A Day in the Life of a Warwick Student
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Many offer-holders will have to make an important decision on which university offers to firm and place as insurance.
The best insight that prospective students can gain on university life is from current students sharing what a typical day might entail.
In this blog, I share a very eventful day that included many different elements of university life.
07:00-09:00: Morning Routine
I’m an early riser. As I’m going through my mundane morning routine, I begin thinking about the day ahead, such as remembering to renew my library books. Whilst eating breakfast, I begin to catch up with the news and read articles on the Financial Times- the subscription is courtesy of the Economics department!
09:15-10:00: En route Campus
After a short walk to the bus stop, I arrive on central campus within 15 minutes. My first contact hour is a seminar at 10am. Unlike school/college expectations of arriving by a certain time, there’s a lot more independence for university students. Some prefer to get to campus and use the facilities such as the sports and wellness hub (gym) or the library before the first contact hour or after their final one of the day.
10:00-11:00: Politics Seminar
My first contact hour of the day is a politics module seminar. Seminars are small classes, where a tutor facilitates discussion and addresses questions regarding the readings/problem sets. By the end of this particular seminar, we had collectively discussed the readings and extensively debated interpretations to form a group essay plan for that topic.
11:00-13:00: Food, table-tennis and 8 Ball Pool!
After the seminar, I have a 2-hour break until my lecture. I would usually meet-up with friends and go to play a few rounds of 8-ball pool and table tennis at the Students’ Union. After, it’s time to grab some lunch from somewhere on campus (Pret, Bar Fusion etc) or even from just outside at the Cannon Park shopping centre.
13:00-14:00: Economics Lecture
My first lecture of the day is on Economics. Lectures are much bigger than seminars as everyone undertaking the module should attend and listen to the academic/lecturer go through a presentation on a specific topic. With economics, this takes on a structured form as there are a certain number of topics with inter-linking handouts that are given to students, which makes it easier to follow along and make notes.
14:00-15:00- Course representative meeting
Immediately after the lecture, I have a Student-Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) meeting. The SSLC is a forum to discuss issues and provide updates regarding a specific course/department. It consists of elected students from all years that do that course and staff that support the programme. As Secretary of the PPE SSLC, it’s my role to ensure the agenda has been circulated before-hand and to take minutes of the meeting.
15:00-16:00: Advice and Feedback Hour
The rest of my day is relatively free until a society event in the evening. Usually, I tend to visit my seminar tutor during their ‘office hour’ to get advice and feedback on certain matters ranging from essay plans to go over key points from that week’s lecture/seminar topic. Such advice and feedback hours are important because you can go with any question and have 1-to-1 discussions.
16:00-19:00: Free time!
I have some free time, so what do I do? From simply cracking on with work in the library to chilling in the common room, there are many options!
19:00-21:00: PPE society event
I’ve stayed much later on campus than I usually would but the wait was worth it because of PPE society’s flagship speaker series event, which featured Sir Vince Cable giving a keynote speech.
Overall, this day seems quite packed and I’ve intentionally chosen to share it to show you the variety of things that someone could get up to. Naturally, any given day is usually much smaller and it shows as I only had a couple of contact hours, but the society event and extra-curricular made it longer.
At university, you will get a timetable with your contact hours. It’s up to you on how you manage your time and fill in the gaps.
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Hi Vikram, thank you for your insight into PPE at Warwick. My daughter was disappointed not to get a place at Oxford and now is considering offers from Exeter, Nottingham, Loughborough and waiting on Warwick. She has not studied A level maths or economics -I wondered if support is given in this area. It was her economics interview that she slipped up on with her Oxford interview. Also, if there is any other advice you are able to offer. Warwick has had some bad press in recent years and it’s described as a concrete jungle in the middle of nowhere. I would be grateful if you give a balanced view on PPE at Warwick.Thank you for your time.
Hi Rita,
Thanks for your comment.
It’s ok if she hasn’t studied A-Level Maths or Economics. Whilst I had studied A-Level Maths, I had never studied Philosophy, Politics or Economics beforehand. So, in first year, you are indeed taught the basics with the assumption that you haven’t studied it before. With regards to Maths and Stats, you can choose whether you want to do ‘A’ or ‘B’ (or a combination e.g. Maths A, Stats B). The ‘A’ version is the more basic version that is essentially A-Level Maths and the ‘B’ version is more advanced which builds-on A-Level Maths knowledge. This is one of the best things about this course at Warwick – you have full flexibility in deciding on how you want to approach it.
I have really enjoyed my time here at Warwick. The course is great in terms of opportunities and content. As I have mentioned, there’s a lot of flexibility too. You have a lot more control over your modules and pathways in later years, which isn’t always the case at other universities. The course is very international so I have had a chance to experience things from other perspectives and made many friends. It can be a nice ‘student bubble’ feeling on campus, with Coventry and Leamington Spa close-by.
I would encourage your daughter to have a read of my other blogs where I address some of the other areas of university life. Also, my fellow bloggers have written about interesting things too.
I hope this helps.