Blog

Over the past year and a half, many students forwent traveling for the steady familiarity of their childhood homes and hometowns. While many Ann Arbor students came to campus last fall semester in anticipation of a somewhat normal semester (or due to being locked into leasing agreements before lockdown like myself), others never returned to campus and spent the past year taking remote classes at home.

Regardless, moving (or moving back) can be just as daunting as it is exciting, which is why I compiled a to-do list for undergrads preparing to return to campus and some recommendations for things you can do once you arrive.

Before coming to campus

1. Make a packing list — this isn’t a post about what to pack, but one piece of advice I’ll drop here is to always bring less stuff (read: clothes) than what you think you’ll need. Start building out a list of things you plan to bring to campus early so that you can add to it in the weeks leading up to your return to campus. The day before you leave, you can go over this list to make sure you’ve packed everything that you’ll need.

2. If you have a roommate, talk with them about what "communal" items you plan on bringing with you — communicating with your roommate(s) beforehand on what you all plan on bringing will save everyone money and space. It sounds simple enough, but especially if you're new to campus and focusing on getting to know other people, you might miss out on having these kinds of conversations before you come to campus.

3. Make a stuff pile — once you start to get an idea of what you plan on taking with you to campus, start consolidating your things in the same area. This will save you a lot of time and running around the day or hour before you need to actually leave for campus.

4. Pack your stuff — a very obvious, but very crucial step in the process. Packing can be both boring and easy to put off, which is why getting a head start can help so that when you actually are in a time crunch to pack, you have something to build off of.

5. Relax — summer’s not over yet! Soak up all the time you have left before you head back because once classes start, you won’t have that time back again for a while.

On campus

1. Decorate your living space — if I’m being honest, the last time I decorated my room was my first year when I lived in East Quad. Even then, arranging a set of string lights that I turned on once or twice is about as far as I’ve ever gotten to decorating my living space. But I can’t deny that the decorating efforts of my roommates made a serious difference in creating a homey atmosphere, especially during remote classes in the last academic year.

This year, I’m making a commitment to throwing more than lights on my wall and decorating early so that I don’t procrastinate (a.k.a. never do it). When you’re going to be living on campus for eight months or so, decorating your room makes a huge difference in your environmental wellness.

2. Tour classrooms with a buddy — for new students, it’s helpful to figure out where your classes are early on so that you don’t waste time searching for where you need to be the first week of classes. The standard 10 minutes of passing time between classes is plenty of time to get to where you need to go, but you might find yourself cutting it a little tight if you don’t know where you’re going.

Luckily, you’ll be in the same boat as most first-years, so grab a buddy and scope out where each of your classes will be sometime during welcome week. Even if you’re an upperclassman, it’s probably been a while since you’ve actually had multiple in-person classes. It’s worth it to take a peek at your classroom assignments the day before and remind yourself where everything’s located.

3. Explore State Street and downtown Ann Arbor — whether you are new or returning to Ann Arbor, I recommend taking some time to walk around downtown. Check out the M-Den, walk through Nichols Arcade, or grab a bite at any of my list of best campus eats.

4. Capitalize on your free time — welcome week and the first week of classes (i.e. "syllabus week") is an exciting time, regardless if you're a first-year or senior. While plenty of U-M students manage to balance an academic and social life throughout the school year, once classes start and pick up, you’ll probably find yourself having less and less free time. Take advantage of the down time you’ll have during the first few weeks to familiarize yourself with campus, soak up the last bit of summer weather, and meet people (while following campus health and safety guidelines, of course.) Check out the list of welcome week activities for first-year and sophomore students.

With about a week until move-in to the dorms begins, returning to campus is weighing on a lot of students' minds. This fall in particular comes with the additional anticipation of whether the upcoming school year will truly be ‘back to normal’ or a shift away from ‘unprecedented times’ or whatever other post-COVID lingo we’ve regurgitated to one another during speculative exchanges about the future.

While these recommendations can’t do anything to ease any potential back-to-campus jitters you might be having, hopefully it’ll at least kickstart your motivation to start preparing to move to campus and get you excited about what’s to come.