From fresher to uni veteran: Five things I wish I’d known

University turns you from feeling like a baby fresher to uni veteran in what feels like five minutes, with a lifetime’s worth of lore somehow sandwiched in between.

One minute you’re stumbling into your first lecture, and the next you’ll be spending most of your week drowning in dissertation deadlines and post-grad pressure, wondering where the hell the past two years have gone.

As a third year, I’ve encountered my fair share of life lessons. From where to head for those post-lecture pints to how NOT to behave on a night out, here’s a list of things I wish someone had told me before I became a certified unc.

The danger of a ‘harmless’ post-lecture pint

The biggest lie you’ll ever tell yourself is that you’ll hit the Hancock for one innocent post-lecture pint.

“I’ll only go for one,” you naively promise to yourself.

One red pint down, and you’ll be itching for another. Before you know it, five hours and eight pints later, you’re marching down Bigg Market in Uggs, parading onto Pumphreys’ dance floor with your uni bag over your shoulder, and three TREB cans in your hand.

As for your 9am lecture tomorrow morning? Consider it cancelled.

Make full use of your student discounts

If you don’t know, get to know: UNiDAYS might be your saving grace. Whether it’s your £2 Black Sheep Coffee drink on a Monday, or 2-for-£13 weekly Cineworld tickets, I’m going to hold your hand while I tell you your student discount is not something to be taken lightly.

This applies to pubs, too. With plenty to choose from along the “Jesmond strip” (aka Osborne Road), most offer some sort of student discounts, with the best deals appearing during the infamous £2 Tuesdays.

However, many of them require a physical student card to claim a discounted pint. Don’t make the mistake that many others do in hoping an old screenshot of your UNiDAYS profile will suffice – it probably won’t.

FYI, everyone is connected

And yes, I mean everyone.

Give it three months of living in Jesmond, and you’ll probably have Instagram mutuals with everyone and their long-lost cousin. While the world supposedly operates on six degrees of separation, in Jesmond, it’s closer to one. 

It’s all fun and games until your latest opp turns out to be your coursemate’s housemate, or you share a module with someone you got with back in Freshers’ Week.

My advice? Stay wary.

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In Jesmond, you’re never more than one house party away from seeing someone you would rather pretend doesn’t exist.

Try to actually do your seminar prep

It’s a rainy Wednesday morning, and you’re on your way into your least favourite seminar of the week. Your coursemate has just Snapped you to say they can’t be arsed to come in today, so you’re left to find yourself a lonely seat in the corner of the room, desperately avoiding eye contact with anyone else.

To make matters worse, you spent half of last night planning the perfect outfit for tonight’s sports social. In the midst of excitedly placing a last-minute Amazon order for green face paint and fake antennas, you’ve somehow forgotten to read even a single page of the seminar materials.

You think you can get away with it, though, because you’re banking on the hope that everyone else is equally as unprepared.

That is, until your seminar leader opens with a question and the room falls silent. You make the fatal mistake of looking up, accidentally locking eyes with them, and are promptly asked to answer… You’re completely screwed.

So let this be your warning: Spend that extra 20 minutes on that seminar prep. There’s nothing more embarrassing than attempting to escape your own ignorance through a staring contest with your seminar leader.

Do not commit flatcest

The golden rule. An unspoken pact. That one piece of uni advice that still somehow completely goes over people’s heads…

After hearing one too many horror stories about how flatcest was very much NOT a happily ever after, it’s fair to say the chances of stumbling across your future husband or wife within the four walls of your tiny student flat are pretty slim.

While a lucky few have managed to turn flatcest into a success story, it more often than not ends in chaos.

Forced proximity does not have to mean forced intimacy, and your shared flat kitchen is messy enough as it is without the aftermath of a failed situationship thrown into the mix.

As a third year, I’m desperately clinging to every part of the uni experience I possibly can. Any pub trip, night out, or cosy movie night could be one of your last, and suddenly you no longer want to take even the most mundane Thursday afternoon for granted.

Make those questionable decisions, collect the reckless lore, and enjoy every minute. Before you know it, you’ll be in third year, drowning in deadlines, and writing an article about all the things you wish you’d known when you first came to the Toon as a baby fresher.

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