In this series, we've got students from each course to share their experience of first year at Warwick Life Sciences!
Hi, my name is Chloe and I’m a first year Biomedical Science student at Warwick, and I have absolutely loved my first year - I can’t wait to come back again in October! I chose to study at Warwick because I instantly felt welcomed on the open days, and it’s such a friendly environment that I could see myself settling into very quickly! I instantly made friends moving to campus, and everyone’s super lovely and you’re all in the same boat, where you don’t know anyone and want to make friends so it’s really easy to get involved, even if you’re a bit shy like me! There’s loads of freshers group chats you can find on the uni Facebook page to join and find friends in your accommodation as well as on your course if you’re a bit nervous at first about not knowing anyone. I met my best friend from uni on a group chat and we’ve been best friends ever since, and met up the first day of campus to do a little tour round together which was really nice to settle in.
Uni is a bit of a jump from a level but you do get used to it really quickly! You get assigned a personal tutor and there’s 5-6 of you in a tutor group in life sciences and they’re super helpful. I emailed mine a lot in the first term if I had any questions about anything and they’d always reply quickly and give me a hand with things like how to structure lab reports and essays which was really useful - you’re never on your own. There’s always group chats for help and you can email your lecturers who are always happy to answer questions if you’re unsure about anything in a lecture. There’s also science 101 which is a small group of students (about 30) and it helps with maths and getting into writing lab reports which can seem overwhelming at first but they break it down into small pieces and it makes it super easy to understand. I really enjoyed the content delivered in first year as well as you cover a bit of everything across the field of biology and then it makes it a lot easier when you’re choosing your optional modules for year 2 as you know what you do and don’t enjoy as well as which areas are your strongest in the course. The content can seem a little bit tricky at first but there’s plenty of further reading you can do if you get stuck that they’ll recommend at the end of the lecture and like I said before, you can always ask a lecturer to go over something or ask one of your course mates. I would also recommended signing up to get a BioSoc mentor as that’ll be a student in 2nd/3rd year who you can message and meet up with for coffee and things to go over anything you’re struggling with, either on the course or in terms of moving out to uni and the social aspect because like yourself we’ve been in the same boat and know how it feels so sometimes it’s nice just to speak to someone your age for advice because they’ve experienced it first hand and know exactly what you’re going through!
In my free time I did tend to go out a lot with my friends. I have a group of us on my course (there’s 10 of us girls) that do biochemistry and Biomed, and we went to Kasbah or neon for nights out (both are really fun), or pop on a Wednesday and circling with bio society was always a good opportunity to experience the social aspect of uni life. There’s also a lot of really nice places to visit around the uni, like Stratford upon Avon and leamington spa which are lovely for day trips with your flatmates. Also, T Bar is always a good shout for cocktails on campus, especially on a Friday when they play club music but you’re not feeling going off campus for a night out! There’s also loads of societies to join - mixed netball is really fun and I joined first aid society as well as cocktails which were both really fun to get involved in to make new friends and do things you hadn’t necessarily done before! I would definitely recommend joining societies and getting involved in uni life because first year you’re on campus and central to everything so it’s the best time to do it because you also have less time commitments with your course and it’s a great way to socialise!
Tips I would give for starting at Warwick is definitely get yourself into group chats - course ones are a life saver, especially with quant skills as you can easily ask for help if you’re stuck with anything and definitely sign up to have a course mentor! Other than that just sign up to whichever societies interest you and make sure to get involved and make the most of your time at uni because it genuinely is the best time of your life! I’ve made friends that’ll last a lifetime and had a brilliant first year - I can’t wait to be back!
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