...and making me feel like an old bag. Still it's nice to see their enthusiasm, brings back happy memories of those first idyllic weeks at university. Them were the days...

Its quite cringe worthy isnt it? Watching them arrive with their parents

All the new undergrads came in for enrolement on Monday & I was struck my how dressed up' they all were - as if they were off for cocktails or clubbing. One girl in hotpant type things?!

Yeh, they all look like they're set to go clubbing at midday. Its very weird. When I was a fresher I'm sure we all wore doc martens, checked shirts and bunches of keys round our necks. But then I was in Wales ...

I've noticed this too! I was at the main campus on Mon and couldn't believe the way that the undergrad girls were dressed, it was a parade of straightened hair, perfect make-up and the latest fashions. Whatever happened to rushing in for the first lecture of the day with your hair still wet and wearing jeans and a t-shirt? Or was that just me?!

They do look younger and more dressed up than when I was a fresher. The thing is, as I'm only 21, most of them aren't that much younger than me

I'm 23 and feel like a grouchy old man.

Well, yeah, I did a MA staight after my BA and then spent a year in call centres and retail working on my PhD proposal (hell...esp selllig insurance!). I get out and have fun though! But most of the PhD people I meet who I meant are from outside my subject....come on fellow museologists......where are you?! I've only met one, and they don't even live in Manchester

That's so true about the super-straightened hair and the flawless make-up. Who can be arsed with that first thing in the morning?
And where do they get the money from to dress like that? It was all Oxfam chic in my day.

hmm... so am normal.. . the urgency to get done with this phd and leave this place and has just become a priority.

All the girls have their 'first day of school outfits' fresh from TopShop on - it'll be all T-shirts and sweat pants soon!

I wish I was 18 again.
:(

Would you have done anyhting differently as an undergrad, knowing what you know now?

I was a lazy sod. I seemed to think that the mere act of buying a textbook was enough to make me do better in exams (and the more expensive the book, the better I would do. And if it came with a free CD-ROM then I was practically guaranteed an A).

As sad as it sounds, if I would do it all again I would drink less and work more.

And while I'm at it, I wouldn't have moved into a flat opposite McDonalds, put on 3 stone (lost it now, glad to say), would always have got out of bed for 9am classes, would have worked together with my classmates more often instead of trying to be a cool loner, would have got to grips with databases properly, wouldn't have chosen a hard physics based lab project cos it sounded impressive, would always have read the practical handout before labs, would have read and understood at least one publication in my field per week...jeez, what a jerk I was.

Course I wouldn't have befriended the course nutter either, but anyone can make that mistake

What I hate about freshers is the way they hog up all the computers in the library emailing their friends and posting on forums!! Not the sort of thing I would do of course ...