{"id":6509,"date":"2021-08-14T15:36:33","date_gmt":"2021-08-14T15:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/?p=6509"},"modified":"2021-09-27T18:18:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T18:18:35","slug":"what-not-to-bring-with-you-to-uni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2021\/08\/14\/what-not-to-bring-with-you-to-uni\/","title":{"rendered":"What NOT to Bring with you to Uni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seeing as A-Level results\u2019 day has now passed, and a whole new cohort of students will be eagerly waiting to start at Imperial in October, I thought now would be a pertinent time to offer some advice on what you DON\u2019T need to bring with you to university. Most freshers have the basics covered pretty well, but often end up grossly\u00a0over<\/em>estimating what they\u2019ll need to survive university life. For what it\u2019s worth, here\u2019s my take on five things you can probably just leave at home.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Excessive kitchenware<\/strong>\u00a0You may think you\u2019ll need a pizza cutter, toastie maker and corkscrew when you\u2019re at uni, and you may well not be wrong. However, the likelihood is 6 out of the 8 people sharing your kitchen will have had the same thought. I\u2019m not advocating that you should spend the whole year living off other people\u2019s things, and everyone definitely needs their own basic pots, pans and tableware, but there\u2019s no point everyone buying identical items that you\u2019ll end up using once each. Instead, I suggest getting to uni, seeing what your kitchen already has, and then if anything\u2019s missing offering to pick it up from the shops or making a flat trip out of it. That way you don\u2019t end up with loads of duplicates and save a bit of space in the kitchen.<\/li>\n
  2. A holepunch and stapler (and other excessive stationary)<\/strong>\u00a0When I got to university I was horrified to realise I didn\u2019t have a holepunch or stapler and made a special trip to WHSmith to pick a set up. It\u2019s safe to say neither of them left their packaging. Obviously, this might vary a little person to person, however, the vast majority of people at uni take notes on a laptop or iPad, and I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve ever been given a paper handout, which makes a holepunch and stapler fairly redundant. In fact, I\u2019m pretty sure I didn\u2019t even carry a pen by the end of first term.<\/li>\n
  3. Course related books<\/strong>\u00a0I do admire people who come to uni wielding the entire recommended reading list in a suitcase, however, I would recommend holding off. University textbooks are quite expensive and all of them are available for free in the campus libraries. It\u2019s also difficult to know which books will be of use to you until you actually start doing your degree. There\u2019s nothing wrong with being enthusiastic but \u2018getting ahead\u2019 with reading course materials over the summer certainly isn\u2019t necessary.<\/li>\n
  4. Every single pair of shoes or item of clothing you own<\/strong>\u00a0Most university hall rooms have fairly small wardrobes and limited floor space. Therefore, while you might really want to bring five pairs of trainers and twelve pairs of jeans, in all likelihood you won\u2019t have the space for it. What I did during my first year was bring a basic selection of clothes and shoes and then switch things around every time I went back home. This made sure I didn\u2019t get bored of my wardrobe whilst also having enough space to store it.<\/li>\n
  5. A pack of cards<\/strong>\u00a0Don\u2019t get me wrong, a pack of cards is a very useful thing to have at university as an easy icebreaker to get to know your classmates. However, the people who produce freshers\u2019 freebies seem to know this as well. By the end of my first week at university I had accrued at least 4 packs of cards from my halls and various other clubs and societies. Card games in university kitchens also almost always end up getting messy with a few cards lost along the way so I\u2019d recommend leaving your favourite novelty pack of cards to use at home.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I hope this has been somewhat insightful and saves you the trouble of hauling a boatload of things to uni that, at the end of the year, you realise you never even looked at!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Seeing as A-Level results\u2019 day has now passed, and a whole new cohort of students will be eagerly waiting to start at Imperial in October, I thought now would be a pertinent time to offer some advice on what you DON\u2019T need to bring with you to university. Most freshers have the basics covered pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1573,"featured_media":6510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,300927],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accommodation","category-undergraduate-student-life"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat NOT to Bring with you to Uni - Student blogs - Imperial College London<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2021\/08\/14\/what-not-to-bring-with-you-to-uni\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What NOT to Bring with you to Uni - Student blogs - Imperial College London\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Seeing as A-Level results\u2019 day has now passed, and a whole new cohort of students will be eagerly waiting to start at Imperial in October, I thought now would be a pertinent time to offer some advice on what you DON\u2019T need to bring with you to university. 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