Two Week Countdown | Fall Semester Checklist

It physically pains me to type out this next sentence, but I have to do it. I can't avoid it anymore. Fall semester at my college starts exactly two weeks from today. That felt like a knife to the chest, honestly. It's such a conflicting feeling. While I want the semester start, I also just want to be done with school forever. I'm not looking forward to anything about this semester. There's not a single class I'm excited about, but I suppose that's the life of a senior with one semester left. However, just because I'm a jaded college student doesn't mean that other people shouldn't be excited or at least show a smidgen more enthusiasm than me.

By this point in the summer, there are definitely a majority of things that should be crossed off of your to-do list regarding college, especially if you're a first year student. A lot of mental preparation goes into the beginning of a new semester, as well as a lot of shopping trips. If you're a first year student or if you just need a little reminder, here's a few things that you should try to get done soon if you haven't already.

1. Finalize your schedule

I mean, this should've been done months ago, but there's nothing wrong with tweaking your schedule, especially if you want to see if any new sections have opened up. If you're a freshmen, you might not have any control over this, but if you're not...check out your account and see if there's any wiggle room. I switched one of my online classes just a couple of weeks ago because I realized I made a mistake with credit hours and even just yesterday my roommate switched a class so that she was taking it in a better time slot!

2. Purchase your agenda

I will never write a college post without mentioning agendas. I just can't. They are the most important things in the entire world to me. If I had to only buy one piece of stationery for a semester and one thing only, it would be an agenda. Everything I could do digitally, I'm sure, but not agendas. I need that physical account of all of my responsibilities, always. It doesn't matter if it's a $50 Erin Condren agenda or a $1 journal from Target that you convert into an agenda. As long as you have some place to put down all of your assignments, due dates, important information, etc...you're in the clear.

3. Order/download your books

I don't care if you order your books online, from your bookstore, torrent them or download PDFs or even just make arrangements with friends taking a similar class to share a book. Just make sure you have all of your absolutely required books in your possession, one way or another, especially if you're not living at home. Professors, especially the first few weeks, are generally really chill about students not having books, but sometimes it's just easier to have them right from the start than have to worry the first couple weeks about getting them. While some books definitely aren't necessary, you are going to have books in college that you need to purchase, as painful as it sounds. I've had plenty of classes with interactive discs that we had to physically purchase and it was the most painful experience. My book bookstore balance...I digress, make arrangements for your books early on so there's less to worry about later.

4. Get your parking passes

This is mainly for my commuters, but if you're living on campus and want to have a car you should worry about this too. Parking at my school is a nightmare. If you haven't gotten a parking pass by now at my school...good luck? But honestly, if you haven't done this yet, make arrangements ASAP because when you get to campus, you're going to need a place to park. That's an obvious.

5. Start packing

Shout out to my dormers out there. Start packing now. Start boxing up the little things and sorting through your clothes to at least separate your closet into what you want to bring and what you don't want to bring. This will make life so much easier when actual move in day comes around. The last thing you want to do is wait until the night before and end up laying on your bedroom floor an absolute stressed mess. Not that I know what that's like from personal experience...I digress, start small and just get your dishes or dish towels or wash clothes or something packed away and kick-start the packing process to alleviate from stress from later on in the summer when you really have to kick it into gear. Save yourself the trouble and hassle and just do it slowly but surely.