Leaving home

So you’re about to leave home and go to university or college. Afraid ? No doubt youve had advice from parents and teachers. But what you really need is to hear it from the experts - the students themselves. So here are some tips from students who volunteered to pass on their strategies for getting through that awful first term.

Paul: “The thought of everything I would be leaving behind got me worried: Mum’s cooking. Mum doing the washing and ironing. Dad lending me money (maybe) ! At first, takeaways and launderettes seemed the easiest option, but soon pasta and beans on toast took the place of takeaways, and doing my own washing and ironing replaced the launderette. It works out better on your wallet. You soon settle down, and parents are only a phone call away.”

Claire: “The best thing about my first term was the wonderful feeling of living with my friends and having no one to tell us when to go to bed or get up. The problem was that there was also no one to clean up after us, and it got to the point where you couldn’t use cutlery or a plate without having to wash up first. One day we decided enough was enough. We drew up a chart listing household jobs and dividing it so no one got lumbered with doing everything.”

Catherine: “When I was shown my room on my first day, my heart sank and my mother cried. It had grey walls, no carpet and a lumpy grey mattress. Then I remembered some advice a friend had given me. Pack a rug in case there’s a stain on the carpet, and a poster to cover cracks in the wall. Once I’d got these things out, it looked better already. As I got to know people, I realized I wasn’t the only one who felt awful. My advice is not to worry about feeling homesick: it’s totally normal.”

A big thank you to all the graduates and undergraduates who wrote to us.