Xatal

One of my favorite parts of college is that it’s a chance to break free of the M-F, 8AM – 3PM routine of high school. College classes are scheduled throughout the day on all weekdays, giving a lot of opportunities to mix things up.

If you’ve already picked your college courses that you want to enroll in, take some time to look over your schedule and decide if it works well for you. Here are some things to consider:

Decide how to balance your days.

Do you want all of your classes one after another, or do you want some break between each class?

If your classes are all consecutive, you’ll be finished earlier with all of your classes, giving you a lot of contiguous free time to do whatever you want — study, hang out, play video games, whatever. However, consecutive classes really wear you down, and if you have a bunch right after another, you’re going to be worn out by the end.

Spacing out your classes with about an hour or more between classes is good because you have some downtime here and there — you can pick up lunch with a friend, read a book, go for a walk, or go back to your dorm. The trade off is that your days will feel a lot longer — if you’re taking three classes and put an hour space between each, your day is going to last a lot longer.

I recommend having no more than two classes consecutively if you can help it. Three classes are okay if you especially enjoy one class (or if it’s a once-a-week section class), but if you have three dull lectures in a row, you’re going to have a much harder time paying attention.

Decide how to balance your week.

Most college classes are either scheduled Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday. M-W-F classes are usually shorter than their T-Th counterparts. It’s possible to load up all of your classes on M-W-F, or perhaps on T-Th. This will give you the other days mostly free. Or, you can balance your week by trying to spend roughly the same amount of time in class each day.

For this, it’s mostly up to you and your own preferences. Both systems work pretty well, though I personally enjoying piling my workload on a couple of days so I can have a couple of days off. The trade off in piling your classes like this can come when there’s more than one midterm/final on a day or if homework is regularly due on the same day for more than one class — you’ll find yourself struggling to finish everything on time for two classes. Spreading out your week allows you to handle your work one class at a time.

Be wary of early classes.

Seriously, this is a big one. I don’t care how used to it you are from high school. In college, you’ll barely ever go to bed before midnight, and you’re going to be tired when you wake up. Being tired makes it a lot more tempting to miss class, and missing class is bad news bears.

Having one early class isn’t too bad, but if you’re getting up at 7:00 AM five days a week, you’re in for a rough term. The plus about early classes, however, is that you can finish your classes for the day early. It’s possible to be through with class by 11 or 12, giving you the rest of your day to yourself. Still, morning classes are rough. If you don’t enjoy getting up early, avoid morning classes when possible.

It’s worth mentioning that there is a big difference between classes at 8 AM and classes at 9 AM. Every extra hour makes a world of difference.

Make your “hump day” early in the week.

“Hump day” is your day of the week where you have the most classes, or is just the hardest and most stressful day of the week. Hump day is the day you dread when it approaches and the day you breathe a sigh of relief when it’s over.

If your rough day is early in the week, the remainder of your week goes smoother and you feel much better. If your rough day is on a Thursday or Friday, then you’re spending the first several days of your week dreading it.

You’re not always going to have a say.

Many classes are only offered once per term. Some of your classes will conflict. Maybe you have other obligations. If a class you need to take or really want to take is offered only at an inconvenient time, you’re going to have to deal with it. You should never opt out of taking an important class just because you don’t like the time.

Don’t count on lecture classes to be very flexible — most are offered at one time and that’s it — but you will have at least some flexibility with your discussion sections or lab classes.

Remember, do what works best for you.