10 things new students should know:

1.

We are not doing our homework, we are preparing for the lectures. As we start university it seems so normal to just say that we are doing our homework but NO we're now in university, not in high school, so we have to say we are preparing for lectures. The same goes for teacher: we don't have teachers (we are not kids anymore), we have professors or lectures or TA’s, but NOT teachers.

2.

One of the things that are really difficult at the campus is finding the building you are suppose to go: they all have letters and names and you would think that the T building would have a name that starts with T, like Tinbergen or Theil, but is called Mandeville. The M building is the Van der Goot Building. If you get really lost and ask a second year student where the Van der Goot building is he might get as confused as you, since the buildings’ names were only introduced this year. To help you this is a really good map of the university:

map-campus-001.jpg

3.

Do you know those really lazy days, especially after drinking the night before, that you are at Kralingse Zoom and you need to go to the T building but you don't feel at all like walking? There actually exists a bus that goes from Kralingse Zoom and stops really close to the T building so you don't need to walk that much.

4.

If you came by bike and not by metro, a good tip is to park your bike close to the building where you have class or always in the same place. You don't want to be looking for your bike for 10 minutes close to Polak, if your bike is actually close to the C hall. And if you don't mind walking at all and want to keep your bike dry there are also a parking place for bikes underground close to the Erasmus Aula.

5.

When moving to the city things can get really tough if you don't know anyone, but you have to remember something everyone is in the same spot as you! So join activities, especially the introduction week to university or the introduction to your course. After all the faster you make friends the better it will be during your first days at uni.

6.

It can happen that you missed those activities because your were travelling or hadn't gotten to the new country yet. You still have a chance! You can join a student/study association or even a sport association, if there is a sport you are really interested in doing. You will meet a lot of great people from different courses and from yours as well.

7.

Having all those options in front of you to do outside your study, don't sign up to all of them at once! You might have to spend a lot of time doing stuff other than studying and having no more time for your study at all! So first see how studying goes and then join things, so you are sure you have time for all of them.

8.

I know this might sound like something your mother would say, but try to eat healthily! But I can try saying this already knowing that when you get home after a party, the last thing you want to eat is a carrot! A ‘tosti’ sounds much better, or even a ‘kroket’! But when you eat your pasta, put some vegetables in it, not just meat and the sauce, and eat an apple in the break!

9.

If you are at Polak studying a lot at night for the test week or you just have a horrible schedule, or you have tutorials from 17 to 19 and you want to eat something healthy and cheap, that still looks like a meal: at the restaurant in the H building you can have a plate of food for 4 euros only!

10.

As a new student, especially international, you will have to find a room in the new city. When doing, that be aware from who your are renting and how much you have to pay. Some companies ask you to deposit the rent twice for the first month as one of them is the fee for the company. Make sure you really know all the details before signing the contract and then everything will be alright.

About this article

Written by:
  • Nynke Algera
| Published on: Nov 20, 2015