First impressions of uni
A realistic Guide to life at UCLan - written by students!
The UCLan student guide tells you that being a student is more than just gaining a degree. This is true, but only if you make it that way.
Of course, coming to university is about the qualifications you gain. A degree opens many gateways in your future. But university is also about life, friends and spreading your wings and grasping your independence.
If I had to sum up my first year of university in one word it would be ‘independence’. For many, university is the first real big step in their lives; a daunting, scary and above all extremely exciting step to take.
For the first time, many of you will have to fend for yourselves, make your own decisions, manage your time efficiently and organise your own finances. All of that as well as doing your own food shopping, cooking and cleaning! When you pack up your life and move it into a communal student flat, it’s scary.
You arrive in new accommodation, in a new place and amongst new people. You probably haven’t got a clue what is going to happen next. This is when the real experience starts. A new chapter in your life, a new start, new people and new things to wrap yourself up in. Get involved. Talk to everyone. At the end of the day, no matter how cliché it sounds- everyone is in the ‘same boat’.
For the most part, no one knows anyone at this stage and everyone wants someone to talk to, to go out with and someone to share their experience with. Most of the friends I have now are people who I have met at the most random times and places. Therefore, the best advice I can offer in regard to making friends, is to talk to everyone and don’t be shy. Chances are the person you start talking to is feeling exactly the same way as you are and is glad of some conversation.