Going to uni is always an exciting, but rather daunting part of our lives. Being an international student, and thus an 'outsider' to the United Kingdom made this even more extreme. Fortunately, Bournemouth turned out to be a really friendly place, with good social integration for all sorts of people.
The accommodation
Being from abroad, I had no local 'home' as such; I chose to get uni accommodation. This turned out to be one of the best sources of social and cultural integration. Just to illustrate, all 6 of my housemates were from different places; Midlands, Wales, Europe, and I even had a mate all the way from the United States! Now, this might be completely normal for some people, but being from Hungary, I have rarely met anyone from other parts of the world, so it was really exciting to be living together with so many different sorts of people.
The course
I came here primarily to study computer games related programming and technology, and thus chose the Games Programming course at Bournemouth university. I figured I would have the best chances at landing a job in a field I like if I was engaged in it; something generic programming courses might not provide a chance for. And was I right...
The entire Games Programming/Games Technology course is really heavily based on experience, practice, and fun. About 90% of the grading is done through assignments instead of exams. This provides countless opportunities to practice and polish all sorts of game development related skills.
Luckily, I have had some experience with programming and game development from college, so I didn't have to start from scratch; although I fathom I wouldn't have had much trouble catching up, as the course covers the basics and builds on that knowledge throughout. There's plenty of support and help, and clearly every member of staff know what they are doing. In one year, I have gone from "I reckon I can enjoy making games once I learn how" to "I can't wait for the next year to start so I can put all I've learnt into practice".
Game jams
I would like to point out one of my favourite things about this course: the game jams. Every couple of months, usually in breaks, there is a 48h game making competition. I've met many interesting people and have had great fun making games. It is a really good place to see how much I've developed over the last year, and to meet people not only from within the uni, but from neighbouring universities as well. I have a post about the last one for example in the Projects page!
I'm really quite satisfied with what this course turned out to be, and I'm eager to see what it brings about. I can't wait to get into it!