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This is for all of those students who are deciding and preparing to go on a year abroad. 

It’s the kind of gap year in your degree that isn’t really a gap year. Universities will handle study abroad in different ways, but my university (University of Leeds) offers you three options: find an internship of your own choice, find a university and study, or work in a German school as a foreign language assistant in English. I chose the last one. 

With a growing number of funded programmes and the promise of a CV boost, students are increasingly choosing China as their first choice study abroad destination. 

How you treat your first year is a point of contention among university students.

For the majority of courses, your first-year grade does not count towards your final degree classification. Naturally, then, students start to wonder whether a year focused on socialising and getting stuck in with societies – fitting in the occasional stint at the library – will be much more beneficial than going all out with studying.

As long as you pass with 40 per cent, you can put the effort in next year when it counts, right?

According to my parents, I have always been an ambitious individual.

My late father was probably the one who encouraged my desire for entrepreneurship, as he was a businessman and hoped that I would follow in his footsteps. It was from him that I learned that you ultimately decided where your life will be in 10 years’ time, right now.

At 14, I started my first business as an in-house personal tutor working with my classmates and peers, teaching three or four students biology, chemistry and physics each week.

Everyone experiences the first week of university differently. Some students dive right in like a duck to water, while others dip a cautious toe in, taking their time to explore university life. 

However, the first feelings of heading to university are the same all over the world – excitement and apprehension.

I collected stories from some university students sharing their experiences of their first weeks of university. 

One of the first economic terms introduced by Gregory Mankiw in his introductory microeconomic class “Ec10a” was “comparative advantage.” Ever since, I have pondered the question; what is Harvard’s comparative advantage? In other words, what makes Harvard comparatively unique and how should I best spend my four years at the institution?

If you're starting university this year, you will soon be settling into a new environment, living away from home and having to look after yourself. You will leave behind the lifestyle you have been familiar with since you started secondary education or high school. Things are about to become markedly different, and not having to wear a uniform is not the only thing that will change once you start your journey to university. 

So much choice

I chose to move to London to study a master’s degree, without knowing another soul in the city, and have been here for more than a year. 

A few summers ago, I decided that I needed to experience cultures other than my own and explore a new place. Although I lacked experience, I knew I could enhance my perspective by moving abroad. 

You could be mistaken for thinking that moving to Berlin would not be a radically new cultural experience from the UK. Like any other large, Western capital city, the English language is frustratingly prominent. And there is still an abundance of hipster-run coffee shops furnished with the same mismatched furniture. It’s basically the same place as the UK, just without those wholly unnecessary pleasantries we English preside over.

When asked what you would do if you had a free day with no commitments or long to-do lists, for many the likely answer would be sitting outside and reading. 

There is something appealing about spending a few hours in the sunshine immersing yourself in a good book, whether it is a piece of fiction, an autobiography or a collection of essays. 

If you’re looking for something new to read this summer, take a look at the recommendations from university students below.