Syllabus week is the dreaded first week of classes for college students. It's three to five days of searching for classes, trekking long distances before your routes have been established, and suffering through professors outlining their syllabuses. Syllabus week is always pretty cut and dry wherever you go to school, though, so here are six elements of syllabus week you know to be true.
1. Introductions
By the end of syllabus week, you cringe at the phrase "tell us one interesting thing about yourself."
2. Mass confusion
Whether you're a seasoned senior or a struggling freshman, there's always going to be one absolute mess up that causes you to consider dropping out.
3. Extremely crowded bookstores and text book shortages
So okay, there are seven million people in the bookstore for the first two weeks of classes, and some scared freshman just snatched up the last copy of "the only acceptable COMM book mandatory for this class."
4. Student Involvement Representatives
It seems like everywhere you turn someone wants you to join a club or sign up for some charity event and seriously it's too early in the dang morning and I just want to get to class.
5. An Onslaught of Emails
As syllabus week nears, and throughout the week, you'll field hundreds of emails for off-campus housing, parking permits, clubs, class requirements they're just going to repeat in class, and welcome back emails form seven organizations on campus and three departments.
6. Boring classes
The first week of classes is always pretty rough. It's boring because half your professors are reading the syllabus to you that basically says the exact same thing as the last three classes' syllabi, but when a rogue teacher decides to start actually teaching on the first day everyone is up in arms.