In series of blog posts, final-year students share their top tips for studying English at Bolton and enjoying your first year at University.

Here, Libby shares her advice and words of wisdom on for living away from home in the University halls of residence.

Hello! I’m Libby, a third-year English student. I moved into the University Halls of Residence in my first year at university, and will be sharing my helpful tips and advice on studying and living away from home.

  • On first arriving at the University Halls of Residence and as soon as my Mum left me and drove back home, I was completely alone with ZERO friends. One thing I would recommend you do, is force yourself to go to the Fresher events, even if everything in your body is telling you not to. Every single person is in the same boat as you, so go up to people, because whoever they are talking with, they have only just met, too. Even if you’re not good at making friends, all you have to do is smile and be approachable. It sounds cheesy but everyone is just as nervous as the next person.
  • If you want to vacuum your room, it can be a pain having to walk all the way to the reception. Instead, on the day the maid came to clean my floor, I would wake up early and ask to use her vacuum while she isn’t using it. The maids are always so nice and sometimes let me borrow it for the whole week!
  • To avoid arguments in the kitchen space, don’t try to allocate jobs. Just focus on your food and clean up your mess. Although it is a shared kitchen, life is much happier and easier when you don’t have to rely on your house mates.
  • One thing I recommend is taking the train to different parts of Manchester to really see it for what it is, if you haven’t already. Since you are so close to the train station, it really is worth having a day out with people in halls, especially around Christmas time to the Manchester markets.
  • One thing you should take advantage of is the 24 hour library. Since you live a quick 10 minute walk away, it really helped me if people were being too loud or i had to concentrate away from my friends at any hour in the day.
  • After you do your washing in the washing machine, there isn’t really an allocated place to dry your clothes. I used the surfaces in my room and left the window open to air out my wet clothes. It doesn’t take a long time so don’t waste money on a drying rack.
  • Enjoy your halls experience as it really does go quick – even though people say that all the time. Of course you are there to dive into your course and enjoy it, but don’t stress yourself out too much – save that for third year!

Libby Sutton

Libby is a final year English BA (Hons) student.