First-term problems: from forgetting names to freshers’ flu

After a week of drinking, partying and getting to grips with your newfound freedom, the comedown after freshers’ week can be hard to handle.
Suddenly, you’re thrust back into the world of early mornings, classes and schedules. It’s as though you’re back at home, except your parents aren’t there to cook you dinner or clean your clothes.
One day you’ll have a wardrobe full of freshly-ironed, colour-coded clothes, and then the next it’ll be empty and your washing basket full. When you move out for the first time, you realise just how time-consuming it is doing menial jobs like food shopping, cooking meals and washing clothes. You have to do it though – no one wants to be the person wearing their underwear inside out to lectures.
Having got used to staying awake until the early hours during your first few weeks, it’s time to join the rest of society and wake up at a reasonable hour. Here are some difficulties you’re likely to face.

Post-freshers’ flu

Be prepared for the onslaught of coughing, sneezing and spluttering in lectures; flu will get you. You may have already had freshers’ flu. It doesn’t matter how much hand sanitiser you use or how often you turn away from those sniffing around you, you have a runny nose and groggy head to look forward to in your first term.
Even if you do have a bout of flu, former Liverpool John Moores University student Abi Bramhall, 22, says not to miss the first few weeks of lectures: “This is when everyone socialises and starts to make friends so if you miss out, you may find yourself a bit lost and a bit of an outcast.”

Getting to grips with your course

Caroline Magennis, 33, a former student at Queen’s University and now a lecturer at Salford University, says: “When you go to university, it might seem in seminars that everyone has their act together and can offer perfectly composed opinions on every subject.

“Try your best with every new idea but if there’s something that just won’t come easily, tutors are there to help and most academics just want you to ‘get’ the subject they love.”

Balancing your time

Other students might tell you not to work too hard in your first year because, for many courses at least, it doesn’t count towards your degree. Listen to them, but only to a certain extent. Have fun and drink your beer but make sure you still try; your first year is when you can make mistakes and learn from them for when it really counts. Don’t waste this opportunity.
Karl Payn, 24, a graduate of the University of Winchester, says: “A lot of the time I was too busy focusing on having fun rather than work. It was only when I had to spend my third year continuously in the library that I realised I should’ve learned to balance my time a bit better.”

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University is a place where you can reinvent yourself. Often, nobody knows who you are or what your embarrassing nickname was at school. But as the first term progresses, it’s likely that you won’t be able to keep up the pretence of whoever you tried to be in freshers’ week. You are who you are – by all means grow in confidence and experiment with a new pair of trousers, but stay true to yourself and what you’re about.
Fia Bartle, 22, a graduate of Keele University, says: “I thought about reinventing myself but decided not to. I was more worried about people liking me for who I am.”

Finding your people

Now that lectures have started, you’ll notice how much everyone has calmed down and started making actual friends as opposed to the hundreds of “best friends” they met in nightclub toilets whose names they couldn’t remember the next day.
Devon Garner, 22, also a former Keele University student, says: “Don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation with a stranger, even if it’s about the weather. You may find you have more in common than you think.”

It is possible, however, to meet your future friends-for-life early on. Victoria Taylor, 25, a former Keele University student, is still friends with the girl she met in her first week at university. She says they keep in touch years after they graduated: “I’m even off to her wedding in Scotland next year.”

Discovering the societies that suit you

If, at several weeks in, you still haven’t met anyone you really connect with, joining a society is a good idea. The freshers’ fair has been and gone but you can still sign up. Think about what you’re interested in or start one yourself.
If you join a society in your first term, by second year you could be an integral part of the committee and even be running it by third year.
Try to avoid going home to see your friends and family for the first couple of weeks. Your first month is important and you want to be able to make the most of every opportunity, whether that be popping down to the pub for a quick pint with others after a lecture or ravenously stuffing your faces with Domino’s while watching a rom-com on Netflix.
These kinds of activities are the best way to cement friendships and going back to see your hometown friends each weekend will only slightly soften the blow of being away. Stick at it if you can; it will get better.