Preparing to come to BU!

You may be wondering how you should prepare for university. This blog will give you some tips and tricks on how to do this from someone who has been a first year student!

Starting a checklist on things you should bring to university 

To start preparing I found it very useful to write a checklist of items I felt I would need to bring to university. I did this by considering what I use on a daily basis, for instance pots and pans, makeup, and bedding. I wrote down key areas like the Kitchen, Bedroom, Bathroom, and Attending University, to help me with this.

Some things that came to mind were essentials, for instance bedding which included a duvet, a duvet cover, pillows and pillow cases and under sheet. Other things were a little less obvious, for instance a small wash basket, potato peeler and a small plug in fan (as it was still quite warm!)

The great thing about Bournemouth is there is a large Asda with a kitchen and bedding section. I found this extremely helpful when moving in as I packed my parents car with all the items I wanted to bring from home, and then went to Asda to buy the rest. This is especially useful if you are travelling by plane, train or boat to get to BU.

Things you can buy in Asda:

Under sheet for bed & duvet cover

Knives, forks, spoons, plates and bowels

Spatulas, towels, (and potato peeler!)

Pots, pans, chopping boards

First food shop

Soap and makeup

and lots more!

Creating a home away from home

As well as thinking about the practical stuff, it may also be nice to think about what personal items you really treasure that you would like to bring to university. This could be sentimental pictures and letters from family and friends, a few favourite books, a teddy or a houseplant! These will really make you feel familiar with your room and hopefully will comfort you in the first few weeks! It is good to think in advance about this in case you need to print anything out!

Student budget

When you are a student you are most likely to be living on a budget, and I found it really helpful to map this out and see how much roughly I had this week. The key areas I budget for are weekly food shop, weekly going out/ leisure money and rent (and bills if these are not included). This means I am able to roughly stay on budget. I found that some weeks would be a little more expensive, for instance if I went out for someone’s birthday, and other weeks I would spend a little less.

Making a group chat with your housemates

When you select your accommodation at BU you may be able to see the names of who you are going to be living with. This is a great opportunity to connect with them (if you would like) and create a group chat. I did this through looking the names of the people up on Facebook and contacting them  to introduce myself asking if they would like to create a group chat on Snapchat or Instagram. This is a great way to prepare as you can talk to them about what they are bringing so you do not risk doubling up on things. Perhaps they are bringing pans and you all decide to share them, or perhaps they are bringing tea towels.

It is also a great way to prepare as you can learn a bit more about your housemates and see what kind of activities and events your house would like to do in freshers week. This may make things feel a little less daunting!

Preparing for clubbing as someone who did not drink much before university

One thing I personally wanted to prepare for was freshers week with clubbing. There are lots of other things to do if you would prefer/ do not drink, however I knew that I would like to experience this. Before university I had not gone clubbing, so to help me feel more settled with this I went with my home friends just before I moved to university. This was great for me, as it built my confidence up a bit that I was able to go out and make new friends.

Sourced from The Old Fire Station

There may be other areas of student living that you may want to have a little go at before arriving, for instance cooking. Having a few go-to easy student meals was a really useful thing to have. For me this was pesto pasta, jacket potato’s and spaghetti bolognaise, whatever you fancy!

I hope this has been useful, and I really hope you have a lovely time settling into BU. If you would like to chat to a current student about student living you can here via UniBuddy.

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