Syllabus week, or "sylly week", as some call it, is supposed to be the best week for a party in college. I've seen countless memes about syllabus week, where classes only last 10 minutes and no work is done. I have some friends that say they don't even need to go to class during syllabus week because it's pointless... Excuse me, but what the heck?! I'm not going to name names of other schools, but I can tell you for sure I've never experienced anything like this. Not even close.
I've already had three professors email me their syllabi and assign work that's due for the first day of classes. I have books I need to buy a week in advance, read and finish, before walking in the door the first day of classes.
I'm not complaining, I'm just confused. Why would a professor go through all the trouble of driving to the school, parking, and walking to class just to stay for 10 minutes, read two pieces of paper and then leave? Besides wasting their own time, they're wasting the students time and money.
If I scheduled a class from 11:00 to 12:15 then that's all I have planned to do in that time and I'm not missing anything if I sit there the whole time and learn like I planned to do. Sure a shortened class is great and now you can go back to your room and take a nap.
But unless you're a freshman and didn't make your own schedule, there's a 99% chance you already scheduled time for a nap. And if you didn't, that's your own fault.
Plus, from what I've seen, people go out on weeknights whether is syllabus week or not. So what makes syllabus week more special? Is it because it's the first week back from break? Because you haven't gone out with your friends in a month? I'm really looking for answers here.
Thus far, I've experienced three syllabus weeks, and I'm about to embark on my fourth and there's nothing I've noticed that makes it any more special than any other week in the semester.
I'd even go as far to say syllabus week is lowkey kind of stressful. If you procrastinated ordering books, you're praying Amazon Prime can get them to you before class. You need all new notebooks for professors that don't allow laptops in class. And my least favorite things, class introductions.
Sure there's the easy: Name, Hometown, and Major. If your professor really wants to amp it up, they're going to ask you to throw in a fun fact about yourself.
Fun facts are the bane of my existence because I always forget what I said last time I was asked and have to think of something new. You have to think of something quickly and hope no one else takes it before you. I have had professors make me say something new because someone else had it, or call other people out for not having "fun enough" facts.
And there's always one or two kids in every class that come prepared with things that blow everyone away.
Moral of the story: syllabus week is just like every other week to me. Who knows though, maybe one day I'll experience the greatness that is "sylly week". But until then I'll be arriving to class on the first day having read the syllabus, done the homework, and hopefully prepped with a good fun fact.
