I had posted here a few days ago that I would be celebrating my birthday alone today, as I am a first year and have struggled to make friends, and my family is on the other side of the world.

My mum very kindly ordered me a cake yesterday to come to my dorm, which I thought I would use to get to know my flat mates better, and have a mini celebration with them by sharing some of the cake with them. I left the cake in the box which had the words 'birthday' on it and kept it on the counter.

However, I woke up this morning to see that the cake was gone. I then saw it looked like it was half eaten and the rest was just thrown into the bin.

I don't know what to do now and I feel like I'm going to burst into tears because I thought this would be a nice thing to do, so I wouldn't be completely alone. I heard some of them last night mucking around, but I never thought they would do this.

I don't think they knew it was for my birthday, but it clearly said so on the box, and I think it was really disrespectful. They are not here now, but do you think I should confront them about it? And should I do anything else further?

i'm at notts and have been trying to go by a preferred name. i've gone to IT and everything but they said they can't add a preferred name and my name has to match my ID. don't know what to do about this because nearly everywhere else i've seen can use a preferred name that shows up but for some reason my uni doesn't. but i did read on their form that if you're trans you can do something with your name, so im not sure why i can't. i was at durham last year and they were quickly able to just add a preferred name that showed on my student id and email etc. what do i do about this?

Is there an end in sight?

Male, 22, UK and a Uni Graduate in Economics, from a top business school and i got a great grade. Alongside uni I did a bunch of extra curricular in societies/extra courses like coding/excel/MS Office and also did some excel and accounts stuff for a small business to build my experience and portfolio. I also did a warehouse job on weekends as I needed the extra cash to pay for essentials (student finance didn’t cover this)

I’m now Working in this warehouse 5/6 days a week 2pm-10:30pm on Minimum wage to make ends meet. No graduate job in sight. I haven’t even made it to an assessment centre and half the time can’t get past the online assessment (which I find easy)
I’ve been a straight A student all my life, captained sports teams, been head of year and a prefect and all my teachers would tell me I’d go far. I had perfect grades and maximised my time in school and university, and did everything the teachers asked of me. For the past year and a half my entire life is breaking boxes. I get home at 11 exhausted. The warehouse is disgusting and incredibly toxic. And then i have to be at work 2pm the next day. My back is in constant pain.

I feel utterly worthless and the job market is horrendous. I do the same stuff everyday and gain no skills. I have pretty good interview skills and have had my CV checked (and was told there wasn’t much I could do to improve it) If I apply to a job, I’m judged by AI or some stupid psychometric test like Arctic shores. I wanted to go into consulting or commercial banking but at this point I’ll take anything. I feel like my dream has been ripped from me and there’s no point in living.

I’m getting rejected from fast food/retail jobs if I apply with my normal CV or a CV that says I have no experience. Ive been to the job centre and spoken to people there (where a lot of the people there are people who are on benefits with no qualifications or people who have left prison). I tend to think I’m a pretty strong person mentally and have dealt with stress and adversity but at this point I really am thinking what’s the point in living. I just feel like I wasted the last 10 years of my life. I could have been at this stage if I failed everything. It’s honestly making me incredibly depressed.

Urm for context my parents are super religious (they’re part of those people who knock on your door every bloody weekend 🫩) and I’m not really wanting to live with the religion anymore. I start my first year of uni next year and i was wondering if it would be possible to do it after my 1st year of uni??

Hi everyone!

I’m an international master's student from China, aiming for a PhD. However, I'm experiencing severe academic isolation due to my cohort's demographics:

1. 90% of my class share my nationality but show little interest in academia (silent in class, focus only on lifestyle on social media).

2. The rest are mature students with years of work experience, making it hard for me (20s, purely academic track) to relate.

3. Uni societies are heavily dominated by undergrads.

In short, here is someone too academic for the lifestyle crowd, too inexperienced for the mature students, and too old for undergrads.

How can I break out of this bubble and connect with fellow research-oriented master's or PhD students in the UK? I met someone like that, but they are doing physics or engineering, while mine is liberal art...

I go to a university where my location is more tailored at creative students, it’s very nice, practical and in a great location, half people in the class (myself included) commute and don’t get me wrong I really do enjoy my class and the people in it, but something from today really stuck with me.

So there’s about 11/12 people in my class, i’ve spoke to them all and they’re all nice and friendly people, i’ve found myself in a friendgroup with 3 others and I really appreciate them.

Without giving too much away, a conversation that happened earlier today really didn’t sit right with me. We had a group presentation last Friday, and in a group was this one boy who came from Pakistan back in 2022, and two english speaking others. Apparently the one from pakistan accidentally deleted one of the slideshows which (understandably) made the other two guys annoyed. But they were borderline shit talking him, I feel really bad for him as we always wave to each other and he seems sweet and doesn’t talk to anyone. When I say shit talking it was in the way ‘We’ve gotta deal with this for 2 more years!’ In a UNIVERSITY where we are over the age of 18.

Also the worst part is, one of the guys was being a prick about the fact he can’t speak English properly, and said that he has a friend in germany who speaks better english than him. He also insinuated that the boy from Pakistan was ‘shit talking him in whatever language it was’ and it was obvious apparently… Me and my friend were awkwardly standing and decided to just leave the conversation as the others were laughing.

I think i’m going to distant myself from the one who seems very immature (He said the critical things) The other boy is nice too, and i’ll check in on the one from Pakistan. But it’s really made me feel awkward. Not to mention the immature one joked that he voted for Reform and was really convincing about it. I think it’s bad I have to put up with him for another 2 years!

Found in my lecture theatre.

A lot of people are elitist towards certain universities and courses. A lot of you also clearly think you’re so much better than everyone else for not drinking and clubbing. Literally have people on here going to sport society socials and complaining about there being drinking . Wednesday socials are pres btw . Then there’s the people whining about what other people choose to do in lectures, how dare the guy in front of you play clash royale . People also give terrible social life advice that will lead people to have no friends, and half of you think that’s fine anyway because you don’t know that there’s more to life than studying . Some of you even make fun of people for being poor and asking for financial advice too . And the housing advice don’t even get me started.

And then after acting like super mature adults that don’t drink or need friends because you’re not like the maggot normies that have smiled more than 3 times this year, some of you, keeping in mind everyone at university is supposedly an adult, post whinge paragraphs about how no one finds you attractive.

I’m in shock and elated I got in to my dream course. Is anyone else joining me?

because that's all I ever do now that I'm in uni 😭😭😭

Hi guys, I was wondering if it would be possible to eventually get a job at Nvidia, Apple, etc with a Computer Science degree. I would want to go into the low-level hardware stuff like ASIC verification and I’m very interested in CPU/GPU architecture and RTL design/Verilog. Is it possible to do that with a Computer Science degree? Would EEE be better? I’m more of a fan of CS compared to EEE in terms of the optional and mandatory modules at the universities I’m looking at applying to. Has anyone got a job like that at those companies coming from a CS degree?

Thank you!!!

I am just asking because I keep seeing online that people are using AI to answer all the numerical reasoning, cognitive tests, etc. Am I putting myself behind by not using AI for them?

I was forced to use an ai chatbot today in sociology to practice social research etiquette. I’m vehemently against ai. I’m sick of unis grooming their students into cooperating with ai. It’s deeply ironic that an institution supposedly designed to promote independent thought should become one of ai’s main enforcers

I’m a first year student and my uni started around a month ago. So far I’ve done all the things I was told to do by older years to maximise socialising but I still feel so alone. Feels like I’ve done this wrong.

My uni isn’t that big so we don’t have a lot of options for societies but I’ve attended a few sessions from 2 societies that I am interested in. But every time I attend these socials, I end up feeling worse because it seems they’re not very welcoming and friendly, it’s mostly older years and as they know each other already they don’t seem to be interested in socialising with freshers. The social I attended yesterday was literally like 40 people and I tried to speak to a lot of people but no one was interested in meeting someone new.

I’ve also tried making friends from my course, I’ve literally even tried speaking to people sitting by themselves in the lecture theatre but I failed to make friends that way as well. I’m not very extroverted so I’ve been really pushing myself to meet people, walking up to someone for a conversation is a huge step for me but so far I’ve had no luck and with every failed attempt I feel more and more discouraged.

The only thing I’ve been blessed with so far is that my flatmates are actually nice, so far we’ve been getting along well but I’m not sure if I would be friends with them if we didn’t live together as we all have very different personalities. I’m sure they think the same as well so it’s not really like a friendship with them, we’re just trying to get along well because we see each other constantly. And I’ve also been told many times to not only hang out with flatmates and to have other friends so that’s why I’ve been trying so hard to find people.

Anyways what are some other ways I can make friends because I genuinely feel so alone and don’t know what to do other than joining societies and speaking to people directly 😐

I am terrified if i’m being honest, I took two gap years and decided to go into Accounting and Finance for Uni and I am on the verge of tears just 15 minutes into my revision. I never expected this much workload its like 4 different complex subjects to memorise every week and now they’re saying theres going to be a test in a few weeks and I genuinely cant keep up and am so lost in my classes i don’t know what to do. None of this material is going in my head I hate this stupid course. Does it get better or is it gonna eat me alive. Cry for help 😭😭😭 and its not helping that i hate studying and cant rely on myself at ALL. maybe i made the wrong choice , how are people genuinely doing this

when should i start worrying about moving for second year? as said in the title ive not been included in the house hunt which i sort of expected would happen from the get go. I’ve only really made one friend at uni from my course which she moved off and shes moving with her flat. i keep trying to put myself out there but it always seems like im the one whos constantly reaching out and putting effort in when i do try and speak to new people. ive never felt lonelier than i have the past month and im really worried about next year now, sorry if this came off as venting i just dont know what to do

I'm doing a foundation year. After this year is finished, I'm hoping to switch uni. Will I have to reapply through UCAS and pay £34 again? 😭 I did get an offer from this uni for this year but I turned them down to go to London met which I regret!!!

I haven't made any friends, I'm feeling so stressed out by living alone, I haven't cooked because my flatmates don't really like me so I don't go into the kitchen (there have been instances where they're all talking in the kitchen but when I walk in, it goes silent for a full minute and all I hear is giggling, whispering, or a "stoooop, that's mean 🤪" assuming someone's said something about me). My flatmates regularly come home at 3-4 am and will stay awake for hours blasting music. I don't even get invited to hang out with them and then they have the nerve to ask why they haven't seen me recently. Like, I'm not even in whatever gc they have to organise hang-outs between our flat and the other flat we're friends with. Also, acomodation here is EXPENSIVE. Food is expensive. I hate it here.

I want to move away from London probably to be with my cousin up north. She's in her 2nd year and she's been looking to move to a different accomodation for 2027 and said if I did end up switching to her uni next year, we could always live together as we've always been really close. We grew up a 10 minute walk from eachother so we used to basically spend every day together already haha.

I've always been someone who finds it difficult to connect with new people, even back in secondary school I stuck with my cousin and befriended her friends. We were all in different classes but they were my lunchtime friends for over a year before I managed to meet a friend of my own. I know she won't always be there to make friends for me but I'm so miserable here.

Sorry that this turned into a rant I am just frustrated.

Hey everyone ! I am 21 from Canada and looking into masters of Medical Anthropology in the UK.

I was looking into Brunel because it’s the cheapest but everyone on reddit says it’s a bad school. Obviously I would prefer a better school, but it would be about £20,000 more and unsure if this is worth it.

My end goal is to probably get a PhD.

Hi all,
I'm from India and considering a 2-year MSc in a computer-science-related field in the UK, starting January 2027. I keep hearing very mixed reviews about studying in the UK, so I'd like input from people who have actually done it.

My background: I graduated in 2023 with a B.Tech in CS. Since then I've worked as a freelance technical trainer, teaching programming and databases to engineering students, earning about ₹1 lakh a month (roughly £780). It's real work but not formal industry experience. I'm treating the MSc as a career transition into tech. The degree is not the goal; the job is. I'm building skills and projects before I start so I can apply from day one.

My plan: Study at a university near London or outside it, and aim for placements and jobs in London, where the opportunities are. I'm only looking at courses with an integrated placement year, and I want low fees because I don't want a debt cycle. Giving up ₹1L/month in India means the UK has to be worth it.

Universities on my list: Coventry, Hertfordshire, Nottingham Trent, UEL, Birmingham City, York St John, Chester, Aston, Keele, Northumbria, Sheffield Hallam, Manchester Met, Leeds Beckett, Teesside and Bedfordshire. I know some, like UEL, have mixed reviews here.

My questions:

Which universities would you suggest for strong placement support? I mean ones with regular career fairs and employer connections, or a careers team that helps you find the placement year, not just a list of vacancies. Teaching quality is not my main concern. Please suggest ones not on my list too.

If you studied at any of the above, how was the placement support in practice? Did you get interviews through the university, or find it all yourself?

Name vs skills: How much did the university's name matter for getting interviews compared with skills, projects and networking?

Recent outcomes: Has anyone from a non-top university landed a tech placement or graduate job in the last 1–2 years? How did you do it, how long did it take, and was visa sponsorship a problem?

Who I'd like replies from: Please only reply if you came to the UK with a clear career goal, built your skills and projects before and during the course, and started applying for placements and jobs early, not only after graduating. I'm looking for what actually worked and what didn't for people who put in that effort. If you mainly came without a plan, or focused on part-time work over your career, I'm sure your experience is real, but it's not what I need for this decision. DMs are welcome.

My programme has already ended but I had been working on the dissertation. I had EC on health grounds for about 8 weeks and was able to submit the dissertation in mid Oct. The thing is that the board meeting is in the first days of Nov and I worry that my dissertation mark will not be ready by then.

For those who had lengthy extension, how long did you wait to see your mark? I am sure this differs uni to uni and department to department but I wonder if it could take less than 2 weeks.

In case my marks are not reviewed in the Nov board, is it possible to request early graduation without waiting for the next board if there is a such thing? The reason is basically about the graduate visa route as I can’t apply for it if my results are evaluated in the next board (my student visa expires at that time).

I’ve been trying to contact with my department but unable to do so, I’ll visit them asap. Though, I don’t know if that will change anything.

Has anyone experienced a similar situation?

my dad is extremely emotionally abusive. i’m currently working and studying for my a levels on a gap year. my dad is a dentist so he earns quite a bit of money, so if i put his income down for sfe, i wouldn’t get a big loan. i’m planning on completely cutting him off once im done with my exams. i have no place else to live for now, no family in this country so im sticking it out until exam season.

does anyone know how the sfe part would work? would they still base it off his income even if im planning on never speaking to him again?