What to Expect During Your First Week of Classes

You are about to start your first ever week of college courses. Here are some tips of advice to help you get prepared and what to expect. Most college students enroll in about 4-6 courses per semester and the classes normally meet twice a week.

Building your schedule can be a confusing game of Tetris, especially for student-athletes or people working a job or internship. Once you sort out what classes you should be taking and when, which normally comes with the assistance of a counselor, then you need to learn where the classes are held. If you don’t think that you will have time on the morning of your classes to do the classic room search, then think about doing it with your roommates and some new friends the night before. You can even speak to your resident assistant or RA about having help finding where the classrooms are.

The first mistake that almost everyone will make is stuffing their backpacks with everything under the sun for their first few classes. The first is essentially an introduction to the course materials, the professor, and your fellow classmates. If you haven’t already, I do suggest investing in some sort of weekly planner as college courses are structured into a weekly schedule. You will likely review or be asked to review what is known as a syllabus. I like to think of a syllabus as a blueprint for the course. It gives you all the information about your course including any required textbooks, which I do not recommend you rush to buy. A syllabus will also likely provide you with a breakdown of the grading for the course.