Things your Lancaster Uni prospectus doesn’t tell you

Don’t ask me why we’re all obsessed with Greggs, I don’t know x

2 years ago

It’s A-Level results day! A lovely bunch of 18-year-olds have just got a few letters on a page, and some of you are going to be coming and joining us in Lancaster, based on a flying visit to an open day and a prospectus written by some people who were students themselves ages ago. Here’s the lowdown on what you actually need to know about coming to Lancaster University, that they haven’t told you.

There are loads of really underrated food places to eat on campus

What the prospectus won’t say is that when you’re stumbling home at 3 am, hungry, you really won’t want to cook! Luckily, Lancaster campus has loads of great places to eat – everyone raves about Sultans, who are renowned for giving out free water whilst you’re in the queue and having the loveliest staff, but if you’re around earlier in the night, there’s also The Wok Inn, Go Burrito, Popeyes, Juicafe, a Subway and a Costa!

You might THINK you’ll be in your department building all the time, but you’ll actually be all over the place

The campus is HUGE and you will have classes all over the place. Sure, if you are taking a subject that requires labs or rehearsal spaces you might be a bit more limited, but seminar rooms are everywhere, and you will have seminars all over campus. If you’ve picked accommodation right next to your department, you can still expect to have to leg it across campus once or twice a week!

The city is quite a long way away from campus, but the buses are really regular

Lancaster is a campus university, something that the prospectus will have made you aware of. Whilst it is positioned about three miles away from the city centre, and thus in the rain isn’t very fun to walk, the buses are very reliable. Whilst the 100 takes you round the houses (literally, it goes through Heysham and Bowerham), the 1A is very direct and you’re in town in fifteen minutes.

Your friends will be from every college, not just yours

You live in your college, you spend Freshers Week with your college, and the prospectus raves about the colleges. In reality, it’s a good conversation starter, but you will be friends with people from every college, and will probably hang out with people in every accommodation building!

Every college has a bar, but Grizedale does 2-4-1 cocktails

All of the campus bars have their own unique charm – Fylde does amazing food, Cartmel is really rustic, Pendle has a great study space. Grizedale, however, does 2-4-1 cocktails and is always packed in the evening, so make sure to time it right!

The whole of Lancs is obsessed with Greggs and no one really knows why

The prospectus definitely isn’t going to admit to this, but there is a queue stretching across Alexandra Square every lunchtime. If you so much as say that you haven’t got food with you and you’re hungry, someone in the vicinity will immediately ask, “Greggs?”. It’s a phenomenon no one understands but no one questions.

Freshers Week is intense

You are thrown into a flat with up to eleven people you have never met before and will be living with for the next year. There is then a week’s worth of activities not limited to getting to know your subject, the Fresher’s fair, and going out almost every night. It’s a bonkers time that no one really acknowledges as being as truly strange and surreal as it is. It is not the true uni experience, and after adapting to what that is like, you then have to adapt to what real uni is.

You probably won’t go to the Lake District every weekend, but when you do, it’ll be worth it

The prospectus will have probably raved about how close we are to the Lake District, but if you’ve got visions of hopping on the train every few weeks, think again. It is only 40 mins away, yes, but it’s a bit of a faff and you’ll probably go once in the whole year. When you do make it, though, it is really lovely.

There are more societies than you could even think of

Doctor Who, Pokemon, Underwater Hockey… we’ve got all of those! Lancaster has an extensive list of societies and the list is always growing. There is always something to do and someone to do it with, so it’s always worth getting involved.

Instagram is your friend

Not only with Instagram help you to meet the people that will be on your course before you arrive (Facebook groups are also brilliant!), Lancaster has a wealth of Instagram pages that definitely give a flavour of the place before you arrive. Highlights include @OnlyLancs, an anonymous confessions page, and @Lancs_Crush, another anonymous page for when someone has caught your eye but you missed your chance.

There is a tree in the library

Now, I know for a fact that there is a picture of this in the prospectus (I downloaded one off the website to check). I just thought it is worth repeating, because how many universities can say they’ve got a tree, called Norma, in their library? That’s pretty cool.