Freshers Pass

Former Member

I'm looking forward to Freshers Week and received something through the post about a Freshers Pass which offers free or discounted entry to clubs and lots of other privileges. It sounds great and will probably help me make the most of what should be an exciting time, problem is they want £50 for it (or £100 for their Sunday lunch scheme which I'm outright declining).

My parents and I are already going to be forking out for a Mac laptop which the university request, plus a trip to Amsterdam in October so an additional £50 for a pass is the final straw! Has anyone bought / been given one of these before and did they help your experience? I'm not wasting valuable cash on something which I may rarely use.

Cheers in advance !

Former Member

I'm doing Graphic Design at Northumbria University.

I know I don't HAVE to buy the pass, I just wonder how much I'm missing out if I chose not to.

Former Member

It depends what kind of person you are, you might end up saving a shed load if you're likely to be down the union often, you might end up paying more than you need if you won't be.


Just for everyone else's info, I hate macs but for graphics and media, they're probably the best for the job.

Former Member

We had an ents card a Durham that you could pay upfront for. Like being in catered halls though it only works if you like what they're offering and will use it frequently, otherwise it limits your choice and you're left consuming something you don't really want ust because you can't justify spending again on something else. If it's not a huge con I'd expect you can buy it when you get there. If they'll only let you have it in advance then they're hiding the fact it's not that desirable.

Former Member

my uni had some events arranged for freshers week and i think i paid around £30 for the pass. the events were meant to be things like a pub crawl (don't see why they need paying for us to go on a pub crawl!) and there was 2 nights where dj's came in and there was a big dance floor and stuff. then were was a night where they were going to have fun things like bungee ropes and bouncy castles with lots of drink and music. firstly, the queue to the bar was about half an hour long and half of the stuff that was promised wasn't even there and every one stood around being bored! and also, the pub crawl was cancelled. they said it was the police that cancelled it but then it came to light that someone from the student union had been involved with drugs or something. so all in all a waste of money. but it might be different for your uni and it could be a good chance to meet new friends and get to know your housemates. but, it'll no doubt involve alcohol so might be a bit trickier to make friends.

Former Member

ginner wrote:

We had an ents card a Durham that you could pay upfront for. Like being in catered halls though it only works if you like what they're offering and will use it frequently, otherwise it limits your choice and you're left consuming something you don't really want ust because you can't justify spending again on something else. If it's not a huge con I'd expect you can buy it when you get there. If they'll only let you have it in advance then they're hiding the fact it's not that desirable.

Disagree.

The loughborough passes were all fantastic value, if you were the kind of person to be in the union for the regular events. But you couldn't get it once you'd arrived.

Former Member

Maybe it´s just because I´m a cantankerous, cynical and generally miserable fucker, but I found that fresher´s week is so hyped up that it was just such a non-event when it actually happened. If you put several thousand people who have met each other ten minutes beforehand in a club with shit music then they can´t expect miraculous results.

So my advice, don´t expect fresher´s week to be some incredible hedonistic shag-fest. The less you build it up, the more fun you´ll have.

Former Member

Fiend_85 wrote:

Disagree.

The loughborough passes were all fantastic value, if you were the kind of person to be in the union for the regular events. But you couldn't get it once you'd arrived.

thing is it'll vary from uni to uni. my boyfriend went to loughborough and he sounds like he had a ball for 3 years. as does my friend who's at nottingham trent. maybe it's because my uni's smaller, they just don't seem to do many fun things! or perhaps that's me..

Former Member

Thunderstruck wrote:

Maybe it´s just because I´m a cantankerous, cynical and generally miserable fucker, but I found that fresher´s week is so hyped up that it was just such a non-event when it actually happened. If you put several thousand people who have met each other ten minutes beforehand in a club with shit music then they can´t expect miraculous results.

So my advice, don´t expect fresher´s week to be some incredible hedonistic shag-fest. The less you build it up, the more fun you´ll have.

agree completley, i was really looking forward to mine and it was such a let down. but to be honest i think it would've been rubbish either way. i didn't bother with the £50 ticket for the freshers ball, had heard the previous years was rubbish and it turns out this one was too. i'd rather just go to the one when i leave.

Former Member

Our Fresher´s ball was a complete pile of toss. We had some guy from Big Brother 73 and that girl from All Saints miming over some songs. What a load of crap. The only redeeming feature was the fact that I got shit-faced and got the balloon man to make me a giraffe hat.

Former Member

£50?!! i think i paid about £18 for mine! it was worth it tho as you got a card which guarenteed you entry to places and meant you didnt have to queue. id say it depends what sort of person you are, we got a list of things the card would get us entry for and i knew i wanted to go to nearly all of them so it was good for me. if you know you're gonna be wanting to go to a lot of the events/clubs then id get it but if you're not too sure, i wouldn't bother.

Former Member

The Freshers' Pass is worth the money if you get to queue jump everyone else that didn't get one, and you know that you will go out a lot in the first week or two, which might helpyou meet more people/make friends. At my uni you could upgrade the pass for a lot of money to last all year, which got you into every event run by the Students' Union and you didn't need to queue. My friend got it with all his other hall mates and found it useful and money-saving; I didn't and spent a bit less on going out than the upgrade would have cost me.

Former Member

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Former Member

i went to northumbria, and the people without the passes were geniuses, saved tons of money n there were always people about hu had them that werent using em for that nights stuff so they got passed around. If you want to go to an event, with or without a pass you will get to it, or if not go into town, im sure all the student nights will have started again after the summer, you'll have great fun whatever you do

Former Member

I've never heard of a freshers pass, the freshers weeks at my old uni were really disapointing. Basically there was a fair which consisted of a few stalls with freebies. That was it, no parties or anything. Totally crap. :grump:

Former Member

Fiend_85 wrote:

Disagree.

The loughborough passes were all fantastic value, if you were the kind of person to be in the union for the regular events. But you couldn't get it once you'd arrived.

Cheap access to Pulse was it? :eek:

Former Member

yeah i'd definately say dont go for it, only for the fact that you never know what you are gonna end up doing, and most places have offers on freshers week anyway, well at least they did in salford and manchester, even at the SU if there was a special night on it was only like £3 in or something. having said that, im not a big fan of organised fun, i prefer to organise what i wanna do, when i want to do it kinda. altho freshers week was big time fun and still go for a couple of nigths out now during freshers, and havent been a student for a while.

Former Member

Thanks everyone ! I have decided against the pass because, as mentioned, I could always pay up on the day.

Former Member

lucifer devil wrote:

thing is it'll vary from uni to uni. my boyfriend went to loughborough and he sounds like he had a ball for 3 years. as does my friend who's at nottingham trent. maybe it's because my uni's smaller, they just don't seem to do many fun things! or perhaps that's me..

Its not you, Lincoln university is poor on ents in my opinion, so glad I've finished, off to the graduation ball in september, its not looking to promising.

Anyways back to the question, its difficult to decide because for my freshers week they had a huge event on the friday, saturday and sunday, I got my tickets but hardly anyone else bought them I went along for the first night and it was rubbish they ended up trying to sell the tickets for about a fiver when I had paid £40. Do you get anything else apart from free entry?

Former Member

*milky way* wrote:

Do you get anything else apart from free entry?

no, apart from an empty wallet! they did give us money off coupon to the comedy club to compensate for the balls up but hardly equates to the money we spent/wasted.

Former Member

As my dear wife said, the Northumbria pass is a waste of time, money and effort.

Newcastle is awash with fresher deals, don't pay in advance.

Former Member

When did everyone hear about their uni's freshers passes?

Or can I stop worrying and assume it's only after you get your A level results?

Former Member

Well, I got mine after receiving an unconditional offer so I assume so.

Former Member

scytherchick wrote:

When did everyone hear about their uni's freshers passes?

Or can I stop worrying and assume it's only after you get your A level results?

Not all unis have them from what I hav gathered. At least mine hasn't.

Former Member

York doesn't have them either.

Former Member

in a nutshell, passes are good if you want to get shit-faced every night.
otherwise, just pay as you go.

Former Member

It will probably save you about £1 if you go out every night of the year or something stupid like that. also look out for other upfront Uni Rip Offs, such as Uni bus pass (may be cheaper to use the local busses and pay cash if you wont be using the bus twice every day) and Pizza companies charging upfront for a discount card which then only saves you £1 per Pizza, and when you try and order using the card they say you have to wait 2 hours as they are only allowed to serve a set number of discounted Pizzas per hour. You will get loads of money off passes at Freshers Fayres etc. for free anyway.

Former Member

heh im going to be working at the durham freshers fayre as a member of the staff at the club i work in, giving out free goodies and the sorts, when my break comes i shalt be donning a jacket over my workshirt and getting lots of goodies

Former Member

I thought it was NUS passes that got you in everywhere?

Former Member

-[MoonRat]- wrote:

I thought it was NUS passes that got you in everywhere?

never heard that one before.