Though this may sound counterintuitive, the time period between pre-enrollment and the beginning of classes is filled with uncertainty regarding your schedule. If you’re like most Cornellians, you likely did not enroll in all the classes you initially added to your shopping cart. You may have only gotten one or two classes you intended to take. Therefore, you are relying on add/drop period to help fix your schedule. Hopefully you avoided purchasing textbooks for classes you will drop, but here are the stages of adjusting to your schedule you will surely encounter throughout your time at Cornell.
1Anticipate the beginning of add/drop period.
Once classes begin at Cornell, everyone begins adding and dropping classes left and right. This can mean a lot of things for your schedule, including getting into classes that had initially been closed. You play around on course roster and scheduler, trying to figure out the best combination of classes.
2Attend the first day of classes.
Despite many colleges engaging in a phenomenon often called “Sylly Week” where students go to each class simply to hear about the expectations and are then permitted to spend time socializing, Cornellians typically experience the beginning of the semester differently. Even if there are no formal assignments in many classes during the first week, many students feel overwhelmed after hearing the reality of all the credits they thought they could handle. You drag yourself to each and every class so that you don’t start off the semester feeling behind.
3Text your friends, group chats, and student organizations.
You try to gather as much information as possible about the professors you have, the professors you want, and the classes you think you are taking. After realizing that you will not survive the semester with your current schedule, you go back to the drawing board.
4Add/drop some more.
Well, there goes your first plan for the semester. After feeling overwhelmed by listening to advice from your peers, you’ll open up Scheduler and Student Center yet again, checking to see if other alternative classes have room. Switching at least a class or two, now you have an entirely new schedule for the following week—it may as well be the first week all over again.
5Allow reality to set in.
Once you have something to work with, you check out the syllabus of each class in detail. Oh no…three prelims and two papers due in the span of one week? Readings for each session of every lecture? Finals in all five classes? Oh, the life of a Cornell student. And so you begin another busy semester.
6Figure out the logistics.
When you are relatively sure your existing class schedule is stable, you begin to plan out the rest of your daily activities. You schedule lunch with your friends, time in the library, and extracurricular meetings. You attempt to calculate the best places to eat lunch each day based upon their locations on campus. The chances you have time for everything you want to do is more than a little slim, however. You try to compensate by sleeping a little less or walking more quickly to class, but find that you’ll eventually resort to the usual juggling.
7Accept your schedule for what it is.
After the deadline passes for adding or dropping classes, your schedule is pretty much set in stone—for better or for worse. Psych yourself up for the rest of the semester, and you’re off!
