, sometimes, rather than eject it as such, I allow it to slowly dribble out and catch it in my little pointed party hat. That way I can chose what to do with it the next day when I am sober. Regards, Jon Party Animal

Date: 26/02/10

Posted by: anon

Sarah you just sound unbelievably boring, not mature.

Date: 26/02/10

Posted by: Sam

I agree with Meghan, people think I am anti-social at uni, just because I don't drink and hardly go out....so bloody what??? If i fancy a drink, there are a few a quite like, but I don't go out with the intention of just drinking. I think u made a fab choice in putting your studies and your ambitions first :)

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Zoe

See this is the kind of stereotype I get tarnished with that I'm a student so I must be an acoholic. But I dont not at all. I go out and have fun but its not about the alcohol. So being tarnish as a 'lazy student who drinks all day' really does grate.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: em

i think theres a big difference here in peoples ambitions... i'm pretty sure (from experience of friends) that those people who go out 3/4 times a week rarely make it to lectures the next day...i want to finish uni and get a fantasticaly well paid job - so i can enjoy the rest of my life- holidays, nice house, nice things rather than just waste 3 years binging and ending up with a 2.2... i am not opposed to going out - like everyone i like getting quite drunk but prob only once ever 2/3 weeks. also its like smoking... smoking is not illegal, and a lot of smokers think "i'l be the exception i wont get lung/throat/tounge cancer from smoking"... people dont realise that getting drunk or even having a few drinks most evenings can kill you - but people especially young people have the attitude "it wont happen to me"

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Louise

I am a university student in Leicester and I have not gone out and drank once! Im not a boring person I just cant justify the wasted money, late nights and the poor excuse of missing lectures and feeling sick! I thought we went to uni to study, too many people come for the social life and it just has adverse affects on your body!! The occasional drink yes, binge drinking every week no!! :)

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Sally

Well done Lau. You have perfectly understood every single student. I mean you're completely right: we're all middle class fascists who hate all society beneath us and just want to get wasted. I don't ( and i know plenty others who don't) take any money from my parents, and I certainly don't take my washing home to them. I can safely say that none of the people I socialize with turn their noses up at homeless people - I'd say we'd be more likely to buy them lunch. I think you, and possibly the rest of society, should get off your high horse and see that actually a lot of the student population are their to learn more about their subject, and help the world. Oh and have fun: be that going out clubbing, or playing monopoly.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Heather

Well I for one enjoy a goodnight out with friends. I don't necessarily go out and get smashed every night. I limit myself to two times a week unless its someones birthday or an event etc. However, due to lack of money, courework and illness, I haven't been out in over 2 weeks. yet I don't feel like I've missed out o anythin because I still see all my friends around uni and in halls and they tell me all the happenings of the nights out. Yet, I do admit that now I'm about to go back out again tonight, I am in the mood for getting drunk and havepre-warned my fiends!!! But as long as you have a healthy balance of going out and staying in and working it's fine because at the end of the day, what d you wan to say to yourself at the end of the 3 years? "I've finally got a degree and uni was a great experience" or "Uniwas one big party, out EVERY night.... but failed my degree". feel I'm contradicting myself but I DO like a drink and to go out twice a week and if i was able to pass my degree and able to go out everynight believe me I would, butI can't

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Ro

I'll be honest and say that I go out 3 - 4 times a week. The weekend, I do not live for, however, 'cause there's nothing on. Most people who drink aren't idiots, and most if they do get too drunk, don't hurt anyone but themselves, so surely it's their prerogative. To be honest, as wrong as it is that a select few see non-drinkers as not being fun, it is equally prejudice to label all the people who drink as "idiotic louts". Besides, most Uni students worked their arses off to get where they are, and they still put in a lot of work to stay where they are. For most freshers, it is their first time away from home, so of course a lot are going to push boundaries, with a few casualties along the way. If you can't do what you want, within reason, as a first year uni student, when will you be able to? Also, first years may go off the rails a lot, however, most people in later years of uni life have a much more universally acceptable balance between work and social life and do actually work extremely hard to get a good degree. I just think to label most Uni students as anti-social alcoholics is completely ridiculous, especially seeing as though the main reason people drink is to become more sociable on nights out with their friends, where they have a great time and meet new people. To call us antisocial is a contradiction if ever I've heard one.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: melanie

I am a final year udergrad student and in my 3 years, one of which spent in the so called 'party halls' sophies behaviour is nothing out of the blue. I started uni in a new big city with a group of people who i didn't know. I chose to and still do 'binge drink', although my behaviour has karmed down ALOT. This was my decission to do so and alot of my fellow peers choice to aswell. On my course i made a friends, who i am still very close to with today, and she doesn't drink much as rearly gets drunk. This is completely her choice and i nor none of our friends ask or expect her to. We enjoy her company and she remains just as, if not more, social then the rest of us. She comes on the nights out attends the parties and dances till the music goes off. I get what is being said that you shouldn't have to drink to be social and its sad that some people think they do. But my choice to drink is for enjoyment and most people are the same. In the same way that drinkers shouldn't disrespect non drinkers, non drinkers shouldnt disrespect drinkers. It's all about choice. Sophies in first year and is enjoying her self, the reason uni puts such a low pass rate for first year is so students can enjoy themselfs and settle into the new situation and often their new city or town. I acted the same as sophie in first year, and to a slightly, and mean ever so slightly, degree in secound year. Despite partying and working 20hours a week i managed to attend uni and get a 2:1 over all. I worked hard and played hard, through no choice but my own. Now i am in 3rd year and my partying has slowed down to 1 night a week occasionaly twice. This is only because dissertations are such a pain in the ass! It's not a behaviour which i intend to stick with for the rest of my life; im young, free and single. Im having fun and trying new things before i enter the rat race, get settled and become another nobody (cynical i know!). Im sure sophies behaviour is of the same nature as mine she's living in the here and now doing what she wants. And there is nothing wrong with it. But like me im sure she doesn't see her self doing it for ever, she will grow up and out of it when she is ready. For my dissertation i am doing a study on female binge drinkers and my results have shown as such; people drink because THEY want, because THEY like and they dont intend to do it for ever. Yes they may occassionaly do it when there grown up in a career or have a family but partying every week will end. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, if you choice to avoid it althogether then fair game, but for those of us who don't it is all part of being young and care free. Enjoy it sophie because believe me uni goes soooooo fast and those times you have are the best, never to be forgotten.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Johnny

Firstly, Jake is correct about now being the time to go out and get drunk as much as we please. Secondly "Kate", if that is your real name, maturity has nothing to do with it and yes, you are missing out.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Johnny Smack

Drinking is fun, vomiting is a beautiful, natural and unavoidable part of life. Kate is missing out.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Mary

Lau, I think most of the general population lives for the weekend, not just students? (plus, most of the good nights out at my uni aren't even at the weekend - my union's best night is a wednesday!) Don't look down on students because we're trying to have a little fun whilst getting a degree. Students do actually work very hard! In exam time it's impossible to find a computer/work space in the library unless you go at 9 oclock in the morning. We work hard and play hard, you could say.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: J

Well from a grad's perspective I can say that the 5x a week party animals are either still at uni repeating years or have dropped out as they couldn't afford yet another resit due to hangovers affecting their attendance. That said, I believe not going out at all can put yourself on an island and leave you quite lonely. You dont have to drink masses (or even at all if you really dont care for it) but get involved in the atmosphere and care-free bubble that uni can create ... cos once's its burst it's a whole new ball game! Get a healthy balance and you'll be laughing ... I came out with a solid degree and feel that I experienced all I wanted to.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Sarah

I'm not going to lie, i enjoy an active social life in the University of Nottingham. I manage my work, and go out minimum twice a week I will have a couple of drinks when i'm out, generally leading to a hangover in the morning...and you know what i think: i'm at uni and i'm having fun. This is the only time in my life where i can actually have fun like this, without the sense of responsibilty. Why should i be made to feel guilty because i 'binge drink'. It is a traditional uni custom. I mean come on..when doubles cost £3, its definitely encouraged lol If people don't want to go out and drink then that's their issue and i will not call them anti-socil, however i enjoy going out and having drinks with my friends...i go out during the week and stay in and work on the weekends As long as you can maintain a balance with work and going out and are safe, then all is fine :)

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: April

I am what would now be referred to as a young professional ... which of course would therefore make me an ex-student. My prime reason for going to uni was to move away from home and have a good time, and hopefully at the end of four years have grown up enough to know what I wanted to do with my life. Living in student halls drinking was a big part of uni life, I loved it ... I drank, probably to excess ... about 3/4 nights per week in 1st year and maybe a bit less as the years went on. (may I add excess does not include vomit) I managed at the same time to get myself a degree. May I add that I funded all of this myself and did not run home to 'mummy and daddy' for anything, as I knew what the answer would've been. Now when I look back on my years at Uni (which sadly ended in 2007) I look back with a smile. Many of my fun memories surround partying and nights out, and anyone who thinks that's a bad thing needs to look at why they are judging everyone else. I have never once looked back and said I wish I had worked harder, I sometimes look back and think god I should of enjoyed that more ... it's the only time in your life when afternoon drinking is acceptable and responsibilities are low, so make the most of it whilst you can!

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Becca

I'm a second year at uni and I don't drink and therefore I don't socialise. Sad but true. I think partly it's my fault because I don't like clubbing anyway but partly it's because everyone else will be drunk and I hate that. The term 'going out' means 'getting drunk' for the people I know so I don't go out. I could go and not drink but as I said everyone else will be so automatically you have to care for all the drunk people staggering about and wandering off. That's not my idea of fun. When I was 16 I was down the pub and drunk 2 or 3 nights a week, every week and that lasted up until I was 18. It was then that I decided to quit drinking because I realised that I didn't need to anymore because I was more confident, I didn't actually like the taste of alcohol and I didn't like the loss of control when drunk. Plus the lack of dignity is just embarrassing. People always assume I'm boring for not drinking but the point is that I just learned my lesson early.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: Becca

With regard to what Lau said... well it's simply not the case and I am very offended and saddened by your blanket stereotyping of students. Yes a lot of them are like that but I for one am not. I do not pretend to be poor, I am fairly poor sometimes but I am never skint. I have not spent a single penny on alcohol and my loan goes on rent, bills, food and clothing. I do not doss around, I work and plan to get at 2:1 because I want to be able to do the job I want. That's the whole reason I'm at uni. In all honesty I don't like student life because there is a lot of focus on getting drunk. I live 200 miles away from home so it's not as if I could take my washing home even if I wanted to. I do not 'live for the weekend', weekends are dull because there isn't a lot to do if I'm not at uni. Other than work of course. As I said a lot of people are how you think they are, and it's those people who make me wish I could just go to uni and get a degree and not be a 'student', but you cannot say that that is what all students are like. I can't wait for uni to be over so I can go and live in a nice area (where people don't come in drunk at 4 am) and get a good job and actually live in the real world.

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: lol matt

lol matt agread!!!!

Date: 01/03/10

Posted by: just me

each to their own, just cos someone else has a different opinion dont be so closed minded that all you can do is insult them. some like to go out and party with alcohol, others like to stay in with no alcohol, some like to stay in and drink with a few friends and believe it or not some like to go out and party without the drink! whatever you like to do, enjoy :)