How To Make The Most Of Your Uni Experience Whilst Living At Home

If you’re staying at home for uni, it doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the uni lifestyle.

For a lot of people, moving away from home for the first time is a big part of going to uni. However, it’s also very popular for students to choose to stay at home for uni instead, this can save money and mean you get to stay at home with your family and friends.

If you do choose to stay at home for uni, you might be worried that you’re going to miss out on things as you won’t be living in halls with other first-year students, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Here’s how you can make the most out of your uni experience, even if you are living at home.

1. Go to every freshers’ event

You are still a fresher even if you’re living at home and these events are for you! Attend as many freshers’ events as you can, including the freshers’ fair to get to grips with what’s going on and to grab some freebies.

No one is going to know anyone at the start of uni, regardless of whether they’re living in halls or not so it’s a nice way to get to meet people and take part in all of the fun stuff that uni has to offer.

2. Sign up to societies

If you’re worried about making friends, societies are the best place to make and meet new friends. By joining a society not only will you be invited to any social events and socials that are taking place throughout the year, but you’ll also naturally become friends with the people in the society which can be a great social ticket to any parties or events happening on campus that you may not know about otherwise.

3. Visit campus

Get familiar with the uni campus, even if you’re going to be living at home. This will be your new home away from home for the next few years, so spending as much time as you can on campus or in your uni buildings is a great way to familiarise yourself and get used to your surroundings.

Your uni will have dedicated buildings for studying and revising in (not just the library) and breakout areas for group study, so try and do your uni work here on campus rather than at home as this will make you feel more connected with your fellow students who might live on campus.

4. Connect with other people living at home

You will not be the only student who is living at home. Your uni may have a support group or Facebook group for those who are living at home and are not in student halls, which is a way for you to meet and go to events together. In the first week of uni people normally stick with their flat to check out new things as they won’t know anyone else, so by finding other people who are living at home you can easily form a group to go to freshers’ events together.

5. Meet people on your course

The way most people make friends in uni is two ways, either from the people they live with or the people on their course. While you won’t have flatmates, you will have people that you’re spending pretty much every day with for the next few years on your course. Uni is interactive and involves seminars and workshops as well as lectures, and although there may be 100s of people on your course, seminars will be in smaller groups and you will become familiar with the people in your lecture halls after the first few weeks.

Join the groups your uni has set up for your course and get to know the people who you’ll be studying with as you will be seeing a lot of them (and it always helps to be friendly with people if you’ll be doing group projects together). Making friends on your course not only means you won’t have to sit alone in your lectures but you can also get to know their friends too, and find out what they’re getting up to outside of their degree, so really, it’s a great way to make a solid friendship group to stick with throughout uni!