U.N.I

Many of you will be sitting your final January exams in preparation for going to University in September! It's a huge milestone in a persons life. I'm currently half way through my first year of studying History at York St. John University in the UK. After having the experience of living with people from different backgrounds and such I thought it may be appropriate to give you some of the pro's and con's of university life as a whole. 

what's it's like living with others

how is the course

what is the social life like

From only being here half a year I have gone through a number of different things. It's crazy how time flies, to think that in the past year I completed my A-Levels with all A*-C grades, enjoyed a girls on holiday to Ibiza, began university.. and in a matter of a few months I will have finished my first year. 

What it is like living with others..

On Facebook there were pages for the different halls of residence, so that you could 'facebook greet' (the best way I could put it) your new flatmates for the next year! I found out that I was living with 4 girls. At first I dreaded the thought of living with 4 girls. It made me not want to go to university. The thought that crossed my mind was bitch central. However, when we met they all seemed lovely and I couldn't wait to spend the year with them! But.. with new people become different and sometimes clashing personalities. One of the girls stayed in her room most the time.. me and the other 3 girls attempted our best to involve her with the flat, whether we were having a DVD night or a night out on the town. She would either ignore us or go out with her course friends. Fair to say we made a good effort, but she moved out convinced that we didn't like her and that we never made an effort. ~we all know we made our best efforts~ Another issue with living with others is that people have different ways of doings things or are used to their parents doing things for them eg washing up. As a flat kitchen, shared by all, in my opinion it is everyone's duty to keep the area clean, not just for us but to keep good hygeine. Some people just left their dishes there expecting others to wash them up, at first this was me who would was everyone's. After time I got sick of it and it came to the point where we got maggots people were that unclean. Me and two other girls on the floor cleaned it, spick and span! Not one thanks. This is my pet peeve of uni. I don't want to fill you with all the bad points as there are good too! The first few weeks we bonded amazingly and it's fair to say I definitely have some friends for life! We have curry nights as a flat, have DVD nights and all go out together.

How does university differ from A-Levels?

From my experience the jump from GCSE to A-Levels was huge, it's like that but another little jump to. At A-Levels there is a lot more independent reading, for example in History, doing more research in order to get more depth and the different opinions of historians. At University it is more or less completely independent (well for my history course anyway), we do have lectures where we basically just sit and write down what the lecturer is saying, sometimes along with some handouts or a powerpoint to aid the tutor. This is not enough on its own to pass the exams you may have. You get reading lists of what books you should read to get more depth on what you are learning, as the notes are basically just an overview. Along with exams you get assignments. My first tip DO NOT LEAVE UNTIL THE NIGHT BEFORE. If you miss a deadline your done for. Most assignments (essays) range from 1500 words to 3000+, third year is where the 12000 word dissertation begins. A lot of research is necessary for these, another tip: keep a note of the websites you use for references and bibliography's! After the first semester you learn from your mistakes of leaving them til the night before and being up til 3/4am to complete them. You definitely feel more comfortable after your first semester as you are beginning to get the hang of things. 

What is the social life like?

Social life at university.. where to start? There's a whole range of things you can do. From societies (Football, History, Badminton etc) to freshers week. Freshers week is the first week before start uni where you meet others from the nights out. Ours had a 'Battle of the Halls' bar crawl to see which accommodation could last all night! Not only are there a different number of nights out there's the SU which is great to meet new people or chill before/after lectures ~along with having a cheeky pint~. Pub quizzes, cinema.. so much!

Any questions about university or your thoughts on uni.. leave me a comment below :-)

xoxo