You might think you are going to university to learn about science or economics, but what you are actually going for is to learn about life and yourself. People who complain that too many people are going to university when they don’t need an academic degree are utterly missing the point: everyone who wants to go should be able to, because university is where you can learn essential things about life at the same time as other people your age. THAT is the point of university.
You will be left with debts and relatively less time to find a job, but you will never have so much time and such sympathetic company in which to learn about friendship, the limits of the human body, love and associated feelings, and the fallibility of adults.
Of course you’ll work hard, but remember to do all the other stuff too. After you leave university there will be the jobhunting and bills and tax and unscrupulous people, and this will be fine and fun if you have friends to share it with and four years’ worth of tomfoolery to help cushion the blows.
I was going to say that this guide is specifically for people who spent all of school working for their A*s and being good, but I think it is broader than that. Lots of 17-18-year-olds know about drinking and clubs, but no-one knows exactly what to expect from freshers’ week and beyond, so this is for everyone else too. I have written about all the main areas of the experience, and enlisted my friends to describe areas which I never reached.
I hope the overall message comes across as, ‘Have fun, safely.’
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COMING SOON TO THIS SITE:
In Friends
HOW TO LEAVE A HASTILY-JOINED FRIENDSHIP GROUP
THE WEB
LIVING DOWN COLLEGE GOSSIP
HOW I TOLD MY NEIGHBOUR TO PIPE DOWN DURING SEX
In Drinking
OTHER, LESSER, DRINKING GAMES
In Going Out
SHARKING
HIGH TABLE ETIQUETTE
In Love+Sax
HOW TO TELL IF SOMEONE FANCIES YOU
HOW TO FANCY LOTS OF PEOPLE WITHOUT BECOMING UNPOPULAR
HOW TO TELL YOUR FRIEND YOU FANCY THEM, PROPERLY
THE WALK OF SHAME
In Clubs+Socs
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE IN A TEAM
TO ROW OR NOT TO ROW?
SURVIVING INITIATIONS
THE THEATRE SCENE
THE THEATRE SCENE 2
VOLUNTEERING
BE A MAN MY SON: BRUTAL TRUTHS FROM A TABLE TENNIS CAPTAIN
In Games
OLD MAID
EX LIBRIS and BIOGRAPHIES
MAFIA
MURDER
QUIZ MACHINE ETIQUETTE
In Work
LIBRARY ETIQUETTE
STRANGE TUTORS: A SPOTTER’S GUIDE
CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL DEANEE
