Societies: Which Will You Join?

Many students have already gone on their first adventures outside of their student accommodation. You may already be surrounded by new friends and new activities — and getting along well with your first set of lectures.

Hopefully you feel like everything is coming together nicely. You might even be thinking about the next stage in your student life: joining the right societies.

The Secret of Societies

Societies are fun for many reasons. The secret is knowing exactly what you want from the society for yourself. Want to reach out for more mates, or like to try new stuff? Societies can do this for you. So let’s look at the five reasons to join, and which societies fit:

Make new friends

At uni, there are lots of people for you to meet. You’ll meet people at your halls. You’ll meet people at class. You’ll even meet people all over. In fact there are so many ways to meet people you might not wish for more. But societies are a great way to make friends: people with similar interests.

So if you’re in a major city, say you’re in student accommodation in Birmingham, then societies can help you meet your kind of people, fast.

Kinds of society: While all societies help you meet new people, a few have a more social vibe. Music societies, sports societies, and film societies in particular lend themselves to this.

Develop a passion

Like us, you’re probably interested in a lot of different stuff. We might go from watching Bake Off on the TV, to having our own attempts (at varied levels of success). Or we might try something a bit arts and craftsy. Whatever your passion is, there are plenty of ways to explore it by checking out societies.

Kinds of society: esoteric sports like fencing, life drawing societies, knitting societies, cooking societies, foreign language societies, musician societies.

Get healthy

Is carrying your books around in your bag making you lose your breath? Or do you want to get ready for the summer? Maybe you just feel like a health push? Listen up: check out societies. Many health focused societies can encourage a good gym routine, or promote a healthy lifestyle. Excellent for exorcising that takeaway demon.

Kinds of society: fitness societies, nutrition societies, yoga societies, meditation or mindfulness societies which can also help to manage stress.

Try new things

Ever gone down a zip wire, thrown volley balls at a person, or tried to climb a cliff-face? University societies offer a chance to do all kinds of out of the ordinary things. So why not seize the opportunity and do something crazy. Something you’ve never done before.

Kinds of society: rock-climbing societies, dodgeball societies, Frisbee societies, boating or canoeing societies — pretty much anything which makes you say “I wonder what that’s like”.

Get involved in student organisations

There’s a lot to be said about getting stuck into the organisation of societies: both experience of the board and of putting on events can all be gained here. And there are plenty of practical skills which you can gain by joining in certain societies.

Kinds of society: debating societies, journalism societies, or getting into the organisation of any society you fancy!

Groucho Marx, a favourite comedian of grandpas and grandmas worldwide, once said “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.”

But Groucho was being grouchy, and after all we’re not him! In fact we have just seen how joining in can help us make new friends, learn more about our passions, get fit, get work experience, and find new stuff to try. So we can say with gusto that we’d join the clubs that would have us as a member.

Great Societies, Great Accommodation

We hope you find the societies you love. After all they can really make your time at university memorable. Almost as memorable as great accommodation, which you can talk with us about at any time.