So, You've Started Uni. What Now?

Freshers’ week is built to be loud. Then it ends, the timetable arrives, and you are somewhere new with a lot of unstructured time and a vague sense that everyone else has worked something out that you have not.

They have not. Here is what tends to help over the first few weeks.

Build a routine before you build a social life

It is tempting to treat the first month as one long event. The students who feel steadiest by October are usually the ones who found a simple rhythm early.

• Pick a base. A desk in the studio, a regular table in the library, a corner of the rehearsal space. Turning up in the same place at similar times is how people start to recognise you.
• Fix your anchor times. Wake up, eat and go to bed at roughly the same time on most days. It sounds dull and it works.
• Learn the week. Work out which days are full, which are open, and where the open days can go to your own work.

Find your people by being around

Creative courses are social in a different way from lecture-based ones. You do not need to be the loudest person in the room. You need to be in the room.

Spend time in the shared spaces, even when you could work alone in your bedroom. Friendships tend to form over a shared problem: a broken printer, a stuck edit, a scene that will not work. Say yes to a few things in the first fortnight, such as a society taster, a course social or a coffee with a flatmate. After that, let the friendships that fit grow slowly. You do not need ten friends by Friday.

If your flat is part of the equation, this guide to the shared kitchen is worth a read before the washing-up becomes a standoff.

Expect the first brief to feel odd

On many creative courses the first assignment is loose on purpose. There may be no right answer and very little instruction. If you came from sixth form, that can feel like being handed an empty page and told to be brilliant. It is a common shock, and we have written about why it happens and how long the adjustment takes.

Practical steps for the first brief:

• Find out the deadline and what is being assessed in week one.
• Start something small immediately, even if it is wrong. The early thinking is often the part tutors value.
• Ask a tutor one specific question. “What are you hoping we explore?” opens more doors than “what do you want?”

Get used to being critiqued

Sooner or later you will present work and get reactions in front of other people. It is uncomfortable the first time and gets easier. How to take feedback on creative work without it destroying you covers the note-taking trick and the 48-hour sort that make it much less personal.

Look after the basics

• Sleep and food. Dull, and the first thing to slip. A cheap, repeatable meal plan helps more than good intentions.
• Money. Look at what you have for the term and divide it by the weeks. Note what is rent and what is spending. A rough number now prevents panic in November.
• Your body and mind. Learn where the university’s wellbeing and health services are before you need them. Knowing the door exists makes it easier to walk through.

What not to do

• Do not judge the whole degree on week three. You are still finding out what it is.
• Do not compare your inside with everyone else’s outside. People show their best version in the first month. Most of them are tired and slightly unsure.
• Do not go home every weekend. Some visits are fine. If you leave every Friday, the friendships that form at the weekend will form without you.
• Do not wait until everything is under control to ask for help. Asking early is the normal way to use a university.

The point of the first month

You are not trying to do everything. You are trying to find a base, a few people, a rough routine and a first piece of work you can build from. If you have those by the end of October, you are doing well, however it feels.

If the feeling is more doubt than adjustment, Getting second thoughts about your course? is the next one to read.