The Stages of Starting a New Semester

1. Being excited to be back on campus.

Time to say goodbye to your parents and siblings and go back to school, where you finally have you friends and your freedom again!

2. Syllabus week

A time to go out with your friends, have fun, and ignore any of the first week homework you’ve been assigned.

3. The first real week of classes. 

The panic after you finally read all your syllabi and realize how much work you’re going to have this semester…and wishing that syllabus week could have lasted a little bit longer.

4. The first papers, quizzes, and exams.

How do they always seem to fall on the same week? And how are they so soon after the start of the semester? Wasn’t winter break just yesterday?

5. The day you get back your grades from the first exam, quiz or paper.

Studying is a real thing you now have to do.

6. The day when you wake up and realize that the semester is officially in full swing…and the exams, papers and various other assignments are officially never-ending.

This is perhaps the most disenchanting day of the semester, when you realize you are still so far from spring break, the work is piling up and you can no longer blow it off to have fun. 

• Semester
• start of semester
• studying
• syllabus week