College Transition 101

At the end of your first week of college, you might feel like you have nothing to do. There aren’t any assignments due next week. It’s a slow start up. Your professors won’t lecture but instead they will ask you to read your syllabus and might even give you a quiz on it.

Guess what? The first week in college is read-your-syllabus week.

The syllabus is a contract between the professor and the student. If there are any disputes regarding grades the arbitrating panel will refer to the syllabus as a legal contract. The syllabus will include assignment calendar, learning objectives, assignment requirements and grading.

Can you tell that the syllabus is real important? It has a lot of information.  You don’t want to misplace your syllabus. You will need to refer to the syllabus throughout the semester. One way to keep track of your syllabus all semester is to keep a paper copy in a folder with pockets. I like to keep one folder per class. On my computer I like to create a folder for the semester and label it by year and semester “2013 Fall.” Then inside the semester folder I create one folder for each class I am enrolled in. I name the class folder by the professor’s name. I keep anything related to the class inside that folder.

Your first job the first week of college is to read your syllabus and transfer all assignment due dates onto your calendar.

Watch my blog for more posts throughout the semester. I will give you useful tips to help you navigate your first semester in college.

[pinterest]