Tips for international students – Getting ready for uni

By Misha Bazarov, MSci Chemistry, Department of Chemistry

I am an international student from Russia, and I will try to share some tips that will hopefully help make your arrival and start at uni smoother.

One of the most important things is getting your visa sorted, so make sure you prioritise this in the summer to avoid stress and arriving at uni late due to delays in the visa process. Personally, I found the King’s website very useful as it had a lot of FAQs and advice for international students.

Next thing to sort is what you bring with you when you arrive. There are a lot of useful resources, such as the what to bring guide  and the move in guide, so make sure you check those out. I studied at a boarding school, so it wasn’t something I did for the first time, but the previously mentioned resources really helped.

It is useful to do most of your shopping before you arrive so that you bring the essentials with you, but don’t stress as you can always buy stuff online or visit the shops near your accommodation.

This may sound very obvious, but make sure you master very basic cooking skills, as it is very tempting to eat out, but it can be quite expensive to do that. Having said that, there are a lot of student deals around London, so make sure you take advantage of those if you do eat out. I would also encourage you to work out your budget, at least roughly, and try to follow it, as I said, there are a lot of temptations.

To get the most out of uni, make sure you take yourself out of your comfort zone, try to make as many friends as possible, but also don’t forget about balancing your time and the work you are required to do for your course. There are so many opportunities open to you, so make sure you use them! Good luck!