Congratulations for getting into uni, you did it! And my God was it a long, tiring, troublesome journey. But you've come to the end of the tunnel, to the promised light. Going to university is a life changing experience. What you learn is so much more than just your choice of degree, you discover who you are, learn more about who you want to be. University helps shape the person who you'll be in more way than I could ever describe. As you rush to take notes in lectures you'll find that your handwriting speed increases immensely. You'll learn that Harvard referencing is a pain in the ass which you'll probably never completely grasp. You'll doubt everything you ever knew to be true, as new ideas are taught to you. You will leave some lectures absolutely amazed, wowed, and inspired. At one point or another, you're phone probably will go off during a lecture.
There's always going to be that one lecturer, whose lectures you find it so difficult to stay awake in, oh and you'll realise that being poor and taking loads of naps as well as being hooked to TV series, is perfectly normal. You're going to hunt down journals for a few sentences, books for only a paragraph or two. For an assignment which you'll probably forget about. I think I've written about 'Beers law' 3 times and I still cant tell you what the equation is.
Here's the probably the best thing you'll read on this post. Uni is not like school or college, everyone is friendly because you're all adults now. Don't be afraid to go up to people and introduce yourself in welcome week. During freshers is the easiest time to make friends. Some of my closest uni friends I've come to know by simply approaching them myself. These 2 girls were talking and I marched up to them and said "Hi, I'm Amina, what are your names" And we've been friends ever since. Try loads of different things. There isn't another place as diverse in terms of societies and extra curricular stuff like uni.
I know this must be so exiting for you guys, heck I remember this time last year like it was last week. I had my books and everything ready, just raring to go. It was the best feeling in the world, knowing that from this point on, your future starts. It's a feeling that you wish you could have forever.
Remember this guys, it's normal to feel lost after a couple of weeks, to feel like you don't know whats going on/happening and that everyone else seems to know what theyre doing. They don't, always always always check online, and if youre ever in doubt. Email your tutor, and if you don't know your tutor then someone in your department. Universities usually have the department contact details on their websites. Someone once told me this, and I think it's worth sharing with you guys. Befriend older student doing a similar course to you. you will most likely meet them in societies, don't be afraid. ask around. I've met some really helpful friends at the Islamic society, who have given great advise. It's little things like, 'Dr T usually gets her questions from her tutorials so make sure you remember your stats' and comments like that make a difference, I had 5 stats related questions in my exam, a topic I thought wasn't even important. Another time I was struggling with an essay, a 2nd year biochemist just happened to hear my conversation and helped me on the train. It's the little things that make the difference.
Look for a society that is related to your degree, e.g. pharmacy is usually PharmSoc, there's others like biological society, law society etc, whatever your subject is. Facebook is a good place to connect with people, so outside the actual freshers page, it might be useful to look for societies pages aswell.
Don't underestimate your workload, yes in almost all courses first year grades don't count. But you know what counts? the skills of writing an assignment properly and remembering what you learned in your first year you'll need for the rest of your duration. Besides, it's best to aim for at least a 2.1 anyway, with the tough market work experience is really needed. And most work places will ask for a transcript of your grades.
Get to know your lecturers, now this is difficult in massive classes but you should have seminars where you meet lecturers on a smaller student:lecturer ratio. For me, it was demonstrators. Of course I don't mean personally, but ask them loads of questions about your work, ask ask ask. Then they'll help you out more compared to another student that doesn't ask, which only means better marks.
If there's one thing I regret from this past year, it's not revising a topic before the next one is taught. Because the next topic is based on the assumption that you know the previous topic so you'll most likely be clueless if you haven't revised yet.
Congratulations again for making it, may your dealings with Student Finance England be smooth and most of all. Don't forget to have fun :D
Peace out!
This is probably filled with spelling and grammar errors, do excuse it I wrote this at 3am ;)
