Birmingham University

I transferred to Birmingham University at the start of this year, having previously been at Southampton and having had a thoroughly miserable time! I'm pleased to say that I absolutely love it at Birmingham and its been so easy to settle in that I think transferring was the best decision I ever made.

Transferring?
The process of transferring was made really easy by everyone at Birmingham. I sent an email enquiring whether it would be possible, they emailed back saying it would, explained step by step what I needed to do and a few months later I had an unconditional offer to start at a second year student on a Geography BA course. Whilst I needed to fill in a new UCAS form, this seemed to be more of a technicality and Birmingham were happy to accept me based on my school exam results and first year at Southampton record.

Why Brum?
My reasons for picking Birmingham were not the best thought out, logical plans ever so its pretty lucky I like it here! I spoke to my friends who had left school and gone on to uni at the same time as me and realised that there were some unis everyone instantly loved, and some that people were struggling to cope at. Birmingham was one of the "loves". I spent a few hours wandering round the campus one wintery afternoon, visited the Bullring shopping centre, and was sold. (Although, to be fair, I was just desperate to leave Southampton and at the time, anywhere seemed preferable!).

Accommodation
After filling in the form to apply for accommodation I was quite confident that the accommodation office would do everything they could to make sure I was living somewhere I'd be happy. The form went down to the detail of what music I like, whether I'm very tidy or a messy beast and how late I like to sleep in the mornings! As I had an unconditional offer, I was allocated my place a bit earlier than most people, which made it easier to sort out what I wanted. I was initially allocated a room in Queen's Hospital Close, which is in the city centre but 30mins from campus by bus. I'd been allocated a room there, as I'd be living with other second years, some of whom were on the same course. I decided that I'd rather live on The Vale (the main area of student accommodation), so sent an email to housing services asking if it'd be possible to switch, and had a reply within 45mins allocating me a new room in Elgar Court!

Elgar Court is 3 years old and pretty much the swankiest accommodation going. It is arranged in single sex flats with 6 rooms per flat. En suite power showers, full length mirrors, a lovely kitchen/lounge area and all the squirrels you can shake a stick at! It can sometimes be a little noisy at night, but I've never really been bothered by this. The rooms are larger than I expected, with heaps of storage space. Elgar Court is arranged as 4 blocks, and there's a great atmosphere. Its easy to make friends and the Resident's Association organise loads of acitivities in fresher's week and throughout the year to ensure everyone settles in.

Elgar Court is at the top of The Vale, about a 3minute walk from Shackleton (who we love). Shack has a Costcutter, and a couple of bars and a restaurant. It's good for a cheap night out, and I love the pub quiz on Sunday nights. (Not just because we generally go home with a free bottle of wine!) Getting into town isn't too tricky. Its easy enough to walk to the Tesco or cinema at Fiveways, (about 15-20mins away), or even Broad St for clubbing if you don't fancy paying for a cab. To get to the city centre, there's a bus from the top of The Vale, or you can walk down to the University station and get a train.

In order to get to lectures on foot, you generally need to leave half an hour before they start. That's my walking speed. Its average! On bike, its an awful lot faster. The walk down the Vale is really quite pleasant though (if it isn't raining!). The Vale is basically a big park with a lake. And squirrels. Which I may have mentioned. They're very cute. If you don't fancy walking down the Vale, you can take the canal route instead. It probably takes a little longer, and there are no squirrels, but there are ducks instead. Some people prefer ducks.

Settling In
Birmingham is incredible at making sure its students are OK. They have a student mentor scheme, where a second or third year student living in halls is assigned a number of flats to look after. Your mentor will come round every so often to check you're doing okay, and there's one on call all the time in case you have problems. Our mentor is a star, who regularly puts up with having his hat stolen!

Academically, I've found settling in to be fine. The pressure to work hard is really increased in the second year, but I'm not struggling yet! My personal tutor is friendly and funny, and I'm quite confident that if I run into any problems, I wont be left to handle them on my own. (As an aside, I popped into the student office on my first day to collect a timetable, I said "I've just transferred here..." and the lovely lady in charge of second years said "You must be Katherine!". Top notch customer service! I'm not even the only transfer 2nd year!).

Making friends isn't hard. I'm not quite sure where I found a lot of mine, but fresher's week was a little bit blurry. Go ring on everyone's doorbell in your block. Go to the bar. Invite everyone back to your flat for some drinking games and you will have a load of new best mates. Simple!

Academia
As a second year, I've already had to submit coursework, despite being only a few weeks into the year! Whilst this was a bit daunting, being thrown in at the deep end has helped in a lot of ways. I now know where the library is, and other such useful things! Finding books in the library is simple enough, and people really are willing to help you.

Lectures are pretty much the same as they are at any university, I'd imagine. 50 minutes long, starting on the hour, they talk, you listen. At some point I generally end up staring out of the window with a numb bottom, but mostly they're interesting and I stay awake!

The Library is huge. 8 floors and open ...well, open every time I've been. Unless you want a book at 4am on a Sunday or something bizarre, I think you can pretty much take it as given that it'll be open. Its really simply laid out and there are sheets showing where different book codes are located to save first years getting lost and being found three weeks later under a pile of journals.

The IT facilities are really good. New flat screen computers, all fast running and with the relevant software. I've not had a problem getting a computer in uni, but I tend to do most of my work at home anyway. (And Elgar Court has internet access included in your accommodation fees).

Sporting stuff
I'm not the world's most sporty girl. I think of exercise as shopping carrying a heavy bag. Whilst I've been here though, I've signed up for swimming facilities at the Munrow Sports Centre and I've actually been a few times! Swimming costs £58 a year and the facilities are entirely average. Its clean and the pool is generally not too busy, but the changing rooms could do with some revamping. I cant comment on the other sports facilities as I haven't (and probably never will) used them.

The City Itself
I love Birmingham. Its the opposite of what I expected. Its modern, redeveloped and welcoming. I have yet to be mugged, attacked or insulted in any way on a night out. Whilst there are some skanky parts, I prefer it to most other cities I've lived in. It has the amenities of London, but it feels a much nicer size. Its a really friendly place.

Broad St is the place to go for a night out. It's just a street of bars and clubs and can get pretty manic most nights. Student nights at the clubs are great, there's rarely any touble and everyone has a good time. I also really like the canals because they're pretty! Although there probably is a risk of falling in whilst drunk. As long as it isn't me that falls in, I dont mind though!

The Bullring is a lovely shopping centre, really mixing old and new. Every shop you can think of can be found in Birmingham so you really will have to watch your bank balance. Evil corporate geniuses exploiting my gullibility and student loan....

Negatives
There are a couple of things about Birmingham that I'd change if I was in charge though. The doctor's surgery is a bit too far away for my liking. Okay, so it's a 35 minute walk, but I only have little legs and if I was ill, I'd be a bit screwed!

Also too far away for my liking is the Guild (student's union). This is right the other side of campus towards Selly Oak. Great if you're a second year living in Smelly Oak, not so peachy if you arent. It takes a good half hour to walk there, but to be honest, none of us really go there that often. Shackleton acts as our own version of the guild.

To conclude, Birmingham is great and I love it lots. I've only been here a month and I already feel like this is my home. There's always so much going on - I'm going to visit the Sea Life Centre this weekend. I may write a review on it!

If you have the opportunity to come to Birmingham, don't pass it up!