5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me in Freshers' Week

Welcome to St Andrews! Speaking as a current fourth year, my time at St Andrews has been overall incredible, with just a few minor blips along the way. I’ve had opportunities I could have never imagined, met the most amazing people, and figured out who I am and what I want to do after graduation… well, mostly anyway. Nevertheless, there are many things I had to figure out for myself which would have caused me a lot less stress if an honours student had explained them to me in first year. Lucky for you, I am that honours student and I present to you: 5 things I wish someone had told me in Freshers' week.

1. Freshers' week is probably not the best week of your life

Starting off strong, Freshers' week has a huge amount of hype. It’s the week that you are supposed to be truly independent for the first time, meet your best friends for life and make full use of that fresher’s band by going to every event possible. For me, while I didn’t hate it, Freshers' was far from my favourite week in first year. I spent the whole time surrounded by people that I barely knew, and I actually felt really lonely asking 50 people a day the classic questions of “what are you studying?’, “what halls are you staying at?” and “where are you from?”. Most of my closest friends I met well into semester 2 or in later years, so don’t stress if at the beginning of class you still haven’t met your people. You’ll probably be ill then anyway (Freshers' flu is no joke; I’ve had it every year!).

2. Do not worry about the workload

I was so stressed when I attended a lecture in week 1 and was told that you should be doing 10 hours per credit. It doesn’t take a genius to come to the conclusion that this means a bare minimum work week of 60 hours. I have to say that I genuinely don’t know anyone that does this much work in any year. In first year (albeit during COVID with next to nothing in person), I can’t say I ever did more than 15-20 hours a week. I did still think that everything I handed in was great and was fairly disappointed at my low to mid 2:1 marks. It’s important, however, to remember that the marks from first and second year don’t count for a reason. None of the lecturers expect you to understand everything immediately. My GPA increased a lot between second and third year because I took on feedback and realised where putting in the hours would translate to better grades, but this took me all of first and second year to figure out.

3. The jump from sub-honours to honours is manageable

I was also very worried about the jump from sub-honours to honours, having been told it was huge and I would have no time for anything other than work. Speaking as a Biology student, I’ve found that a roughly 9-5 Mon-Fri schedule is more than enough time to get everything done. The work isn’t significantly harder, I think it’s more just that it’s the point many people want to start doing well and so they increase their hours. If you’re used to doing 10 or 15 hours a week in sub-honours, then yeah, it’ll be a big increase but it’s nothing crazy. Time management is key.

I’ve managed to compete and coach in 2 sports clubs as an honours student, while maintaining a first-class average, an active social life and a relationship. I’ve always found that if there’s something I want to do enough, I’ll find the time to do it.

4. Try as many things as you can

Speaking as someone that did 5 different sports clubs in first year, I cannot express enough how much I recommend trying new things throughout your time at university. Pretty much all of my closest friends were made through clubs and societies. Taking on various roles in committees is also a great way to get teamwork and leadership experience for CVs and interviews.

St Andrews has a huge number of societies and sports and you’ll probably never be in a place where it’s as easy to just turn up to something new. In my second year I went to a give-it-a-go session for a sport I’d never even heard of, and I’m now the British Universities Champion. It may be that as you reach third and fourth year you want to cut down the variety of things you’re involved in to invest more time in your favourites, but your favourite sport or hobby may well be something you’ve never even considered before.

5. Don’t stress about housing

Okay, I’m not going to lie, the housing situation in this town is dire. Landlords can get away with charging ridiculous prices and often the upkeep of properties falls by the wayside - because if you don’t want a mouldy, drafty house 10 minutes from town, someone else will. Despite this, try not to panic. I know a lot of people would advise you to form a group by Christmas and start house-hunting by January but it’s important not to rush into the first thing you see. Properties and rooms come up all the time throughout summer, and even a few days before the semester starts. Don’t fall into the trap of signing a £12,000 52-week contract at East Shore just because you haven’t found a private let by May. Most houses are inherited through connections you might have from graduating fourth years – again, sports and societies are good for meeting senior honours students.

Always remember that Guardbridge and Leuchars are only 10 minutes away on the extremely frequent bus (free for under 22-year-olds). If you live next to Morrisons, walking home would be almost double commuting time compared to if you just caught a bus to Guardbridge, and considering the rent would likely be almost half of a similar property in St Andrews, it’s not a bad shout to look further afield from the get-go.

Finally, try not to max out your budget on rent alone. As someone who lived in a house with next to no heating on in second year, it’s not worth saving money on energy only to not want to go home because it’s so cold and having a mental war about having to get out from under your 10 blankets every morning.

I hope you have an amazing time at St Andrews. While there are a few negatives, the positives will massively outweigh them. The above tips are based solely on my friends’ and my experiences here so don’t take it as gospel, but I hope it helps in some way and busts some myths you may have heard about St Andrews.