#fresherweek

For those who are not following me on twitter or Instagram: I am currently doing my Master of Science degree in Marketing in Manchester Business School. 

Manchester Business School is a part of the University of Manchester, the largest single-site university in the United Kingdom. UoM is ranked 30th in the world by QS University rankings and has 25 Nobel laureates among its past and present students and staff. Choosing to believe Wikipedia, MBS "Marketing" has been ranked 9th in the world as per the Financial Times 2012 ranking.

I know it is not quite the best timing to write about fresher's week now as I am already half-way done with the program, but…Here we go. 

Since the very first day I was incredibly impressed by the way the education system is organized in the UK. Yes, it is expensive. It is very expensive. However, I have a feeling of understanding where those money go to (aka difference from Russian education #1).

When you get the acceptance letter from the Uni, you are presented with a chance to have a phone call with the current student of the chosen program, which I have found very useful, as I could ask very specific questions. 

Then, during the 'on-boarding' process, you receive all kinds of booklets and information regarding anything you could possibly be interested in during your time in UoM. 

You also get a personal UoM luggage tag, which you can use to meet people on your flight that are also going to start studying in the Uni. Worked for me - I met one person on the plane!

First 1.5 weeks are a lot of fun: you get all kinds of events organized by the Uni to make sure you feel comfortable, you get to do some icebreaking with future classmates, meet new friends and settle down in new city.

The University organizes events like speed-meeting & mingle, campus & city tours, supermarket trips, societies fairs, movie nights, pub crawls, concerts, music festivals, and so on. Countless events are divided into categories like Culture, Fun, Info and something else, which I can't seem to remember, but the point is: everyone can find something for themselves. 

For postgrads in the Business School particularly, the Uni organizes a weekend getaway to Brathay Residential, which is the coolest place ever in Lake District. There we had a chance to socialize with our classmates, build healthy working relationships, network and have loads of fun. I will write a separate post about it I think. 

There are A LOT of parties going on - I specifically liked the one when they gave us special t-shirts to write our name, course, status and country on. Coolest idea, right?

They also gave us all free hoodies of Manchester Business School to boost the 'patriotic' feeling :)

Also, the University of Manchester hosts the festival called Pangaea, which is the largest student-led festival in Europe. I am not a fan of this kind of events, but others seemed to enjoy it a lot. This year's theme was rumble in the jungle!

Overall, fresher's week was a lot of fun! I like how they specifically make sure you have time for yourself in the beginning without pile of assignments over your head. This is the time allocated for relaxing, settling in, organizing yourself, meeting new friends and enjoying the beginning of a new life.

I love Manchester and I am sorry I only wrote my first post about it now. More to follow - stay tuned.