What are your memories of uni life - the best and the worst?

[heartsinvisiblefury]

I never went to uni and have just sent my first child there this weekend- just interested to hear about what people love/hated about uni life just so I can get some perspective

For me:
I was desperate to leave my home town, and applied only to universities at least 100 miles away! Obvious opportunity to leave home.
Made friends for life
Studied something that I was interested in and have build my 30 career on; learnt how to study
Really got into "my" sport
Learnt how to be independent and navigate my way through adult life. Got really good at budgeting (I was the last year of full grants which was brilliant, but there was nothing else)
Studied hard, played hard, grew up

I got to leave home which was great.

Met my dh there in halls of residence when I was in 2nd yr and he was a wee fresher! Married 30 years this year!

Have several long term friends from then too.

Loved my course (Geography) and became a Geography teacher which was a great career until I became disabled. Have other friends still from my course.

Met likeminded people through uni societies who I am still in touch with 35 years later!!

Making friends for life, the independence. No real negatives but this is looking back 30ish years!

I left a really low achieving comprehensive with zero cultural capital and met such diverse and interesting people.
I went from living very rurally to a city.
I left completely changed, I was like a sponge for three years, it was an unbelievable opportunity.
Bad things- quite a lot of narrow minded snobbery, predatory men, so many people with poor mental health.
Overall it was life-changing

Actually course was a waste of time and money i could have done it from a book. However i didn't know that until then! So a learning point i suppose ie learning how to learn without being spoon fed. Did make friends for life. But then i made friends for life from work too.

I loved my course and had loads of friends. I had a job in the SU bar and had free booze after hours and played a lot of pool.

I was living in London and went to gigs, clubs and festivals including Reading and Glastonbury many times. I went to a lot of illegal raves that often lasted two or three days, and house parties.

My regret is that I didn't work as hard as I should have done on my course and came out with a 2:1. However I went on to do a Masters but did not enjoy my time as much.

Loved it! Left a boring country town to go to London. Never went back. The best thing I could have done. Made my career using my degree, met amazing people, have lived a good life.

I think living in halls for a year is a fairly 'safe' way of growing up- lots of people your age around and support in halls. Then moving into a house with friends and having to compromise a bit is a good learning experience too!

I remember though the first time we went, as a group, to the supermarket and it was so much fun buying all the food...after a few weeks the novelty wore off and I realised that was it, the weekly shop forever!

I loved university- the new people and opportunities to just try different things.

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads I worked in grants and awards - LA department distributing student money before loans. Just to let you know: they were means tested. Many parents were expected to make up the shortfall. There never was full grants for everyone. Where I worked a small percentage of students got a full grant. You might have been a lucky one. My DH had parents who didn’t pay up. Neither did my DF.

I was so excited and yet so lonely. Missed my big noisy family.

Some of the fullest, happiest years of my life. Frantically busy (I watched zero TV the entire time I was there) doing all kinds of stuff and working my guts out in the labs, in lectures and in supervisions. Took up a new sport and competed for my university. Met so many multitalented, brilliant people. What I miss beyond all is that time and energy to soak up everything. Stuffed up in a million ways alongside a pile of likeminded young adults who forgave me every time (as I forgave them).

Like a fish out of water

Hated the forced socializing thing

No-one else had a northern accent

Yes we all knew grants were means tested - I think in my first year my mum had to give me about £25 a term but the remaining years I had a full grant (my dad had died a couple of years before I went).

LAs had a bit more cash to splash in those days...mine paid for three return flights during my year abroad! As well as my grant. Not all paid for that though so I was lucky.

Lifesaver for me. My mum was really ill when i went and died shortly after i started. My dad wasn't a great dad tbh and was away at sea. So uni got me away from a pretty awful home situation.

I was there late 80s and i loved the parties, pubs, clubs. Great flatmates. Had so many laughs, went youth hostelling together in the hols.

Loved my course, just everything about it really. Then i met my DH.

I never returned home (there was none to return to anyway!)

40 yrs on, still here in Scotland. Uni years were maybe the best of my life.

Loads of good memories. Hilarious times with friends. Living with your mates and growing together, learning together, waking up together and just having fun never got old.

The actual learning part. Opened my mind so much. There are lectures that I still remember today (20 years later). Truly broadened my mind and even now I read old essays and think wow I was actually quite clever.

Living in a city and experiencing city life after growing up in a small town. So much more out there in the way of shops, nightlife, culture. Equally mingling with people from all walks of life.

However I wasn't my best self at uni. I drank too much, got really fat, had shit priorities and behaved appallingly at times. It's such a big lifestyle change at a time when you're still relatively young and impressionable. I wish I could go back and do it again now with the life experience and knowledge I've got.

I loved living away from home and being independent. My first year of university was without a doubt the best year of my life. I’d been at a highly academic provate girls school with some truly brilliant minds. I was never intellectually challenged at university the way I was at school, people didn’t seem to say much or get into much debate or discussion and I struggled with that, This was at a supposedly good university too