Making the Most of your Time

Abstract

The first six weeks at university will be a challenge, particularly if this is the first time you have lived away from home. As well as coming to terms with this change, you will be faced with having to make many decisions, but there is a way through the maze and this chapter will help you to settle into your new life as easily and productively as possible. As a new undergraduate, you will probably begin your first university term a week before the rest of the students; this is usually called ‘freshers’ week’. This early start is intended to help you to familiarise yourself with the university campus, meet your fellow students and sort out the administrative details of your degree before the hustle and bustle of the term proper begins. For some new undergraduates, though, this comes as a surprise; you are expecting to join a busy university campus, but instead you find a place that looks fairly deserted, almost eerily quiet in places. This can be disconcerting, but is a good time for you to get your bearings, in many different ways.