Be a Smart Student
82 Months Ago
We know you're incredibly smart; that's why you've got an offer to study at Heriot-Watt! But these smart tips will help to make your first year a breeze.
1. Use e-books
E-books are bae. They mean you don’t need to trek to the library and physically take out a book. You can download them from the comfort of your own bed, and they save you from buying expensive physical copies. So don’t buy any textbooks just yet, wait and see if an e-book option is available for your modules.
2. Set up your Heriot-Watt email
Email is one of the main forms of communication the university will use to contact you. During the first few weeks, you’ll be sent a ton of emails and there will be important information containing induction stuff. To make sure you don’t miss out, add your Heriot-Watt email account to your phone. Information Services can advise you on how to get it working on your phone although it is pretty straightforward.
3. Microsoft Office is FREE for students
Okay so Word, PowerPoint, Excel are quite hard to get excited by, but what if we told you they were free? At least, for Heriot-Watt students they are. Save your pennies and don’t splash out on any Microsoft Office software before coming to university. Once you enrol you’ll be able to download free copies of this software from Office 365. You can get it for your tablet and laptop.
4. Get your caffeine fix
There’s so much coffee on our Edinburgh campus! You’ll find your coffee shop favourites at:
The Piece (Starbucks, Hugh Nisbet Building), Café Brio (Hugh Nisbet Building), Dewey’s (Costa, Library), and of course Libertys (Costa, Student Union).
5. Get organised – mark those deadlines!
When you get to Uni, make sure you get your wall planner from the Student Union and hang it up as soon as you can. Use it to mark in any deadlines or midterm dates you’re given. This way you can clearly see what’s coming up, which prevents last-minute panicking. Each school has different procedures on late submission of coursework but they are all pretty brutal and will all result in marks being deducted – so be on time! The Careers Service hand out free academic diaries at the start of the year, so keep an eye out for those too.
6. Find your way around
The Edinburgh campus, in particular, is a bit of a maze with all the buildings kind of looking the same. Although in general, all the academic buildings tend to connect with one another so you can usually stay dry when crossing buildings. Take a chance to check out the campus maps so you can get your bearings before you arrive
Edinburgh campus: https://www.hw.ac.uk/documents/edinburgh-campus-map.pdf
Scottish Borders campus: https://www.hw.ac.uk/documents/sbc-campus-map.pdf
7. Use MyHWU
The University’s portal connects you to everything you need to study, all in one place. It can tell you everything from whether you have library fines to when the next 25 is leaving campus.
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