My First Year at Uni

Hey there,

As of tomorrow at 5pm, I will have completed my first year at university. For many, uni can be a daunting but exciting experience. For this week's post I thought I would tell you about how I found my first year at university :)

On the 18th August 2017, I got my A-Level results. I was super nervous on the morning of results as was nearly everyone else I knew, but thankfully I got the grades I needed. The week after is a bit of a blur for me as a lot went on because I ended up changing the uni I decided to go to so a lot was happening, I might put that story in another blog post :)

After making the last minute decision to switch university's, it was a very busy time applying for accommodation and sorting everything out. It was important to me that I had somewhere to live in this new city as although I may have been able to commute every day, it would have been very difficult and meant that I had very little time each evening to do work. Overall, I found the process of applying to college accommodation quite hard and tedious. For my initial university, the process was relatively simple, however for my new uni, it seemed very difficult. There was no guarantee of accommodation so I was also trying to find any private accommodation as a back up. After quite a while of waiting, I was lucky enough to get college accommodation. This then brought on the next issue, what to bring to uni?

I had quite a lot, the pictures only show a small amount. Being the first in my family to go to uni, we didn't really know what to expect, so we prepared for all possibilities. My new flat in halls consisted of 6 bedrooms, with shared shower, toilet and kitchen facilities, each bedroom also containing a sink. For anyone else who is going into accommodation similar to mine, I would suggest the following as essentials. Firstly, for your bed, unless its outlined on a website or in a welcome pack, you need to bring your own bedding. I had a single bed in my room but as I am naturally quite a cold person, I bought a double duvet. I also like to have two pillows so I bought a double duvet set with pillow cases. I ended up having four pillows as we bought two sets and weren't sure which were the best so we ended up keeping both. Along with mattress protector and fitted sheet, my bedding was complete. Next was my toiletries. As I had a sink in my room, it meant that I could have my own containers and creams for night time and general use. I brought a toothbrush and toothpaste holder and a soap dispenser, along with all my creams and lotions for nighttime. The rest of my room was filled with ornaments or books or whatever else I wanted to use for decoration. I would strongly suggest bringing photos to your room as you will most likely be given a pin board of some sort and photos can make a room seem very homely. Along the same lines, I am a massive fan of fairy lights and so I brought 2 sets of fairy lights. I used the main body of my wardrobe for clothes (obviously) but in the shelves above it, I kept some snacks and other toiletries that didn't fit at my sink. I found having snacks in your room very handy just for when you want to be lazy. Moving on to the toilet facilities. In some halls there can be the toilet and shower in the one room, however, they were separate in mine, with it being 3 people per toilet and 6 per shower. For the toilet the only thing I really needed to bring was toilet roll as apart from this there wasn't much else in that room. If you are sharing a shower with multiple people like I did, I would suggest flip flops. There may be nothing wrong with the people you are sharing with but chances are you are not the first people to live in that flat and therefore the shower will contain many years of germs and bacteria from other peoples feet. Lastly, the kitchen. I would suggest bringing a reasonable amount of cutlery, maybe two of each, in case you have someone staying over and just in general two of everything. Anything more and you will only find your cupboard very full. Where food is concerned, I found foods that could be kept in the cupboard for lengthy periods of time like cereal, pasta, noodles, rice and soup were best to stock up on, and things for the fridge are better to be bought as you need them. If you take food that will last a long time when you first move in, it will save many trips to the shop during the year. If I was moving into halls again, I would try to keep my things to a minimum as I find that I haven't used half of the things in my room or kitchen.

For most people, including me, uni is your first long period of time away from home. Its very scary for many people and the thought of going to a new city with new people can be very daunting. From my experience I found that no matter what you are thinking or how you are feeling, chances are most people also feel the same. That's why, if you feel comfortable with it, it's best to get out there and meet new people. Luckily when I first moved in, I got on pretty well with the girls in my house and I ended up spending quite a bit of time with them. Fresher's Week is the first week of uni when you will be getting orientation talks and general briefs about your course, but it is also a week where people get a bit wild and go out a lot. For me, this scared the hell out of me. But I found that the best way to get through it was go with it and don't get too stressed. Going out can be a good way to meet people and not everyone who is there will want to go absolutely crazy. Fresher's Week is a great way to meet people who probably aren't on your course, and also those who are and as everyone is in the same boat, the majority of people will be friendly.

My halls experience was a relatively good one. There was a period of time, about two months, which was particularly hard and meant that three of the girls in my flat ended up moving out and in general, it wasn't a very nice time. Luckily though, the issue that caused this is quite a rare one and once it was sorted, halls became a pretty good place to live. Once the girls moved out, more people moved in and one of these girls ended up being one of my best friends this year. As far as making friends, I would say that I have had a mixed experience. My two best friends live in the same flat as me and I am very lucky that they do. However, on my course, I found making friends to be quite tricky. My course is Computer Science and as a subject it comes with a bit of a stereotype of having quite cocky, competitive and clique-y people. Unfortunately I have to say that in my experience all of these are true. But its not all bad, I did manage to get a small group of friends and now I am very happy with my course and my friends on it.

As everyone knows, being a student is hard financially. Many people face the dilemma of not knowing whether to get a part time job or not. Initially, when I went to uni, I didn't have a job but nearer Christmas time, many places in the town closest to where I live at home, were offering seasonal jobs. I applied for some and was lucky enough to get one. It's now May and I am still there. I work in a frozen foods and grocery shop and although it is hard work, I like it. I work every Saturday and I find that having something like a job to go to can give you a break, especially if you have a lot of work due. For me, it meant I could take a break and not feel guilty as I was doing something productive. However, there is a fine line between having a break and a job that can affect your studies. I think if you get to a point that you feel like your job is taking over your free time and it is affecting your work, it may be time to reconsider the amount you are working. Overall though, I think having a job adds to the independence that going to university brings.

I'm going to do another blog post in the future telling of how I decided I wanted to do my course and choosing which uni to go to but looking back, I am glad that I chose to do Computer Science, although it is very tough and stressful, I am really enjoying it and I think it is the right choice. For people going to uni soon who are unsure of what to do, as cliché as it sounds, do something that you enjoy, if you do a course just because its easy to get a job afterwards, chances are you won't enjoy it as much. And if you're unsure whether or not to go to a uni in a different country, or even in your own country but further away, I would strongly suggest going to open days and exploring the city that you could be living in as then you will be able to get a feel for whether or not you would like the area.

This post is a bit different than the main theme of my blog, but I hope that my first year experience can help you if you're going to be going to university in the autumn :)

Sinéad x
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