You will spend the majority of the evening queuing!
During freshers, everyone is going out to the clubs, especially when there is a themed party night. Unless you have queue skipping tickets, make sure you get to there just before 12 or otherwise you will probably spend more time queuing than dancing!
Always lock your bedroom door when you go away!
I was one of the fortunate ones when it comes to this. However, my flatmates didn't get off so easily. Harry's room was filled with balloons (some even contained confetti!), Nate's room was completely covered in post it notes, and Jack - poor Jack - his contents of his room was moved all across the city.
Don't rush into picking your next year housemates.
A lot of the time, the people you are close to in the first month or two, you will not be close with at the end of first year. So don't promise to live with people the following year until after Christmas.
Find out if your attendance is graded.
In first year, all my modules were 10% attendance. This meant that it pushed me to go to my lectures more, even if I was out the night before. And although 10% doesn't seem like much, I know people who failed modules and if they had their attendance, would've passed!
Don't leave your referencing to the last minute!!
Although it's not the most exciting thing in the world to do, leaving it until last minute and having 30 to do at once is even worse. Apps such as RefMe will help do it for you, and keep them all in one place together.
Cook with your flatmates.
You will miss home cooked meals like roast dinners, but you don't have to. Me and my flat cooked several meals together throughout the year. Not only were we having a good meal, but we were also spending a lot of time together laughing and joking over our meal.
Don't spend too much, or too little.
Now this is a hard thing to do. But budget and see how much you can spend per week/month after rent, bills and any other payments are taken. If you roughly have £20 a week to spend and you only spend £15, don't feel bad if you treat yourself to something with the extra £5. Sometimes you have to treat yourself.
Some courses have Facebook groups.
Looking whether your course has a Facebook group could be really helpful. I know that my course has one for my year group and people talk about the assignments and have a place to ask for help or to quickly clear up a small question.
Explore the city.
Yes you will be living there for at least three years. But the only places you'll actually get to know if you don't go exploring is clubs and take always! Sometimes the city you are in could be somewhere really beautiful or interesting and you could be missing out.
And finally.... everyone is in the same boat!
You may feel like you're the only one that misses home, and are getting stressed with all the new things you are experiencing. However, the majority of Fresher's probably haven't been to uni before and have just moved out for the first time too. You're not alone and if you talk to people, you will probably find out that people feel the exact same!
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