Having a social life at uni is more important than good grades

Good grades, a social life and enough sleep – everyone knows its impossible to have all three. But naps are unavoidable so let’s just pick between the remaining two and agree that having friends at uni is better than getting good grades. After all, what good is getting a first when you have no one to brag about it to?

Here’s just a few more reasons why mates at uni are more important than getting perfect results.

They help with the uni hard times

Hard times at uni are an unavoidable part of further education, that is a fact. Naturally when you upend your life and move to an entirely different location with completely different people you’re going to go a little crazy. I mean there will definitely be times where you stare at the wall for an hour or cry three times in one day. You don’t have your family constantly around you to stop you going insane, and your home friends are ages away and dealing with uni sads of their own.

Drinking the uni stress away

If you don’t have mates, how will you do the “we like to drink with…” chant?

All work and no play makes us go insane. And if you’re getting 100 per cent on every test but have no friends to celebrate with then you’re definitely going to end up drinking alone, and no one wants that. Without uni friends you wouldn’t have anyone to chant “we like to drink with…” when you down your pint, and no one to take ‘candid’ pics of you at pres. How can anyone live like that?

It’s definitely worth substituting one night of seminar work every now and then for a night out, because think of all those memories! And after all – a gal can’t go to the toilets in Kasbah on her own, can she?

They make you feel better about skipping lectures

The guilt you feel after you skip is immense, it builds up inside you and there’s no escape. Until a message on the group chat pops up saying “dw mate I didn’t go either” and all is well again. Friends who skip together stay together, everyone knows that.

And this applies to more than just skipping: nothing gives a uni student more relief than when your friend says “nah I haven’t started the essay yet either”. That’s what true friends are for, aren’t they? Making you feel less shit about yourself.

You get to live with them

One of the best perks of having uni friends is that you actually get to live with them. This makes for some pretty good memes, lots of movie nights and bonding after inevitable fights. If you’re all work and no friends, who do you even live with? No one that will bring you a cup of tea in the morning, that’s for sure.

Do you really want to have to avoid the people in the kitchen for a full three years, just so you can get perfect grades? I don’t think you do.

Uni friends actually lead to good grades (probably)

Up until this point it has probably seemed like you can only have one, but that’s not entirely true. I mean you can’t go out every single night and still get good grades, that’s basically a fact. But you can have mates and still get a first, in fact your uni friends can actually be instrumental in achieving your best grades – these people are good for more than just emotional support and nights out.

Kind housemates can proofread, course mates can help you out when you have absolutely no clue what is going on in a lecture and sometimes you just need some company when pulling an all-nighter. So while having friends at uni is deffo more important than good grades, it doesn’t mean you can’t have both.