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Originally Posted by Boothy

Right, I'm looking at universities now, but I'm not sure how far away to move. I'm think Worcester because it's only about 45 minutes away on the train, few others based in the midlands (coventry, derby, nottingham etc) and manchester (about 1 and a half hours).

Any students on here? How far away did you move? Also, how beneficial were the open days? They're all within the next 2 weeks so I need to start booking them soon, that's if they're useful.

Also, if anyone could offer their thoughts on uni, I mean like, what you think of it, any tips, experiences etc., I'd be very grateful.

I'm from Aberdeen and moved to Glasgow for University; so about 3 hours away from home - these days with things like MSN, Skype, Facebook, phones and so on, you can keep in contact with your friends and family with no problems, so I wouldn't worry about how far away from home it is, worry about what's right for you in terms of a course. To be honest with you, all open days are the same, the only differences being what they show you (i.e. the buildings) and, if you've applied for a variety of different courses, what kind of questions you're there to ask. I didn't really go to many open days, I only went to one (in Aberdeen) before I made my choices on UCAS.

Uni itself is easy going in 1st year. You're generally only in for like the equivalent of two full school days, and the learning aspect is entirely up to you - it's up to you if you go to lectures or not (dunno about other Unis, but Glasgow posts lecture materials up online anyway, so going to lectures isn't even necessary) and if you've picked the right courses, it's actually really interesting, you don't get bored as easily as you do in school. If you're moving away from home; halls are just amazing. You will meet SO many different types of people, and lots of them. Freshers week is mental, just be as friendly as you possibly can and get to know as many people as possible. Some of them you might never see again, others might turn out to be your best friends from your first year - both of those things happened for me! You learn how to look after yourself a lot better if you move away from home; I'd never really done much in the way of cooking or laundry etc, but I was getting pretty good at it by the time I moved out of halls a couple of weeks ago.

It's good fun. I remember being really nervous before I went to Uni, but all of that disappears as soon as your parents leave you to it. Don't be shy! That's the worst thing you can do, even if it's your natural instinct to shy away. Just go up to people and get talking to them, I appreciated it when people did it to me, and (as one of my friends from Uni told me) people appreciated it when I did it to them. You've probably got a million and one questions with no idea where to start, but if I can be of any help then don't hesitate to ask!