Tips and tricks of uni life Part 1

If you are studying in person, you will certainly spend some long days on campus. Some of my later semesters were 8am-8pm shifts because of early classes and evening tutoring work. Here are some useful tips to make your home away from home cosier.

Transport and parking

Driving to campus is probably the priciest option, however it tends to be the most convenient. If you are located on a large campus, you can park closer to the particular class, or even pop out for a lunch or a break at home between lectures. You can also then use your car as a locker of sorts, keeping snacks, spare clothes and books. It's important to remember not to leave anything in sight. The mind boggles at how many stories I heard along the lines of "someone broke into my car and stole my laptop!" As it usually turns out, they leave the laptop on the front seat, in clear view of the public!

Parking spots do tend to fill up fast, so you will need to come in early enough to snap one up. A good time to find parking is usually on the hour, as people are likely to be leaving classes and heading out of campus. Obviously, you might also be trying to get to a class around that time so might be cutting it close to your next class.

If your campus is located within suburbs, then you can also opt to parking outside of campus and walking the rest of the way, using a bicycle or a scooter. I've seen this happen and its a great way to save money, while also adding some exercise to your day (oh so important for an IT professional!) This won't always be an option, as for example, University of Auckland (where I did my first degree) is located in Auckland CBD. Therefore parking, even outside of the campus area, is very expensive. I only ever drove there if I had a single class, or had an assignment to hand in.

Public Transport

Clearly a cheaper option over driving in (although this depends on your city I guess), but also a bit more time consuming. Make sure you grab the student discount for public fares (this does not apply to student fares alone, there are sooo many great discounts for students like entertainment, software and online subscriptions. Companies know that if they get you into a habit of using their products and services while you are young in your career, you will more likely stay with the when you become a graduate and start working). Always have a backup plan for public transport, in case you miss your bus, or the route is out of service on the given day. I will never forget the time I had to hand in a lab report (it was always due at the start of the lab, and had to be handed in in person) and missed my bus by a minute. "No worries" - I thought, "I will just drive to the train station, and get to city that way". I jumped into my car and drove off. Something off, the car was struggling to roll. Upon stopping, I found my rear tire flat and a shiny nail head sticking out of it. At this point I didn't really have time to change it out, so I left it parked on the side of the road and ran the rest of the way to the train station (about 15 minutes away on foot). Upon arriving to the train station, I noticed a larger than usual crowd of people, even for the rush period. As it turned out, all services on that line were cancelled for the morning, due to somebody vandalizing the trains overnight with graffiti. I still can't believe my luck, and it all started with me being a minute late to the bus. So have a back up plan for your travels! I was able to email my unit coordinator, explaining the train situation and even sending her a news article link. At that time, I decided not to mention the flat tyre because the story was becoming too unrealistic. In the end, I emailed her the report, and then handed it in at a later point. This way, at least, they could confirm I did not work on it after the due date.

Its hard to believe that only 10 years ago, universities still required hard copies to be handed it for marking, and did not really embrace the electronic submissions yet, even though all the components were there and available.

Food, drink

Suffice to say, eating at cafes and food courts tends to be the most expensive option for your uni lunch. If you are lucky, there may be a subsidy or student discount available for you at on-campus eateries, making it slightly more affordable. Bringing food from home generally will be a cheaper option, and higher quality one. I would highly recommend investing into a food thermos, and a drink container that can keep liquids hot. I loved having hot tea during the day, and we also had free hot water dispensers around uni, so I was able to make tea and coffee with teabags/instance coffee sachets.

It will be worthwhile checking out your campus for free microwaves and hot water taps (check your food court and library). You could also look for a quiet faculty and sneak into their staff kitchen. While most are behind locked doors, there it always a chance of finding one unlocked. This is where being a mature student comes in handy, because you can always pass for a tutor, or a young lecturer. At the end of the day, you will be rather unlucky if you come upon someone who actually cares enough to tell you off and kick you out.

Back when I was studying at Auckland Uni, a local Hare Krishna group was giving out meals, in exchange for a small donation. At the time, this was the cheapest option to get a hot meal on campus.

Food inevitably turns into...

This might be a bit of a delicate topic for some, nevertheless, it is worth mentioning. Number ones are easy enough to deal with, it's the number two in a public bathroom that might be a worry for some. You can definitely find some quiet bathrooms, located in some forgotten faculty on the edge of the campus, so scout around ahead of time and form a plan.

Bike lockers and similar types of end of trip facilities also will have showers available which you can use in case of an emergency. These types of facilities are usually not available to the public, so you need to sign up for access before hand. At Curtin University, it was as easy as calling security team and requesting access. After providing my ID, my card granted me entrance into the bike racks with end of trip facilities. Although I really did sign up there because I cycled to the campus for a while. Lastly, having a packet of wet wipes in your back pack will definitely get you out of a lot of sticky situations.

Other consumables

There will certainly be many stores selling office supplies for you study needs, however, I found that some stores were an absolute rip off, so knowing the cheaper places around campus will definitely be worth it. There was no pharmacy at the campus that I studied, but most general shops had the basic medical supplies like paracetamol, plasters, antihistamines (very overpriced, so I generally carried my own).

Health care

More likely than not, your university will have an internal health centre, offering services to students and staff. These are generally going to be well priced for students, if not free. Offerings can range from just the GP doctors, but also pathology services and mental health care. This is also where you can get a doctors note, in case you need to miss an assessment or a deadline due to illness.

I've generally had a good experience with the GPs at the uni clinic, and no, they were not just some medical students practising on you. The three GPs I interacted with were experienced doctors and helped resolve my aliments during my time at uni. To be fair, these were your standard colds and flus, and other seasonal infections.

On my last visit, my doctor accurately explained that my heartburn issues were due to the copious amounts of caffeine consumed and stress. After reducing both, my problems were resolved.

Getting rid of a caffeine addiction was a fun process. In the second year of uni, I was consuming 3-4 Monsters every day (yes, I know, things got out of hand). During my first day of holidays, I decided to go cold turkey, underestimating the physical effects of caffeine withdrawal. To put things in perspective, I used to smoke for about 6 years and did quit cold Turkey on the Christmas Day of 2015. It was much easier to quit cigarettes cold turkey than caffeine (although caffeine withdrawals weren't a problem like after a week, whereas the psychological addiction to cigarettes probably stayed with me for 3-4 years after). I ended up taking Nodoz caffeine tablets, and slowly reducing the dose over the next few weeks, until I was able to not have any caffeine at all (exactly what drug addicts do in drug rehabilitation programs). After this, I stopped drinking energy drinks, and only had coffee on a regular basis.