In this series, we've got students from each course to share their experience of first year at Warwick Life Sciences!
Fig. 1: Warwick has plenty of free pizza opportunities.
Hello! My name is Andrei and I chose Warwick because I knew it’d offer a wide range of academic opportunities and I really liked how lively and green the campus life seemed on my first visit, and I was right! So far, my time at Warwick was exhilarating and offered me a lot of insight into biology, with plenty of academic side projects.
The first year was though, a lot tougher than my high school teachers told me university would be. At first, keeping up with the lectures, the labs, making notes, the additional reading – it was hectic. But Warwick offers a lot of help if you need it, such as Science 101 classes, or Qubic which can help you with the math parts of lab reports. And as you manage to form your own rhythm, you will discover plenty of things to do. For example, I applied for and was granted a URSS bursary to study bacterial cultures on river plastics. The project was cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic, but hey, lighting surely won’t strike twice! Maybe.
One of the parts that I was very afraid of was the social aspect, being a foreign student, but the people are nice, since most were just as lost as I was. The Student Union societies give you the opportunity to meet people with similar interests and develop your skills. I really enjoyed the public speaking courses, which helped me practice on a skill I thought I was lacking in, and I highly enjoyed the Rock Soc social events. While this year we won’t have a traditional welcome week and societies fair, as an executive member of a society, I can assure you we are all working hard on making the most of it.
The only advice I can give is to not be afraid to try out new things. As I said, you might make good friends in the most unexpected circumstances and discover the unlikeliest passions if you keep an open mind. And try to keep an eye on your course work too.
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