Starting university can be a stressful and exciting time. Who are you going to live with? Can I manage without my parents? Do I even know how to look after myself? Were all questions that went through my mind. However, now I'm about to start my third year, which I'm feeling a little bittersweet about. Mainly because I'm coming to the end of an era and I've met some wonderful people during my time at uni, that I hope to stay in contact with for the rest of my life. For me the 'managing life' part had its ups and downs but living away from home has allowed me to become more independent and flourish into my own person. I'm here to share with you a few things that I've learnt a long the way, just to make your uni experience a little bit easier.
IKEA is your friend
Or Wilkos, that shop is your friend too. I can't believe how much I actually needed to buy from IKEA: cutlery, bedding, a little table, plates, basically everything I couldn't take with me from home. I followed this checklist to keep on top of shopping.
Be prepared to buy more kitchen utensils
For me, baking trays just seemed to disappear. I'd go to heat up some food in the oven and there would nothing to use, or it would be dirty in the sink and I guess you can just put tin foil over dirt doesn't bother you but for me, I bought about five new trays. Knives and forks go missing too, but most supermarkets sell packs for £1.
Take stuff from home
Now, I don't mean steal but whenever I popped home for a visit I would always have a little raid through the food cupboards in my kitchen and grab a few tins and anything I could take back with me instead of spending money. Usually my mum wouldn't mind so that was always good. I used to take toiletries (which can be really pricey!) such as: toothpaste, toilet rolls, shampoo and body wash which probably saved me about £10 a month in all.
Try to avoid getting an overdraft
To put things in perspective; I'm £1743 into my £2000 overdraft limit and I've not even started the third year. So if you can avoid it just stay well clear. Unfortunately for me, that wasn't an option mainly because I never see any of my student loan because it all goes on rent, as student housing is just daylight robbery. If you qualify for a grant that will help a lot but try and budget as much as you can to save yourself from the weeks of being penniless.
Dealing with chores
During my first year I lived in halls with six other people, all of us were not particularly tidy and the kitchen got into some hideous states. It would usually work out that me and two others would always do the cleaning which sometimes caused a little bit of tension between the rest of the house. So, the best way to get all those gross chores done is for everyone to clean together and put some music on, it's suprising how quickly everything gets cleaned too.
Don't jump into a new house renewal straight away
As a flat, all seven of us got on incredibly well, so when we were told to start looking at securing a house for second year we all jumped at the chance to live together again. However, this was around Christmas time and we were all still in the honeymoon stage of our friendship but over time cracks started to form, as people got more comfortable and true colours began to show. So second year, although it was a lot of fun, wasn't the easiest environment to live in. In hindsight, I wish we'd waited before making the commitment to live together for another year.
You can use Wikipedia - but be smart about it
Okay, so Wikipedia is just so straight to the point when you're researching a topic, but obviously it can be unreliable as people can add to the articles without any evidence to suppor their point. However, this is why there is a way to separate the good info from the rubbish. Usually after a point is made there is a little citation which looks a bit like this: [1]. If you click on it it will take you to the bottom of the article where all the references and links within the article can be found. Now all you need to do is click the link which matches the citation and voilà, you can now reference a proper website.
P.s. I've been told by my lecturers you shouldn't reference Encyclopaedia Britannica either.
Don't bother buying the reading material.
So lecturers always give you a huge list of books to buy that will "aid your studying". First off, let me start by saying my purchased books are gathering dust and still have that new book smell, which basically means they've been used once or never. Obviously reading materials are vital when it comes to referencing and catching up on lectures you missed (or slept through) but generally all the information you need can be found online or for free in your uni library. Plus, to top it all off some of your lecturers are probably telling you to buy books that they've written themselves, which in my opinion, is a little bit bold. However, if you really need a hard copy of a book then look out for second hand editions - the same book for half the RRP. You can't really get better than that!
Hope you've found this post mildly helpful at the start of your uni experience. Good luck, and remember to have fun!