You have spent the morning cramming every one of your beloved belongings into every crevice of the boot of the car. You have spent a number of hours on the motorway with your family, either being calmed by them; with them reassuring you that you’ll survive this monstrous experience – or you comforting your folks, explaining that you may have flown the nest, but you still love them. The following lines probably serve either scenario: “the terms are only short”, “it’ll be over before you know it”, “it’s not that far away” – “and there’s always the megabus!”

Once that ordeal is over, your first task may well be to dispatch your parents. They’ll want a tour of your new accommodation, maybe a quick handshake with the warden/senior resident of the hall and then it’s time for the goodbyes. A university bigwig making the final speech at my recent graduation recalled his eldest daughter's first day at university. After unloading the car, his daughter simply said “goodbye dad”. He noted that this was not a farewell. “It was an instruction.”

Then you’ll move on to claim your key and…don’t panic! Your new abode may appear to resemble more of a bomb shelter or a storage facility for MFI rejects than home sweet home, but it will look much more like the cosy pied-à-terre you had been dreaming of, once you install your clutter into its confined space.

My room happened to be the most garish shade of yellowy orange imaginable – the only room in the whole building treated to such special treatment. That was my talking point, but Nina Robinson, a student from Oxford University – advises you to bring your own. “Bring something interesting, unique or just downright peculiar for your room – something that will spark a conversation,” she counsels.

Guide to student societies and clubs

Cliquey clubs that embody the worst of uni drinking culture, or fun groups that aid your CV and social life?

BACKGROUND

• How to make friends in Freshers' Week

• Seven days that will not change your life

• Nine items that will win you friends at university

Related Internet Links

• Good University Guide

• University league table

• Freshers' starter pack

Related Links

• Seven days that will not change your life

In any case, your communal spaces will be decorated in all manner of DIY ways over the first term. Whether it be with a pyramid of emptied beer cans or any number of strange collections, freshers find their own unique ways to make their mark. One of my flatmates, a rare kind who actually consumed fruit, covered his kitchen cupboard with discarded apple labels. Then there are the freshers who seemingly can’t resist the urge to nab any sign (street sign, pizza shop sign, well, they’re not fussy) or traffic cone in sight.

Next, there's time for a few fleeting introductions and sheepish handshakes, before you are shipped off to your union/hall bar. Here are two challenges for you to overcome: first, try to remember a succession of names, subjects, home-towns and other little titbits of information being bowled at you. Then, comes the real toughie. Attempt to engage in a conversation that is even only slightly different to the one you just had. Hannah Saunders’, a third-year Cambridge student, top tip is to have a question up your sleeve that varies from the mundane monotony of this maelstrom of enquiries. It might just help you to avoid sounding like a deranged Cilla Black – enquiring, “what’s your name and where do you come from?” over and over again.

Just have an interesting couple of questions to hand, or some engaging things to say for yourself – maybe your summer holiday or your gap year. But don’t go on too much. No-one warms to an intrepid gapper who can’t stop blathering on about how much he/she has found him/herself and how they’ve seen/discovered/healed the world blah blah blah. But this tactic really works. I was convinced of this when, wandering around at my post-graduation reception, I was reminded of the first conversation I had with a friend I was now graduating with. The fact that she had had a part-time job in the summer holiday post A-levels in a Christmas cake factory in a town near Glastonbury had clung to my memory for three years. It’s those kind of details that stop everyone meshing into one amorphous mess. Just be careful to stay on the right side of attentive and curious, and not on the wrong side of obsessive stalker.

Do have a blast, but make at least a token attempt to stay healthy. The notorious freshers’ flu is pretty self-explanatory. Throw a load of heaving youngsters from all over the country into a cramped space over a week, with copious amounts of booze and the first time being away from home (read: dire food) – and you haven’t got the most wholesome recipe for healthy living. Perhaps you should even bring the Lemsip and Echinacea with you in advance.

Finally, when you get back to your hall and you enter the early hours with your newly-found friends, bear the following piece of advice in mind. People often tend to stick together and fall into their comfort zones in a pretty short space of time. So make the most of your enthusiasm. Invest in a doorstop, a bottle of alcohol, a few mugs and a packet (or two) of Hobnobs and you may find that your hospitality results in your room being the social centre of your corridor. Meet lots of people and don’t just attach yourself to a small enclave of like-minded freshers. “Don’t be like me and end up stuck with the same morons,” advises one recent graduate, who unsurprisingly wishes to remain nameless. “Yeah, don’t get stuck”, her (also anonymous) friend agrees. It’s good advice; there are thousands of other freshers - and second and third years - out there waiting to be acquainted with you. They are not strangers – they’re just friends you haven’t made yet (cheesy as it sounds).

But the best advice is just take it easy. If you arrive late, have forgotten your favourite teddy, think that everyone's staring at you, or your room stinks of damp, just take it in your stride. In terms of expectations, it's probably best just not to have any. I remember speaking to a very good friend who had arrived at uni a few days before me. She said she was pretty bored and wiling the hours away on her newly-purchased laptop. When I had spent a couple of days in my gaudy yellow room, I kind of knew what she meant. For a lot of people, the whole week is haze of unbridled euphoria. But for many freshers, student life doesn’t provide an instant sensation of hedonistic elation. For most, freshers week is about getting used to new surroundings, new people and a new stage of your life. Just enjoy it.

It really isn't that scary. All the clichés apply (“you’re all in the same boat” being just one of them), but to steal a metaphor from someone I met recently – it is just like a buffet. Use your first week at university, and especially your first day, to be an adventurous eater. Get a taste of as much as you can. Just pace yourself; no-one wants indigestion. Bon appétit!

Don’t forget to…

Bring: a stash of passport photos. They’re a must for the stream of forms, I.D. cards and membership cards you’ll be receiving in your first week. A local cab number will also come in handy.

Read: Starter for Ten, by David Nicholls. It’s a witty and entertaining read about one spotty student’s first year at university. You will laugh, cry and cringe following the protagonist’s faltering steps into life as a fresher. Share in his encounters at the ‘Tarts and Vicars’ fancy-dress party along with his hapless attempts to woo the girl of his dreams.

Visit: the all-consuming Facebook. It will become your virtual home once you enter student life, so you may as well start making friends now! Create a group for your specific course at your university and start networking.

Join: at least one truly wacky society. When you’re at freshers fair, you’ll surely leave with handfuls of freebies. But don’t forget the societies that will overwhelm you, both in terms of their number and their bizarre breadth. Be sure to join at least one of the peculiar, weird and wonderful societies out there.

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