With graduation just around the corner, it’s a good time to reflect on the past four years. Uni is filled with so many great memories, from caffeine-fuelled nights studying with friends in the 24-hour labs to boozy nights dressed up for uni balls.

However, despite all the good times there are a few things I regret not doing while studying.

#1 Being More Involved With Societies

I always took the opportunities to sign up to societies associated with my course – an opening party with a generous bar tab is enough for anyone to want to be involved. However, this was usually as far as my involvement went.

There were great networking nights, panel evenings and other parties throughout the semester; all of which I managed to attend a total of zero. This also meant never bothering to become a part of any committees and losing out on the opportunities that come with that.

#2 Starting Internships Earlier

The one benefit of being in a four year degree is that you have more time to start organising internships and preparing yourself to find work. However, it wasn’t until my third year that I started doing internships.

My degree naturally lends itself to internships and there’s an abundance of them available, if I had begun even just one year earlier who knows where I’d be now?

#3 Budgeting Better

Money has been a large stressor for the past four years. There are so many resources – from apps to a good old excel spreadsheet – that make budgeting easy, and yet I never took advantage of any of them. Instead, it’s meant living week-to-week and taking out a loan from Bank of Mum more than once. If I had planned this better it may have meant less mi goreng meals and more savings.

#4 Travelling

There’s never going to be another time where you have as much free time as at uni. Long summer holidays and semester breaks make taking days off for holidays much easier than at a full time job.

Flight sales are frequent and often super affordable, especially for places in South East Asia. Saving a few extra hundred can easily get you to Europe or America, and there really is no better time to travel than while studying. I was lucky to manage two trips in my four years, but if I had saved better I would have been able to explore more places.

#5 Exchange

Everyone you speak to who has done exchange will tell you it was one of the best decisions they made. It gives you the opportunity to be independent whilst exploring another country. Exchange in itself makes travelling easier, especially if your exchange is in Europe where travelling for two hours lands you in another country. Some courses, including mine, even offer subjects for a few weeks overseas for a smaller commitment. I never took the opportunity for either of these experiences.

#6 Taking Full Advantage Of University Resources

Every university is different but there are so many programs and resources that I never took full advantage of. Even though the library appears to only be filled with textbooks, there’s also a section for fiction novels – ones that you can borrow out and enjoy just for the pleasure of reading!

These resources extend to mentoring programs that I never got involved with, free counselling services I never took and even bulk billing GPs that would have been great to use instead of assuming my immune system could fight off the flu on its own.

Learn from my mistakes, guys.