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Original poster

Tell me about your uni days

67 replies

Laaaaa · 15/07/2021 23:01

I spoke to someone who graduated in 2020. I felt ancient. I qualified in 2000, I had moved from Glasgow to Manchester and it was a shock Initially. I lived in nurses accommodation, all girls, it was wild, lots of drinking, random lads and that freedom of being away from home.

Times when we all fell out and it was really bitchy. Only in contact with 2 of them now.

Uni in the late 90's was the best

OP posts:
EverythingDelegated · 16/07/2021 07:54

Got through it, late 80s but it wasn't great, Although I'm very sociable I never really clicked with a group of friends, mine was a very make dominated course and mostly they were very blokey. The people in my flat in halls I had nothing in common with apart from one person who was a 3rd year and so left at the end of my first year. I'm only in touch with her and one other person now and we're not close, just Christmas cards. Luckily my friendships from 6th form stood the test of time, we are a big group and very close.

ElleGee1 · 16/07/2021 07:58

Graduated in 2011 with degree in social work. Uni wasn’t far so lived at home. Most people done the same. It wasn’t wild in terms of drinking and so on but we had plenty of days/nights out and I have real nostalgia about my uni days.. best time of my life although it was hard work of course. Still very close to two girls I studied with.

irresistibleoverwhelm · 16/07/2021 07:59

@TeenMinusTests

Graduated 88. We had notepads hanging outside our rooms so people could leave messages. Massive rolling blackboards for lectures. Final degree result based entirely on four 3 hour exams held over 2 days. Degree results for this specific subject by tradition read out loud to all students together in large hall, by classification.
Haha @TeenMinusTests! Were you Maths at Cam?

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Higher education
TeenMinusTests · 16/07/2021 08:12

maybe Wink .

Fifthtimelucky · 16/07/2021 08:22

I graduated in 1982.

No IT obviously. Most of us hand-wrote our essays but in the 2nd or 3rd year I bought a portable typewriter and typed them instead. It meant you had to plan essays carefully and think logically, as I never had time to write them out by hand first and then type them up. I couldn't do it now that I have become used to being able to amend and re-order things by cutting and pasting. It's just as well I don't have to do exams these days.

I lived on campus in the first and third years. One set of halls had electric sockets that fit old style 5 (or was it 3?) amp plugs, so at the beginning of term I had to put new plugs on my record player and 12" portable black and white television.

I had a full grant and worked in the holidays so wasn't short of money, but lived much more frugally than my early 20s daughters did as students (the younger one graduated this year). Obviously there were no deliveroo equivalents in those days and I cooked everything from scratch. On the other hand I spent far more on books and records than they did - and obviously had no phone bills!

I'm also very glad that because people didn't carry cameras around with them there is no evidence of any stupid things I got up to.

On a more serious note, my new freedom in the first year meant that I put myself in potentially very dangerous situations on a number of occasions, though it didn't feel like that at the time. I naively took it for granted that I wouldn't be taken advantage of and luckily I wasn't. 'No' was always respected.

Rainbowsew · 16/07/2021 08:32

I've recently done a professional post grad with a colleague who was a toddler when I started uni in 94. She had to help me with the online lectures and electronic submissions Grin

She couldn't really believe how I handwrote essays and physically handed them in, our dissertations had to be professionally bound. Mind you I couldn't believe how spoonfed students must be now, we had a lecture on how to use the library and research articles (for a post-grad masters level professional course!) Shock As an undergrad we were told where the library was and expected to get on with it Hmm

I loved that time away from home in the 90s.

Shallow07 · 16/07/2021 08:32

Graduated 2010. Mixed experience as I was going through some seriously traumatic stuff outside of uni (giving evidence at trial of abuser and dealing with MH stuff some of the time) but I have so many lovely memories of uni and still have close friends from this time I speak to every day.

£1.30 drinks before 9 pm, getting dressed up at friend's houses to go out with a bottle of Lambrini, cups of tea after seminars with course friends, cheesy chips, all nighters in the library/computer rooms. Taking terrible pictures and untagging myself from everyone else's drunk photos! Saving up all my money from my part time job for gigs in London. Meeting my now DH who lived 3 doors down from me on the first day and falling in love. Ahhh... Even with the sad stuff going on in my personal life there were some very happy days too.

Fullofglee · 16/07/2021 08:37

Went to York University to study nursing in 2005, had a blast, have some good memories. I'm only in contact with 2 girls from uni now. Had one reunion in 2010 and that was the last time I saw our group together.

Emmazebra · 16/07/2021 08:41

I was at uni 2000-2003

Did well academically but suffered depression / OCD traits started kicking in. No one had ever talked to me about mental health so I didn’t know what was happening. I struggled to make friends.

Not a great time for me TBH

BobbinThreadbare123 · 16/07/2021 08:48

I graduated from my UG in the mid-00s. Went to quite a small uni but had a lot of fun. Big metal/punk crowd there.
I handwrote my 'homework' and posted it into a letterbox to hand it in. I typed and printed my big essays and posted them in the department foyer. One of my siblings went to uni over a decade after me and had a full electronic hand in experience.
I had very little money and worked all the way through, mostly in shops. I stayed for postgrad so all my friends vanished, basically. In touch with a few of them still.

NaToth · 16/07/2021 08:56

It's taken therapy to get a handle on my uni years.

Coming from a very dysfunctional family in a small town, and having formed no friendships at school due to changing senior schools three times in five years, I know now that the I was just not ready, but my Ps said I was to go to university, so I went.

I didn't have the confidence to sign up for the things I would have liked to do and I compounded my underlying issues by meeting someone on the first night, who turned out to be deeply abusive and controlling.

Not a happy time. I have never used my degree and never earnt even the national average wage, so really my education was wasted. Makes me tear up just thinking about it.

Class of '77

Nuggetnugget · 16/07/2021 08:58

Graduated up North in 1999
Had the time of my life. Lots of friends and parties. Cheap lifestyle. Did well.
Now live a very quiet life and studied a lot more since.

LindaEllen · 16/07/2021 09:02

Graduated in 2012. I was never the 'typical' student, but nor were the girls I lived with. There were 4 of us, put together by chance in our first year, and we got on really well. There was never any drama about who would clean the communal areas, never any arguments about noise etc, we just had a really lovely time studying and chilling out together in the kitchen in the evenings watching TV or playing on our PS2.

I would give almost anything to be able to go back to those days now. I just loved them.

Arcarde5Prank · 16/07/2021 09:25

Went to uni early 90s
500 miles from my home town, my first choice
Didnt live in halls, lived in shared student accommodation
Really enjoyed my course
Joined several uni clubs
Made some great friends & we meet up every year (except covid year)
3 meet ups planned this year with various people
We have some pre digital photos from that era & some great memories
Grin

NeverRTFT · 16/07/2021 09:27

@NaToth sorry to hear it. I hope you can find a way to make sense of it all one day. If you have a degree you don't use in your job could you put it to use as a volunteer and get something positive from it? If you aren't earning nnw that's tragic, is there any chance to retrain? Thanks

Buggerthebotox · 16/07/2021 09:38

Graduated in 1982, so really ancient. Hated my course and didn't do much work. There was a heavy drinking culture which I wasn't really part of but I could really put it away if I needed to! Drinks of choice were rum and black and cider and black.

I was socially inept so spent my time trying to be "different". I wore odd clothes (coloured dungarees mainly) and made my own earrings out of liquorice allsorts. All essays were handwritten - mine were in green ink.

I'd make a weekly phone call to my parents under duress.

I was on a permanent diet and hardly ate. I smoked cigars and menthol fags to look cool. I cut my own hair (very short).

They were happy enough days I suppose. Didn't stay in touch with the friends I made.

Tal45 · 16/07/2021 09:39

I was at uni in the 90's. I thought I was having an amazing time, drinking all the time and being wild. It was quite an emotional rollercoaster though. 25 years later I look back and realise it was completely the wrong course for me and a lot of the time I was trying to be someone I wasn't as I desperately wanted to fit in. I wish I'd known then what I know now!

irresistibleoverwhelm · 16/07/2021 09:41

@TeenMinusTests

maybe Wink .
@TeenMinusTests The students don’t even let the university publish public class lists nowadays in case someone’s mental health suffers from anyone knowing their results. Don’t know what they do about the wranglering stuff now!!
Babdoc · 16/07/2021 09:46

At uni ‘75 to ‘80 (medicine). Lived in a slum tenement with no bathroom, one paraffin heater for warmth. Met DH my first night as a student, in the Students Union subsidised bar - where vodka was 22p a glass!
No IT at all. To research references for coursework, one had to manually search through massive volumes of Index Medicus in the library. The biochem dept was considered v trendy, as they had “modules” where you sat in a booth with headphones and listened to a a cassette player and slide presentation!

irresistibleoverwhelm · 16/07/2021 09:46

I loved being at university. Late 90s, so before mobile phones/constant internet was widespread (we weren’t allowed mobiles, tv or internet in our rooms and you got about one email a week anyway!) It was bliss though, I liked academic work but also had lots of friends to hang out drinking wine and cooking with, going punting, being pretentious, not having anything to worry about, great indie music, we didn’t worry too much about exams and jobs, Labour got in and we thought the world was on the up and things could only get better and better in the future. (The only thing I would have changed is that I didn’t have much sex….but in retrospect that wasn’t a bad thing either tbh!) They were such lovely enjoyable years that I really feel sad for young people today not getting to have a time like that.

TheNameTheWebsiteForgot · 16/07/2021 09:49

Graduated from a London University in 2014 ! I was in my 40's. So didn't have the University experience of staying on a campus. In fact no one on the course stayed in halls and traveled from home !

Arcarde5Prank · 16/07/2021 09:50

My degree provided me with an opportunity into a graduate entry job & I progressed within that company
However my degree is not related to my job
But it did provide me with a broad education

I worked part time when I was in education & during the holidays in various different types of jobs

nicecheesegromit · 16/07/2021 09:55

Graduated 1992. Loved it. I'd come from a small village, really lacked confidence but I was really eager to get out and about. The first year was about finding my feet, changing the way I dressed significantly, first boyfriend (who I later dumped!), meeting people from all over the country and getting to grips academically. I had a big downer just after Christmas in my first year, probably some sort of adjustment phase, but then I had a great time and found superb friends. We're meeting up in Sept - can't wait. Whenever I see them, it's like we haven't been apart

LunaTheCat · 16/07/2021 09:58

@NaToth

It's taken therapy to get a handle on my uni years.

Coming from a very dysfunctional family in a small town, and having formed no friendships at school due to changing senior schools three times in five years, I know now that the I was just not ready, but my Ps said I was to go to university, so I went.

I didn't have the confidence to sign up for the things I would have liked to do and I compounded my underlying issues by meeting someone on the first night, who turned out to be deeply abusive and controlling.

Not a happy time. I have never used my degree and never earnt even the national average wage, so really my education was wasted. Makes me tear up just thinking about it.

Class of '77

I am so sorry - what are meant to be happy times often aren’t. I hope you much joy in your life now. 💐
Twizbe · 16/07/2021 10:01

Graduated in 2006 from Warwick. So much partying and somehow having a decent night out for £10 (including a burger on the way home)! We had £1 a pint nights and even a 50p a drink night in Coventry. Worked part time in a fun shop and spent my wages on clothes and parties. Met an amazing man who became my husband.

I even managed to get a fairly ok degree.