How to have the best time ever at O-Week

While it’s not exactly part of the standard curriculum, O-Week is the first official week of uni. You could spend it studying and attending all your orientation classes, but since it's the perfect chance to meet new people and get to know your campus, it'd be a shame not to make the most of it. Here are a few tips on how you can have a blast at O-Week.

Get involved

The number one thing is to make sure you actually get on campus.  Even if you don't go to class, you can pick up a year’s supply of stationary from the O-Week stalls.  If you do decide to go to an orientation class, you’ll be getting the study ball rolling and your year will be off to a flying start.

The second most important thing is to make sure you do as much as you can when you get there: parties, meet-ups, uni activities and browsing the stalls. Worst case scenario, you can nab a few freebies from the stalls.

Joining clubs is easy and cheap

The reality is that the social part of uni is all the non-class activities you can get up to. While there’s a plethora of drinking-related things to take part in, there’s also every club you can imagine to get involved with.

Joining a club will give you the chance to really get amongst whatever you're interested in, as well as give you access to a whole new group to socialise with. Your chosen society will probably have an O-Week event for you to attend, which will be all about mingling with new people.

Explore campus

You may as well check out the buildings you're going to spend most of your time in over the next few years. It's also the perfect time to ask questions, as there will be staff and existing students spread out all over campus ready to your answer questions and show you around.

You're also bound to stumble across some info sessions, which can be pretty helpful. It's better to learn as much as you can during O-Week rather than halfway through the semester when there are less people available to help. This’ll help you feel super confident from the get-go.

Take an extra chance

You've gathered all your freebies, taken a tour around your campus, and maybe gotten to know a few people in your course. The next thing is to take a chance on something you normally wouldn't do. Whether it’s going to a social event where you don’t know anyone, organising to have a coffee with someone you met in an info session, or signing up to a club or extracurricular activity, now’s the time to do it.

Uni is a chance to make a new start or change something about yourself for the better, and it all starts in O-Week.

Sam Talbot

Sam Talbot is a law and media student at the University of Adelaide. He highly values all-day breakfasts. Twitter with him @SamTalbot5.