Great Hunt: What do you wish you'd known before you arrived at uni?

That being overly confident though gets people jobs, it also irritates people and this is not a good idea- especially if it's fake confidence as people see straight through it!


That if you get offered a dozen job links after a show, don't see it as a line-up to go through, look for the most interesting role on offer because you can't go back to the offer when you've finished with job number 1.


That it's worthwhile walking than getting the train after peak time in the morning. Even if it means your walking for a while. It's not just cheaper, it's also less stressful and means more work can be done.


That if anyone takes a picture of your work; ask for the negatives/a copy so you can reproduce another one once you've realised you've damaged the original after an after-show party. Not everyone keeps these negatives and some wont even know what they did with the negatives if you leave it too long.
(This was back in the day of developing pictures rather than uploading them)


That the Pound Shop is wasted-economy when it comes to things like brown tape and even some (watered down) cleaning products. Some are great, some are terrible, keep a note, share the info with friends at college, you'll soon have a decent idea on what to go for and what to avoid.


That even if you're trying to be frugal or don't feel like going anywhere after a 12+ hour studio/manual stint; go out with your mates as much as possible. Once you've graduated these people/friends will soon become business links and if you want to keep in contact, form more than a college/uni-studio friendship.


Always, always wear old clothes to dye or print. No matter how hard you try there will always be accidents, if not by your hand then by someone elses.

My tip is not to bother spending loads of money of textbooks. I have done a normal degree plus my PGCE and didn't buy any. I used the uni library to borrow books, and also used their ebooks. I also used journal articles for my essays, available for free from the uni library.

HAVE FUN! Spend time with your flat and course mates.

You'll be surprised on how little money you can survive on. One of my flat mates bought an x box the first day we got our loan in the first year... ended up eating rice and cheese towards the end of term. Even though we had fun on the x box he did admit that he'd rather be eating something else.

I agree with the above - don't bother buying the text books. Or most courses the older editions are suitable and a lot cheaper!

2nd hand rocks - the amount of board/x box! games you can get from charity shops are great.

When you get given the overdraft on your student account, remember it's not your money! Better than blowing it all (something I recently had to lecture my little sister on...) put it in an ISA and earn interest on it. If it's in a savings account and earning you something, even just a tiny amount, it'll feel less like money that's just sitting there waiting to be spent, and you'll be more incentivised to save money day-to-day.

The other piece of advice I'd give is that anything you put in the kitchen or communal bathroom will be used up, stolen, broken or otherwise ruined. So save yourself buying a whole new set of pans and shower gel and save money replacing missing food by keeping it all in your room. A mini fridge will pay for itself over the course of a term.