It’s your first year away from home, in a new school, surrounded by new people and your stress level is likely through the roof. To help you stay organized and prepared, here are the essentials for students embarking on their first year of academic and social education:

Create a List of Accounts – You’ll likely get an email, blackboard and other school account usernames and passwords. And colleges seem to make it very difficult to recover them for forgetful students. That’s why you don’t write them down on a scrap sheet of paper that can easily get lost in the community couch cushions or on the back of your hand (unless you plan on never taking a shower). Create a simple spreadsheet with all of your accounts and email it to yourself — we recommend personal email so it’s easy to access from any computer.

Aggregate E-Mails – You were likely using a Gmail, Hotmail or another email provider account. But your school is going to give you a .edu account and some professors will mandate its use. That’s fine, because you can aggregate your private and academic accounts into most commercial providers (i.e. Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!). Why push everything to your private account? After graduation, you’ll want your past four years of conversations saved, trust me!

Mapping the Area – Many colleges and universities are small, contained cities with small grocery stores for random essentials (Ramen, notebooks, straightening irons, etc), cafes and who can forget classrooms? It’s essential then to map a clear route to your classes when you get to campus. Study the map, keep it on your person and know it like the back of your hand. The last thing you want is a panic attack between classes because you’re lost.

Order Textbooks – Waiting until the very last moment to order text books (i.e. when a paper is due based on info from the textbook) is extremely stressful. Many colleges and universities allow students to order books online — and if this is the case do it before you even get to school — or go into the bookstore and buy the books at the earliest opportunity. Some professors assume you have the book on the first day and will teach from it! The last thing you want is to be “that kid” who is unprepared and has to look on with someone more responsible.