Freshers Tips and Why I Chose Univeristy

My Reasons I think uni was the best choice for me & First year tips

With A-level results having been released a couple days ago some people might be in two minds whether to go or to stay at home and go down a different path and guess what! Either option is completely fine!

University is what many see as an only option. My sixth form never seemed to talk in detail about apprentices or any other options, seeing as my sixth form was a school that upheld excellent results you may be shocked to learn that not that many of us did attend uni. We were a smallish year group and I’d say almost all of us applied to university (a few didn’t) but when it came to go a lot of people last minute changed their minds and If they didn’t change their mind before hand they dropped out by Christmas.

Me on my first day of university

This blog is all about me being honest about the ups and the downs of my University experience and therefore I should be honest about why I decided to go. I don’t think I ever told my parents that I was thinking of going to university, for me it was something my parents expected me to do like my sister and my mother before that, I never felt they would be happy if I went off the track that they had pushed me towards, but honestly now having just registered to go into my second year I am so glad I went. At the end of the day university is not for everyone, but its hard to imagine if you would survive if you don’t go. A lot of my friends from home aren’t at university one or two dropped out and others never really wanted to go, and they’re doing okay too, if you don’t go your life isn’t over.

For me Uni was the best choice and here’s why:

·         If I hadn’t gone to Uni I would have done nothing – this isn’t to say that people who don’t go to university are lazy and do nothing with their days as I already have said a lot of my friends don’t go to university and are just in full time work. Instead this is a reflection on me as I know that if I hadn’t gone to university I would still be in the same low paid job that I was in before I left for university, I would have put off job searching and continued to complain but doing nothing about it.

·         I would still be obsessing over the same boy – Not long before I left for university did my relationship with my last boyfriend end, I was devastated. Looking back, it was sad and pathetic the way I handled the split. If I still lived here in my small time I probably would have still been holding out for his return.

·         I don’t think I would have found my true friends – this sounds awful I know it really does. I will always love my friends from home, but the friends I made at university are my nearest and dearest. I adore all of them and the difference between them and my home friends, is that I’ve lived with them, we have seen each other look our absolute worse, we have become so disgustingly comfortable with each other that its almost strange, I honestly love them to pieces.

·         I’ve grown up a lot – I believe this is thanks to university. Again, you’re essentially thrown into a house with people completely out of your control and you kinda hope for the best, so straight away you’re learning to get to know new people. You learn how to cook and look after yourself properly and overtime you will feel more comfortable in your skills.

·         It’s taught me to be less judgemental to others – I’ve always been brought up to be very including and accommodating to everyone no matter who they are, what they are or what they look like and I have never treated anyone differently for any of those reasons. However, we all judge people whether its people we know or people we don’t know, no one is perfect, and we have a tendency to bring each other down in our judgements.

·         My diet improved and I feel so much better about myself – this is down to the fact when im at home my diet is shit because my mam buys all the crap that I love but is unhealthy, whereas at university It’s my decision what I put in the shopping cart, I walk more because I haven’t got my car and I can do what I want without being questioned.

Some of those points may be questionable with people asking how, but It’s just how I feel its affected me. Freshers is a hard and confusing time, but it’s not scary if you don’t let it scare you. To try to help you feel more comfortable below ive listed my advice for Freshers:

1.       You Do Not need everything that you’ll see on online ‘checklists’ – I’d suggest getting the basics before you go (bedding, cutlery, crockery etc etc) but leave the desk lamp till you get there, you might already have one provided. (Do get a cutlery organiser, they are cheap and make things so much tidier than just chucking things in a draw)

2.       Get a decent laptop it doesn’t have to be new or expensive but put some pennies aside for a lightweight and decent sized laptop, you’ll be working off it a lot and watching a lot of Netflix when you should be working, so you want to make sure it’ll last you a while.

3.       Take care of yourself and look after your flatmates when you’re on a night out with them at the end of the day you’re going to be living with these people for awhile and you all need to look out for each other like you would a friend from home.

4.       It’s okay not to get along with everyone. At the end of the day you’re living in a small space with a lot of other people it is impossible for everyone to be best friends but try to keep it polite and civil if there’s someone you do not like, if you’re not it can cause unnecessary tension, and no one wants to live in that sort of environment.

5.       Call your family! They will miss you and they will be worried about you, they might see you having a great time on Facebook, but they want to know how you are, how the actual work is how you feel about your house mates, you’ll feel so much better after calling home too.

6.       Go to at least one of the ‘referencing’ lectures. Yes, they suck, Yes they’re boring and Yes there will probably be more than one of them, but going to one referencing lecture and actually paying attention is really important almost everything needs to be referenced. You do not want to get caught having plagiarised accidentally

7.       Eat properly, sounds stupid and I must sound like your mam, but it’s so important that you don’t just live off pizza takeaways constantly it will affect your health badly and it’ll cost you far more than you’re willing to spend.

8.       If you can afford it alongside university time, get a part time job. That may have been the single best decision I made when it came to the first year of uni. Only once did I ever really struggle for money during my first year and that was Christmas time where money was being spent on gifts for other people.

9.       Try stay in touch with your friends because its nice to be able to go and see each other in university and have a good old catch up.

10.   Have an amazing time!