How to make the most out of your Uni Experience!

By Student Cribs | June 24, 2022 | Reading Time: 7 minutes

The first thing to be made clear is: there is no right or wrong way to live your life at university, and although there are common stereotypes we all visualise of the broke student who somehow miraculously writes a dissertation in one night completely hungover, this does not have to apply to you, and rarely does the majority of students! Your experience is run by you, therefore it must be stressed that you should live it in a way that makes you most comfortable! If you’re needing some inspiration, it’s worth checking out this list to provide some specific guidance to help boost your uni experience. We hope these tips on how to make the most out of your uni experience help!

1.    Budget wisely

This by no means is instructing you to be stingy or count every last penny of your spends – however, it is food for thought to budget a little bit and save yourself for a big night out, instead of just going out for the sake of it, to end up broke and actually unable to go out with your friends at the times you’d most like to. An effective way to keep track of your spending habits is to take out your budget in cash for the week rather than just checking your bank account balance every so often, where the latter can be easily avoided in the moments you’re feeling indulgent.

2.    Join societies

Attending your uni’s society fair is the perfect opportunity to get stuck into something you’re passionate about, or even discover a completely new talent or hobby. Taking part in a society is an excellent way to enhance your CV with not only your degree alone, but you’re own personal commitments and interests – which makes you a memorable and individual candidate to hire. Additionally, this is a way for you to go beyond your flatmates and meet an array of people from different years doing a whole selection of degrees.

3.    Get the work you need out the way beforehand rather than at the last minute

Admittedly, a majority of us have had those moments where we’ve put off completing an important piece of work and end up frantically typing up anything that pops into our minds – which we can all confess happens to the best of us. However, this should really be occurring on the odd occasion at most, and should be avoided if you want your study time to be as hassle-free as possible, which will undoubtedly affect your mindset towards other areas of your life.

4.    Easier said than done – relax!

Try to stay relaxed during your time at university; there are bound to be some tougher, stressful moments, but you don’t want to spend your entire time overthinking every move. There is no trial run of uni, and so it’s impossible to make every move a perfected one – the key is to make the best of your situation whether it be dull or fun! When you feel stressed, the best way to help prevent this feeling perpetuating is to build a relationship with your tutors and lecturers, that way when times get difficult you have a professional as well as your family and friends who you feel comfortable enough with to confide in and ask for advice.

5.    Go beyond the campus

An amazing way to widen your horizons, is to do extra-curricular activities, placements, internships or part-time jobs. You don’t have to do all of these things of course, but during university is the ideal time to get some work experience under your belt wherever possible! Not only does this look impressive on CV’s, but is beneficial in narrowing down the kind of career you’re looking to go into. Getting a sense of a working environment also helps preparation for when the real job comes around.

6.    Try to fight the home sickness

Having to endure home sickness at university can take a serious toll on students, in which case leads to a natural response to go back home regularly. There’s nothing wrong with doing this, however, it can impend on your independence and emotional strength if you develop a routine of visiting home more and more often. Developing close friendships with people around who you can rely on, is an effective way to take the energy from wanting to go home and divert it towards your friends at uni. It is also advisable for those who are in relationships when they’re attending university to prepare for long distance relationships; try to ensure that you won’t busied by making train trips every weekend that you don’t have time to develop new friendships and experiences where you’re studying.

7.    Be open to new friendships

Going to university will open up a variety of people for you to meet, all with varying backgrounds and lifestyles. This is an excellent opportunity for you to grow as a person when you meet so many different types of people, so take advantage of this and get to know them! Asking questions and showing an interest is beneficial for you to get to know someone personally, and also allows to learn a lot more as well.

8.    Student = discounts

Often overlooked, there is a wider selection of student discounts available to use, from restaurants to retail stores. In order to take full advantage of these offers it is worth signing up to (e.g. UniDays) receive emails on the latest offers, and also familiarise yourself often by looking around the website.