Your Pre-Semester Checklist: Set Up Your Semester Before It Starts
Photo by: Maddy Pryor
Author: Kimberly Tierney, Director of Academic Coaching
Read time: 4 minutes
This content was aided by an AI language model. Learn more at https://claude.com/.
The first two weeks of a semester set the tone for everything that follows. Students who walk in with a system already in place tend to stay ahead; students who wait to figure it out as they go tend to spend the whole semester playing catch-up.
The good news? Almost all of that setup can happen before your first class. Here's what to knock out now.
Get Organized From Day One
Create a folder for each class in Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, and download a copy of every syllabus into it.
Don't rely on Canvas alone for this. Professors update or remove syllabi mid-semester, and Canvas itself has gone down before, right when students needed it most.
From there, you need a single place where every class's deadlines, office hours, and contacts live.
That's exactly what our freeCourse Organizer is built for. It's the same tool we use with our academic coaching clients, and it means you're never hunting through five different syllabi to remember when something's due.
Put Your Calendar to Work
Once you have your syllabi, put them to use:
Add each class's time and location to your calendar, color-coded by course.
Add office hours and locations.
Walk your actual class route once and time it, then add that travel time to your calendar too. Better yet, find the actual building, and if you can get in, the actual classroom.
This is a great way to get familiar with campus, and it's a really effective way to make sure you're not scrambling to find the right room five minutes before your first class.
Add every exam and major project.
Add asynchronous due dates, quizzes, discussion posts, and anything else due outside of class meeting times. These are the easiest deadlines to miss because they're not tied to a specific class period.
Block out study time.
A helpful rule of thumb: multiply your credit hours by 2 for easier courses, or 3 for harder ones, to estimate how many hours of outside work you should expect each week. Put that time on your calendar like it's a class, because it functions like one.
Two more habits worth building now:
Set reminders to start assignments a few days before they're due, not just reminders for the due date itself.
Start tracking how long assignments actually take you. It's hard to estimate at first, but the more you track it, the better you get at planning realistically rather than guessing.
Zoom Out With a Planner
Use the Big Picture tab in the Course Organizer to map your whole semester at once: every exam, every project, every personal commitment. This is also where you can spot the weeks where three things collide, before you're in the middle of one.
Decisions Worth Making Now
Some of the most important planning isn't academic at all. Before the semester starts, decide:
Where and when will you eat each day?
Where and when will you exercise?
When and how much will you sleep?
This one really matters! Sleep is one of the single biggest factors in mood, focus, and academic performance.
How will you care for your mental health?
Which extracurriculars or on-campus groups will you get involved in?
Involvement isn't just a resume line; it's how you build the social support that gets you through a hard semester.
What's your plan if you start to struggle?
Name your resources now: office hours, tutoring, advising, counseling. Students without a plan tend to shut down or avoid the problem. Students with one know exactly who to reach out to.
What are your goals for the semester?
Materials Per Class
Round it out with the basics: notebook, folder, and any required online subscriptions or physical textbooks. Confirm how you're accessing each textbook (rental, library reserve, e-book, or purchase), and check each syllabus for any required software or apps before the first day.
Go to a Game
Here's one that's not on any checklist, but it should be: go to the first home sporting event of the year.
Most years, that's a soccer game, not football, and that's exactly the point. You get the real college game-day feel, the crowd, the noise, the excitement, without the size or pressure of a packed football Saturday. It's a genuinely fun, low-stakes way to bond with fellow first-years before the semester gets busy.
This year, Men's Soccer opens at home on 8/20 at 7:00pm and Women's Soccer opens on 8/27 at 7:30pm. You can find the full home schedule for every sport here.
Most of this can be knocked out in an afternoon, and it pays off for the next fifteen weeks. If you want a head start, grab our freeCourse Organizer and start filling it in before your first class.
