If you have A Levels to sit this summer, then it’s likely you also have to start thinking about university in the autumn. By now, you should either have made your choice about where you want to study, or at least be well on the way to making it, and you can begin actually preparing to move away from home and start your studies.
Those preparations are a big change from anything else in your life and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lost, unless you’ve got friends or siblings who’ve been to university and have been lucky enough to have a ringside seat. Today we’re running through some of the key points you need to cover to be ready when September comes and you’re suddenly an adult, living away from home and running life for yourself.
Somewhere to Live
Your university will let you know the precise guidelines and deadlines to make sure you get a place to stay during your studies. Most universities offer a selection of different halls of residence, so you’ll need to do your research to make sure you can find one that suits your needs – and your budget!
If you look for at the student accommodation Huddersfield university alone offers you’ll find a broad array of choice from apartments in the town centre, close to clubs and campuses to complexes on the fringes of town, practically in the countryside. The bets one for you depends on your needs: do you need a retreat from the pressures of studying and partying to relax and to study, or do you need to be in the thick of things?
Studying
With your acceptance to university you should receive a reading list, and while it’s tempting to start right away, you need to approach this tactically. Buying every book on the list could be a bankrupting task, leaving you with no money to spend once you actually arrive at university, so try to find the most important ones to start with: books that will be directly referred to on your course. If necessary, you may find it worth consulting student forums to compare notes. Those are the books you’ll need to own, to carry around and underline passages and make notes in the margins. Everything else you may be able to get by with borrowing from the library.
Life Essentials
Finally, you’ll need to make a list of the essential items you need to bring with you, from clothes to bedding to pots and pans. Even if you’re staying in catered accommodation, you’ll need to cook from time to time, and arriving without a saucepan or a wooden spoon to your name will leave you hungry.
Make a list and keep it in a prominent place. This lets you add things as you think of them, and tick things off when you buy them. Working through it slowly over the course of the summer is more sustainable than trying to buy everything you want the night before you leave home!
