First week of university: the checklist that prevents October problems

Do these once, in week one

1. Download every course outline and keep them somewhere you'll find them, not in your downloads folder.
2. Put every graded item, with its weight, on one calendar. All courses, one place.
3. Note the add/drop and withdrawal deadlines for your term. They are not the same date, and only one of them keeps the course off your transcript.
4. Check for a textbook opt-out deadline. Inclusive-access and “immediate access” programs charge you automatically unless you opt out, usually within the first two weeks.
5. Find each course's missed-work and late policy and read it while nothing is going wrong.
6. Confirm where and when your tutorials and labs are, and whether the first one runs this week. Many don't.
7. Set up your LMS notifications, and subscribe to the calendar feed if your school has one.
8. Write down each professor's preferred contact method and office hours from the outline.

The two that people skip and regret

The textbook opt-out deadline is a real charge on a real credit card, often $60 to $120 per course, and it is easy to miss because it arrives in the first busy week.

The withdrawal deadline matters more than the drop deadline. Dropping early removes the course; withdrawing later usually leaves a W on your transcript. Both are published by your registrar, and neither will be reminded to you.

Set up the thing you'll actually open

Whatever system you choose has to be one you look at daily without effort. A calendar you check anyway beats a beautiful planner you don't.

SyllaBuddy is the shortcut for the first two items on the list: hand it the outlines and it produces the combined calendar, flags the opt-out and drop dates it finds, and puts a short list in front of you every morning.

Questions