Things to expect in your first year of uni:
1. Sometimes you don’t make a solid group of friends straight away, so don’t feel too upset. I’m a second year and I’ve only really now started adding people on Facebook and forming casual friendships. It happens. If you do make good friends - awesome.
2. Pre-readings and online modules prior to lectures and/or tutorials. DO THEM. Skim through readings if you’re short on time, and do the prep work the week before. Trust and save yourself from having to go through everything within days (multiplied by X units) before your exams.
3. Realising once you’re in your new home no, you did not need to pack every belonging you have, because yes, everything DOES. NOT. FIT.
4. Realising how much stuff you have but don’t need.
5. If moving out of home, bills and rent or paying for accommodation can be STRESSFUL.
6. ~Adulting~
7. How sometimes boring general core units are. It sucks but have to be done.
8. Your tutor not haggling you about studying more and stuff, ‘cause that’s all on you. If it’s the tutor’s fault, I would suggest bringing that up with the head of the school/faculty or even your student guild to think of solutions.
9. By approx. week 5 to week 6, class numbers begin to exponentially drop, most significantly within the last three weeks of semester.
10. Yes, older people study at uni too. Most of them are nice, genuine, and nervous. Yes, sometimes they do older people things.
11. There are many, many intelligent and kind people in university.
12. Some people have significantly different work ethics.
13. Going to the wrong class across the year is a-OK. I walked into an upper year math lecture and realised the lecturer wasn’t who mine actually was. Whispered very loudly “OH MY GOD” and walked straight out. We’ve all been there. Just kindly walk out and pretend nothing even happened.
14. University life is more than academics. Take a leap and do things.
15. You’ll have to do more than your degree to get to where you want to be.
16. People party a lot, you can be one of them but if you want to keep up your grades, please balance it with your studies, work and other commitments!
17. University can either be harder or easier than high school. For me? Easier so far. Further units will be difficult. But you’ll learn a lot of useful and enriching knowledge which is worth something more than what you might learn in high school.
18. Seating plans don’t exist, but if you’re gonna change seats every week, you’re most definitely messin’ up the system.
What other things can first years expect? Whether you’re fresh out of first-year like me or a tertiary education veteran, I’ll make sure to update this continuously with all of our input!
