As this spring semester wraps up, here are a couple of quick things you can do to make sure you are organized and prepared for future years at W&M.
Thank your professors
The end of this semester is a great time to send a quick thank you email to some of your professors from this past semester. If you have had any wonderful courses or really helpful professors, then this is a great moment to reach out and let professors know how much you appreciated or enjoyed their classes.
The end of the semester is also a great time to check in with your major advisor or any other mentors you might have on campus. A quick email to let them know what you’ve been up to or your plans for the summer can be a nice way to grow that connection.
Organize your work from this year
Make sure you keep track of your great work from this year! You never know when you might need a writing sample or other examples of your academic work for future jobs or internships. If you had any professors who returned hard copies of your work with feedback—make sure you don’t toss these! Sometimes (rarely) an application might ask for a graded writing sample, and it is always good to keep track of the feedback you received on these assignments on the odd chance something goes awry. If you don’t want to keep a physical folder of papers and projects that have been returned to you, then snap a few photos and save those to your computer.
Finally, taking a moment at the end of the semester to organize your files from the past year can save you time later on. In particular, make sure that you have saved and backed up copies of any big papers or projects that you are especially proud of from the past year, and make sure that you know where to find them. Additionally, make sure that any documents of your notes are clearly labelled in case you’d like to quickly refer to them in your future classes.
Write down your ideas for future semesters!
Now that you have completed another semester at W&M, I would recommend jotting down your brief plan or ideas for your future semesters at W&M while they are fresh in your mind.
Is there an on-campus job you’d like to apply for in the fall, or a professor you want to reach out to about research? Or maybe a class you heard great things about that you want to make sure you take a prerequisite for? Have you just finished a course that you could see yourself TA’ing in the future? Or do you have your eye on a student organization that you want to join?
If so, these are all great things to write down now so you can re-read your thoughts in August and refresh your memory as the next semester begins.
Finally, congratulations on finishing your exams and wrapping up this academic year!
Leave a Reply