By Sophie Wheeler

1st year BU student, BA (Hons) Scriptwriting for Film and TV

I have only been at university for one semester, but I can already confidently say to anyone that is considering applying… do it!

I know it’s an enormous financial decision and at 9k per year, many would argue whether it’s actually even worth going. I would say that it probably still is; simply because you learn so much more than what your course can teach you.

So here it is, my list of ‘4 Things I Have Learnt In My First Semester of University’:

1. Don’t leave assignments until the last minute, everything will go wrong

I think this is just simply the law of being a student. And I guarantee it’ll be the small things that go wrong, the minute catastrophes that won’t necessarily ruin everything, but will make your life considerably more difficult. Such as, every computer on the entire campus breaking down and not liking you. Finding your entire project has been wiped from your memory stick. Or, if you’re like me, your printer running out of ink the night before hand-in. So, what can you do to avoid these things, you ask? Nothing. Just accept your fate, maybe have a little cry and finish the job.

2. If you know what career you want, you’re one of the lucky ones

Something I didn’t expect and need to learn not to take for granted, is that knowing what job you want after you graduate is actually extremely rare. I know that when I leave university, I want to be a scriptwriter. I have no doubt that the majority of the Media School knows what they want to do – television producers, journalists, computer animators. But a lot of my friends do degrees like History, Mathematics, English and most of them have no idea what they are going to end up doing for the rest of their lives. Quite scary. But we’re the lucky ones. Sure, we’re terrified, uncertain and doubtful about our chosen career and where it’ll lead us, but hey, we have a chosen career.  

3. Your friends are your new family

This is ridiculously clichéd, but I’m sorry, it’s true. When I first arrived, I had the initial ‘oh God they’ve left me all alone, I’m never going to survive this.’ Then there’s that exhilarating ‘hell yeah, I’m all alone!’, but I soon realised that I needed people when things went amiss and mum wasn’t there. You can tell friends things you wouldn’t dare tell your mum.

4. There are two things that no student will ever take for granted again

Firstly, and debatably most importantly, is food. Oh God, food is amazing. And when you struggle by for months on only soup and noodles, that first bite of Mum’s homemade dinner is enough to make you want to stay home forever. But then you snap out of it and come to your senses and remember how awesome uni is. 

Secondly is sleep. As a student, there are two types of sleeping. There’s the ‘I’m not even sure if I went to sleep last night’ sleep, prompted by drunken nights out or infuriatingly loud flat-mates who refuse to turn their music down at 5am. Or there’s the ‘bedtime is all the time’ period and well, that’s pretty self-explanatory.