How to Lose Friends and Alienate People During Freshe...

Freshers' week is a time to make friends and have fun! So it's probably best you avoid doing what these students did during your first week.

Freshers' week could be one of the best weeks of your life. The nights outs, the new people, the freedom and of course maybe a drink or two. However, it can also get a little bit awkward if things don't go to plan. You're with people you don't really know, often consuming vast quantities of alcohol and you're all living together for the rest of the year. Let's not ruin it in the first week!

There are so many opportunities to make friends and get involved in stuff but there are a few things to try to avoid if you want to have friends by the end of it! Remember the partying doesn't stop when freshers' week does; you've got a marathon year of parties and fun ahead. So here's our guide to not losing friends and alienating people during your first week.

1) Don’t become the liability

During freshers' week there are going to be messy incidents, often involving alcohol, throwing up and/or passing out in a hedge. Having to look after people or take people home isn't anyone's idea of fun. One night can be forgiven, but if it becomes a regular occurence, people may start being less sympathetic.

2) Pick your fancy dress wisely

It's a fact; students love fancy dress. However, that doesn't mean that you need to have a costume for every night of the week. There will be hundreds of opportunity to get your Pink Panther onesie out, so resist the urge to go out in it when everyone else isn't. You'll look like a numpty when you have explain to everyone why the hell you are in a Pink Panther onesie at the Freshers' Ball!

3) Don't always be in your birthday suit

Freshers' week and nakedness go hand-in-hand for no particular reason. Whether it's in pre-drinks, a post night out run around halls or just because the Baywatch theme tune has come on. However, that doesn't mean you should be in your birthday suit all the time... don't be that guy/girl! If you are ten mintues into pre's and everyone's only half a can of cider down, that really isn't the time to start stripping off.

4) Don't wear your Sunday best

Student clubs are cheap and fun. But they aren't always the cleanest and most sophisticated of places. So dress appropriately! Basically, if you have a pair of white Armini Jeans I wouldn't even bring them to university. They will not only get ruined, but you will look like a special character in the first place.

5) Don't be a lone wolf

The chances are you won't know the city/town you have just arrived in for university and therefore in a drunken state you are likely to get lost. The best way to avoid this is to travel in packs. Sure, meet new people beyond your halls mates but don't end up spending your night alone circling the city trying to find people who vaguely look like university students.

6) There is always one wannabe lad/ladette

If you have any tendencies to tell people how many people you've slept with, how much alcohol you can drink and how many things are 'quality bant', you are unlikely to be that popular with anyone apart from the rugby team.

7) being drunk doesn't make you the next Jamie Oliver in the kitchen

Late night takeaways can be expensive, so why not wait until you get back to halls and cook then? Don't because it's a bad idea. You can barely cook anyway, and drinking enough alcohol to sink a small ship will make you even worse. Setting off the smoke alarms will piss everyone off and that might only be the start of your problems.

8) Hide your wannabe DJ-ness

You may think that you're the next Calvin Harris, but when you are blasting an electro-house mix out of your speakers at 4am, your halls mates are unlikely to be that impressed. The person who plays their music the loudest, is usually the one that everyone thinks has the worst taste in music....

9) DON'T HOOK UP WITH YOUR FLATMATES

Yes, you're excited to meet your new flatmates and some of them may be turn into your closest friends during university. So don't go and ruin it by hooking up with them in the first week. There are plenty of other students to meet and with them the morning after is going to be much less awkward. If it does happen though, try to handle the situation with discretion and taste (unlikely I know, but you can at least try).

10) Don't be the 'Didn't quite make it footballer'

Yes, you probably did have trials for Southampton FC at age 9 and yes you may even know Luke Shaw but that doesn't mean that everyone needs to know about it multiple times on the first day. No offence, but you haven't moved to Manchester United for £30 million and you're now at university, so you probably aren't that good!

11) Don't over-re-invent yourself

(Yes, that is a thing). Many head to university and attempt to reinvent themselves. That's no bad thing, but if you don't want to reinvent yourself as a party-loving, tequila slamming, raving nutcase you don't have to. If the big clubbing scene isn't your thing, there are plenty of other ways to fit in to uni life and find out "who you really are". Or something like that anyway.

12) There is such a thing as being over-Keen

You want to spend as much time as you can with your new best friends at uni. However, that doesn't mean you should be always hanging around and knocking on your neighbours door at 4am for a DMC. Everyone needs their space from time-to-time.

13) Don't fall asleep in a commual area

If you are passed out drunk anywhere, other drunk people will take advantage of your misfortune. Things will be stacked on top of you, you will be drawn on and everyone will find it hilarious that you (like most other people) are a snorer. Getting that permanent marker off is not going to be a quick process, so look forward to going to your introduction lecture with a faded profanity on your forehead!

14) It's Just not worth Panicking

Yes, there is likely to be an introduction talk for your subject during freshers' week but it isn't that important. Of course, go along and take in what is being said. However, you are not going to be given a three hour exam on all of the recommended summer reading. And they aren't going to bring you to the front to answer complex questions on your subject. Freshers' week is to be enjoyed and your course coordinator doesn't hate students that much. Well, you'd hope so anyway.

15) don't be Ridiculously DRUNK/hungover all the time

Freshers' Week is much more than getting stupidly drunk and doing silly things. Whether it's sports, societies or just exploring your surrounding make sure you don't miss out because you are in bed until 4 in afternoon nursing multiple days of hungover. Despite what the lad/ladette of your halls says, it's actually okay not to be drunk all of the time.