First term of university: Expectations vs reality

Starting university is a nervous but exciting time, and for different people first year can entail many different things. We spoke to brand new freshers to see how their opinions matched up to some well-seasoned second years who have seen it all before.

Living away from home

Fresher expectations

Isaac: “I think I’ll be able to cope just fine. Not having to put up with my annoying younger siblings or the constant nagging from my parents and of course the new found freedom, I can’t wait!”

Kayleigh: “I think it’s the right time for me to move away from home, so I’ll be able to cope quite well, but I will miss my mum’s cooking.”

Second year realities

Kajal: “It didn’t go very well. I cried the first night and went home once every 2 weeks.”

Tasha: “Rubbish, cried a lot in the first few weeks but you get used to it and once you have a routine it’s not too bad.”

Cooking

Fresher expectations

Isaac: “Dreadful. I can stretch to making beans on toast, but I have mastered the art of sandwich making. I’ll try & rustle up some pretty bog-standard meals.”

Kayleigh: “To be honest, when I actually bother to cook I think I’m pretty decent, so I just need to get over my laziness and hope I’m not too hungover.”

Second year realities

Tasha: “On the first day I managed to burn super noodles. To this day I still don’t know how I managed to do that.”

Laura: “Rubbish, I knew basically nothing. In the first few weeks, my flatmates taught me how to cook mashed potatoes and jacket potatoes so I cooked those a lot. But no one has time to cook every night so freezer food was my bae #mozerelladippers.”

Georgia: “Being at lectures which were all over the place, I took to buying breakfast and lunches at university beforehand but being a student my disposable income was almost non-existent after freshers. So, I had to nip that one in the bud and revert back to packed lunches.”

Socials

Fresher expectations

Isaac: “However much my wallet lets me.”

Kayleigh: “Every night. Well, maybe just for Freshers’. After that, two or three times a week I hope.”

Second year realities

Laura: “A lot to begin with to try and socialise but then I got poor so couldn’t go as much. When the workload got heavier we mainly went out on Fridays and Saturdays.”

Georgia: “To be honest I love the pub, and drinking with my friends, and not really clubbing, so I imagined myself at the pub every week, but not in the club on a student night every Wednesday.”

Freshers’ Week

Fresher expectations

Isaac: “I just imagine lots of drinking…”

Kayleigh: “Hopefully it’s going to be completely insane. Getting to know my new friends will be awesome and I love a good drink.”

Second year realities

Laura: “Cool but I was ill with freshers flu.”

Tasha: “Intense. I don’t remember a lot of it.”

Fresher expectations

Isaac: “So long as they’re reasonably tidy and clean up after themselves I don’t mind. I’m sure whoever I’m with will be absolutely fine and I look forward to meeting them.”

Second year realities
Laura: “They’re all really nice apart from one who went psycho and another who stunk out the place with his weed.”

Library habits

Fresher expectations

Kayleigh: “I’m not really a library person, I’d rather work at home on my laptop so I can chill a bit more (usually in my pyjamas) but I guess that may change so maybe a few hours a week.”

Second year realities

Kajal: “I was in the library about 15 – 20hrs a week.”

Aakeen: “I spent my birthday in the library. Fun times.”

Spare time and societies

Fresher expectations

Isaac: “More than likely studying. However, I wouldn’t mind getting a part time job to help fund my nights out and food.”

Second year realities

Georgia: “I’d like to say I’d spend my spare time studying, but you find you sleep a lot instead.