Freshers' Week

When You Get Here

The following page entails the provisional plan for your arrival. If anything important changes we will let you know. You can also check the New College Offer Holders web­ page (https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/offer-holders) for more up to date information.

You'll be arriving early if you're an international student. Everyone else should arrive at College between 10am and 4pm on Monday in Oth week (04/10/21).

What to do when I get here?

Parking: You'll be able to park on Holywell Street.There will be a team of people in in commit­ tee sweatshirts to help you (they are the JCR committee and Freshers' Week team). They will get you a parking permit from the porters, so you'll be able to leave the car on the street for 20 minutes or so.

Collecting your Keys: Head to the Porters' Lodge, where you can collect your room key. The porters will tell you where your room is, and the person who is helping you out will be able to take you there.

Registering: The person helping you will take you to either Lecture Room 6 or 4. There, you'll need to enroll, and pick up your Bod Card (University card). You will have your photo taken for the Who's Who as well, a document to help you get to know everyone in your year as soon as possible.

Unpacking: Unloading everything from the car into your room shouldn't take too long, and 2nd years will be on hand to help in anyway they can. If your room is at the top of several flights of stairs, don't be afraid to ask for help!

Freshers Marquee: Once you've got all your stuff up to your room, you can head down to the Freshers' Marquee in Garden Quad. It will be clearly signposted so don't worry about getting lost. There will be committee members and other Freshers all milling about in the mar­quee. The second years will be running frequent tours of College in groups so you can get acclimatised to the layout of College pretty quickly.

The main programme kicks off

At around 5pm, once everyone has arrived, you will have a talk where the JCR Officers will introduce themselves and the plan for the week. You will then have team build­ing activities followed by pizza with the other people in your staircase and a party in the big marquee!

Your first week

After the mad rush of your first day, you can settle down and look forward to a week full of fun and frolics, with a couple of necessary tasks thrown in too. You'll be able to see all this looking at your Freshers' Week timetable. We will put this on the website ahead of Freshers' Week.

During the day: You may face a bit of an information overload, since you'll be getting a fire safety talk and several library inductions. We'd advise you to sort out all the IT stuff as soon as possible, as it will make things easier later on if you aren't struggling to get on the Wi-Fi. You'll also get to meet your tutors properly for the first time since they inter­ viewed you. Most people end up getting on really well with their tutors so don't be scared by this.

When you have time between your compulsory information sessions and sorting out admin bits and bobs, there will be loads of activities going on within College.
There will be MADD (Music, Arts, Dance and Drama) and Sports events going on to show you what life is like outside the library. The New College Freshers' Fair will have a number of stalls by different sports teams and societies within College, so you'll get a good idea of what's going to be on offer throughout the year.
This year (due to Covid-19) the Oxford University Freshers' Fair will take place either in person or virtually where you'll no doubt sign up for a hundred clubs you never knew existed, and will spend the next few terms trying to remove yourself from the mailing list of that club you never once went to. However, you'll find something that suits you perfectly - there is truly something for everyone, from the Cocktails Society to the His­torical Re-enactment society, a cacophony of choirs and orchestras, and every sports team imaginable.

At night: You can look forward to some great entertainment throughout the week co-ordinated by our brilliant Freshers Team, Anya and Finn, and our Entz Reps, Tabby and Tim. Sub­ject to Covid restrictions, there’ll be a silent disco, you’ll get to experience the LEGEND­ARY New College Toga Party, and enjoy your first of many awesome bops! (Bop: noun - A party in College organised by students, with a fancy dress theme. Each College has two or three of these per term. The quality varies widely, although we think New College's are undeniably the best). The first bop theme of the term will be Prince(sse)s and Frogs. Make sure you have a good costume!

Congratulations if you manage to party every night of Freshers' Week! But you're cer­tainly not expected to; we've got loads of other events planned. Expect a staircase pizza, trips to G and Ds (legendary ice cream parlour), and more. There are some really exciting things in the pipeline so look out for the announcements of what's going on!

If Covid restrictions allow it, over the course of the week you can look forward to a sports day, open mic night, a bop at the end of the week of course, and loads more! We will also be running lots of exciting non-drinking events such as games nights and open air film screenings in the beautiful New College gardens.

So many new people and new things! I feel a bit overloaded.

If you feel lost or disoriented during the week, don't worry, it's perfectly normal and happens to everyone. You could also track down your College parents who will be happy to chat to you, show you around and answer any questions. Freshers' Week is great fun, but it can also be overwhelming; don't worry if it doesn't live up to the hype and isn't the best week of your life ever; you've got so many more great experiences to look forward to in the next 9+ terms of Oxford, and it's perfectly normal to take a bit of time to adjust to new things.

Throughout the week, the Welfare Reps will also be running chilled out, arts and crafts- style events with free food and drinks. Harriel and Gareth are lovely, smiley people, and will always be there to help you out if you are feeling overwhelmed or anxious.

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