How to adjust from college to university

Undergraduate student Muhammad Bilal shares his top tips on how to adjust from college to university life. 

Welcome to big kid university life! Starting university is like starting a new chapter of your life and can feel like a roller-coaster, with all the excitement, fear and thrills that it brings. However, by following these tips, you’ll be able to turn the university into your comfort place in no time and smoothly adjust from college to university life.

Get a digital or old-fashioned organiser

Planning my days has made my university life easier and has been essential for managing my course load, activities and social life. Not only does it remind you of deadlines and responsibilities, but it is also motivating when you can cross off all the tasks you have completed. This method will make you feel less overwhelmed and will motivate you to do more.

Read Modules Description

It’s very important to read all the information related to your module that you will find on your portal. Reading this information will allow you to have a clear vision about the direction of your module and what you are likely to take away from it in terms of lessons and skills. 

Campus tour

I highly recommend doing a campus tour before starting the term, especially at The University of Warwick, due to the large size of the campus. This will help you identify the places where you will spend most time, whether that’s your department, the Student Centre or the Library. This will help you to feel less overwhelmed in your first week and you’ll be able to direct your energy to other things such as exploring societies and campus events.

Watch YouTube videos of students moving

One thing that helped me with my transition from college to university was watching YouTube videos of students who went through the same thing. I used to search for videos of students talking about their experiences, what things to take to university and how to build networks. These videos helped me to remember that even those students were at one stage confused just like me and remind me that one day, I would look back and laugh at the amount of confusion I experienced during my first weeks in university.

Practice Communication

It’s important to work on your communication skills before getting into university life. Whilst it’s easy to communicate with classmates and instructors in college due to the restricted number of people you’ll meet, it can be very different at university. At university, you’ll probably meet different people every day, so it’s important to be able to communicate and build friendships and networks. I would also recommend making friendships with students who have been in university for a longer period than you. You’ll be able to gain a lot of knowledge and tips from students who already have experience at university.

Conclusion

It’s in your hands to make your college-to-university transition smooth and fun. You should be willing to put in effort to make the best out of your university life because I can tell you that these will probably be the best years of your life.