Add/Drop Week

StuffFratPeopleLike13 years ago

I’m not sure how every college does it, but at my good ole university, we begin each semester with a glorious period known as Add/Drop Week. While the actual names of this opening week vary from school to school (Free Week, Cut Week, Extra Week of Vacation, etc), the general idea remains the same. This week is devoted solely to students “dabbling” in whatever class they please, and creating that perfect 100% after noon schedule. If you couldn’t get a solid feel for the class via RateMyProfessor, chances are a day on the front lines will tell you all you need to know. This week is not completely “free,” however. To make sure your semester goes well you have approach this week the right way. Here are a few keys to Add/Drop Week.

1) Go (at least once)

It’s easy to skip the first day of any (and every) class. I get that. All that typically occurs is a massive clusterfuck of paper syllabi and pointless introductions. But if you choose to go through a whole week of class without at least making a brief guest appearance (and subsequent lightning quick getaway) then you deserve whatever struggles eventually come your way. If you can’t find the motivation to make it to that 8:30am class during the simplest week of the year, what makes you think you’re going to go after a night of liver punishing shithousery? On that note…

2) Don’t Fool Yourself

Look, I’m all for projecting a positive image. It’s the same show we put on every time a family friend asks us about our collegiate experience. “Yes ma’am, I’m working very hard and my studies always come first. What’s that? No I haven’t met your lovely daughter, and I certainly haven’t completely wrecked her downstairs business either.” At the end of the day though, you have to be realistic. If the half ton of pancakes and bacon the chef pointlessly cooks up in the fratcastle kitchen every morning can’t get you out of bed, a generic lecture won’t either.

If you’ve never faced a class so early in the morning that you have to walk around the pile of fratcastle newspapers on the front lawn on your way out, you’re not going to start now. You might as well set your sights low, somewhere around the post-10:30am block, and even that’s stretching it. You can pretty much guarantee there will be at least eight blackout hell raising weeknights where you’ll be glad you bought the extra few hours sleep. Plus no one likes showing up for a lab morning drunk.

3) Drink…A Lot

Now before I get too preachy here, I want to step back and make sure everyone knows my priorities. Add/Drop Week is a magnificent time of zero responsibility and purely optional class time. It’s all the best parts of college. There aren’t very many times of the year where you can appreciate your entire brotherhood being in town with zero obligations to attend to.

Your natural first instinct should be to crack open a cold one, and then twenty-nine more. Assemble your pledge brothers and go get sloppy, felony-committing, take-any-dare drunk. Real school starts in a week, and the whole “I have responsibilities” thing becomes a legitimate excuse. Until then you might as well spend your time using gallons of alcohol to wipe away everything you learned the semester before. You know, to make extra room for all of the coming semester’s knowledge (and to forget that beastly 4 that somehow slipped through your personal screening).

With these three guidelines, I personally guarantee your Add/Drop Week is bound to be a success. So go ahead and pour that extra whiskey drink before you crawl the bars tonight. It’s Add/Drop Week, what’s the worst that could happen?