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University life outside the classroom
Going to university for your undergraduate degree is not all about the lecture room or the library. So what is life like at university?
In any one of the world’s top universities today, no matter what kind of academic program you are studying, the majority of your time will be spent away from lectures, laboratories and your seminar groups.
“The sheer variety of activities on campus kept me busy for the entire three years of my degree,” says Harsha de Silva, a University of Warwick alumnus from Sri Lanka. “It was such an important part of my university career – being absorbed in so many different things away from my studies – and it helped me grow personally and probably made me a better student.” Harsha’s experience is so typical of an undergraduate life, where involvement in university life is more than just studying or meeting your next essay deadline.
A choice for everyone
Universities all over the world offer an enormous range of activities to its undergraduate students, reflecting the varied social and cultural mix of young people on campus. No matter what your interests, it’s likely that the university you choose to attend will cater for them – and on the rare occasions that this isn’t true, they will certainly provide you with the support to strike out on your own. Social, cultural, political and sporting clubs are part of the life of every university in the world. New York University, for example, offers more than 300 student-run societies and organizations, from those like the Operation Smile and Project Sunshine @ NYU that encourage students to become more engaged with the local community to the Bengali Student Association and the International Activities Club that represent the interests of specific student populations.
Sports
Sports too are an important part of undergraduate life. Whether on a very professional level, such as the basketball and baseball teams of many of the USA’s top universities, or the more informal, though no less serious, sporting events organized by students themselves representing their hall of residence or academic faculty, sports provide a welcome diversion from academic life. All universities offer a variety of sporting facilities for their students, often provided free of charge, that cater for a myriad of abilities and enthusiasms. It is commonplace amongst universities and colleges in different countries to often organize a competitive league for students to play each other across various sports, encouraging students of all abilities to participate.
Socially, life at one of the world’s top universities is as diverse as life away from campus. Students’ Unions and Guilds in countries as varied at Finland, New Zealand and Singapore offer social facilities for all registered students that can include restaurants, bars, pubs and nightclubs, all of which enjoy university subsidies to reduce the costs of a night out. Whether you’re the next king or queen of the dance floor, or a budding American Idol, such social facilities cater to your interests and budget, while helping you cement friendships that will last a lifetime.
Help you career
All these extra-academic diversions have an important role to play after the completion of your undergraduate program. With more and more young people able to attend university, there are now more graduates than ever before entering the labour market, making the employment situation fiercely competitive. Those graduates that succeed under these circumstances tend to be those that can offer something in addition to their academic qualification – an active campus life, an elected position in a student society, a study abroad experience or participation in a team activity all set you apart from your peers.
Enjoying a challenging academic program in a top university is one thing; making the most of the overall experience is entirely different. Leaving home for the first time, living away from your friends and family, possibly in another country, and creating your own environment is as much a part of going to university as gaining your degree certificate at the end of three or four years. Enjoy this once in a lifetime opportunity!
Student Survival Guide