Post induction reflections
Student insight
By Emily Arnott / 14 October 2026
Emily began her degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Sheffield in September 2026.
Post induction, having been at university for nearly three weeks, I feel as though I am starting to get into the routine of living away from home and navigating my course. University life has pretty much matched my expectations, but there have been a few surprises and adjustments I’ve had to make. Expiry dates of food have never been something I’ve taken much notice of until now. I’m learning it takes me a lot longer to get through a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk than I had expected, so I have to keep that in mind when buying food. Another new experience was washing my clothes. I had been putting it off for a while, but when I actually did it, I was surprised at how easy it was, although the queue was very long, so I’ve learned that Sunday afternoon is not a good time to do it.
A big relief after starting was meeting my flatmates and realising they’re all really nice. It is a massive help to have an instant group of people who I like and trust, and we can all chat and help each other. It’s quite strange to think I didn’t even know them a few weeks ago, and that we’ll be spending the rest of the year together. I have also met lots of people on my course. In the first few days I was sitting next to lots of different people, but I now have a few specific people I gravitate towards. I’m still meeting new course mates though, because we are split into smaller groups for labs and tutorials and I sometimes don’t know anyone there. I’ve also found some people who are both on my course and do a club with me. Clubs and societies are one of the best ways to meet new people, because we’re doing an activity together so don’t have to rely on keeping a conversation going and we can talk about the activity.
A lot has changed even since freshers’ week, as everything calmed down a bit once courses started. In freshers’ week, lots of people were going out every night and it seemed like that was the main way to meet people, whereas now there are lots more opportunities and less expectation to go out all the time. Also, during freshers’ week there were many clubs and societies I was interested in and I was trying to keep track of all of them and decide which ones I wanted to join, so my evening schedule was pretty hectic. Now I am only in the clubs that most appeal to me, as there are too many to join all of them and lots of them are on the same days.
If I could say anything to myself before starting university, I would say not to worry so much about making friends because it comes a lot easier when everyone else is desperate to make friends too, and I’d say that my flat mates are amazing so not to worry about that either. I would also say to appreciate dinner being made for me every day and not having to think about or plan that!
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