Being an international student at UCB

Hey everyone and welcome to my very first blog post! To begin this journey I thought I could talk to you a little bit about being an international student at UCB as there are always a lot of people from abroad who are interested in studying here but are sometimes put off by their fears.

If you are about to join university for your first year, you may feel how I felt a year ago. The nerves intensify more and more every day and several questions go through your mind such as “will I be able to make friends?”. You can even start to doubt your English skills and your ability to perform well in lessons but trust me, there is no need to be nervous at all. That will only cause grey hair and I’m sure you don’t want that just now!

I firmly believe that coming to the UK and starting a course at UCB was one of the best decisions I have made in my entire life. By becoming an international student and leaving home just 17  years old, I have become much more independent (I could not even cook pasta before coming to the UK, can you believe it?); I now have much more confidence in myself and in my skills. I mean, if I can do this, what can’t I do?

Whether you are from abroad or from any other city outside Birmingham it can be difficult to leave home, your family and all your friends. But you will gain a second family at university and the experience of getting out of your comfort zone is really rewarding.

For me, the best part about UCB is that the classes are not too big and this has allowed me to feel welcomed and to create amazing friendships with my classmates. I have made friends from all over the world: Czech Republic, France, Spain, Taiwan and Croatia just to mention a few.

Besides the friendships that you will definitely make, I just have one thing to say – travelling!  I always had this desire to travel and visit as many places as I could and I’m so glad that after coming to Birmingham I was able to visit cities such as London, Paris, Barcelona and we even had a residential trip to Berlin. And since the city is right in the middle of the country you can basically get on a train and be at any place in a space of two or three hours. Amazing right?

I just want you to know that being an international student (or any kind of student actually) can be scary, especially in university. But if you trust in yourself you will overcome your fears and I’m sure you will achieve your dreams and live an amazing experience just like I’m living right now.

I hope you can understand at least a little bit better now that studying at UCB and studying in the UK is just too rewarding for you to give up on that idea and your fears are nothing compared to what you can experience around here. If you have any doubts or have something you would like to talk about just feel free to contact me and I will love to help you.

Beijinho (this is the Portuguese way of saying xx),
Maria