A few things I've learnt in my first year of University

I have finally finished my first year of university. Hooray!! This year has gone so unbelievably quickly that Freshers' and being in a whole new city seems many moons ago.

I have learnt a lot in my first year of university, so here are a few things I want to share with you:

1) Freshers' Week: It is totally normal to feel slightly lost in Freshers’ Week everyone is in exactly the same boat. Don’t forget that! Although people don’t admit it for some people it is not the best week of their lives, and not quite what it is hyped up to be. People tend to be quite fake in the first few weeks of university as everyone is desperate to make friends. Some people I spoke to in my first couple of weeks I haven’t spoken to since, but you’ll never know if they could be your friend unless you make the effort to speak to them.

2) Budgeting: Something that both my parents and lots of other older friends used to bang on about. Seriously, it is worth sticking to some sort of budget to make sure that your student loan is stretching as far as you need it to. It may take some time to work how much you can get away with spending on food, rent, bills and importantly going out but it will be worth it when you are not heavily reliant on your overdraft.

3) Nights out: An important topic for any student and some of my best memories of my first year have been made on nights out. I have trashed so many pairs of shoes this year, so my advice would definitely be to buy a couple of pairs you like but are cheap and can get ruined without too many tears. Ensure you put some cash aside at the start of the night it will save you so much embarrassment later on. Your drunken self may thank you too.

4) Housing: I take the view to not stress to much about housing for second year until after Christmas unless you know you are going to be a large group. I am living with 7 other people next year and we found it slightly difficult finding the right house at the end of January, but it all worked out pretty well. Never feel pressured by the agent to make an instant decision. Go with your instinct slightly on whether the house feels right. If there is mould or any sign of damp, it’s a definite NO!!

I really hope that this might be of some help to someone.