The Student Room Group

What is life at uni REALLY like?

To anyone who is currently at university or has recently finished, what did you wish you knew about university before attending? What advice would you give to someone trying to prepare for uni life that you wish someone had given you before you went?

Absolutely anything would be helpful!
Reply 1
Original post by perflous
To anyone who is currently at university or has recently finished, what did you wish you knew about university before attending? What advice would you give to someone trying to prepare for uni life that you wish someone had given you before you went?

Absolutely anything would be helpful!


First year should be great on the whole, but it can be awful for some, prepare for ups and downs. Most of your problems (if not financial!) will relate to the other people you're living with, who you may or may not get on with, so be aware that you may not hit it off with everyone after the first few weeks.
Reply 2
I wish I knew that it really was going to be continuous partying, going out, getting drunk, meeting people, making tons of friends, sex and of course really interesting modules!

It is amazing, I am SO sad my first year is over as of this week. :frown:
Reply 3
Original post by perflous
To anyone who is currently at university or has recently finished, what did you wish you knew about university before attending? What advice would you give to someone trying to prepare for uni life that you wish someone had given you before you went?

Absolutely anything would be helpful!


That my first year work load was going to be huge and I should have worked more right from the start to keep up!

But I still got a 2:1 and wholly enjoyed myself (be prepared to spend a lot of money on alcohol).
Original post by perflous
To anyone who is currently at university or has recently finished, what did you wish you knew about university before attending? What advice would you give to someone trying to prepare for uni life that you wish someone had given you before you went?

Absolutely anything would be helpful!


Don't feel pressurized to do anything you don't want to do. For example, I'm not a big drinker and didn't want to get smashed all the time but that didn't stop me making friends with others who are were like minded.

Join a couple of societies as these are great opportunities to try something new and meet new people.
Reply 5
Absolutely ****.
Not to be downer, but I think the perception of uni life is overhyped and exaggerated. I think this is because usually you only really hear about the really good stuff, positive experiences. People who are naturally outgoing and gone clubbing every other night, are usually the more vocal ones in telling others of their experiences - twitter feeds, ''OMG COMPLETED WASTED 3 DAYZZ IN A ROW'' etc etc, you get the picture.

The quieter students, the ones who probably only go out once every week or two and the ones who don't even drink, they tend to be less vocal, they tend to just get on with their own lives without much bother. Don't get me wrong though, for a lot of people, uni is the best time ever, but what about those who had a much milder time? You probably won't have heard from them, they're not going to be on twitter or facebook posting pictures of themselves having a quiet netflix session in their room on a Thursday night. .
It's what you make of it. You can go out all the time, sit in your room all the time, do most of your socialising at society meetings, its really up to you.
People make a lot of hype about Fresher's Week, like how it's the only time where everyone finds their friendship groups etc...total rubbish. I didn't even go to the events in my Fresher's Week. I made most of my friends mid-October.

Also, be prepared for rollercoaster emotions. #inb4soppygit - Some of the simplest things can be really difficult, e.g people cleaning up after themselves.

I was lucky enough to have my brother a year older at the same university so he gave me a lot of information about what it would be like before I even applied for university.

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