The social side of university and dentistry

You get a real flavour of what the social side of university is like in your first week, arguably the best week, and definitely the most mental, freshers week! It’s set up and run by the student’s union (so by students), with the primary aim of getting you to mingle with all the new people in your halls – the fresher’s crew are brilliant at this – as well as experience what Newcastle has to offer. This includes an array of daytime activities from paintballing and quad-biking, to cocktail making and beach trips. Then onto Newcastle’s incredible (and award winning) nightlife; there are a number of themed bar crawls ending in the city’s superclubs, and music performances in the newly refurbished union. Or if that’s not your scene, try the ‘grub crawls’, comedy gigs and cinema trips, and best of all, everything’s included in the price of the fresher’s wristband, it’s incredible value. If like me, you enjoyed it so much, you can volunteer to be one of the crew the following year, so you get to do it all again!

There are so many sport clubs for you to choose from, whether you’re a footballer trying out for the first team, or want to try something completely different like ultimate Frisbee. There are also hundreds of non-sporting related societies, such as the film society, the 20-minute society (a 20 minute heads up is given before a totally spontaneous event, sometimes even a holiday), and then, your course societies, which brings me to the ever-famous dentsoc.

I can’t stress how good dentsoc is, it’s the perfect way to let your hair down after a busy week on clinic, socialise with everyone on the course, and get involved in some wickedly funny events.

It really sets Newcastle apart from the other dental schools, and the ‘Crown and Bridge’ acts as its central hub. The ‘Crown and Bridge’ is our very own bar, situated next to the lecture theatres, and for a one off payment at the beginning of first year, around £90, gets you membership for life, and that includes your drinks! Roughly every 2 weeks there’s a dentsoc event, be it ‘blind date’ for valentines, the hilarious ‘hustings’ event (the dentsoc presidential candidates show their campaign videos, which are superb), the annual ball (your chance to dress to the nines), or even events out of the Toon, such as sports day, a weekend where all the dental schools converge on one city for a brilliant day of sports, followed by epic nights out.

Dentsoc really is the epitome of ‘work hard, play hard’!