Summer is the worst part of the uni year

Three months at home is way too long


As the end of the uni year comes within our grasps, thoughts turn to how we’re spending the summer. For some of us, the realisation that we’ll be at home for a whole three months lays ahead of us like a prison sentence. Long gone are the days of romanticizing summer as a time of endless sun, roadtrips and BBQs; here’s why summer at uni is daunting:

You’re filthy poor

For those who actually manage to budget their student loan throughout the year, uni can be a wonderful time – you can have occasional Nandos, 3 ply toilet roll and splash out on one up from Sainsbury’s own brand with a cheeky bottle of Glen’s vodka. However, even the most savvy spenders will struggle to leave anything aside for summer. In your mind, you’ve made it through the year without being in relative poverty. In reality, you have £12 to last you three months at home. Admittedly you’re relieved of having to buy food and other necessities yourself, but unless you have a foolproof plan to get minted in summer, it looks like you might have to sacrifice your social life. Uni 1 – Student 0.

summer funds

Your hometown has nothing on your uni

It may have seemed wild and fantastic when you just turned 18, but returning home after a year at uni leaves you feeling completely disillusioned with your hometown’s nightlife. Over the year, you’ve grown accustomed to having a plethora of club nights to choose from, and then suddenly you’re lumped with a single Wetherspoon’s and one club within a 20 mile radius which is also rammed with everyone you’ve ever gone to school with. Three whole months of dancing to the same playlist will have you literally gasping for a blue pint.

Wetherspoon’s was fun the first 50 times

The uni squad is separated

You’ve bonded over hungover movie days in the flat, and failed attempts at pub quizzes together. Being friends with someone and seeing them every day are very different things – how will you cope without them? How will you be able to bond over first dates when dotted across the country? Three whole months apart simply won’t do – either a summer reunion is on the cards or you’ll have to make up for (a lot) of lost time when you return for Fresher’s Week 2.0.

uni squad

You have to get a summer job 

Really an essential if you want to do more than watch Netflix the whole of summer. Thrust into the working world, you’ll soon learn the difference between being a ‘full-time student’, a.k.a. nine hours of uni, and a full-time worker, doing 40 hours a week. Laughing and weeping, it’s time to get out of the bad habits of uni – you need to leave your beloved 12pm starts in the past. Depending on your summer job this may not be such a bad thing, if you’re organised with a suave internship you’ve pretty much got a good thing going. But, spending three months flipping burgers may be a tad soul-destroying.

There are no student deals

No £1 drinks all Friday? No three bombs for £5? No £4 bottle of wine from West Street Live?

A truly pitiful state of affairs. The realisation that your hometown bars and clubs assume you actually have money is a tough one to swallow. You can no longer scrape it through on a night out with £6, you may even have to regress to drinking cider in the park with your friends. However dismal your circumstances, be certain that you’ll be counting down the days to get sloshed on West Street.

£1 drinks make the world go round

Your brain shrivels up

You did it after GCSE, you certainly did it after A Levels, and you swore you wouldn’t let it happen again. After the pressure of exams and assignments, you’ve left your brain to stew and numb in endless hours of sleep and box sets. By the time September comes round again, you can barely separate your where / were / we’re ‘s , let alone tackle the developments in Renaissance literature. What did you even learn in first year? It seems like a lifetime ago that you had enough thoughts to write a whole essay. Granted it might take a few weeks to brush away the cobwebs, but you will eventually have a functioning brain again.