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Student Life

10 things you’ll really learn as a university student

Apart from the material on your course (which we hope you'e learning!) here are 10 things you’ll learn once you’re an official uni student...

Eleni Cashell
by Eleni Cashell
Last Updated:
27 Feb 2024

1. How much a taxi costs from your house to town


The most common sentence shouted in a student house? “TAXI IS HERE!”

Whether you’re transporting several bags of food shopping so you don’t have to take up every seat on the bus, or you’ve finished pre-larks at your place and need to head to the weekly (well, let’s face it, nightly) student nights in town, prepare for far too much of your student loan to go on taxis.

Yes, you’ll convince yourself you’ll take the bus everywhere and make full use of your student travel card, but when it’s 10pm and raining outside, you’ll suddenly change your mind.

2. Your true love is your discount card


When you’re living off a student budget, even 10% off something can make the difference between living off supermarket own brand food and just toast.

Whether it’s money off essentials like course books, or a few quid off things you don’t actually need but can’t imagine your life without (those shoes did look good on you to be fair), you’ll never know anything more beautiful than seeing “student discount added” on a receipt.

3. How to sneak into lectures


You’ll start the academic year convincing yourself you won’t be one of those freshers who turns up late, sheepishly walking in and avoiding everyone’s glares. But late nights and 9am lectures don’t mix and we guarantee you’ll run late for lectures more than you think.

But the great thing about lecture halls is there’s often more than one way to get into them, and there’s usually an exit near the back where it’s easy to slip into the class unnoticed. By the end of the academic year you’ll know all the sneaky entrances to your lectures so well that you’ll be able to find them blindfolded, or just when you’re so tired your eyes haven’t adjusted to the world around you yet. Either way.

4. That no one cares what you wear


Before you head off to uni you’ll probably head off on a shopping spree to find the best, coolest and downright awesome clothing you can find to wear to lectures, fresher’s parties and chilling with your flatmates. Anything vaguely embarrassing gets left behind and you take at least two wardrobes worth of new clothes to show off and make friends with.

But once you’re at uni, you’ll realise not only does nobody care what you wear, but you also tend to wear the same clothes over and over again anyway. Unless it’s fancy dress of course, in which case you tend to completely destroy any clothing you’ve never worn to create outfits you’ll only wear once.  

5. Poundshops are your friend


If there’s one place that every student quickly learns to visit for anything, it’s the Poundshop/99p shops. Most student towns have them and they’re a godsend.

Need something to decorate an outfit with? Go there. Need some cleaning products because the university has surprised an inspection on you and you’ve got 12 hours to transform the place from dump into downright spotless? Go there. Want a DVD that no one has ever heard of to entertain you? Go there. These places have literally everything a student could need.

Although expect a massive eyeroll from the staff if you ask how much something is, even for a joke, they’ve heard it more times that day already than you could possibly imagine.

6. There’s a society for literally everything


When you think of university societies you’re probably imagining they’ll cover topics like dance, drama, the newspaper and basically a general appreciation of every academic subject the university has to offer. And while you’re partly right, those will be on offer, you’ll also discover societies that you never imagined existed. Think you’ve got a niche interest? Wait till you get to uni and see their list of societies…

7. The library opening and closing hours


If there’s one thing you’ll learn pretty quickly at uni, it’s when the campus library opens and closes.

Need to print something off before your first lecture? Or want to get the best computer in the place so you can sit there comfortably for hours typing the essay that’s due in less than 24 hours?

For these reasons, and more (including leaving parties early so you can spend an hour in the library, trust us, it’ll happen at some point), you’ll find that you know more about the library’s opening hours then you will about the subject you’re studying.

8. Exams won’t stop some people’s social lives


Even during the busiest exam periods, where literally everyone in the entire uni is either revising for exams or actually taking them, there will always be someone you know trying to convince you to come out, relax for a few hours, have Netflix binges or go out dancing until the exam actually starts.

Although the temptation may be huge, (I mean who doesn’t want to watch the entirety of How I Met your Mother), try to focus on revision. There will be plenty of time for relaxing when the exams are over.

9. How to cook the same dish a million different ways


If nothing teaches you how to cook, going to university will  even if you’re in catered accommodation, you’ll still have to cook your own meals from time to time. And while you don’t have to be called Nigella or Jamie to be a whiz in the kitchen, you’ll probably find that you’re ace at about three meals, and you’ll just put ‘spins on them’ (which usually involves adding an extra condiment to it) for several years.

10. How much you took your parents for granted


Nothing makes you realise how much your folks did for you like going to uni. From paying your own bills and learning how to use a washing machine, to realising that there’s no such thing as the cleaning fairy and the toilet won’t clean itself, you’ll learn exactly how much you’ve managed to avoid doing while living at home.

Not that you won’t forget all this when you go home for the holidays, where your parents will drive you just as insane as they did before you left. You didn’t think they’d suddenly start being ok with you sleeping in and doing nothing, did you?


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