Kate Lloyd, Acting Features Editor
The first people you meet don’t need to be the people you hang around with all. The. Time, is what I’d tell 18-year-old me. When I arrived at Sheffield University in 2007 – with concealer on my lips and a butterfly belt around my Topshop tea dress – I hadn’t really thought about how I wanted to fill my many, many hours outside of lectures. So, I just did whatever my flatmates were doing: go to sports nights, shop at Joy and play copious rounds of pub golf. By the time I figured out that what I was actually interested in was interning for the local indie mag, exploring the nearby countryside and going to club nights where the soundtrack expanded beyond Jason Derulo’s “In My Head”, it was nearly too late. My blood ran sticky with snakebite and Sourz.
Alice Newbold, Executive Fashion News & Features Editor
There will be some students who intern every Easter and secure placements each summer. You do not need to be one of those students. There’s plenty of time to clock up hours in an office later, trust us. Character building is best done working in your local boozer, backpacking around Morocco, or trying to get backstage at festivals. That’s where true uni friendships really come into their own and great water-cooler tales are born.
Hayley Maitland, Weekend & Planning Editor
For the love of God, quit smoking before Freshers Week. Otherwise you will spend the entirety of your (meagre) income on Camel Blues, then end up living off of Marmite on toast until you begin to wonder whether you may, in fact, have scurvy. Speaking of food: learning how to make simple dishes is genuinely worthwhile, not to mention cost-effective. (For current students, Sally Clarke’s First Put On Your Apron is a goldmine of hard-to-ruin recipes.) Anyone laying claim to vast sexual experience is either deluded, a liar or both – avoid them like Tesco Value Vodka (which actually freezes). Oh, and take full advantage of the library; you will never again have hours to fill each day and access to 3.5 million books.
Laura Hawkins, Fashion Features Editor
People will claim that they’ve read the entire works of Shakespeare/Proust/Chaucer. They are lying. Don’t sweat over the self-proclaimed swots. You’ve got an entire university career to make a dent in your reading list (and also to eat as many free McDonalds’s student cheeseburgers as possible).
Emily Chan, Senior Sustainability & Features Editor
Savour every moment – your university days will be over in the blink of an eye. Don’t stress too much about your essay deadlines, but it probably is worth tackling some of your reading list during the holidays – it’s not humanly possible to read the entirety of Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend in less than a week. Stress-eating granola by the handful is not advised, nor is consuming a whole fun-size bag of Haribo in one sitting. Oh, and you probably don’t need that last shot of tequila just as you’re about to leave the club.
Radhika Seth, Film & Culture Editor
Leave room for spontaneity. The earliest days of uni can be nerve-wracking, but remember that everyone is in the same boat as you. Speak to as many people as you can, be open-minded, join all the societies that take your fancy, go to the niche club nights, say yes to the last-minute invites. Yes, it’s important to do the work, obviously. But, in the end, you won’t remember what mark you got on your Modernism paper – but you will remember the time you stayed up until 4am after a night out watching Gossip Girl with a bunch of mates, or when you helped someone you just met make Thanksgiving dinner, or when you were convinced to go to a festival you’d never heard of before. My other piece of advice? Drink more water than you think you need to, and when it comes to snacking during an essay crisis, remember to mix it up. Otherwise, you, like me, may never be able to eat hummus and pita again.
Alex Kessler, Junior Fashion Editor
If you plan to attend fashion university, be ready to initially feel exposed and sartorially uncomfortable. You’ll soon discover, though, that everyone has the same anxieties. Avoid spending any time worrying about what other people may think of you (including your personal style and points of artistic reference). You’ll soon realise that sticking to your aesthetic principles is your greatest asset.
Joy Montgomery, Senior Commerce Writer
Life advice with the benefit of hindsight can be a double-edged sword. I could tell you to “just be yourself” and ignore the clamouring social and academic competitiveness that dominates the first term of uni, but, unfortunately, you just have to go through the motions and know that it does get easier. Self-confidence just takes time to settle – sorry about that. As for what I would tell my younger self? You’ll never have the all-consuming passion for essay writing that others on your course do, but you’ll love student journalism – just don’t expect it to be a one-way ticket to the dream job post-uni. Most importantly, keep old friends (and your boyfriend) close, as they’ll be the ones who keep you grounded and stay by your side more than a decade later.
Amel Mukhtar, Associate Features Writer
The biggest lessons you learn will be outside the classroom. It’s a time of self-discovery, so experiment. Say yes to anything that sounds even a little bit good – even if you don’t love it, now you know, and it’ll shape your direction. Travel in all the breaks. Do a year abroad. Party loads – it’s where you’ll make the most friends and the funniest memories. Other than lecturers, no one will see your work, so take creative risks and find your own voice.
Read More Is University Really Worth It Any More?
By Sirin Kale
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