This blog is about my week as a Computer Science student at York.
Monday
My Mondays usually start by going to the gym with one of my housemates. We live really close to Campus East, so it’s a quick walk to the Sport Village for us. I probably spend a couple of hours there before heading back for some breakfast and to get ready for the rest of the day.
I head to campus around lunchtime, either to Computer Science’s Pod or a room in the Piazza. Both are great places to go if you need a quiet place to work. You can book them out any time between 7:30am and 10pm to watch some lectures and hang out with friends.
In the afternoon, I have a Cryptography seminar, which we mainly use for discussing the questions in the week’s problem sheet, and working through the ideal solutions.
Tuesday
Tuesdays I have an in-person lecture. I spend the morning at home, or walk onto campus to watch more lectures if I have them.
Usually, I meet up with some friends for the lecture, and we all head over to the Glasshouse in Langwith for lunch afterwards. From there, I’ll either stay on campus to work on my dissertation (since I’m in my 3rd Year now) or head back home and work from there.
Wednesday
Wednesday starts out with a trip to the gym. Given it’s freezing outside, it’s hard to convince myself to get out of bed for it. I’ll have a similar day to Monday, studying in the Pod with a few other people.
The Pod is amazing for students. It has a little kitchen area you can use to heat up food or make hot drinks for yourself. I usually bring some food with me to eat for dinner there and spend my evening with CyberSoc at a talk or workshop. I’m a committee member for the society, and love helping out other members where I can! Sometimes I join the rest of the society at the Glasshouse for a few drinks afterwards, which is a great way to get to know people in a more social setting.
Thursday
Thursday is another on-campus day for me, and I spend most of the morning and afternoon there. Recently, I’ve been booking out a room with friends in the Piazza to use for the day. We’ve found it really helpful for working through lectures or practicals together. There’s also a Starbucks just downstairs, which makes it far too easy to get our coffee refills!
I round out the day on campus with a practical in the software labs. The labs are open 24/7, and are full of computers you can log into to do work. I’ve found this really helpful if you want to work on campus and easily access any of your University files.
After my practical, I’ll head home and quickly make some food for myself, before walking over to West Campus for a Jazz & Big Band rehearsal.
Friday
Friday starts with another gym visit, and after that, I don’t have anything timetabled. This gives me a lot of flexibility to plan in some time to get work done. But I also like to meet up with friends and go into town. I usually take my stuff over to the Courtyard and spend a couple of hours working there, before meeting a couple of friends to play pool and have some food.
I was looking back through my calendar to see what kinds of things I usually get up to on Friday evenings. Overwhelmingly, it seems to be a day when I go to the cinema!
Saturday
Saturdays start with a quick catch up call with the Yordevs committee – Yordevs is the University’s web development society – to plan the next week’s events and talk about some of the work we’ve been doing. After that, I’ll make some lunch and then spend a little bit more time working.
At about 4pm, I walk over to Campus West again for a Concert Band committee meeting. After the meeting, we go straight into a rehearsal for the band itself, which usually sees us practising pieces for an upcoming concert.
After rehearsal, we almost always go to the Vanbrugh Arms (or, as we affectionately call it, “V-Bar”) to spend the rest of the evening there.
Sunday
Sundays are a free day for me, in terms of planned events, so I spend them at home finishing off any remaining work before the next week starts.
Campus is also very quiet on weekends. I love to take myself off to the Computer Science buildings and work there, too. You can do so without any distractions at all! It’s such a lovely environment to study in. I’d definitely recommend buying a reusable coffee cup and some tea bags to take advantage of the Pod’s kitchen area!
Leave a Reply