By Hannah Phillips
Student life can be and most certainly should be an amazing experience. Living away from home, a whole new sense of freedom, meeting new people, going to new places and learning new things all make up this fantastic experience. But with your new found freedom also comes responsibilities that you need to address to ensure your experience is a positive one. So we’ve got some helpful tips and advice to help you along the way…
Do something new…
So you’re making a fresh start in a new city, with new people, so why not try something you haven’t done before? There are lots of societies and clubs you can get involved with at university from sports, to creative writing, books clubs and baking. Go along to your university freshers fair and find out what’s happening around you. It’ll be a great way to get talking to people and meet those who share similar interests to yourself.
Be free…
Make the most of your free time at university, especially during long Christmas breaks and summer holidays. Sign up to volunteer work abroad and see the world while you can as you may not have as much opportunity to do so in your working life.
Get to know people…
Talk to your course mates and be sociable. You never know what you might find you have in common with other people. Chances are you’ll make some best friends for life at university, so enjoy the experience of meeting new people and making new friends!
Plan your time carefully…
The social side of university, for some people, is one of the main parts of the university experience, but it’s important you don’t forget the reason you’re there. After all, there’s no point paying for a course if you’re not going to put the work in. This doesn’t mean you can’t have fun though. Put together a schedule and map out your study time, and aim to stick to these slots. You’ll have more structure to your work/study life and you’ll be able to enjoy yourself and plan social events during your free time.
Don’t let stress take over your life…
With a high work load and exam season, stress can get the better of you and it’s easy to let the pressure get to you. But remember, there are always people to help you. Speak to course mates, family/friends, your lecturer or a university counsellor. Help will always be on hand and a problem shared is a problem halved. Stress and health-related issues can affect your work and well-being, but there will always be support and advice available to provide help for whatever worries you have.
Make life simpler…
Unfortunately, life isn’t always as simple as we’d like it to be but there are lots of solutions out there to help with making everyday life as a student a little easier and thanks to the wonderful world of technology, there are some pretty handy apps that you should probably know about if you’re a student. The Student Cook, Sleep Cycle, Dropbox, Dictionary.com, Viber, RefMe – to name just a few – are well worth downloading if you’re living the student life.
Manage your money wisely…
Whether you’re in first, second or third year, if you’re moving into a shared house, it’s important you get to grips with your finances to make sure your bills and other essentials are covered. Set yourself a monthly budget for your rent and bills and a weekly budget for your food shopping, toiletries and other necessities, so you know all the important stuff can be paid for before you go on a shopping spree or a pub crawl. If you need help with splitting your bills, we can help make life a little simpler for you and your housemates. We combine all your utilities into one bill and split it equally between you and your housemates, to make paying bills a little easier.
If you are going down the route of managing bills yourself, make sure you are organised and payments are made on time. And don’t be that housemate that needs to be chased for money! Set up a direct debit to go to the person who is dealing with paying the bills. If you’re the organised one handling this, then make sure your housemates have set up their direct debits to pay you on time.
Get our complete guide to university life…
