Transitions to College:
An Advising Curriculum for High School Seniors
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1) Week at a glance
Make a weekly schedule —when are classes, work, study, eat, sleep, gym, free time, etc.
2) Planning your semester
Enter critical assignments on a 4-month calendar. You can see where assignments are piling up and where in the semester you need to plan ahead so you aren’t overwhelmed.
3) Back to weekly calendar
Each week, make time (Sunday night, Monday morning) to plan the week: block out study time, gym time, etc. around your fixed commitments (classes, work).
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Case Study: The Catch-Up Game
“My semester always starts off with me on track. My school materials and notebooks are organized with separate notebooks for each course. I make sure to check my syllabus regularly to determine if I have enough time to complete my assignments.
After a couple of weeks into the semester, I missed an assignment and a class. Eventually, I began this catch-up game. I had one paper due in two weeks, dealing with work issues, and another paper due that week for a different class.
My manager at work called and asked if I could work an extra shift because we were short-staff ed.”
Sound familiar? What would you do?
Provided by Success Boston Peer Mentor at UMass Boston.
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Case Study: The Catch-Up Game
(continued)
“Because I needed the money, I said yes. At the same time,
I’m thinking I can just catch up with my work later on knowing good and well the unlikelihood of me completing my assignments. I ended up either falling asleep soon after I got home after a long shift. I’m now three weeks behind in one class and have no chance of catching up. It’s far too late to drop the class, so I withdrew. I wasted time and money because I procrastinated and didn’t do a better job with managing my school work and my social life.
”
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A Similar Situation…..
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How he made it through…..
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Travel Travel
Work
Travel
Creating a Weekly Schedule
Travel Travel
Work
Work
Travel
Study
Soccer
Practice
Work
Travel Travel
Travel
Study Study Study
Travel
Study
S
T
U
D
Y
R
E
L
A
X
Soccer
Practice
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Chill
Time:
Movies,
Dinner,
Friends,
Party…

Brainstorm with your table for 2 minutes and see what you can do to address these issues:
1.
This student is taking 5 (3-credit) classes, which means that they’ll need to study 30-45 hours/week. As is, their schedule only allocates for 20 hours of studying/week. Where/how can the student make up for the remaining study hours?
TIP: For each 3-credit class, it’s recommended that you study 6-9 hours/week.
2.
This student has an English paper and a Sociology exam on the same day: Tuesday. How/when will he be able to prepare for both if
Monday appears to be this busy?
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Dilemmas

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Plan Your Semester

Class Scheduling: Creating a Balance
Topics of Discussion:
• Selecting classes according to your lifestyle
• Amount of study time required/suggested for each hour of coursework
• Managing work, friends, family, and school
• Use out-of-class and travel time wisely
• Balance between easy and challenging classes
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Academic Calendar
Add/Drop Deadline
Registration Spring ‘13
Pass/Fail and
Withdrawal Deadline
Final Exams

Undergraduate Catalog
Class schedule for Psych
234: 3 days a week: Monday,
Wednesday & Friday or 1 day a week: Friday
Times: 11:00 am to 11:50 am or 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Additionally it fulfills the
U.S. diversity requirement
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What I learned…..
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