Nowhere else in life does a person experience more change than when they go off to University.

Think about it – you’ve been all wrapped up at home all your life, cushioned from the world with regular meals, a free room that seems to tidy itself, magic self-cleaning clothes... basically anything you could ever want, right at your fingertips.

Then – bam! – you’re thrust out into the life of an adult (kind of), with bills and rent and even cooking *shudder*.

It can be quite a shell shock when you arrive, but at the end of your degree you’ll definitely be a well-adjusted human adult, completely prepared and ready to live the rest of your life. Definitely. Completely prepared. Done. Probably…

Us being the precise scientists that we are at Huddersfield SU, we noticed this evolution in species between a first year student and a final year student and we decided to investigate.

Our findings are very scientific and 100% legitimate, sort of, and we put them all here in this article because we like you - and also because National Geographic wouldn’t take our submission. Apparently our research is slightly “not true at all” and a little bit “completely false”, but we went ahead and published it here anyway.

Here are the four main differences between Freshers and Final Years:

1. Currency

Arriving at University in first year is kind of like getting paid without even having a job, thanks to those beautiful rascals over at Student Finance.

Many Freshers get more money than they would even know what to do with, except they do know what to do with it, and it’s time to go spend it all on drinks. You can tell a Fresher from a Final Year using careful observation – is that name-brand cereal in their shopping basket? A bottle of wine that costs more than £5? And is that… clothes that aren’t from Primark’s bargain bin?! It almost makes you mad.

Final Year students, however, are often characterized as rooting through bins and eating leftovers from their friends. It’s a sad life when you’re living off the dregs of your overdraft and spending more time looking for a job than you are on your actual University work. Something to look forward to for all the new students!

2. Nutrition

Always a common issue for all students alike, food is something everyone is thinking about. Freshers have a surplus of money and next-to-no cooking skills, and so their habitat is often littered with pizza boxes and plastic bags. A common side effect of this is the Freshers’ 15lb weight gain, an issue unique to the first year student.

But by the time the first year has evolved into a final year student, it’s a completely different story. After emerging from the cocoon that is second year, the final year has metamorphosed from a hunter-gatherer into a scavenger, crawling around looking for the next meal they can poach. A single tin of beans can last three days in the hands of a final year, if they remember to eat at all. It’s truly fascinating to observe.

3. Socialising

For a Fresher, who has most likely spent every weekday of their entire life inside some school or another, coming to University is one of the coolest things ever. You mean you only have to go to Uni three days a week, and only for a few hours each time? What is this madness! You’ve never known freedom like it, and so you spend all your time doing, well, absolutely nothing. But you love it.

But by the time it comes to your final year, ‘free time’ is just a distant memory. Was there a time that you didn’t have three essays due in tomorrow, and there were no books demanding to be read, and there was no such thing as ‘working on your CV’? It’s almost like it was all a dream.

Another difference is in their habitat. Freshers never step foot inside their own house, favouring the delights of Camel or Tokyo over their dingy rooms, whereas Final Years never seem to leave. This makes Final Year Students a rare sighting past six o’clock, when they return to their burrows to study.

4. Studying

For First Years, mental workouts are the last thing on their mind (pun intended). Grades, jobs, and the future could not be further away when you’re a bright-eyed young Fresher heading off to University for the first time.  In an ideal world, life would continue on as carefree as it is when you’re just starting at Uni.

However all of that changes when you become a final year, substituting sleep for good grades, nights out for nights in chained to your desk, and any kind of social contact for the company of your books. Your grade might as well be the end of life as we know it, and every singular mark is counted up with excruciating detail.

Every waking moment is spent looking at your books for the term, writing essays, and sending your CV off to every business within a 100 mile radius hoping that someone replies.

It may sound scary being a final year student, but if we're honest we are vastly over-exaggerating (we think?). Enjoy your time as a Fresher, but do know that it's not so bad to transform a little over your time at University.

You'll experience so many new things while you're here that it'd be almost impossible to leave the same as you arrived - and that's definitely a good thing! (But if you're dealing with a lot of stress at any point in your Uni life, do make sure to get in touch with the Advice Centre).

We wish you a merry Freshers' and a happy Uni life. See you later!