Top Freshers' Mistakes & How To Overcome Them

Freshers’ week and indeed year. A time to go wild, let your hair down so to speak and at long last get a taste of freedom. The first year you spend at uni can be all kinds of things and the stuff that happens can range from character-building, amazing, and life changing, to erm, well, regrettable... From my inside sources, I've compiled a list of the top 8 freshers' mishaps. Learn from their mistakes and not your own! I’ve counted them down from bad to super bad. If you can see yourself falling into the same regrettable patterns, change your ways before it’s too late, you’re in second year and work actually matters.

Typical student pad...

 

8. ‘I didn’t participate in enough societies’ – The freshers’ fair has been and gone, your friend was in a rush to get back in time for the mixed-lax tryouts and you found yourself being dragged past lots of the stalls. Sure you signed up to a few, but not half as many as you’d have liked.

Solution: Go on the Students' Union website and you can sign up to join the mailing lists from there. Alternatively, don’t do anything and your lonely/single/boring days will not be over.

7. ‘I can’t remember much of first year...’ – Ahh, you’ve spent your days trawling back and forth to lessons, and the nights cemented against strangers in questionable clubs, with a only app to ease the awkward.

Solution: Sure you should go out, it’s no fun being a hermit at uni, but it might be worth getting a hobby that doesn’t involve getting so hammered, you can’t actually remember which college you go to. (Consult solution 1)

6. ‘I wish I hadn’t eaten so many college potatoes.’ – This is understandable regret which will likely be shared by anyone who has lived in catered halls. Although curly fries seem like the highlight of the day at times, by the end of the year, they are nothing but a carby curse.

Solution: Avoid the fried stuff, opt for the rice / boiled potatoes. Lesson over.

5. ‘I blew my student loan, half way through term...’ – So you may be known as a bit of a wild child who loves to party, but prefers Bollinger to the wine at formal and are infamous for flashing your Coutts gold card at every given opportunity, just to let your peers know you own the equivalent of a small island. But it has come at a price. A hefty one which has left you scraping together the pennies.

Solution: STOP THE MADNESS!!! You have to rein it in now or you won’t be able to even book your train ticket home! Look into getting a part-time job or ask your parents to bail you out this one time. After all, they can probably afford to.

4. ‘I shouldn’t have shared a room. My room-mate and I weren’t well suited to each other’ – So you thought you’d guarantee yourself a friend by sharing a room. You filled out the ‘personality questionnaire’ and expected to be set up with an ideal candidate. That didn’t happen. They’re a nocturnal being, with a love for rock music and you have 9am lessons EVERY DAY! Help?!

Solution: In a situation like this, straightening out your differences soon is essential. If your roomie has a strange habit which is going to wear you down, let them know asap so that they can adjust it. The longer you leave it, the more surprised they’ll be when you eventually point it out in a fit of rage. With room-mates, it’ll always be a case of ‘compromise is key’.

3. ‘I wish I hadn’t been so emotionally swamped.’ – This is not something that you can really help; you’re away from home, all your old friends, and living in a new part of the country, maybe even the world. There are some steps you can take to make sure your emotions don’t get the better of you and ruin your first year though...

Solution: If you’re feeling swamped, you should talk to someone. It could be a friend or alternatively, get yourself on Skype and tell your parents what’s up. They’ll usually always be willing to lend an ear and besides, they’ll be curious to know what you’ve been getting up to!

2. ‘I chose the wrong degree.’- It is the case that sometimes, things don’t turn out quite as you might’ve expected them to. This can be a bit of an issue if it relates to the degree you’re paying nine grand a year for, not seeming like it’s worth a fraction of this.

Solution: Don’t panic. Sometimes your department will let you take optional modules, so you can vary your course with up to two modules which are completely different from the degree you’re studying. Alternatively, you can sometimes swap if you contact the necessary departments soon enough during term.

1. ‘I slept with my neighbour and now it’s awkward. Really awkward.’- Alcohol makes even the worst ideas seem good at times, and never is this more true than when it comes to matters of the heart. Your neighbour is cute, lives next door and was ‘convenient’. But now things are awkward. You’re trying to avoid them at all costs and the impending doom of bumping into them during the post-shower dash is looming.

Solution: Well the damage is done. Unless you can turn back time, you’re stuffed and are just going to have to live with the repercussions of the error of your wily ways.

Did this article help you? Any other advice you would give to freshers?