This blog post has been in the making for the last two months, when I decided I wanted to write some student focused blogs. I started planning and researching this post then ignored it while I tried to keep on top of uni work and my normal travel posts. So like a typical unorganised and lazy student I am finally getting this post to you over two months after I started putting it together and the girls gave me their tips.
Advice for students in their first year
We are fast approaching the end of the first term of uni for many of you, me included. For some it may have been an amazing start but for others myself included it has been an unsettling time. I sort of assumed I would naturally fall in to friendships and uni life but that hasn’t quite happened. I’ve found myself really having to make an effort with making friends and I’m still yet to go out socially with anyone on my course. I’ve struggled to find a work, life, travel, uni balance and at the moment I am so tired it is silly. It has been different to my expectations and I’m soon realising no one is gonna hold your hand through all this, it is up to you, to figure this out yourself.
I’ve decided to enlist the help of some fellow bloggers along with my opinions to but together some advice to help you settle in, in these final weeks of term and start next term with a positive outlook. Especially if you are on a degree like mine where come January you start placement for six weeks.
I have never read so much in my life!!
You know all those lecture notes you’ve made over the last term, go put them in order and file them in some kind of logical system. Otherwise once you come back from Christmas holidays//placement they won’t make a bit of sense to you.
Catch up with all your outstanding work before the holiday season really starts, this way you can enjoy the holidays as much as possible and get some much needed rest without having the work at the back of your mind.
Make a last attempt to socialise with others, there will be plenty of Christmas activities going on or if you live in halls then arrange a flat dinner or something.
Tip from Sophie of The Nomadic Backpacker : Join a sports club or society: getting involved with as much as possible in your first term will not only get you friends, but it will also provide you with lots of opportunities that you can put on your cv. Such as writing for you university newspaper.
Heard a friend talking about an awesome activity they do each week then go ask them if you can tag along and see what it is all about, stop wasting any more time over the decision.
Make the most of being at home for the holidays: enjoy not cooking, having the heating on, not going to lectures everyday etc. it won’t be long before you are back in the cold and dark student flat.
Kirsten from Kirst Over The World : Don’t rush to settle in, it can take a while to find you feet and that’s ok, let yourself relax and enjoy the whole experience and it will come naturally. Kirsten also suggested that study abroad is a great way to have a varied experience of uni.
Any thing you’ve not understood from this term? Start placement in January and still not clear of the expectations? Go get all of these questions answered and figured out before the lecturers go on holiday too and don’t reply to your emails.
Spend some time doing some ‘me’ activities, the things you haven’t been able to do because there just isn’t enough time during term time.
Be proud of getting this far: for handing in all of this terms work, for completing a whole term already, for the friends you have already made, for achieving tasks you thought were too hard or just plain boring.
University is a personal journey for everyone but it is the people who go along on your journey that you will remain friends in years to come. Just because you haven’t made such great friends as you first hoped or spent less time going out than you imagined in this first term, doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong. Next term will be better.
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Tags: Advice Student University
