Ryan Elder

Home University: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Departments of Study in Sheffield: History, English Literature, Politics, Philosophy

My time at the University of Sheffield was a great growing experience for me. I have never before had to rely solely on myself to figure out an unfamiliar system and way of living.

If you could give advice to a prospective student thinking of choosing Sheffield, what would you say?

The people of South Yorkshire are some of the friendliest you can find and supremely patient with a displaced Yank who most of the time had no idea what he was doing.

The first days were a struggle, but by the time I settled into the routine of classes I found that I really appreciated the seriousness with which the lecturers approached the subject matter and the depth with which most of my tutors discussed the topics from lecture. There were difficult and boring days, but on the whole I feel that I learned a lot from my experience.

Could you give any advice or tips to a student preparing to come to Sheffield or tell them anything you wished you knew in advance.

One thing I wish I had done was go out more...I spent more time than I needed to reading every page of every assigned reading and preparing the very best answer to every discussion question. When it came to exams I realised that I had vastly over-prepared, and I wish I had gone out to travel around the UK and Europe more.

That is something I would absolutely recommend to everyone else who comes to Sheffield; it's so centrally located in the UK and has such wonderful access to Europe that it's a shame not to take full advantage of it.