After learning that you are joining University, there are lots of emotions that come with the sweet good news. However, the most outstanding among them is the excitement about the independence which most fresh years plan to use in various ways. As you all know well a senior six leaver usually has issues with parents during the long vacation.

Such issues are usually centred on coming back home late.  Joining university therefore is a package that is embraced with both hands because the senior six leaver now a University student no longer expects the prying eyes of the parents at this stage.

However, many of these starting students have used the independence that comes with joining university to unintentionally plot their demise.

Some become alcoholics and adopt all kinds of anti-social behaviour. It is very common to find students who do not attend their lectures because they know that no one will ask them why they haven’t.

They do so forgetting that at the end of the semester, they will be required to do exams. Some end up leaving University prematurely when they get expelled. Also students who come long after the orientation week, may get stranded in the early days at the university.

Innocent Mugabo, a second-year student at the National University of Rwanda says that you can never know what it is until you experience life at university.

He further reveals that it is common to find a person who has missed the biggest part of the first semester lectures just because he doesn’t know what to do and where to go which is at most times caused by the reluctance of most students when they reach school.

"It becomes a big problem to catch up with others since the time wasted is much,” says James Mitali another student who experienced the problem of not knowing when the lectures started when he joined the university.

For most joining students, life is always considered not to ever be the same again but many go to school with mixed feelings about what to expect and what to find in the new environment.

"After learning that I was going to join the university, I was at first happy but when the thought of what to expect there hit me, I was taken aback and started recalling all I have heard about life at university and yet most of it is scary,” says Chantal Uwase a frist year student at the School of Finance and Banking (SFB).

"The idea of joining university is always exciting but the problem comes when people start telling you many things. At this stage your spirits start to lower as you can never know what to really expect of the life there,” says Joseph Tumusiime another first year student at SFB.

However, the best thing to do when you join university is to understand that school will always be school no matter the level at which you are.

"The only way to keep yourself away from trouble is to understand that you came to study and to always make sure that you are informed about the rules and regulations of the institution in which you are studying because they are very important in the day to day life of a student,” Says Florence Uwase a second year student at ULK.

Anthony Kanimba a year three student at Unilak says that anyone can decide to make their lives at University easy or hard according to the decisions they make. He adds that any student joining university should not use the independence they have attained to cause themselves problems.

Ends