While starting university can be full of new experiences and mark the exciting journey into adulthood, many students struggle with the initial transition from school or college. At Student Minds we have been developing resources to support you with this move and want to share our top tips with you!
Meeting new people
Not knowing many people can be a bit scary at first, but don’t let your ‘stress signal’ stop you from making new friends. Most people feel some stress when meeting new people and making new friends. Instead of thinking about meeting others as stressful, imagine how exciting it can be to develop new friendships and discover new ways of looking at the world. And remember, not every new person you meet will be an automatic friend. You get to choose who you will be friends with! The more people you meet, the more likely you will be to find another person who will become a friend.
Get involved
Look for opportunities to get involved in activities that you are interested in. It might be a sports team, club, faith group, or a volunteer organisation. Your involvement can lead to meeting others that have interests similar to yours.
Loneliness
Change is never easy, and it is normal to feel lonely if you are in a new place. If you are experiencing loneliness over an extended period, try to change your daily patterns and connect more with people. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people you trust and let them know how you are feeling.
Study tips
Planning out your work and making a schedule can help you to feel more in control. Break down big tasks into small, manageable steps and add one or two of these to your daily to do list. Then, instead of worrying about having to write a whole essay, you know that you just need to spend an hour or two this morning writing a plan.
Money
Understanding your total expenses compared to how much money you have is important to help you budget. The preparation of a budget is a good starting point but sticking to it can be a challenge. It is important to know where your money goes!
Planning well may help you avoid getting into debt.
Mental Health
Visit your university’s website to find out what specific support is available, this might include counselling, student advice services, and support networks, as well as other resources. Wherever you seek support it’s important to remember that if it isn’t quite right for you, that’s okay – you can try something else. At Student Minds we encourage the use of a range of support.
Take a look at the full resources here: http://www.studentminds.org.uk/transitions.html
Speak to current students with Unibuddy!