It’s the beginning of the fall semester and we know what that means right, collegiettes? Syllabus time! These syllabi that you receive from your professors will be your lifeline for the next few months. There is an entire week dedicated to the syllabi, the first week of classes to be exact. As your courses go on and you ask questions about deadlines and assignments, professors will almost always guide you back to the syllabus after answering your question. Some professors won’t even answer and simply say read your syllabus. It’s a highly important document.
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If it’s such an important thing that students should live and die by, how come most professors don’t send it earlier than the week before classes start? I’ve gone through 2 semesters in a university, this one being my 3rd, and only 2 of my professors have uploaded their syllabus to blackboard or emailed it to their students earlier than a week before classes have started. By having the syllabus earlier, I felt more prepared.
In my opinion, the syllabi should come out at the beginning or ending of August and January because it allows for students to be more prepared and feel more prepared. It should also be made by the professors themselves and not collectively. Some courses have the same syllabus because of the department they belong to and while that makes the professors lives easier, it can be confusing for the students who are taking the course. What causes this confusion is that a professor often or not changes a lot of the ‘collective syllabus’ based on his/her own pace and teaching style. So, while the syllabus may say that the book is required for the course, the professor may say it is not…and if you’ve already bought the book you’re basically out of luck.
At the end of the day, the syllabus is still very important regardless of when its released or how it is made. So, make sure you’re reading every word!
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