Hi, I’m Jen and I’m a second year Social and Political Science (SPS) student here at York. Trying to write about an average week at uni is tricky; although we have a weekly timetable, each week is so different. I’ve had a look back through my calendar for the last term and tried to give a general idea of the sort of things I get up to each week as an SPS student.
Monday
I start the week with just one seminar on a Monday. Normally seminars would be later on in the week (a Thursday or Friday) and we’d have the lecture on the topic we would be discussing at the start of the week. But for one of my modules this term I have my seminar on the previous week’s topic on a Monday. This is just a bit of a fluke! This seminar isn’t until 4.30pm though, so I spend my morning doing pre-reading before heading on to campus for a yoga class run by the university’s Yoga Society. I then grab a coffee and head to the library until my seminar.
Tuesday
On a Tuesday I have a couple of lectures on campus. Lectures don’t generally require any prep work; you just turn up. I make my lecture notes on my laptop – I’ve tried doing in by hand and I just can’t keep up! I also find it helpful if there are any graphs or long quotes on the slides – I can go back to the slides later and copy them into my notes easily instead of having to try and frantically scribble them down there in the lecture. One of my modules this year involves a group project, so between lectures I often meet with my group to go over our project work.
Wednesday
Wednesdays are generally fairly quiet days at uni. Nearly everyone has the afternoon off on a Wednesday and it’s when a lot of the sports teams meet. Wednesday is also the day the Centre for Global Programmes hold a lot of their workshops and drop-in sessions. In my first year at York I went on a trip to study at a university in Russia for two weeks with the Centre for Global Programmes and this year I am applying to study abroad for a year in Australia. I often use Wednesdays to work on my application or attend any events being run by the centre.
Thursday
Thursday is my busiest day of the week; I have a 9am seminar, 11am lecture and then a two-hour workshop in the afternoon. In the breaks between my classes I either head to a café on campus or study in the library for a little while. Thursday evening is when the Art Society meets, so as Secretary I go early to help set up with the rest of the committee. This often means that I come on to campus for my 9am and won’t leave until after 8pm. But I always look forward to going to Art Society, catching up with all my friends there and ending a busy day doing something creative.
Friday
Friday is a pretty empty day, with only one seminar at 5pm. On Fridays I like to look over my lecture and seminar notes from the week and make sure they’re all typed up and that I didn’t miss anything. Thursday is a big student night in town, so after having spent the whole day on campus I often run home to dump my stuff and get changed before going into town with friends. This means that Friday mornings are often spent sleeping and drinking coffee.
Saturday
On Saturdays, I do all the boring adult things that I don’t get around to during the rest of the week: food shopping, washing and cleaning the house. I also like to catch up with friends and hang out with my housemates on a Saturday too.
Sunday
Sunday is a very admin heavy day! Every couple of weeks the Art Society will have a committee meeting on a Sunday afternoon. But even when we aren’t meeting in person there are plenty of emails to be sent, payments to be authorised and other society admin to be sorted. I am also the Arts Editor for the student newspaper. So if it’s a production week on the paper (which happens three times a term) then I go into the paper office to work on my section of the paper.
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