После школы я поступил в университет и познакомился с новыми однокурсниками.

After school I entered university and met new course‑mates.

Breakdown of После школы я поступил в университет и познакомился с новыми однокурсниками.

• я: I
• с: with
• в: to
• школа: the school
• новый: new
• и: and
• после: after
• университет: the university
• познакомиться: to meet
• поступить: to enter
• однокурсник: the course-mate

Questions & Answers about После школы я поступил в университет и познакомился с новыми однокурсниками.

Why is it после школы and not после школа or после школу?

In Russian, the preposition после (after) always takes the genitive case.

• школа (nominative, dictionary form)
• школы (genitive singular) → used after после

So:

• ✅ После школы = after school
• ❌ после школа / после школу → wrong, wrong case

This is a fixed rule:
после + genitive:

• после работы
• после обеда
• после урока

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What exactly does поступил mean here? Is it just “went to university”?

Поступил (в университет) is more specific than just went.

Поступить (в + accusative) means:

• to be admitted into / to enroll in an institution (university, college, army, organization), usually after some selection or process.

So я поступил в университет =
I got into / enrolled in university,
not just I went to the university building.

If you only wanted to say “went to the (physical) university building”, you’d use verbs of motion like пошёл в университет or поехал в университет.

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What’s the difference between поступил and поступал?

These are two aspects of the same verb:

• поступил – perfective, past tense
  
  • one completed result: I got in / I enrolled.
• поступал – imperfective, past tense
  
  • process, repeated attempts, or background: I was applying / I used to apply.

Examples:

• После школы я поступил в университет.
  After school I (successfully) enrolled in a university. (Result achieved.)

• После школы я поступал в разные университеты, но нигде не поступил.
  After school I was applying to different universities, but I didn’t get in anywhere. (Process/attempts.)

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Why is it в университет and not в университете?

With в, Russian uses:

• Accusative for direction / movement into something
• Prepositional for location inside something

В университет – accusative → movement into the university (as an institution).
В университете – prepositional → being in the university (inside / at it).

In this sentence, поступил в университет is about entering / joining the university, so we need direction:

• ✅ поступить в университет – to get into a university
• ✅ учиться в университете – to study at a university (location/state)

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Why is познакомился reflexive? What does the -ся add?

The verb познакомиться is reflexive (it ends in -ся) and typically means to get acquainted, to meet someone (for the first time).

• познакомить кого-нибудь с кем-то – to introduce someone to someone
  
  • Я познакомил брата с моими друзьями. – I introduced my brother to my friends.
• познакомиться с кем-то – to become acquainted with someone
  
  • Я познакомился с новыми однокурсниками. – I got acquainted with my new classmates.

So -ся here shows that the subject is involved in the action in a mutual/reflective way: I (myself) became acquainted (with them).

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What case is с новыми однокурсниками, and why is that case used here?

This is the instrumental case plural.

• однокурсник → однокурсниками (instrumental plural)
• новый → новыми (instrumental plural)

The preposition с (with) can take:

• instrumental when it means with (together with):
  • с друзьями – with friends
  • с родителями – with parents
  • с новыми однокурсниками – with new classmates

The verb познакомиться almost always uses с + instrumental:

• познакомиться с кем? – с новыми однокурсниками
  (to get acquainted with whom? – with new classmates)

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What does однокурсник literally mean, and how is it different from одноклассник?

Однокурсник is formed from:

• один (one) + курс (course/year at university) → однокурсник
  Literally: a person of the same (university) course/year.

Одноклассник is:

• один
  • класс (school class/grade) → одноклассник
    Literally: a person from the same school class/grade.

So:

• одноклассник – your classmate at school.
• однокурсник – your coursemate/classmate at university or college.

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Why do both words in новыми однокурсниками have the same ending -ыми / -ами?

Because they both are:

• plural
• instrumental case
• matching in gender/number/case (adjective + noun agreement)

Declension pattern:

• Nominative plural: новые однокурсники (new classmates)
• Instrumental plural:
  
  • adjective: новыми
  • noun: однокурсниками

Russian requires adjectives to agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case, so:

• с кем? – с новыми однокурсниками
  (with new classmates)

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Could I change the word order to Я после школы поступил в университет…? Is that still correct?

Yes, that word order is grammatically correct and natural:

• После школы я поступил в университет…
• Я после школы поступил в университет…

Meaning is essentially the same. Differences:

• После школы я... puts a bit more emphasis on “after school” as the time setting.
• Я после школы... starts with “I” and then specifies when.

Russian word order is relatively flexible because roles are mostly marked by case endings, not by position. Here, both versions are fine.

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Why are both verbs поступил and познакомился in the perfective aspect?

Perfective aspect in the past tense describes completed, one-time actions or events seen as wholes.

In this sentence:

• поступил (в университет) – completed result: he got in.
• познакомился (с однокурсниками) – completed event: he met them.

The sentence gives a sequence of completed events in a past narrative:

1. He finished school (implied by после школы).
2. He got into university.
3. He met his new coursemates.

Using imperfective (e.g. поступал, знакомился) would change the meaning to something like was applying / was getting to know, focusing on process or repetition, which is not intended here.

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Why is it я поступил and not я поступило or just one unchanged verb form, like in English?

In Russian, past-tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

For the verb поступить (perfective):

• masculine singular: поступил
• feminine singular: поступила
• neuter singular: поступило
• plural (any gender mix): поступили

So:

• A man speaking: После школы я поступил в университет.
• A woman speaking: После школы я поступила в университет.

English doesn’t change verb forms for gender in the past (I entered / I enrolled is the same for everyone), but Russian does.

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Why is я not repeated before познакомился? Could I say …я поступил в университет и я познакомился…?

You can repeat я:

• После школы я поступил в университет и я познакомился с новыми однокурсниками.

It’s grammatically correct, but in this simple sentence it sounds a bit heavier and more repetitive.

Russian normally omits the repeated subject if it stays the same:

• После школы я поступил в университет и познакомился с новыми однокурсниками.

Both verbs share the same subject я, so the second я is understood from context. This is very natural Russian style.

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What’s the difference between после школы and после того, как я закончил школу?

Both refer to the time after finishing school, but they differ in style and explicitness:

• После школы я поступил в университет.

  • Short, neutral, very common in speech and writing.
  • Assumes that “after school” means after finishing school.

• После того, как я закончил школу, я поступил в университет.

  • Longer, more explicit: After I finished school, I entered university.
  • Often used when you want to stress the fact of finishing or form a more complex sentence.

In everyday conversation, после школы is usually enough and more natural here.