UNIVERSITY ADVICE FOR FRESHERS

***This is going to be a long one so grab a cuppa***

Hello you beautiful lot, bonus post for you this week you lucky lucky people! This one goes out to those starting university in September. I’m just starting my third year and being a fresher feels like yesterday, I remember being so excited for a new chapter but having so much anxiety thinking I was never going to fit in and I would spend the three years completely alone. I am also what my mum describes as a ‘homebody’ and I had never spent an elongated period of time away from home without having a meltdown; everyone, including me, thought I would quit and come home after two weeks but the day I unpacked my things into that tiny prison cell-esque room I knew I was going to have the time of my life and here I am two years later beginning my third year having loved every minute with friends who will stick with me for life. BEFORE YOU ARRIVE/FRESHERS WEEK

-Get yourself kitted out with essentials- plates, cups, pots, pans, cutlery, towels, bedding, stationary, good laptop etc

-Look at the campus map online and use google to plan your way from halls to university, nothing worse than getting lost on the first day. Use fresher’s week to go on a campus tour once you have your timetable

-Check emails from university to see what is available to you and the support network they offer

-if you are worried about cooking, attempt to make a few basic meals before you move in

-sign up with a doctors and dentist when you arrive

-Arrive as soon as possible to meet everyone and get settled in before you begin work, this is the best way to meet new people and get used to the city/transport to university in preparation for the beginning of semester. Take photos of any damage to your room to save you losing your deposit!!

-Make use of the time to get used to your surroundings within halls and outside of university

-Go to fresher’s fare and other fresher’s events, there will be plenty of freebies and it gives you an idea of societies and groups you can become a part of, also a good place to find part time work in the area

FRIENDSHIPS

Firstly, although this advice is coming slightly late (I apologise for that) I recommend you try to meet your flatmates online and talk to them before you move in. I used a freshers Facebook group and found 50+ people living in the same halls, including my soon to be flatmates and began chatting. By doing so, we were already friends before I even moved in and had already made freshers plans; move in day, therefore, was much less awkward and I settled in very quickly. If this option is not possible, make sure you put yourself out there on move in day no matter how daunting, knock on peoples doors and don’t be afraid to talk to anyone as everyone is in the same boat and the most likely scenario is they are also extremely nervous and wish to make friends quickly- it’s easy to bond over the moving in process and find out about each other’s life before university/likes/dislikes/course etc

The friends I have met at university will remain with me for life, I have created some one-of-a-kind memories with some wonderful people who accept me for who I am. If a shy 18-year-old homebody with the broadest Yorkshire accent you have ever heard and a lack of social skills can make friends then I have faith you can too. I would also advise not falling in love with your best friend which is where things went wrong for me; however, I have the flirting skills of cardboard and have nicknamed myself the one date wonder, if that gives you any indication as to how my love live has panned out, so you may not make a complete mess of this unlike myself. It’s a poor life when your 4-year-old sister has a better love life than you do but I digress.

Remain friendly for an easier life and contribute to the flat by helping to clean or do household chores. I would recommend attempting to make plans with the flat during freshers to get to know each other. MONEY

Get used to having no money and what little money you do have going on alcohol and fast food. You will spend your entire first year with your head over the toilet thanks to pre-drinking for 5 hours to save money when you go out and having to suffer through drinking games which I’m sure they use as torture techniques somewhere. Let’s be honest, you signed up for a 3 year (at least) long party and will end up living on pasta so you can down shit vodka that tastes like paint stripper just because you can. My only advice here is to budget as best you can, my money came into my bank account on a Friday so that day I would buy my food shopping for the week (and then buy a McDonalds on the way home from Lidl, go figure) and then work out my weekly budget from there. I recommend shopping at somewhere like Lidl or Aldi (pasta and noodles taste the same everywhere) as the less you spend on food, the more you can spend on alcohol. I would recommend doing a big shop for basics as soon as you arrive; it’s going to be difficult but try to eat as best as you can as your body will thank you for it. If you are cooking for yourself, cook in bulk and either refrigerate them or keep them in the freezer as this is much more cost effective and easier when you have had a long day. I would also recommend setting up a student bank account with an overdraft (HSBC allow £3,000, brb while I thank the gods that this is a thing) as you never know when you may need it, university has a way of throwing random shit at you and you don’t want to be that sad act that has to stay in whilst everyone else is having fun. University is all about experiences and making memories while all the time thinking about the consequences later because as they all say, ‘fuck it, it will be a laugh.’

BEING HOMESICK

The one thing that helped me feeling homesick was making my uni room like my room at home. I filled my room with posters, knick-knacks and family photos and it gave me a lot of comfort. 2 years down the line I still facetime my mum daily and I do miss home but you will love the new lease of life that university gives you and every time you go home you will be counting down the hours till you are back drinking yourself silly with your friends. Get a 18-24 railcard for £30 when you start university so if you ever need to go home, you save 1/3 on fare and it means you can always afford to go home as there is nothing worse than being homesick when you have a low budget. Spend time in the city and explore areas outside of the student zones, you may find places that remind you of home or you could plan a fun day out to encourage people to visit you, it’s such a lovely feeling when people from home get to meet your new friends and see your wonderful new life; getting to university is such an amazing achievement and the memories you will create are priceless.  

RANDOM  

-Be prepared to gain weight

-Be prepared to meet people in freshers who you will never see again and get ‘freshers flu’

-Be prepared to meet people who you do not get along with, its ok to not like everyone

-Be prepared to embarrass yourself, drink until you cannot stand and there may even be times you do not make it past pre-drinks (this has happened on plenty of occasions due to the drinking games I discussed earlier)

-Be prepared to snog someone in a nightclub who you have no interest in whatsoever, you may even sleep with this person (people are sexual deviants on a night out but don’t do anything you do not want to)

-Be prepared to miss lectures and forget about attending 9am’s (who even does that?)

-Be prepared for your love life to go one of three ways: falling in love, spooning some randomer you met on tinder or sat watching a rom com with wine and ice cream (you can guess which one I was)

-Be prepared to make bad decisions

-Be prepared to do minimal work in first year and throwing a party when you get 1% over the pass mark and then regretting this decision in second year when it counts towards your degree and you have no idea how to get more than 40%

-Be prepared to fight with your flatmates over cleaning because one person at least will make plenty of mess and refuse to clean

-Forget about sleep, you will learn to live without it

-Make the most of the library, textbooks will be your best friend but be prepared for Harvard referencing to become the bane of your life – use a referencing tool online to save yourself hours of learning how to reference

-Be prepared for fire drills in halls at 7am when you got home at 6am after a heavy night out

-Please do not leave work until the night before, you do not want to be up until 5am to hand in an essay, start early and do little bits at a time, it will make it less of a chore and you can reflect on the previous piece which will make for a better piece of work and DO NOT LEAVE THE REFERENCING TO THE END AS YOU WILL FEEL LIKE JUMPING OFF THE CLOSEST BRIDGE BELIEVE ME

-Most importantly, be prepared to have the time of your life

I have managed to fumble through the first two years of my degree, I have had highs and lows so prepare yourself for a rollercoaster ride (and this is not just because you will spend first year either vomiting or nauseous from drinking your body weight in alcohol 4x a week -at least) but I hope you all have the most incredible time. Going to university was the best decision I ever made, I am one year away from the job of my dreams and I’ve made some priceless memories that will remain with me forever. I have made lifelong friends (my prince charming I’m sure has just lost his white horse and will come for me soon enough- a girl can dream I guess) and I have learnt so much about myself, I have changed as a person, developed so many life skills and have done things I never thought I would. I was a shy 18-year-old girl when I went to university and I will leave a confident 21-year-old woman with a wonderful life ahead of me surrounded by incredible people.

If you have made it this far then well done, either I have made your anxiety worse and wasted 20 minutes of your life or you are more excited for the journey (most likely the first one) but I want to wish anyone starting university all the luck in the world, have an absolute blast of a time and make the most of the opportunity! Let me know in the comments what you are most worried/excited about and what university you are attending/what you are studying, I would love to know!

I hope this has helped in some way, if I have missed anything then let me know and I can answer your questions. I hope you have all had a lovely day, lots of love!

Lois x

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P.S PLEASE STAY SAFE, IF SOMETHING DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT IT IS OKAY TO SAY NO, DO NOT FEEL PRESSURED OR PUT YOURSELF IN DANGER WHEN DRUNK, DON’T PUT YOURSELF IN ANXIETY-PROVOKING SITUATIONS IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO (I SOUND LIKE A MUM BUT YOU GET THE DRIFT).

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