Your first year
Find out what to expect in your first year at a University hall and get tips to help you make it a successful year to remember.
Starting university can be daunting. This page takes you step-by-step through the year to help you understand what to expect, how you might feel and what you can do to help yourself along the way.
Getting ready
Prepare for living in a hall and your first year of study.
- Complete your Student Life modules
- Set your personal wellbeing goals
- Prepare your first aid and wellness kits
- Ensure your vaccinations are up to date
- Make a plan to stay connected with your whānau
- Make a weekly budget to help manage your money
- Check your emails for arrival and O-week information
- Join your hall’s social media pages
- Check out the accommodation portal
- If you’re in a University catered hall, download the Time2Eat app
- Read about the process for Moving in
Read on to see what your first year might be like.
First few weeks of Trimester 1: settling in and making friends
What to expect:
- orientation week events in your hall and on campus
- new-found freedom and independence
- new people to meet
- new challenges and experiences
- a new routine and environment to adjust to
- concerns about new courses.
Six weeks in
What you might experience:
- feeling the pressure of study with a high workload, and assignments due
- course doubts—can I do this?
- struggling with the new environment
- handling new relationships, your living situation, homesickness, and money issues
- feeling isolated or distant
- feeling run down or getting ‘freshers’ flu’.
Mid-trimester break
What you might experience:
- two weeks with no lectures and tutorials
- some students choose to head home to connect with family and whānau.
Getting back into your routine after the break
What you might experience:
- excitement to reconnect with hall friends
- starting to feel more at home in the hall, on campus, and in Wellington
- it’s starting to get darker and colder.
End of trimester 1: assessment and exams
What you might experience:
- self-doubt as you hit ‘crunch time’ (assessments and exams)
- stress, pressure, and worry
- possible health worries
- homesickness.
Mid-year break
What you might experience:
- you’ve finished your first trimester of university—celebrate and reflect
- students might choose to go home to catch up with friends and family
- exam and assessment results will come out.
Start of trimester 2: returning and reorientation week
What you might experience:
- a new routine and timetable
- changes to friend groups, new students moving into the hall, and meeting new people in classes
- orientation week events in your hall and on campus.
Mid-trimester break
What you might experience:
- two weeks with no lectures and tutorials
- some students choose to head home to connect with family and whānau.
End of Trimester 2: assessment and exams
What you can expect:
- moving out of the hall.
End of your first year
What you might experience:
- you’ve finished your first year of university—celebrate and reflect
- exam and assessment results will come out
- you might feel sadness as you move out of the hall and say farewells
- some students might choose to study over the summer (Trimester 3).