You’ve handed in the diss. You’ve survived final exams. You’re no longer technically a student, but you’re also not quite a functioning adult. Welcome to the lawless limbo of third year summer (or fourth year summer – Scottish students, I see you). That chaotic in-between space where time doesn’t exist, your overdraft is screaming, and you’re suddenly obsessed with “making memories.”
This is your last shot to milk uni life for all it’s worth before you’re chained to Outlook calendars and Pret meal deals. So whether you’re moving out, going travelling, or pretending that job rejection email didn’t hurt your feelings — this is the definitive third year uni summer bucket list.
1. Host one last pre drinks in your disgusting student kitchen
You’re technically done with uni, but you need one last night around the sticky table that’s seen more flat drama than a Channel 4 documentary. Get the playlist out, drink lukewarm vodka mixers, and raise a toast to the mouldy ceiling you called home.
2. Go to the club night you always said was beneath you
The cheesy club night. The sweaty indie basement. The weird Wednesday event where everyone wears neon. You’ve rolled your eyes at it all year — but now you’re spiralling into nostalgia, and nothing hits like Mr Brightside at 1:47am while you sob into a VK. Take a selfie in the toilet mirror and caption it “final send”. It’s a pinnacle moment on the third year uni summer bucket list.
3. Break into your old lecture hall for one final dramatic monologue
There’s something poetic about standing in the very room where you once fell asleep mid-PowerPoint, now delivering your own Oscar-worthy soliloquy to the empty rows. Bonus points if someone films it like it’s Dead Poets Society. Stand on the desk. Quote Fleabag. Yell “I’m nothing without my 10 per cent coursework buffer!” One last performance before the world becomes your stage — and by “stage” I mean “entry level job market”.
4. Romanticise your sad little walk to campus one last time
This is your last term walking that miserable route — past the bins, over the potholes, through the weird alley that always smells like soup. You stick in your headphones and pretend you’re in the Normal People opening credits. One last time for the plot. It’s not a third year uni bucket list unless someone cries.
5. Go around campus taking photos in all the places that made uni feel like home
You’re crying outside the library. Laughing in the lecture hall you once bombed a presentation in. Posing with your flat outside your crusty student house like it’s Buckingham Palace. It’s giving end of a Netflix show montage. Bonus points if it’s on a digi cam or polaroid.
6. Impulsively dye or cut your hair in a way that screams ‘I’m not coping’
You’re processing academic trauma by chopping a fringe or going copper. The girlies get it. It’s called healing through hair. Extra points if your friends say “OMG it actually suits you!” with visible concern. You need to shed your academic skin like a chaotic butterfly.
7. Sit on a random patch of grass and call it a picnic
No cutlery, no plates, and definitely no plan — just a tote bag full of Pringles, cocktail cans, and Tesco pasta salad. Someone brings a speaker. Someone else brings their situationship
. You stay until the sun goes down and your hay fever acts up. Gorgeous.
8. Start planning your ‘leaving uni’ post six weeks early
You’ve got a graduation caption drafted in Notes and 300 blurry photos to sift through. It’ll be a carousel of you in a gown, crying outside your house, and hugging your mates on a sticky club floor. It’s giving sentimental chaos.
9. Actually go to the graduation ball/formal/whatever
You will spend an outrageous amount on tickets, transport, and an outfit that will 100 per cent get red wine on it. Best to save some cash and recycle your old prom dress from three years ago. You slow dance with people you barely spoke to all year. This is your “I made it” moment.
10. Have one deeply unhinged night out that turns into a core memory
You didn’t mean for it to go this far, but suddenly you’re shotting Peach Schnapps, doing karaoke with strangers, and waking up in someone’s uni hoodie with half a kebab on your pillow. Maybe for the best that this’ll be the last time, your ageing knees can’t handle anymore slut drops in the club.
11. Get a tattoo or piercing that screams ‘I’m not ready to grow up’
A butterfly on your ankle. A matching tat with your housemate. A cartilage piercing from someone named Raven in a converted van. You’ll say it’s symbolic. It’s also a cry for help. But like… a cute one.
12. Make an unhinged, Oscar-worthy speech in the kitchen at 3am
The wine hits different when it’s post-graduation. Suddenly you’re telling your flatmates how they “saved you”, quoting Fleabag, and dramatically reciting the lyrics to Ribs by Lorde. Someone’s crying. Someone’s filming. You’ll never live it down.
13. Hook up with your first year ex one last time
You heard me… and you know you want to! You know it’s a terrible idea. That’s why you’re doing it. It’s not closure — it’s relapse. But it’s tradition. You’ll feel something. Mostly regret.
14. Buy one final, impractical Depop outfit ‘for the memories’
It’s made of mesh. It has tassels. It makes absolutely no sense. You’ll wear it to one event and then keep it in your drawer like a relic of your chaotic youth.
15. Connect with nature
You’ve spent three years glued to lecture slides, library PCs, and someone’s private story. Now its time to touch some grass – literally. Go for a long walk somewhere green — a park, a forest, even just your uni’s vaguely scenic pond. Leave your phone on do not disturb. Lie in the grass (don’t forget midgie repellant). You won’t get many days like this once the nine to five hits.
16. Make a rogue spontaneous staycation with your housemates
You see £9 train tickets and think “screw it.” You end up in a town with one pub, a broken Airbnb shower, and the best night of your life. Pure memories. Zero planning. No regrets. Out of all the tasks on the third year uni summer bucket list, this one’s a must.
17. Blow the last of your student loan on one final bougie iced coffee
Go to your favourite coffee spot one last time and tap your card carelessly without checking the number on the card machine. You know you deserve it, so go ahead and get that caramel iced oat flat white, pretending your bank balance isn’t in freefall. It’s not just a drink — it’s a ritual. One final act of denial before the LinkedIn grind begins.
18. Finally flirt with that one seminar crush you’ve been avoiding all year
You’ve graduated. There are no more lectures. The social consequences are gone. DM them. Confess your undying love. Ask them to get a drink and pretend it’s a “catch up.” It’s now or never.
19. Write something in the bathroom stall of your uni’s most cursed toilet
It’s your final mark on campus — a messy, chaotic, possibly inappropriate legacy. Whether it’s deep, unhinged or just “Class of 2025 was here” — it stays there forever (or until facilities comes with bleach).
20. Panic-apply to five grad schemes you don’t understand
You have no idea what “commercial awareness” means, but you tick every box and hope for the best. You say “I’m passionate about tech” with a straight face. The delusion is impressive – just like the third year uni summer bucket list.
21. Sit on the kitchen floor with your best friends and realise it’s actually over
The last pres. The last morning-after debrief. The last time your housemates all exist under the same roof. You cry. You drink. You order takeout and pretend you’re not heartbroken. This is it. And it was everything.
