It finally happened. After all of the insanely late nights spent working on your UCAS application, then checking your offers and emails, all while juggling the stress of revising for how many exams again?! You’ve got your place, and in September, you’re off to University. Well, as perfect as finally getting started may sound, you need to be aware of some of the things that no one tells you about starting uni. Nope, these tips I’m about to share aren’t in any handbook, on any brochure or mentioned on any open day.
So today I’m going to save your life, and give you my top 7 tips for your first semester at university.
Tip #1
Establish your own rules
If you’ve moved into halls it can seem incredibly exciting. You’re finally away from your parents and siblings, and have room and time to yourself. Wrong! You need to establish the rules between you and your dorm pals. You can’t let everyone in at 3am for the first month and then when you’ve got work up to your ears, lock everyone out with nothing but a sassy note left on the door.
Tip #2
Discount
So many places accept student discount nowadays that you need to shop around more. I know I know, you love the mac & cheese that your mum always made you with ingredients exclusively from Waitrose, but girl, this is university and you can’t shop at Waitrose any more. And for the rest of you that can’t wait to live like a student and have nothing but takeaway all of the time, I’ll tell you a secret, the Co-op accept NUS cards. There you go, this is a majorly unknown fact, so you have absolutely no excuse for having stale pizza for breakfast for the third day in a row.
Tip #3
Wash Up After Yourself, Dammit
There are two types of people that live in halls. Those that feel like they’ve met their friends for life, and therefore don’t mind doing everyone’s washing up, every night, for an entire year, and those that leave their dishes to be washed by someone else, every night, for an entire year. To stop the former from having a breakdown and eventually turning on the latter, and attacking them with a spork on the final night of the first year, just do your own washing. If everyone does their own, everyone’s gets done and no one has to cry.
Tip #4
Being A Grown Up Isn’t So Bad
I know you may think that you can only understand the washing machine and cookbooks once you’ve finished your degree, but trust me, nothing is as difficult as it seems. Those big buttons on the front of the washing machine are literally self-explanatory. “Colours? Wtf does that mean?!”
Tip #5
Leave It, Lose It
You’ve got to be careful with your stuff, because whatever you leave in a public area, will become public property. Unless it is locked in your room, it is no longer solely yours. Yep, even if you have your name on it. Even your tub of your moisturiser is now for the random guy that stayed over in your friends room last night…
Tip #6
Sign Up, Level Health Up
It seems to be a right of passage that everyone gets freshers flu, the important thing is to know the difference between freshers flu, and still feeling unwell at the end of the first semester. Make sure you sign up with the local doctors surgery at university, otherwise if you do get ill in the future, you’ll be stuck with your friends staying away from you and people pointing at you from across the street. There will still be doctors in the town of your uni, they are still not allowed to talk about you to anyone, everything is the same, so sign the hell up!
Tip #7
It’s Nothing Like This
Finally, you’ve gotta realise that university is going to be nothing like you imagine it to be. It’s not going to be scary and intimidating, but it’s also not going to be insane party after insane party with everyone going wild, not if you don’t want it to be. It’s still a new environment, so people will be feeling their most vulnerable. Some people will compensate by being louder and more outrageous than they normally are, and some will hide in the corners and backs of the room. Gravitate towards those are acting how you are feeling; those are your friends for life.
Those are my top 7 (not to be taken seriously) tips for your first semester at University. I hope these tips help some of you guys out, and remember, don’t worry about starting uni, it’s going to be fine. You’re going to make some of the greatest memories and friends of your entire life, enjoy it all.