The Student Room Group

Did your life get better when you went to university?

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Reply 20
Original post by Jon of the North
As I'm drifting toward the terminus of student status, I've realised that it was over hyped, and mentally hard. My degree has been dull and difficult, and my social life peaked at the end of first year, and has deteriorated ever since. More questions about who I am, and where I'm going have arisen than answers, and I really don't need it. But hey, maybe it's just me.


How's the social side of Kings?
Honestly? Nope.

Independence doesn't fuss me - I was pretty independent at home. My parents trusted me to be sensible so they essentially let me do what I liked (which is pretty conservative anyway!). Okay, I get to cook, clean, look after myself - I guess that's something that's changed but I wouldn't say it's been a huge wow-factor of uni life!
Yes, much better, but that's mainly because I moved from a place where I had very few friends to a place where my best friends already lived, it has very little to do with university itself.
Reply 23
Original post by Shack93
Yes but your question was an answer to someone else's question. Now you made a moronic statement.


No it wasn't; it was a question regarding his question, and the attitude he has toward university implied by it. Don't quote me again if you don't intend to explain your original quote.
Reply 24
No not at all, but I had a good life before Uni and never really expected it to be better tbh, and never saw what the big deal was with Uni, or what might be there that would improve my life.

But hey, I'm just one of quite a few TSR miserable freshers, a lot of people will enjoy University and if you don't feel like you have a great life at home and that uni will be an improvement then it very possibly will be
Reply 25
Original post by lizlaz350
It didn't change as much as I thought it would so I did get a little depressed when I realised that things were still more or less the same but in general, I'd say I enjoy it more now than I did at school.


I've done this before but so what...+rep solely for your avatar :love::love:.
Reply 26
Life definitely changed in a huge and great way for me when I first went to uni...I left home, got a steady part time job, got my first long term boyfriend, learnt to be more independent, made some friends that will almost definitely last a lifetime and have some definite keepers for the memory box, but you know what? Life got even better when I finished and moved to the other side of the world, met lots of other people who had studied and were experiencing the independent non-uni expat (and local) lifestyle, learnt a new language and got my first "real" job so to speak. I graduated almost 4 years ago and I'm going back to uni for my MA this autumn, but I'll tell you now...life is only getting better...or that's my opinion so far, but I try to make decisions that make it that way. It's all up to you buddy! ^-^
Original post by AmyJ
I've done this before but so what...+rep solely for your avatar :love::love:.


Hahaha thanks :love:
Reply 28
Actually... things got worse. More things to add to that ever increasing list of regrets.
For me, it got a lot better - but as others have said, it didn't just fall into my life. I went to uni determined to get involved and meet new people; meaning that I went to all the events/trips organised for my course and got involved in a lot of clubs and outside voluntary work. It also helped that I really love my degree and I think that it has definitely changed the way I look at life for the positive (as sad as that may sound!)
Original post by fl4mers
Life definitely changed in a huge and great way for me when I first went to uni...I left home, got a steady part time job, got my first long term boyfriend, learnt to be more independent, made some friends that will almost definitely last a lifetime and have some definite keepers for the memory box, but you know what? Life got even better when I finished and moved to the other side of the world, met lots of other people who had studied and were experiencing the independent non-uni expat (and local) lifestyle, learnt a new language and got my first "real" job so to speak. I graduated almost 4 years ago and I'm going back to uni for my MA this autumn, but I'll tell you now...life is only getting better...or that's my opinion so far, but I try to make decisions that make it that way. It's all up to you buddy! ^-^

This is very inspiring :biggrin:

So far my uni. experience has been great and it was better than Sixth Form although I do miss some of my old school friends...

I would that your "university experience" is only as good as you make it. If, say, you choose to sit in your room everyday doing your work, although your work will probably be great, your "social experience" is gonna be pretty crap.

*add*
I should add that you don't need to be getting absolutely hammered every night to have a good time, I don't drink and I'm having a great time in London.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 31
Original post by Smack
It got better - much better.

But don't assume that it will happen by default. If you want to improve your life then you have to put the work in to improving it. Otherwise it will stay the same.

University is an opportunity to get a fresh start if you hated school or college. But you've still got to take that opportunity.


I've not been to uni yet but I agree with this. My life got better in 6th form because I changed, it seems like a lot of people on TSR expect uni to be magically different and amazing, when really life is what you make of it.

But on another note all of my friends absolutely love uni :smile:
Reply 32
I'm not sure really - I enjoy being more independent, living in a more interesting place, and the format of the course. It's a bit rubbish having to live alone and think more about stuff like food, cleaning etc but that's the way life is. I really really hated sixth form by the time I got to Year 13 for many different reasons, so anything after that was an improvement.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 33
Definately yes. the people who seem to not be enjoying it as much are the people who live in their rooms, go home every weekend, arent a part of any teams/clubs/societies.

Get stuck in - you will have a great time. i flunked 6th form and now on a foundation course while living in halls but its frickin awesome :smile:
I wouldn't say it got better or worse, just a different life style.
Original post by Snowfreeze
I'm in my last year of school and am absolutely hating it, just wanting to go to uni! Did your life get better when you went to uni, or remain relatively unchanged? The only way I'm slogging through thi last year is telling myself that things will get better in September :smile:


Yes, massively!

People at my school were complete ********s, and when I came to uni where everyone was NICE and friendly (and even if you could tell you wouldn't get on with someone, you can still be civil and say hi when walking past each other), it was a massive breath of fresh air. I've met loads of great friends from the course/flat.
Also generally, you just have a laugh. Dancing in the kitchen, snowball fights, funny occurences in lectures, corridor duvet evenings, general banter etc. Plus (assuming you drink/go out) you'll go out about twice a week, and that's always fun. Tip - go to events organised by your course, and out for as much of Freshers as you can do. I met most of my friends today through the maths meet up on day 2, and other events that week. Of course you meet people later constantly, but the biggest stream of new potential friends is in FW, so get y0self out there.
Basically, unless you're particularly antisocial or mean (or have jitters about your course - but I found we all started like that and now I quite like it), it'll be an improvement from school!

EDIT: Why are people negging me because I enjoy uni and think others will do too?
(edited 12 years ago)
I miss school. I like uni, but I'd go back to school in a heart beat.
Best experience of my life so far.
I went in a shy, awkward, relatively miserable teenager and came out a headstrong, reasonably confident happy twenty something. Then post grad has only really served to confirm those changes. Sure I still have bad days and I'm still shy in the grand scale of things but I'm a totally changed person.
I'm also a lot less academic, which wasn't quite how I expected things to go...
Original post by GunnerBill
No.

I should have done a year out and then gone to uni.


Why do you think that?
Reply 39
Did my life get better coming to Uni? No.

This is probably because of the huge hype surrounding it, how we're constantly told how wonderful it will be. Uni so far has been average, but I would definitely swap my pre-uni days for the present.

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