How to Prepare for a New Semester at College

This step-by-step guide will help you in your ventures at college and help you plan ahead for the beginning of any semester. These general steps can be done out of order but they should be done in order since it will help you prioritize. 

Make a schedule that is to your liking and make sure you talk to your advisor about the classes you are taking and about worst case scenarios. 

Once you have picked out your schedule it is essential to have the required textbooks for those classes. You can choose to rent or buy books. If you are a science major you might want to rent or get second hand books because they are more expensive, but you can always buy them and sell them after. Some recommended sites are Chegg or testbooks 'r' us. 

Once you have acquired your textbooks it is important to have an idea of how your walking or breaks are in your schedule. Its good to know this to save enough time for your work or studies or to know when you will do your homework in those times. In the end, it is important to know the location of your classes so you do not waste time walking around, and so because of this it is good to have  map of your schedule. You can draw it out or just write a hall to hall guide for yourself with staring times of all classes so you know how long you have in between for travel and etc. 

Once you have all the important things it is now time to know how your semester will end up being and which classes you will have to put your all in just o pass. For  this there is a website called ratemyprofessor.com this website is really helpful for the most part about what to expect in terms of professors. This can also be an optional step because some people do not like to have predetermined judgements of their professors. Sometimes a professor that is given a low rating is someone you like. 

It is important to have other important supplies for classes like notebooks, pencil, pen, calculators and etc. If you do not already have them it is important to have them since it is one less thing to worry about. 

When at college you  will need cash if you order take out or if you get food from the cafeterias on campus. They do not take cards besides your meal plan cards from your designated college or cash. It is also important to have bills of small amounts for when you order take out and have to split the cover charge. 

Now that the important things are out of the way you will need to liven up that dull dorm of yours if you are dorming. You will be handed a room with no personality what so ever so bring many pictures of your friends and whiteboards and wall art that is removable to decorate your walls. Try to stay classy and not just put up a collage of your pictures all over the place. Have a pattern to make it livable, else you will be up all night starring at them and finding a better way to position them. Its  a pain. 

Make sure you read all the papers and glossy looking flyers that the college mails you. You will need to know the size of your bed to get the appropriate bedding. Usually it is twin extra long so that will be standard. The beds are uncomfortable so make sure you get a mattress pad and/or mattress topper they make your bed much more cozier and homey. 

Finally now that all that is done don't stress! Relax because these are the best times of your life, even if at times they seem like the worst!