20 Things a fresher needs to know

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With freshers' week just around the corner, here are a few of the essential must-know facts about student life!

1. You only need 40% to pass

Don’t waste this golden opportunity!

2. You’ll never really finish unpacking
That ironing board your mum made you bring will never get used. Those three hot water bottles your grandma forced you to pack before your big move to the ‘freezing’ north, or into shoddy accommodation – unnecessary.

3. You’ll learn more names in freshers’ week than you’ll ever be able to remember
There’ll always be that one person you speak to outside of lectures, but it’s just too late to ask their name.

4. Take all free things/vouchers
Your student loan won’t last as long as you think, so be sure to raid all the stalls at freshers’ fair.

5. Making friends is easy
Don’t be shy – every fresher is in the same boat. Everybody is looking to make friends – it’s best to be a social hussy.

6. You will get freshers’ flu
Everyone does eventually. Stock up on lemsip and spend lots of time in bed. Although you’ll do that anyway.

7. Be prepared to answer the same questions over and over again
Countless people will ask you your name, where you come from, and what course you’re studying. Don’t try and be the smart-arse who gets bored of telling the truth – people will remember if you tell stupid stories.

8. You don’t need to buy every book on the reading list
As if university wasn’t expensive enough already, academic books are mighty pricey. Go to the library instead.

9. Your parents will phone all the time – at first
Your mum and dad will phone every day. Sod’s law dictates that it will always be in a situation where answering the phone to mummy will seriously reduce your cool points.

10. Wikipedia will become a guilty habit
We all know you’re not supposed to use it, but it’s just so irresistibly useful.

11. Sign up for free-choice modules early
When you’re given the option to choose your modules, don’t hang about. The longer you leave it, the more likely you are to get stuck in the most unimaginably dull class about the history of dust, or something similar.

12. Get a 16-25 Railcard
Cuts a third off the cost of your train ticket. Brings the cost of your ticket down from ‘obscene’ to ‘almost reasonable’.

13. Sign up for a student bank account, but don’t sign up for a credit card
Student bank accounts have benefits, such as interest-free overdrafts. Credit cards do not.

14. Get a good souvenir
Whether it’s a traffic cone, a poster from your favourite club, or someone’s abandoned mouldy sofa, these things will have the kind of sentimental value that money simply cannot buy.

15. Get off with someone
It’ll either make a funny story, or you could end up being one of those sickening lovey-dovey couples who stay together for the rest of university.

16. Join societies and get involved
Universities have loads of groups and countless volunteering opportunities. You’ll not only make friends outside of your course and your flat, but it’ll also give you bragging rights on your CV.

17. Don’t go home every weekend
Your housemates might think you’re weird, and your parents will get worried.

18. You’ll always know someone cleverer than you
You may have been the class swot in Sixth Form, but there is always a bigger brainiac at uni. Don’t beat yourself up about it; it’s okay to be second best.

19. There will always be one story people will remember you for
You will no longer be labelled as the ‘geek’ or the ‘goth’. You will instead take on a more individual tag, such as ‘that girl/guy who chundered out the window of a high-rise block of student flats’. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

20. Time flies
University begins and ends in the blink of an eye. It’s cheesy, but make the most of it.

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