Meeting people in your first week

Hi! I’m Jas. I’m a third-year English Language and Linguistics student at York St John University. In today’s blog, I’m going to be talking about how I met people in my first week of uni. Coming to uni is scary, moving away from home to a new city where you don’t know anyone. However, it doesn’t have to be scary if you meet the right people.

Welcome Week

One of the hardest parts at university, can be meeting new people and finding your place, but the uni is great for setting up events where you can meet others. Before you attend, you should be emailed about Welcome Week, where you will find the schedule for the first week of uni and can book different events.

Online

Before even attending uni, you may also be able to find your course mates or flat mates before you’ve even moved in, which may help to ease some nerves before coming to uni.

I found one of my coursemates through TikTok, and we became friends before starting university. We also managed to find a group chat with most of our course mates in, so we organised to meet each other all on campus in Welcome Week.

Don’t worry if you can’t find your course or flatmates this way, as there are still so many opportunities to meet them in person.

Meeting your flatmates

Speaking of which, whilst meeting your flatmates is a bit different to other uni friends, as you’re living with them and therefore will see them almost every day, getting to know them still takes effort.

In my first week, my flatmates and I still went out and took part in the usual freshers’ activities, and we also had nights in and coffee trips to get to know each other more.

Whilst not everyone you meet in the first week of university will be your friend for the whole three years, getting to know new people and going to different social events helps build confidence and eases some of the nerves about meeting people.

Everyone feels the same

Meeting new people is hard, though, and it can take effort from both sides. I definitely found it difficult meeting people, and sometimes it can be overwhelming meeting so many people and keeping up with them all, so give yourself a break if you’re struggling.

The best thing you can do is be yourself and keep trying. Go to as many social events as you’re able to be confident and get stuck in.

Although this is often easier said than done, the important thing to remember is that everyone is in the same boat, and everyone will be feeling nervous and awkward despite how it may look on the outside.

Hopefully, this blog was useful as an insight into how you can meet people in your first week. Making friends at university doesn’t look the same for everyone, though, so do what works best for you and enjoy it as much as you can.

Read our Welcome Guide for more information about starting university: https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/study/welcome-guide/