For first-years: welcome to campus! We’re so excited to have you! For upperclassmen: welcome back.
It’s so easy to get caught up in all the things you have to do right now and forget about all the things that will make things better later.
1. Get storage bins. Get more of them then you think you will need.
You will, inevitably, as the year goes on, collect more things. That obscure clothing item that you needed for a theme party because going without the perfect outfit was not an option, those clothes that you can’t believe you left home in the first place, the holiday gifts you’ll bring back. Trust me. You will have more things than you do right now, and you will start running out of places to put them. Order extra foldable cloth storage bins and stick them under your bed until you need them. You can get them for $2 a pop on Amazon. You’ll be glad you did.
2. Schedule the appointments you might think you need now.
This year you told yourself you would go to Career Services and get your resumé polished, meet with that professor who does research you’re interested in, get a check up, go to the counseling center to get tips on managing your stress, and get coffee with your cousin’s girlfriend’s college roommate who worked in a field you might be interested in because #networking. Whatever it may be, put it on your calandar earlier rather than later, because those promises to yourself will get further away as you get busier. If it’s on your calendar, you’re not going to blow it off. Front-load yourself a little. This will help make sure you get everything done.
3. Decide what your social time is going to look like.
It might not always stay the same, but knowing, say, that you’ll carve out a specific dinner time for different people, how often you’re going to go out, how you’re going to split time between your friends and your S.O., is going to help you stay balanced. They are not rigid laws, but thinking about this ahead of time will make sure you don’t go overboard in either direction. You pay attention to your schoolwork but don’t get so stressed that you become a hermit, and you don’t spend so much time with friends that you don’t pay enough attention to school.
4. Know when your professor’s office hours are. Have them in your calandar.
Some profs will front load their office hours in the beginning of the week and some will have them more spread out. Either way, you should always know the professor’s last office hours before something is due. (Good luck fighting the mob on the last day. Definitely try to go earlier.) If you think you might need to talk to a professor and you know they don’t have office hours in time, email them early. Realizing you don’t need help at 3 a.m. is fine; you can still double check with your professor that you did the assignment right. If you realize you do need help at 3 a.m. but you didn’t shoot your prof an email at 6 p.m. to ask if they’d be around the next day, you’re in trouble. You should also know what your prof’s work habits are. Some professors work in their office and usually are available for drop-bys. Others are only there when they tell you they will be. This is useful to know.
Get the year started right and make it a great one!
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