Whether you’re doing a 3, 4, 5, 6, or even 8 year degree, you’re bound to reach that semester when you’re just ready for it to be done.

For most of us, that comes in the final year. A year when things start to wrap up and all the feels are felt.

Here’s what to expect when you’re so ready to finish uni.

#1 Cautiously Hopeful

You know you’re coming towards the end of your degree when your dreams change from dropping out and working any full-time job (or joining the circus) to looking at graduate jobs.

Soon enough, your daydreaming stops and before you know it your biggest dream is landing that crazy competitive grad program when you’ve only got a GPA of 3.0. But it’s all good, odds of landing it are certainly better than the odds of you becoming a professional lion tamer, so surely that’s #adulting? 

#2 Just Can’t Be Bothered

Remember when you first started uni and you wanted to make friends? You woke up early each morning, put together your outfit and brushed your hair? Well, the easiest way to spot a final year student is by looking for the opposite. Their uni friends already know they’re weird, and they’ve figured out those extra 20 minutes are better spent sleeping.

#3 Panicked

Networking events are full of two types of people. First, you have the first years who’re way too keen. Second, you have the final years who’ve just woken up and realised they know no one in the industry they’re about to attempt to break in to.

This feel is personified by handing out and collecting as many business cards as possible, but can be avoided with proper planning. But let’s be real, between all the uni and work and parties, who has time for that?

#4 (Misguidedly) Confident About Our Abilities

The first reading you did, you pulled out your highlighter and took comprehensive notes. However, by the time you’re ready to graduate chances are you’ve perfected the art of making it sound like you’ve done the readings, or the art of skimming and absorbing the general gist.

Your newfound skill of being able to do the bare minimum and still pass has given you a good dose of ego before graduating; hang on to it while it lasts, because soon enough he big bad world will crush it again.

# 5 Superiority Over First Years

Yeah yeah, OK. We were all first years once. But when we were, we certainly weren’t half as obnoxious, or loud, and we definitely didn’t try nearly as hard for every little thing. We never spoke in the quiet section of the library and wouldn’t even dream of walking slowly up a staircase in a massive pack.

Of course, we realise that the final years felt the same superiority over us back when we were the younglings. But that’s completely different. Obviously.