Your Complete Summer Checklist to Get Ready for College in the Fall

Summer vacation is a wonderful three-month respite, no matter what grade you are in or how old you are. However, there is still work to be done in the upcoming fall semester, and some of it is key to doing well next school year. And they are also timely, which means you need to take action now if you want to stay ahead of the curve. Here are the steps you need to take in order during your summer break from school.

What to do three months before the start of the fall semester

Three months before school starts, you must do the following:

• Register for classes. Each school has its own schedule for this, but it usually happens around April. You can wait, but you risk having your favorite sections of the course filled out.
• Submit final transcripts. Even though you’ve been accepted, most schools want to know how you fared in your last semester of high school, so if you’re heading into your freshman year in the fall, check the deadlines for that.
• Accept your financial offers. (If you haven’t completed the FAFSA yet, do so first!) The sooner you do so, the better in case you run into any problems or need to find alternative funding. Do not forget to also go through the consultation on admission and submit the main bill. This information should be available through your Fellow, but it can be difficult to find, so don’t forget about it until it’s wired.
• Join any groups on Facebook, WhatsApp or other social networks created for people in your class or group. You can introduce yourself, but you don’t have to get too involved if you don’t want to; it’s just nice to meet the people you’re going to spend a few years with and have a place to ask your peers questions.

What to do two months before the start of the fall semester

With two months left to finish, you have to master the financial and academic fundamentals, so this is a time to have fun with family and friends, earn extra money at a side job to save up for a year, and generally relax. However, if possible, try to schedule a campus visit at this time if you haven’t already. Schools offer tours or special days for visitors, and if it’s close enough that you can get there for a day or two, you should. Orientation is interesting, but clogged. Getting to know your new territory on your own terms and at a slower pace can help you deal with any anxiety you may have.

Finally, if you’ve been assigned a roommate, you should know their name by mid or late summer. Add them to social networks and get to know them passively. Exchange messages, read their posts and find out who they are (or at least who they represent themselves). Start chatting about who will bring what to the shared living space, but put off the heavier conversations until you get to know them better.

What to do a month before the start of the fall semester

With a month left, you have a few urgent responsibilities:

• Shortly before your two-week move, send to your new home everything you’re going to send, such as blankets or shoes, if you don’t want to carry them around in the car or on the plane. Check with your school if there is room for packages waiting to be picked up (almost certainly there is) and send it with some margin in case something goes wrong.
• Sign up for introductory events that interest you as soon as you receive the relevant email. Schools host meetups, club performances, introductory sessions and professor introductions to name but a few, but some of them require pre-registration. Make a plan for what your orientation will look like so you are not overwhelmed when you arrive.
• Log into your school email and online portal. You probably won’t have access to it closer to the start of the semester, but reading it and checking for technical issues will save you time when things get busy in the fall. If it has a companion app for your phone, download it right away so you have it on orientation day if you need it instead of an ID you don’t already have.