Looking back on Freshers’ Week in Manchester: Reflections from a first and second year

If you’re anything like us, with the immune system of a newborn baby, you’re probably just getting over your third bout of Freshers’ Flu and looking back on the chaos of Freshers’ Week. Or maybe you’re a nervous A-Level student, trying to gauge what might await you if you choose to come to Manchester for university.

Whether you’re reading this as a nostalgic second, third or even fourth year (we see you), looking for a laugh with flatmates after your first month as a uni student, or preparing for that daunting UCAS application, we’re here to take a look back on our Freshers’ Week experiences – Caitlyn as a first year in Fallowfield, and Charlotte as a second year, now free from the insanity of student halls.

City centre halls

Charlotte: Last year I lived in the city centre as a fresher, assuming on my first day that not living in Fallowfield was a death sentence for the uni life I had imagined. All the Freshers’ Week chat was so focused on what had happened in Squirrels the night before and I thought that missing out was the end of the world. I would never have believed that, by Christmas, the stress of confessing to living just north of the Students’ Union during awkward first conversations would be over.

The same cannot be said for the stress of living with my old flatmates who liked to let live crabs walk around in the kitchen sink when I’d woken up after a late Friday night in Factory. Still, I soon found out that this type of flatmate drama was not specific to my halls…

Oak House

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Caitlyn: When I received that dreaded accommodation email telling me I would be living in the infamous Oak House for my first year, I thought my world was ending. In hindsight, most of us were a little bit dramatic, who wouldn’t be with all the horror stories you see on TikTok?

But now, a month on from Freshers’ Week, I wouldn’t trade my little prison cell bedroom or my flatmates for the world, and I even find myself a bit upset at the rumours of Oak being knocked down next year.

From maintenance constantly wandering in to fix things and scraping old tape off the walls from previous tenants, to finding an artistic rendition of male genitalia drawn on our front door in shaving foam from that time our neighbours tried to start a flat war: Whatever accommodation you end up in, it really is what you make it.

And if, like Charlotte, you don’t live in Fallowfield and are worried about completely missing out on the chance to build up your mum lore, I have verifiable sources in Victoria Park who have witnessed threesomes during Freshers’ Week and chicken being exploded in the microwave that can say you really won’t miss out on too much.

Navigating friendships (and campus)

Charlotte: The Societies Fair was supposed to be a turning point – the morning I woke up and vowed to break out of City Campus forever. I immediately made the classic freshers’ mistake of joining everything I could, including Rock Society (for a cheeky discount on drinks in Grand Central), Gigs and Bands, Table-Top Role Playing Games Society, Paranormal Society and Mixology Society, none of which, I’m ashamed to admit, ever saw my face after September.

At the moment, my current housemates and I have been looking back on our first week with the gift of hindsight. We all met on our course pretty early on in the year and bonded over tricky halls experiences, finding our way around campus, and the month long hangover that is uni in September.

I distinctly remember getting lost in Fallowfield on multiple occasions, often in the rain, on the way to pres in Richmond. One night, using my brilliant sense of direction, I came across the pond for the first time and taking this as a sign of defeat, I resolutely decided to swallow my pride and call the group chat for backup. Interestingly, the friend who saved me from deepest darkest Ashburne last year turned out to be the first of us to leave our house keys at a party this time around, many more distress calls to the group chat ensuing.

Caitlyn: If you went back to me this time last year, freshly 18 and painfully shy, and told me that I’d soon have enough people to invite to a flat party, find my “uni brother” in an extremely southern flatmate who went to an all boys boarding school and doesn’t quite know how to cook pasta sauce just yet, and actually start participating in societies – I wouldn’t have believed you for a second.

At the time, I didn’t even know I’d be applying to UoM, let alone expect to end up living in Manchester with no sign of anyone else from Birmingham the entire time I’ve been here (and no, this is not a joke – it’s a bat signal for anyone who actually knows what a Big Johns is).

So, for any of this year’s freshers looking for advice, there’s one piece of advice I can give you: Let what happens in Freshers’ Week stays in Freshers’ Week (even if that includes the societies you join).

Other stories recommended by this writer:

• Eating my way around Manchester: New finds in Fallowfield, Withington and Didsbury

• I guessed the star sign of every Manchester based bus service for no real reason

• We checked out Bastille’s insane Candlelight gig at Manchester Cathedral