Time Management  

One of the great things about university is that no one checks up on you.  No one wakes you up in the morning, shouts at you if you don't turn up to class and phones your mother if you behave badly.  As a result, a number of first years often completely neglect their course, forget to attend lectures and consequently fail exams. The trick is to find a happy medium between balancing course work and the active social life of first year college.  

An important piece of advice is - immerse yourself fully into college life. You should try and do this from day one.   During Freshers week you have a great opportunity to join clubs and societies of every description so do join them and most importantly go to the events organised by the clubs. Not only are they great fun but allow you to meet new people .College is the first time you have a chance to socialise with people from a variety of places coming from different backgrounds.  A couple of examples are the Hockey club (great fun, has training once/twice a week depending on which team you are on they also have a good social scene), the ski club ( which organises trips to Kiltiernan - the dry slope in Ireland - and has at least two abroad trips which are fantastic fun filled with lots of skiing and a social calendar to keep you fully entertained!  If you want something slightly different, the surf club is really good at organising weekend trips away each month and if you are up for a challenge the rowing club will certainly put you through your paces.As well as clubs and societies its important to get involved in social activities organised weekly in the college. Class nights out and trips will be organised by your class rep.  These events are a great way to get to know your classmates.

Halls nights out as well as lots more exciting activities will be organised by this years JCR. These will allow you to get to know lots of new people in the halls community which is important for you as you will live there for the next year.