How to Prep for Next Semester
Finals are over…what a relief! It’s now time to take a few weeks off and forget about school, right? Well… maybe not. There are a few things you should do to prep for the upcoming semester, especially if you’re an engineering student.
Buy your books early
Professors are typically required to give the list of required texts to the bookstores well in advance. This allows the bookstore to make sure it has enough texts in stock for students and it allows students to know what’s required ahead of time.
Use this info to your advantage and buy early. Whether you buy a hardcopy of a pdf, either choice will help you get ahead. Once you get the book you can skim the topics. You may not know exactly what will be covered but the first few chapters of the book are almost always covered in class.
This quick overview will help you know what’s in store for you in your courses. In addition, if you buy early, you’ll have the book in case readings or problems are assigned early. This shows you’re prepared and keeps you from having to tell the instructor you don’t have the book yet (this annoys instructors more than you realize).
Get next semester’s supplies
All engineering students should have organization tools, a planner to keep track of dates, pens, pencils, a working calculator, and engineering and/or graph paper. This seems like common sense but I’ve seen countless students show up to class the first week with no paper and no pencils.
Just do a quick inventory on your supplies and replenish what you need. This will keep you from having to do it once the semester starts.
Check in with the bursar and financial aid offices
Do a quick check online to verify everything is good to go regarding payments, account holds, any annoying parking tickets you got, etc. Registrars’ offices are notorious for dropping students from classes due to late payments, unpaid tickets and more.
Many times, they don’t even tell the student being dropped. The student just happens to find out when they go to check their schedule and find there are no courses there. Many surprises are great but this isn’t the kind of surprise you want!
The dreaded parking pass
Parking passes are one of the most annoying things about college. I, as a professor, even have to pay for an annual parking pass so I definitely feel your pain here on this one! Make sure your parking pass is up to date and not expired.
The last thing you want is to be worried about getting a ticket. If you get a ticket and don’t pay it, schools can just drop you from classes.
This means that getting parking tickets is not something you want to risk. Unfortunately, most schools charge a ridiculous amount of money for parking but it’s just something you have to get.
Professors & university offices like financial aid are required to use official university email addresses of students. Many instructors use the online learning management systems like Canvas or Blackboard to send out announcements to the class but for individual messages an email is usually sent. You want to make sure you get these messages.
Before the semester starts find out how to have your school emails forwarded to your personal account.
Do a test run and make sure it gets set up correctly. This will keep you from missing out on important emails. Now, it also means you’ll get all the spam sent out by the school but there’s just not much you can do about that.
Another thing you could do would be to set up your university email account on your phone. This way it’ll be easy to see all your messages on your phone. Plus, you’ll be able to send messages and replies from your official university email address.
You always need to use your school email when dealing with university employees. Faculty and other employees are prohibited by law from replying to personal email accounts especially when it comes to discussing course performance and other confidential matters.
Many faculty members won’t even respond to a non-university email account for liability reasons. So do yourself a favor and get your email set up so you’ll actually use it.
Check out your schedule and plan your routine
This is important for all students but it’s especially important if you’re working while going to school.
While you’ve got some downtime, look at your schedule and map out when you’ll be in class, at work and studying. Remember to leave time for personal things like going to the gym, hobbies, cooking, cleaning, etc during the week.
Putting in the personal time will keep your schedule more realistic and help you see how much time you’ll really have to study.
Prep Now to Save Headaches Later
Taking these 6 steps during the break will help you get off to a smooth start next semester. With engineering courses you’ll have enough to stress over, so make your life a little easier and start prepping now to lighten the workload and avoid surprises in the future!
