Diary
Ok, yes, it does seem a bit square to carry a day planner, but trust me, you’ll need it. I thought it was a stupid idea all through my first term, but come Christmas I found I was forgetting where lectures were and when deadlines were coming up. Almost immediately after getting it, things changed. I never missed anything accidentally after that again (Disclaimer: everything else means that I was probably too hungover to bother going to something). In the uni world, missing a deadline even by a minute means an automatic penalty on your mark, and you’re paying £9,000 a year for this, so you don’t want to mess up any grades if you can help it.
Headphones
A decent pair of cans – yep, a good pair of headphones are vital. Imagine you’ve got a deadline tomorrow, it’s already 2.30am your flatmates are having a pissup. Cue the headphones, whack them on, crank some tunes, and at least you can listen to something better than “CHUG CHUG CHUG” being yelled through the walls while you finish your essay. Works the other way round too. You won’t disturb anyone while you work in a public place like the library or a computer room and you can enjoy your music as well. I recommend a good solid pair of Sennheiser HD202, cheap, reliable and they have a nice long cable on them too.
Camera
As a photographer there is nothing I recommend on this list than a camera. Even just a little compact camera to slip into your pocket or purse for nights out will be better than the camera on the back of your phone, if you can bear to wait a few hours to upload them to Facebook. As York is a beautiful city there are plenty of sights to be seen, and a camera will be great for capturing those memories and the sights. There is also an excellent camera shop in York for all your camera needs.