When you first start university there will be lots of university myths and rumors floating about and the majority of them will not be true! Some will be easy to recognise but others not so much so watch out for what is true and what isn’t! Most of them occur from living in halls. You might hear some horror stories even but don’t let them scare you off first year.
Students don’t cook
A lot of the time this myth comes into play because some students simply don’t want to cook, or it’s a myth that is made up by people that are usually doing your cooking. A lot of your time this is your parents making this assumption! The truth is, it is very easy to cook and to cook well. This stretches further than simply cooking ready meals all the time or frozen food. In fact, doing that all the time isn’t always the best option because it can definitively make your food shop a lot more expensive.
What I suggest is to get yourself on the internet and social media sites and use that as your guide to cooking. Tiktok and Instagram are especially good for finding inspiration for easy and quick meals. You will find that a lot of the time when you cook a meal you will have plenty left over to save for the following few days. Alternatively, you could take the more traditional route and buy yourself an easy cook book to use as your bible when cooking.
Using these tips can massively help to remove this myth from the mouths of those who tell you students don’t cook.
You will meet all your friends in fresher’s week
For some people this myth comes true and that is great, but for some it doesn’t and that is fine if it doesn’t happen for you. From personal experience my closest friends at university were not made in the first week of my university experience. My close group of friends were actually made in my 2nd year. That’s not to say that you will also make friends in 2nd year, but things change so you don’t need to see your first week as the be all end all.
Freshers week is a great experience and its one you should embrace because it is a one-time experience. Freshers is also a great outlook to meet new people so remember to be welcoming, open and most of all get involved. Freshers can offer a range of different events that you can go to and it certainly isn’t all late nights in a night club and finishing it off in the kebab shop. The truth is I imagine it is unusual that anyone makes their main group of friends in freshers’ week, but there are some that do. The main thing is to attend lots of different events to meet different people.
You need to drink to have a good time
This a myth that gets thrown around far too often at university and tends to cloud peoples perspective of university when it really shouldn’t. I won’t lie to you, if you drink it probably does make conversation and having a good time a little bit easier due to the club nights the university put on – but that’s not to say you can still attend and not drink. If you choose to focus your social output away from the nightclub, then drinking probably won’t help to have a good time.
Drinking is certainly not essential to having a good time at university. There are so many things you can get involved with that don’t involve drinking at university, in fact there are probably more things that don’t involve drinking than do. Therefore, you can most certainly have a good time without drinking and this myth definitely doesn’t exist. The sports and societies are a great way to attend activities during the day and they will also put on events that are tailored for non-drinkers.
First year doesn’t count
First year in comparison to your second and third year isn’t as important, but that doesn’t mean to say that it isn’t important at all. Your grade in first year can determine what your route is after your second year. If you choose to do a placement year within your university studies, most companies will want you to have achieved a 2.1 degree in order to have a shot at gaining the placement year. Therefore, you definitely do need to focus in your first and try to gain the best possible grade you can get because it does influence what happens in your second year and your third year. In addition to this you should feel a sense of pride in achieving your best result in your first year. Also, if you do happen to ignore your studies in your first year, any exams that you fail, you will be required to retake that and if you fail several, you will be required to re do the year in order to move on at university.
A lot of courses link each year to the last, you usually build on the knowledge you learned in the previous year. Therefore, if you let your grades slip a little then you are only making it harder for yourself in the following years!
You won’t have time for a part time job
You will have a lot of commitments to meet during your university years, that is not to say you won’t have time to engage in a part time job. You will most definitely have time; however, you will need to be strict with your time. My suggestion is you leave it a month or two before you get a job because you will need time to get to grips with your timetable and figure out when you have time to do things like a part time role. This will also help when they ask what shifts you can do.
A lot of the time, your university will offer one-off jobs, such as working the campus open days to welcome new students. So if you are looking for a bit of extra cash but you are worried about your time commitments, then look out for these sorts of roles.
Final Thoughts
Your university experience is what you make of it. If you want to cook, then you can cook. If you want to go out drinking then go out drinking and if you prefer to do daytime activities then look into whats available. There are so many different people that attend university so you will be sure to find the people that are like-minded and interested in the same sorts of things as yourself. My advice would be to attend the events that involve your hobbies so you can meet others with the same hobbies as you!
