Student Life

I STOOD outside my new home and watched their car pull away without me. My mum cried, my dad cried, everyone cried.

Months of preparation had led to this moment. Open days, interviews, personal statements written and rewritten a hundred times. Whole forests were lost for the prospectuses I had sent to the house. UCAS had become as much a part of my life as eating and sleeping.

But I’d finally done it. I’d flown the nest and gone to University.

Teary eyed, I turned and trundled up five flights of stairs to my room for the next year. I was living in halls of residence that were based on the design of a Swedish women’s prison.

And prison it was.

In my cell I had a bed, a desk and little else. Engraved on the desk were scribbles and declarations of love from roomies gone by, like “Sharon P. woz ere 91” and “Helen 4 Rob IDST.”

Showers and toilets were at the end of the corridor I shared with 12 other girls. You needed a code to get into them which wasn’t ideal when you were so drunk you couldn’t remember your own name.

At 5 o’clock sharp, the inmates would descend onto the huge canteen and queue for school dinner delights like cottage pie and spotted dick and custard. After tea, we were allowed to collect our post from reception. But no visitors and no loud music.

The Prison was so old it would have crumbled away if it had not been demolished last year.

Now I share a house with four girls, including one I went to high school with. I’m more suited to a house because you have more freedom. Come and go as you please and eat your meals at any time. You’re not forced to stand in the freezing cold in your smalls when a fire alarm goes off. Your own toilet is always a plus, too.

For a girl who was scared of her own shadow, my biggest fear about University was making friends. What if they didn’t like me? Was I too weird? Too Welsh? Would I be the girl with no friends?

The best advice I was given is a big cliché but it’s completely true. Everyone is in the same boat.
People are just as nervous as you. They will have the same questions and the same concerns, guaranteed. There is someone for everyone at University so the more people you meet the better chance you have of finding a great mate. Pluck up the courage to introduce yourself and they will appreciate it more than you know.

I’d like to dispel the myth that you have to be rich to go to University. I come from a pretty normal family. I grew up in Connah’s Quay in a terraced house and went to school in Flint. My mum once had four jobs at once to keep us afloat. My dad has always worked in factories.

I worked out that my loan entitlement wasn’t nearly enough to cover the cost of The Prison for my first year. I got myself a summer job on Deeside Industrial Estate making colostomy bags for 40 hours a week.

It wasn’t the way I’d foreseen my summer holiday but it gave me enough pennies to last the year.

Budgeting is vital when you’re at University too. I sit down once a month and work out my incomings and outgoings and anything I’m left with I spend wisely. Make the most of supermarket club cards because every little really does help. Watch out for students who want you for their experiments and will pay good money! You might even get yourself a little part-time job.

I’m proud to say I haven’t touched a penny of my overdraft, but I will have £18,000 of debt when I leave.

Is it worth it?

Of course it is. Employers value not just the practical knowledge you’ve gained from a degree but the worldly experience too. My confidence and people skills have flourished since being at University and this will be recognised by your potential boss.

Going to University takes initiative too. You decided what you wanted to be when you were 18 years old, a feat in itself. You researched the Universities, you went through the application process and you’ve packed up shop and gone.

I was the second in the family to go to University after my cousin left for Central Lancashire two years before me. I still come home for the odd weekend - a birthday, a christening and of course, my mum’s Sunday dinner.

Sheffield is a great city. Ten minutes one way is bustling West Street lined with shops, bars and restaurants. Ten minutes the other and you’re in the Pennines, superb walks for clearing a hangover.

Make the most of every opportunity at University because you’ll never get so many things handed to you on a plate. Join a club, play a sport, be a representative. All these things will look impressive on your C.V. and the people you meet doing them will often be lifelong friends.

This week I was fitted for my cap and gown.

It was so surreal because it only seems like yesterday that I was catching the bus to school. And now in three short months, my higher education will all be over. And it’s pretty emotional.

Lois Hough BA (Hons)

I can’t hide behind the occupation ‘student’ anymore. I’ll be a proper adult with a proper job and proper responsibilities. University is a dress rehearsal for the real thing, and I highly recommend the experience to anyone.