Fresher’s week is coming up and we’ve all left our nests and are left alone to explore the big, bad world. You’re most likely in a new town, with new people and have no idea how to even cook pasta or use a washing machine, and so these are my top seven tips to make your Fresher’s week the best it can be.
1. Buy a doorstop
This may seem random but when you move into a new house with new people, if your door is constantly closed your new housemates may not want to disturb you. Keeping your door open is great because it shows your housemates you’re welcoming them to come and chat and that chat could be your first step to becoming best friends.
2. Learn to bake cupcakes
Again, this may seem pretty random but it’s a great way to forcing your new housemates into falling in love with you instantly. Just kidding, but it is a nice gesture if you make a batch of really tasty cupcakes or brownies (and not the kind you find in Amsterdam) and leave a note letting your new housemates know that they can have one. When they come to thank you, it’s a great conversation starter and if the cupcakes are nice enough they’ll take an instant liking to you and again, another step to becoming best friends.
3. Find a friend online beforehand
All these new social media websites are actually good for something (surprising I know.) Go on Facebook or Twitter or Bebo, do some stalking (of the good kind of course) and find someone who is either living with you/near you or on your course and start an internet friendship with them (even though that’s completely against what your parents told you.) The good thing about doing this is you’ll feel like you know someone when you arrive and that’s always a comforting feeling. This is especially good to do if you’re not living in student accommodation as it’s harder to meet people to go out with and you’re more likely to be invited for pre-drinks.
4. Don’t drink too much at pre-drinks
You probably think this is a joke and that you should drink as much as your liver can allow at pre-drinks, but don’t. Talking from personal experience, pre-drinking so much you pass out at 8pm and don’t actually make it out to what everyone describes as “the best night of the whole of freshers week” isn’t such a fun or clever thing to do. In fact, it actually can get you a reputation and you win awards such as “go hard or stay home” and you’ll feel sad that you missed out on a crazy night. Instead: pre-drink but know your limits, if you start to feel sick or blurry-eyed, maybe that last absinthe shot isn’t going to do much good aye?
5. Don’t be afraid to go out
If you’re not much of a drinker, or a dancer, or a social person at all and you feel staying in your room for the seven days of Fresher’s week is your option, please don’t. While a lot of media says Fresher’s week is just a crazy, drunken mess (I’m not saying it isn’t,) it’s also a very important time for meeting the people that you’ll be spending the next 3 or more years with. Even if you just go out to one pub or one lunch, try to get out there, make a friend and learn more about the city you’ll be studying in.
6. Don’t sleep around
This is a pretty important and self-explanatory so I won’t go into it too much, but just think of it this way, would you really want to spend the next three years in the same course with someone who has seen every inch of your naked body and won’t be able to look at you without the image of your sex face in his mind? No. Plus, it may ruin your chances of finding a really good guy in your course who could be your future husband.
7. Go to the Fresher’s Fare
Just a really good way of finding out information, joining societies and getting free stuff. Like seriously loads of free stuff. Don’t buy a pen for uni because you’ll get about 30 free. And free baked beans. Yummy.
If you follow these tips, you will be sure to have a happy, safe, fun fresher’s week and be ready to start university with a smile on your face.
Some of the other CCCU HerCampus writers had some tips of their own:
Melissa Holden: Don’t spend all of your money in the first week
Shelby Fuller: If you’re shy, just stick to the fresher’s crew and they’ll help you out, it’s what they’re there for.
Ashleigh Watkins: Always make your way home in pairs or groups.
Penelope Paër-Gotch: Don’t worry if you don’t go to everything, you can make friends outside of fresher’s week.
Lauren Hewitt: Make sure you know the area roughly before you go out to avoid you getting lost on the way home.