Freshers Week

The welcome week is your first real taste of university life beyond lecture halls and accommodation blocks. Somewhere between the tote bag giveaways, energy drinks, chaotic crowd of first years and families, and aggressively enthusiastic society representatives, you might miss something rather important: nobody actually knows what they’re doing yet. And that’s your gateway (in all its beauty).

The mistake a lot of freshers make on day one is thinking they need to “find their crowd” immediately. You don’t. The first few weeks are less about finding permanence and more about exposure, ones that can be rewarding for the rest of this journey.

Freshers fair can be your gateway to that summer internship at Morgan Stanley…or your summer fling. Which one it turns to is mostly down to chance - or if you actually attend the networking event.

Walk around the stalls that have nothing to do with your degree, because in controversy, it somehow might. Sign up for the society that feels slightly out of character - you could end up meeting your future co-founder for that FinTech startup you like to muse about during Professor Bond Market Steve’s seminar.

University is one of the few times in your life where reinvention comes with almost no social penalty. Think of it as a free pass to the first class lounge just because you know the airline CEO, suddenly doors open that probably wouldn’t elsewhere.

Question is, will you take your seat in that first class suit, or linger long enough to find the door closed and the CEO gone?

Controlling the Chaos

This soft launch into adulthood can become mildly disastrous before you can even say I’m doing a BSc in Psychology.

But catastrophe can be trained - just like my parrot Turnitin.

One of the most essential things you can do in your first month is build a routine before you feel like you need one - or even better, hit the pedal before university even begins. Begin with small milestones for yourself and slowly shape your habits around them. Your academic life will be significantly rewarding and less overwhelming when you already created a scaffold to fall back on.

Now, don’t mistake routine for an intense productivity schedule filled with colour-coded calendars, ice plunges, and 5 a.m. gym sessions.

That said, if hyper-productivity is your cup of tea, then honestly, good for you. In fact, maybe you should write a column of your own.

What you actually need is finding a grasp on your weekly rhythm: knowing when you study best, when you recharge best, and how to prioritise and balance your responsibilities without feeling like you’re constantly catching up.

A simple to do list and scheduling can feel like cycling on a stream of bumper to bumper traffic.

University presents an unusual amount of autonomy, and while that sounds exciting, it only becomes fulfilling once it’s properly leveraged. Truth is, nobody notices when you slowly stop attending lectures expect you…and perhaps Samuel from that one karate society taster session (no judgement; spontaneity is where Mr CTO is, remember?).

Fresher’s Flue

Ice breaker — Lecture — Freebies — Lecture — First Aid Society — Dinner date — and then —

BANG.

Cough. Cough. Cough.

Welcome to fresher’s flu, AKA, the inevitable.

International students, congratulations to you, half a suitcase of “just-in-case” antibiotics will finally make up for leaving 5 kilos worth of clothes, 2 bags, and a sister behind worth it.

But beware, you can catch it again. Because the UK will take even a sore throat and respond with: see it, say it, PATIENCE.

You may think you have escaped, but the ILR community will be coughing through the lectures like it’s part of the curriculum. Sooner or later, the congestion will catch you before your first West Ham United match.

You’ve survived the phlegmy lecture theatres - hello halls of residence. Thousands of students from all over the country and the globe suddenly sharing kitchens, door handles, bathrooms, and questionable fridge shelves is practically a biological hazard.

And if you’re a victim, a self-destructive cadence will be taxing your recovery. Sleep matters more than you think, snoozing your alarm will lead to snoozing the 9 am lectures. Hydration is annoyingly important to keep you regulated, especially after that sports night in the union bar. Your breakfast is what will stabilise those cortisol levels, your immune system will rebel against an oat matcha, extra shot, extra hot coffee and gluten free croissants. And I need not say that garlic mayo chips and chicken dippers from KFC are what will not let you recover from a night out, turning harmless lecture skipping into three weeks worth of “I’ll catch up tomorrow”.

Budgeting

Here comes trouble in paradise: financing.

University is all about experiences, the fun ones, the dumb ones, and the what happened at Scala stays at Scala ones. Staying out too late occasionally and making questionable decisions become excellent stories you take home with your degree (or without). Some of the best parts of university happen outside of the lecture theatres and coursework deadlines. What’s important is the balance of it all, not perfection. If every night becomes a night out, both your bank account and attendance record will begin to crack under the pressure.

Budgeting, sadly, knocks on your dorm room faster than most students expect. Fresher’s week has a way of convincing you to end up with six different memberships, daily takeaways, and tickets to every event happening within a ten-mile radius. That £5 Deliveroo welcome voucher is not a free open-ended meal-prep.

The point isn’t to check your bank balance before a £3.40 coffee, nor is it to live off Tesco meal deals until graduation. London has far too much to offer for that. Ask for the student discount (you’ll be surprised by the range of places that offer it), look for offers on student platforms (Student (Beans/TOTUM/Too Good to Go/ Groupon), plan your meals when you can, and learn where the reduced gems are hiding. Meal prep doesn’t have to mean eating the same sad chicken and rice for five days straight either, it simply means giving yourself a little more control over where your money goes. And, I cannot stress about this enough: give your body enough nutrition to carry you through the semester; saving money means very little if you’re too exhausted to enjoy what you saved it for.

The aim is to leave yourself some financial wiggle room. The £40 you didn’t spend on your fourth Five Guys this week can go towards the spontaneous weekend away your friends suggest next month (now this is the uni life you want), or a ticket to Rihanna’s concert when she finally decides to dominate the stage again in London. University is full of opportunities you can’t always plan for. Don’t drain your bank account so completely in the present that there’s nothing left for the promises of the future.