Once you’ve successfully battled the Clearing phone line scrum to secure a place at a university you’re happy with, it will be tempting to go and join your mates to celebrate. But there’s still work to be done to set yourself up for the year ahead.
First of all, accommodation. Unless your uni campus is near to your home, you’ll need to sign up for somewhere to live – usually in all-student halls of residence, or a private rental. This can be scary for Clearing students – you might worry that your relatively late application means that all the best options have long-gone. But that’s not usually the case, and your new uni will have staff ready to point you in the direction of options that are still available.
If you’ve got time, it can be a good idea to visit the campus and look around the accommodation options – do you want to pay extra for en suite? Do you want the ease of catered halls, or the independence of a private rental? Look on student forums online too – some areas and halls of residence are known for being party hotspots, while others are quieter, and some have lots of students from particular courses.
You’ll also need to sort out your student finances. That means applying for a tuition fee loan from the government and looking into non-repayable maintenance grants (which are being scrapped from September 2016) and maintenance loans, if you’re eligible, as these help to cover uni living costs. Again, don’t worry about timing – as long as you apply soon, your student funding will be in place by the start of term.
If finances are a struggle, it’s worth investigating whether your university offers bursaries – most do, and they can be a great help for your student budget. And use the coming weeks before uni starts to open a student bank account: the borrowing facilities may prove useful, and by applying now, you’ll have more time to consider the options before the packed freshers’ week schedule.
Lastly, you’ll probably have some shopping to do too. Your tutors might send out an early reading list, and while you will want to get started on some, don’t feel you have to buy all of these (usually expensive) tomes. Most of your books will be available in faculty libraries – and because most courses don’t change radically every year, there’s also likely to be a lot of second-hand copies floating around at bargain prices.
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